Featured Species
The trout raised at D.C. Booth Historic National Fish Hatchery are fulfilling federal obligations for the Sikes Act and Tribal Trust in regards to natural resources management.
The Sikes Act is an Act to promote effectual planning, development, maintenance, and coordination of wildlife, fish, and game conservation and rehabilitation in military reservations, approved September 15, 1960.
The federal government has a unique and distinctive political relationship with federally recognized Indian Tribes. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, as a bureau of the Department of the Interior, has a mandated obligation to ensure that the federal Indian trust responsibility is fulfilled. Under Secretarial Order 3206 (signed by both the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Commerce), American Indian Tribal Rights, Federal-Tribal Trust Responsibilities, it is recognized that the USFWS has trust responsibilities with respect to tribes. We are committed to our Tribal Trust Responsibilities to Native American Tribes as described by the Indian Trust Doctrine, developed in 1973 by the US Supreme Court and mandated in Secretarial Order #3206. The doctrine describes the trust responsibility that the Federal Government has in relation to Native Americans: in essence, a legal obligation to act in the Tribe's best interests, including duties to protect Tribal lands, fishing and hunting rights, and cultural and natural resources.
