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The Fish Wars

Strategies for Taking Action

The decades-long Fish Wars gained momentum in the mid-1960s. In the homelands of the Nisqually, Puyallup, and Muckleshoot Nations, located in the Puget Sound region of Washington State, men, women, and children risked all they had to force the state to uphold the treaties that guaranteed their rights to fish in usual and accustomed fishing sites outside reservation borders. Through actions such as building coalitions, launching civil disobedience campaigns, and securing increased media attention, Native Peoples and non-Native allies took a stand and refused to accept injustice.

Choose from one of the options below to determine the significance of that method of taking action during the Fish Wars.

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Coalitions

Use these sources (quotes and image) to determine the significance of coalition building as a method of taking action during the Fish Wars.

 

 
“I think it was really helping out one another. Reaching out to the other tribes, how are we going to help? Having that connection, because of the age-old relationship between the tribes that we’ve always had… I saw it as a coalition, letting the non-tribal people know why we were doing this.”

—Carol Craig (Yakama), NMAI Interview, August 2016

 

The United States, through the reservation system and allotment, had managed to separate and isolate tribes of the Puget Sound region.

 

Coalitions are formed to take actions in support of a cause and to have more impact as a unified group. It takes an immense amount of planning and effort in order to make coalition efforts successful. Educating the public is often the first step that coalitions take in a social justice movement.

 

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Photograph by Larry Dion, 1966, courtesy of Seattle Times

Members of Muckleshoot Indian Tribe walk past Muckleshoot Community Hall east of Auburn at the beginning of their Auburn-Federal Way trek to call attention to their dispute with the state over fishing rights.

Photograph by Larry Dion, 1966, courtesy of Seattle Times

Many different Native Nations worked together to bring attention to the issue of treaty fishing rights.

 

Discussion Questions: Coalitions

  1. Brainstorm the potential impacts of reviving the “age-old relationship” between tribes in order to secure treaty rights to fish.
  2. Why did tribes need to educate the public about treaty rights?
  3. If the general public had already been educated about treaty rights, how might that have impacted Washington State’s actions during the Fish Wars?
  4. Why might coalitions between Indians and non-Indians be important to defending treaty fishing rights?

Civil Disobedience

Use these sources (quotes, images, and news article) to determine the significance of civil disobedience campaigns as a method of taking action during the Fish Wars.

 

Civil disobedience—a form of political protest—is the refusal to comply with a certain law or policy that you believe to be unjust.

Billy Frank Jr. (Nisqually) was one of the leaders who engaged in a civil disobedience campaign known as “The Fish Wars” during the 1960s. He remained actively involved in protecting treaty fishing rights until his death in 2014.

 

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Photograph by Tom Thompson, courtesy of Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission

Billy Frank Jr. (Nisqually) and other Native community members fished the Nisqually River in 1973 in an act of civil disobedience. While their fishing was legal according to the treaties they had signed with the U.S., it was illegal according to Washington State law. Washington State had criminalized off-reservation fishing and officials arrested dozens of tribal fishers, including Frank.

Photograph by Tom Thompson, courtesy of Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission

 

 
“Once somebody stood up to the state of Washington, the gaming department, the state fisheries—you knew you were going to get beat up. You knew you were going to go to jail. You knew this was going to happen.”

—Don McCloud (Puyallup), NMAI Interview, July 2016

 

Don McCloud (Puyallup) and other fishers committed to strategic, repeated arrests to bring public awareness to state laws that ignored their treaty fishing rights and the escalating violence the protest fishers endured as a result.

 

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Photograph by Dolores Varela Phillips, courtesy of Dolores Varela Phillips.

Puyallup citizen Allison Bridges during a September 4, 1970, raid on a fishing encampment. Allison was three years old when she first watched her father, activist Alvin Bridges, get arrested for fishing. In this photo, she is being arrested by a state game agent at the Puyallup River encampment, a highly visible fishing protest site.

Photograph by Dolores Varela Phillips, courtesy of Dolores Varela Phillips.

 

In 1970, about forty protesters camped on the banks of the Puyallup River, where the Burlington Northern Railroad’s trestle crossed over. Protesters felt the need to arm themselves to protect the encampment from attacks by Washington State officials or others who opposed their cause.

 

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Photograph by Dolores Varela Phillips, courtesy of Dolores Varela Phillips.

David Leach being arrested at a Puyallup fishing-rights confrontation with law enforcement, Puyallup River, Tacoma, Washington, September 9, 1970.

Photograph by Dolores Varela Phillips, courtesy of Dolores Varela Phillips.

 

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Indians End Sit-In at Coast Building, New York Times, January 29, 1973

Sit-ins were a common form of protest and civil disobedience for civil rights causes in the 1960s.

“Indians End Sit-In at Coast Building,” New York Times, January 29, 1973

 

Discussion Questions: Civil Disobedience

  1. Why is being educated about an issue important to waging a civil disobedience campaign?
  2. What do you think tribal fishers like Billy Frank Jr. were drawing attention to in their civil disobedience action?
  3. What are other examples of individuals and communities using civil disobedience?
  4. What risks do people take when engaging in civil disobedience?
  5. Think about social issues that are important to you. What causes are important enough for you to risk arrest, violence, and persecution?

Media

Use these sources (quotes and images) to determine the significance of media attention as a method of taking action during the Fish Wars.

 

 
“You know the fishing rights was just a small thing, until we brought in people. We brought in Dick Gregory, after that we brought in Marlon Brando. And after that the media came.”

—Don McCloud (Puyallup), NMAI Interview, August 2016

 

One of the earliest protest fishers in the 1960s, Don McCloud (Puyallup) discusses one of the strategies organizers used to bring public awareness to the struggle for treaty fishing rights.

 

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Photograph by Richard Heyza, courtesy of Seattle Times

Robert Satiacum and Marlon Brando, a well-known actor and celebrity, shortly before they were arrested in a 1964 protest. Satiacum, a citizen of the Puyallup Nation, had been staging protests and going to jail as a result since the early 1950s.

Photograph by Richard Heyza, courtesy of Seattle Times

 

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George Carkonen, courtesy of Seattle Times, September 9, 1970

Comedian and civil rights activist, Dick Gregory, right, joined Edith and Janet McCloud (Tulalip).

George Carkonen, courtesy of Seattle Times, September 9, 1970

Much of the media coverage for the fish-ins came in the form of news coverage of arrests, protests, and court hearings.

 

 
“There had been a lot of public attention to the case because of some wonderful, wonderful photographs. They were broadcast or circulated throughout the world, not only in the United States. So there was attention being paid to it.”

—John Platt, NMAI Interview, August 2016

 

Now referred to as the “ceremonial place,” the Puyallup encampment near the Pacific Avenue Bridge in Tacoma, Washington, symbolized the vigilance of civil disobedience campaigns.

 

 
“We set up a security camp for our fishermen, there on the Puyallup River—right in front of God and everyone—and we set it up so that we were very, very visible… We got TVs and lined them up and we were out there…

They said, ‘What’s going on with the Indians?’ And there was an outcry, a national and international outcry. And the federal government, who had never protected us, were humiliated and called to task.”

—Ramona Bennett (Puyallup), NMAI Interview, July 2016

 
 

Discussion Questions: Media Attention

  1. What can the support of celebrities bring to a movement?
  2. Are there drawbacks to having celebrities join a cause? If yes, provide an example. If no, explain your reasoning.
  3. What role did media coverage play in the success of the fishing protests?