In Chapter five, the readers see how the fish wars are beginning to attain national attention with the appearance of Marlon Brando, and the media showing interest in the fight.
But, the fish wars aren’t ending with that recognition, in fact, they are just beginning. The sixties are a decade of great confrontation, and before long, the “fish wars” become physical.
Now, violence is in the cards as the Nisqually tribe conduct a “fish in.” Using a net incapable of catching fish, they set it in the river. The state of Washington, and its heavy handed enforcement, comes to break up the peaceful demonstration, and violence erupts. This further escalation only furthers the cause of the Nisqually Indian.
But, the battle continues and sports fishermen fight for the Steelhead which they believe are a gamefish, and their domain.
In chapter six, the “fish wars” heat up with the “Battle of Frank’s Landing.”
Chapter Six | Canoes and Clashes
It is next to impossible to say with certainty how many times Billy Frank Jr. has been arrested. But this much is clear: by the time the fish wars ended, Billy had been pushed out of his canoe, hauled up the riverbank, bashed, and threatened.
“I was all alone down here fishing,” Billy recalls. “I’m the only Indian that lived on the Nisqually River. There were some shacks up the river that the fishermen would come down and stay in, but I lived on the river and I fished on the river. So, they’d take me to jail and nobody would know I went to jail.
“First they took us over to Spanaway court, a little kangaroo court I called it. I don’t know who was the judge, but they’d just make their case and the judge would find us guilty. And then we’d go to jail. Now that was in Tacoma. They never brought me to Olympia because I know everybody here. So they took us to Pierce County where the Superior Court was more against Indian fishing. You know, they were all elected people. And so they would haul us that way.”
In jail next to criminals of every kind, Billy usually stood accused of poaching—fishing with the wrong gear, or in the wrong place. Judgment day came and went. Cycling through the court system took Billy away from his family and livelihood. It required hard-earned money when he was usually just scraping by.
Then, in 1965, the fishing struggle took his canoe. Canoes are a source of great pride in Indian Country. They’re made from cedar trees that can grow for a thousand years. Billy’s canoe told a story, like a window into the past. It traveled the river that cuts across his homeland. It held the fish that fed his family. And for years, it witnessed the growing tension with the state. And Billy’s canoe was special. The Nisqually Indian had traded Johnny Bob, a master carver, some dog salmon for it years before. Johnny Bob could carve a canoe with only six or eight inches of draft. By 1965, the canoe was even better. “I had just bought me a new motor, a 20-horse Merc,” Billy recalls. “I was so proud of that canoe. I could pole the canoe Johnny Bob made me eight miles upstream. It didn’t matter how shallow the riffles were.”
The year 1965 had already been tough on Billy. In the fall, a tug-ofwar between fishermen and the state ensued until one of Billy’s nets snapped. Unfortunately, he’d borrowed $150 for the net and had been saving every dime for Sugar and Maureen’s school clothes.
“This is just plain stealing,” Billy complained to Jim Land, a deputy sheriff for Thurston County. Billy argued to Land that his family’s six acres maintained reservation status. The United States held the land in trust for the Franks and had allotted it to his father in lieu of his lost acreage at Muck Creek. The state disagreed. “We’ve tried to get our day in court, but the state’s got lots of money. How can you fight them?” he asked.
“We’re going to shoot ‘em next time,” Billy told Land. “This is just one big merry-go-round. It’s making us sick.”
