where the salmon run - Washington Secretary of State

Introduction
Billy Frank Jr. is a fisherman, and when he dies he hopes that’s how
history remembers him. He is not a casual angler who passes sunny
afternoons away in search of tall tales and kings. Fishing is part of
Billy’s dna. It dominates his history. It defines his future. Billy has a
visceral need to protect salmon and scars to show for his trouble. In a
society fascinated by advancing technology, Billy will take you back
to nature. He will show you the great rivers where the salmon run,
and he will tell you the story of his mysterious fish.
In fact, Billy’s entire life is rooted in a war over the fish, brutal clashes
that reached a fever pitch in the 1960s and 1970s. Havoc on the water
aroused the attention of the country. Some even called it the great
fish war of the Northwest.
The great fish war did not deal only with salmon. While the state
of Washington called the crackdown on Indian fishing conservation,
Indians called it racism and an abrogation of a treaty. To Native
Americans, fishing is a sovereign right. They ceded land to the U.S.
government, but they never gave up their right to the fish. They
reserved this right in a treaty and depended on the promise made by
Isaac Stevens, superintendent of Indian Affairs: “I will write it down
in the treaty that you and your people have the right to take fish at
these old fishing places, and I pledge the Americans to keep this
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