Long before the more widely known Native American “fish-ins,” member of the Nisqually Tribes were defiantly engaged in fishing activities that had been decreed illegal by Washington State. The Department of Game made numerous arrests and confiscated gear throughout the 1960s. Here, in a 1962 Daily Olympian photograph, Game Department enforcers arrest Nisqually tribal members as they return with their catch. Native American treaty fishing rights were finally upheld in the US Supreme Court’s 1974 Boldt decision.
John Bailey photograph, January 1962, Daily Olympian, State Capital Museum collection, Washington State Historical Society
Text © Deborah Ross and The Olympian