In the 1960s, Native Americans and their supporters began protesting Washington State laws restricting Native American fishing rights that had been granted in a series of treaties with the United States between 1854 and 1855. The Survival of the American Indian Society (SAIA), the NAACP, and the National Indian Youth Council (NIYC), coordinated a series of protests and peaceful demonstrations known at the time collectively as the "fish wars," which eventually led to the Boldt Decision (United States v. Washington, 1974), a federal ruling guaranteeing Washington tribes half the state's salmon and steelhead trout catch.

In this image actor and political activist Marlon Brando, Jr. (1924-2004), stands at the center of a group of reporters with Tulalip tribe member and activist Janet McCloud (1934-2003) and Jack Tanner (1919-2006), a Tacoma attorney who served as regional director of the NAACP from 1957 to 1965. Brando was on the Puyallup Reservation to participate in a planned "fish-in" demonstration on the Puyallup River near Tacoma with Episcopal clergyman John Yaryan and Puyallup tribal leader Robert "Bob" Satiacum (1929-1991). Brando and Yaryan were later arrested on charges of illegal fishing and then released without charge. Satiacum was not detained but served a summons to appear in court the following week.

Caption information source: http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/fish-ins.htm
Caption information source: The Seattle Daily Times, March 2, 1964, page 1
Caption information source: http://www.blackpast.org/aaw/tanner-judge-jack-1919-2006