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 the right to fish in accustomed places and the right to act alongside the state as co-managers of salmon and other fish in the region.

In this image, Washington State Governor Albert Dean "Al" Rosellini (1910-2011) addresses a crowd of Native Americans at the State Capitol building in Olympia. A one-page "protest proclamation" signed by most tribes in the state asked the governor to honor treaty rights by immediately halting arrests of Native Americans for illegal fishing off reservations. The governor said that he had no choice but to carry out conservation policies approved by the courts.

Caption information source: http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/fish-ins.htm
Caption information source: The Seattle Daily Times, March 3, 1964, page 1
Caption information source: The Seattle Daily Times, March 3, 1964, page 3