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.
This image shows a group of Muckleshoot tribal members participating in the "Treaty Trek." The trek lasted from July 9 to July 13 and was a march from the Muckleshoot reservation to the King County Courthouse in support of four Muckleshoots who were charged with illegally fishing on the Green River. The accused were Sherman Dominick, Cecil Moses, Robert Moses, and Larry Maurice, who all took part in the trek before appearing in court. They invoked the 1855 Treaty of Point Elliott in their defense, but all four were convicted.
Caption information source: http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/fish-ins.htm Caption information source: "Indians plan trek over fishing dispute," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, July 9, 1966, page 10. Caption information source: "Indian netters guilty," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, July 15, 1966, page 3.
