In the 1960s and 1970s, 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.

The Muckleshoot Tribe near Auburn, Washington, engaged in a series of protests intended to preserve Muckleshoot fishing rights in nearby rivers that were not within the official reservation. County and state authorities had tried to regulate their fishing off-reservation. On May 4, 1970, members of the Muckleshoot Tribe entered the Green River near the Auburn Golf Course with nets and gaff hooks to assert their right to fish in the river. A game warden acted as an observer but did not intervene in the peaceful protest. The group caught 2 salmon over the course of the day.

Here, Muckleshoot fishermen wade into the Green River carrying gaff hooks attached to long poles.

Caption information source: http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/fish-ins.htm
Caption information source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, October 5, 1970, p. 1 & 3, photo captions