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. Muckleshoot Tribal member Sherman Dominick was active in these demonstrations, and was arrested in March 1966 for gillnetting on the Green River and part of the Muckleshoot Treaty Trek in May of the same year.

This portrait of Dominick was taken by Josef Scaylea (1913-2004), who worked for 35 years as chief photographer for the Seattle Times, winning over 1000 awards for his photographs highlighting the scenery and people in the Pacific Northwest. He donated a collection of his photographs and photography equipment to MOHAI in 1993.

Handwritten on image: Josef Scaylea.
Handwritten on verso: 1970. Sherman Dominick - Fisherman and Indian activist, Muckleshoot Tribe.

Caption information source: "Muckleshoot Indian Tribe History," https://www.muckleshoot.nsn.us/history
Caption information source: "Convictions Upheld," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, January 11, 1968