Messages from Frank’s Landing
A Story of Salmon, Treaties, and the Indian Way
Format:Paperback
Publisher:University of Washington Press
Published:13th Jan '06
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
Through the life of Billy Frank, Jr., the Nisqually Indian who led the fight for native treaty fishing rights in the Pacific Northwest, this book provides a vivid and dramatic account of the people and issues involved in this “uncommon controversy.”
Explores the broad historical, legal and social context of Indian fishing rights in the Pacific Northwest, providing a dramatic account of the people and issues involved. This book draws on the author's own decades of experience as a lawyer working with Indian people, and focuses on Billy Frank and the river flowing past Frank's Landing.
In 1974 Federal Judge George H. Boldt issued one of the most sweeping rulings in the history of the Pacific Northwest, affirming the treaty rights of Northwest tribal fishermen and allocating to them 50 percent of the harvestable catch of salmon and steelhead. Among the Indians testifying in Judge Boldt’s courtroom were Nisqually tribal leader Billy Frank, Jr., and his 95-year-old father, whose six acres along the Nisqually River, known as Frank’s Landing, had been targeted for years by state game wardens in the so-called Fish Wars.
By the 1960s the Landing had become a focal point for the assertion of tribal treaty rights in the Northwest. It also lay at the moral center of the tribal sovereignty movement nationally. The confrontations at the Landing hit the news and caught the conscience of many. Like the schoolhouse steps at Little Rock, or the bridge at Selma, Frank’s Landing came to signify a threshold for change, and Billy Frank, Jr., became a leading architect of consensus, a role he continues today as one of the most colorful and accomplished figures in the modern history of the Pacific Northwest.
In Messages from Frank’s Landing, Charles Wilkinson explores the broad historical, legal, and social context of Indian fishing rights in the Pacific Northwest, providing a dramatic account of the people and issues involved. He draws on his own decades of experience as a lawyer working with Indian people, and focuses throughout on Billy Frank and the river flowing past Frank’s Landing. In all aspects of Frank’s life as an activist, from legal settlements negotiated over salmon habitats destroyed by hydroelectric plants, to successful negotiations with the U.S. Army for environmental protection of tribal lands, Wilkinson points up the significance of the traditional Indian world view - the powerful and direct legacy of Frank’s father, conveyed through generations of Indian people who have crafted a practical working philosophy and a way of life....
"The author tells a dramatic and complex story with clarity and insight, but his greatest triumph in Messages is that he conveys the inner peace and traditional Indian world view that carries Frank through as an activist and negotiator for Native American rights, and as the spokesperson for the salmon, the river, and the circle of life. An excellent book."
* Wildlife Activist *"The authors have written a history not only of a single event but also of the fight for Native American rights in America. The combination of legal analysis and oral history (some fascinating people tell their stories) produces a balanced, thoughtful look at a subject that is as timely and important now as it was years ago."
* Booklist *"A powerful story of late twentieth-century Aboriginal resistance and empowerment...Wilkinson provides a delightful and informative text that should do much to raise awareness of Aboriginal rights while promoting cross-cultural understanding and respect."
* International Journal of Maritime HistoISBN: 9780295985930
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 499g
128 pages