Native Americans and supporters stage fish-in to protest denial of treaty rights on March 2, 1964.

  • By David Wilma
  • Posted 3/01/2003
  • HistoryLink.org Essay 5332
See Additional Media

On March 2, 1964, Native Americans protest the denial of treaty rights by fishing in defiance of state law. Inspired by sit-ins of the civil rights movement, Actor Marlon Brando (b. 1924), Episcopal clergyman John Yaryan from San Francisco, and Puyallup tribal leader Bob Satiacum (1929-1991) catch salmon in the Puyallup River without state permits. The action is called a fish-in and results in the arrest of Brando and the clergyman. Satiacum is not arrested. The Pierce County Prosecutor refuses to file charges and Brando and Yaryan are released.

Whenever tribal members fished for salmon and steelhead trout off their tiny reservations, they were held subject to state law. State regulations prohibited the use of nets and traps even though these were traditional Native methods of taking fish from rivers and streams. Native Americans insisting on their rights guaranteed by Treaties signed by Territorial Governor Isaac Stevens (1818-1862), were subjected to arrest and prosecution. The right to fish became a unifying identity among the diverse tribes of Puget Sound, which traditionally were tied to natural resources rather than to real estate.

The fish-in was staged by the National Indian Youth Council, a Native American civil rights organization formed in Gallup, New Mexico, in 1961. NIYC members participated in "freedom rides" and civil rights marches in Alabama and Mississippi, and applied their knowledge of activism and civil disobedience to tribal issues. Fish-ins were used throughout the 1960s to dramatize racial discrimination, pride in native heritage, and to assert treaty rights.

In 1974, a Federal court ruled that the tribes were entitled to half the salmon in Western Washington.


Sources:

S. James Anaya, "National Indian Youth Council," Native America in the Twentieth Century: An Encyclopedia (New York: Garland Publishing, 1994), 373-374; Alexandra Harmon, Indians in the Making: Ethnic Relations and Indian Identities around Puget Sound (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998), 218-244, "Marlon Brando, S.F. Cleric Arrested for Fishing Illegally," The Seattle Times, March 2, 1964, p. 1.


Licensing: This essay is licensed under a Creative Commons license that encourages reproduction with attribution. Credit should be given to both HistoryLink.org and to the author, and sources must be included with any reproduction. Click the icon for more info. Please note that this Creative Commons license applies to text only, and not to images. For more information regarding individual photos or images, please contact the source noted in the image credit.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License
Major Support for HistoryLink.org Provided By: The State of Washington | Patsy Bullitt Collins | Paul G. Allen Family Foundation | Museum Of History & Industry | 4Culture (King County Lodging Tax Revenue) | City of Seattle | City of Bellevue | City of Tacoma | King County | The Peach Foundation | Microsoft Corporation, Other Public and Private Sponsors and Visitors Like You