County Council declares March 9 ‘Billy Frank Jr. Day’

The Pierce County Council passed a resolution declaring March 9, 2023, as “Billy Frank Jr. Day” in Pierce County.

Native American activist Bill Frank Jr. of the Nisqually Tribe played a key role in the “Fish Wars” of the 1960s and 1970s, resulting in a landmark decision affirming tribal fishing rights.

In 1974, Federal District Court Judge George Boldt upheld the rights of members of several western Washington Indian tribes to fish with nets off reservation in accordance with terms of treaties signed in the 1850s. The decision said that Indians should be treated as equals in the taking of salmon and steelhead.