Fish-in at Frank's Landing

After state police rammed a fishing boat and knocked two Native fisherman into the water the week before, Maiselle Bridges and others involved in the Survival of American Indians staged a planned fish-in at Frank's Landing for this day in 1965. Nineteen people including many women and children were brutalized by police with footage from the assault reaching far and wide. 13 year old Alison Bridges remembered a game warden "grabbed me by the hair and he started to slam my head into the log." While only one of many arrests Native fishers and their families would endure while fighting to assert their treaty rights, this one is notable in the national attention it received and was important in helping public opinion to be sympathetic to the fishers. Although celebrated now, at the time the establishment council members did not always support the treaty rights fighters. “These people aren’t Nisquallys,” criticized Reuben Wells, chairman of the Nisqually Tribe. “We think we should be able to fish anywhere on the Nisqually. But we’re willing to abide by the law.” (p 88 Heffernan).