Franks Landing Essay -- Sociology, The Nisqually Culture

Fishing and hunting have been at the core of many American Indian cultures like the Nisqually since precontact. Indian hunting, fishing and gathering were conducted then—as they are now—not for sport, but for food and for a livelihood. This was well understood by the early colonists and later by the U.S. government. Thus, many of the treaties (e.g., Medicine Creek, 1854) negotiated between the federal government and Indian tribes in the nineteenth century contained provisions guaranteeing rights to hunt and fish. In the trea ¬ty negotiated by Isaac Stevens, the tribe ceded to the U.S. some of the Nisqually vil ¬lages and prairies, but Article Three reserved the tribe’s right to fish â€Å"at all usual and accustomed grounds and stations†¦in common with all citizens of the Territory.† (FL 12) But the growth of the European American population, and with it the proliferation of fenced lands, the destruction of natural habitat, and often the destructi on of wildlife itself, drastically curtailed the Indians' ability to carry on these activities. Charles Wilkinson’s thesis declares that the â€Å"messages from Frank’s Landing† are â€Å"messages about ourselves, about the natural world, about societies past, about this society, and about societies to come.† (FL 6) Billy affectionately described his homeland (the key component of â€Å"peoplehood† i.e., the Nisqually watershed on South Puget Sound of the Nisqually River, creeks (Muck Creek), rolling prairie and forestland as well as the foothills of the Cascades Mountains and Mt Rainier) as â€Å"a magical place† where his family â€Å"never wished for anything: fish from the water ¬shed, vegetables up on the prairie, medicines, shellfish, and huckleberries†¦clean water, clean air.† He describes the arrival of L... ...s preferred by them or by the state.† In 1974 Judge Boldt ruled that a â€Å"fair share† meant Indian fishers are entitled to half (50%) of the harvestable catch of salmon. (FL 50) After a short-term negative backlash, the long-term result has been cooperation between federal, state and tribal governments over fish harvests and resource management since the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Boldt decision in U.S. v. Washington (1980). (FL 50) Billy’s commitment to his traditional way of life did not end with the stunning Boldt decision. (FL 56)He became chairman of the North ¬west Indian Fisheries Commission in order to â€Å"speak for the salmon† on behalf of treaty tribes in Western Washington. Under his leadership, and through his exceptional skills as a negotiator, the tribes gained a reputation for being unsurpassed in their abilities as natural resource managers.