What are the Fish Wars and Why Do They Matter?: Ep 9 of Crash Course Native American History

Key Concepts:

• Food Sovereignty: The right of Native nations to use the foods that have sustained their communities since time immemorial.
• Treaty Rights: Rights reserved by Native American tribes in treaties with the U.S. government, including the right to hunt and fish.
• Cultural Identity: The connection between food and Native American culture, traditions, and way of life.
• Resilience: The ability of Native American communities to adapt and persevere despite historical trauma and oppression.
• Civil Disobedience: The nonviolent act of intentionally breaking laws as a form of protest.

1. The Fish Wars and Billy Frank Jr.

• In 1945, a 14-year-old Billy Frank Jr. of the Nisqually Nation was arrested for fishing on the Nisqually River, marking an early event in the "Fish Wars."
• Frank Jr. and other Nisqually members had a strong connection to salmon, viewing them as gifts from the Creator.
• Frank Jr. was arrested at least fifty more times and faced harassment for exercising his treaty rights to fish.
• The Fish Wars were a struggle for food sovereignty, the right of Native nations to use traditional foods.

2. Food Sovereignty and Traditional Foodways

• Before European colonization, Native Americans had distinct cultural practices surrounding traditional foods, with local and seasonal menus.
• Examples include the Algonquin tribes recognizing June as the Strawberry Moon and the Shawnee knowing September as the Pawpaw Moon.
• Native peoples stockpiled foods like acorn flour (California tribes) and relied on crops like corn, beans, and squash (Haudenosaunee and Cherokee), known as the Three Sisters.
• Colonization led to Native nations losing 99% of their lands, disrupting their ability to hunt, fish, gather, and grow food.

3. Disruption of Native Food Systems

• Federal boarding schools separated Native children from their families, languages, traditions, and foods, feeding them low-quality rations.
• Settlers exploited food sources unsustainably, such as the near-extinction of the buffalo, which decimated the Great Sioux's way of life.
• American soldiers were ordered to kill buffalo to force Native Americans to sign treaties and cede land. Quote: “every buffalo dead was an Indian gone.”

4. Treaty Rights and the Boldt Decision

• In the mid-19th century, the Nisqually and other "Salmon People" signed treaties with the U.S. government, ceding land but reserving the right to fish.
• Logging, mining, and commercial fishing led to a collapse in the salmon population.
• Law enforcement disproportionately targeted Native fishers on riverbanks, who caught less than 5% of the annual catch.
• Frank Jr. and other Native activists engaged in nonviolent civil disobedience, including "fish-ins," to assert their treaty rights.
• In 1974, The Boldt Decision upheld treaty rights and granted Native nations in Washington 50% of the harvestable catch.

5. Food Sovereignty and Community Well-being

• Food sovereignty is inseparable from regular sovereignty; disruption of traditional foodways negatively impacts community health and well-being.
• Frybread is an example of a food with a complicated past, originating from government rations given to the Navajo Nation after being forced from their homelands.
• Frybread represents both the loss of traditional food systems and the resilience of Native communities.

6. Native Food Initiatives and Culinary Contributions

• The Muckleshoot Food Sovereignty Project hosts harvest festivals, maintains a community garden, and teaches tribal members how to prepare traditional foods.
• The Cherokee Nation shares free heirloom seed packets to encourage members to grow traditional crops.
• The Three Sisters Project at Iowa State University studies the benefits of growing corn, beans, and squash together.
• Native chefs are bringing traditional foods into the limelight through restaurants, cookbooks, and online cooking shows like Indigikitchen (Mariah Gladstone).

7. Conclusion

• Native nations faced violent disconnection from their food systems under colonization, but they have fought to maintain or restore traditional foods.
• The state of Washington now co-manages the Nisqually River and its fish alongside the Nisqually and other Native Nations.
• Billy Frank Jr. remained active in protecting treaty rights until his death and was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.