Schools honor treaty rights icon Billy Frank, Jr.

All states, including Washington, provide two statues to the U.S. Capitol.

In the near future one of those stone figures gifted by the Evergreen State will bear the image of late Nisqually tribal leader and treaty fishing rights champion Billy Frank, Jr.

La Conner Schools recognized Frank with a special program March 7.

The two-and-a-half hour public event, billed as the district’s first annual Billy Frank, Jr. Remembrance Fair, was held in the middle school gym and included information booths focused on salmon protection and key chapters in Frank’s storied life.

Participating organizations and tribal departments were the Swinomish Fisheries Department, Swinomish Department of Environmental Protection, Swinomish 13 Moons Program, Swinomish Wildlife Program, Sound Water Stewards, Skagit River System Cooperative and the Tulalip Tribes Lushootseed Department.

“Billy Frank, Jr. was an icon and lifelong fighter for fishing rights for tribes in Washington state,” Community and Cultural Liaison Clarissa Williams, who coordinated the fair, told the Weekly News. “At La Conner Schools, we want to make sure that these tribal icons are celebrated and that tribal students see themselves in a modern era. They need to see us celebrating people who are important to their tribal communities,” she noted.

The local celebration was held the day before what would have been Frank’s 82nd birthday. He died in 2014 and was succeeded as chair of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission by the late Lorraine Loomis of Swinomish.

“She is definitely a Native lady who deserves to be lifted up,” Superintendent Will Nelson said Thursday, during a break in the school board interviews for the Swinomish director district seat.

For several years, Loomis wrote the monthly “Being Frank” column chronicling natural resources management issues of interest to the treaty tribes of Western Washington that Frank had originally penned for the NWIFC.

La Conner teachers had introduced students in grades K-12 to Frank’s legacy prior to the fair. Many had viewed a Salmon Defense video that is part of a developing Billy Frank, Jr. curriculum depicting his role in what has come to be known as the “Fish Wars” of the 1960s and 1970s that led to the Boldt Decision, a federal court case that affirmed tribal fishing rights.

At the fair, students reinforced their classroom instruction by touring booths highlighting treaty rights, salmon restoration projects, traditional foods and the life cycle of salmon.

The common thread running through each exhibit was the lasting impact of Billy Frank, Jr.

“La Conner does a great job of celebrating in general,” said Swinomish Tribal Education Partners Supervisor Loran James. “We have about 40 per cent of our students who are Native American. Billy Frank, Jr. was somebody who was instrumental with the people of the region. He was a great individual.”

State lawmakers two years ago overwhelmingly supported a bill sponsored by Rep. Debra Lekanoff, D-Bow, to place a statue of Frank in the U.S. Capitol. It will replace one of missionary Marcus Whitman that has stood in Statuary Hall for seven decades.

“We expect to send our best from the state of Washington to be memorialized in the United States Capitol in Statuary Hall,” Gov. Jay Inslee said during the 2021 bill signing ceremony. “We can’t send the Nisqually River or Mount Rainier, but we can send Billy Frank, Jr.”

And last week his presence was felt closer to home – at La Conner Schools.