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Lawmakers Would Memorialize Tribal Fishing Activist

Members of the Washington US House delegation rarely agree on anything. But they're united on at least one quest - to name a wildlife refuge on the Nisqually River delta for a Native American activist who almost single handedly won fishing rights for Washington tribes.

Democratic Congressman Denny Heck introduced a bill to name the refuge the Billy Frank Junior Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge. Every single Washington House member - Democrats and Republicans - signed onto the bill.

Frank was a Nisqually tribal member who was arrested more than 50 times during Washington's so-called fish wars between the state and Puget Sound area tribes.

He doggedly pursued the indian fishing rights granted in the 1850s, but ignored by federal and state officers for decades.

Frank eventually prevailed in a federal court decision in 1974 which established 20 tribes as co-mangers of the salmon fisheries with the state, and re-established their right to half the harvestable salmon returning to Washington rivers.

Heck's bill would also create a national historic site at the refuge location where the 1854 Medicine Creek Treaty was signed.

The measure stands a reasonably good chance of congressional approval, since it's already passed a key test - a hearing in the House Natural Resources Committee.

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