Treaty Justice: The Northwest Tribes, the Boldt Decision, and the Recognition of Fishing Rights

History

Wilkinson, Charles

Americas

University of Washington Press

In 1974 Federal Judge George H. Boldt issued one of the most sweeping rulings in the history of the Pacific Northwest, affirming the treaty rights of Northwest tribal fishermen and allocating to them 50 percent of the harvestable catch of salmon and steelhead. Among the Indians testifying in Judge Boldt’s courtroom were Nisqually tribal leader Billy Frank, Jr., and his 95-year-old father, whose six acres along the Nisqually River, known as Frank’s Landing, had been targeted for years by state game wardens in the so-called Fish Wars. By the 1960s the Landing had become a focal point for the assertion of tribal treaty rights in the Northwest. It also lay at the moral center of the tribal sovereignty movement nationally. The confrontations at the Landing hit the news and caught the conscience of many. Like the schoolhouse steps at Little Rock, or the bridge at Selma, Frank’s Landing came to signify a threshold for change, and Billy Frank, Jr., became a leading architect of consensus, a role he continues today as one of the most colorful and accomplished figures in the modern history of the Pacific Northwest. In Messages from Frank’s Landing, Charles Wilkinson explores the broad historical, legal, and social context of Indian fishing rights in the Pacific Northwest, providing a dramatic account of the people and issues involved. He draws on his own decades of experience as a lawyer working with Indian people, and focuses throughout on Billy Frank and the river flowing past Frank’s Landing. In all aspects of Frank’s life as an activist, from legal settlements negotiated over salmon habitats destroyed by hydroelectric plants, to successful negotiations with the U.S. Army for environmental protection of tribal lands, Wilkinson points up the significance of the traditional Indian world view - the powerful and direct legacy of Frank’s father, conveyed through generations of Indian people who have crafted a practical working philosophy and a way of life. Drawing on many hours spent talking and laughing with Billy Frank while canoeing the Nisqually watershed, Wilkinson conveys words of respect and responsibility for the earth we inhabit and for the diverse communities the world encompasses. These are the messages from Frank’s Landing. Wilkinson brings welcome clarity to complex legal issues, deepening our insight into a turbulent period in the political and environmental history of the Northwest.

Messages from Franks Landing : a story of salmon, treaties, and the Indian way

Biographies & Memoirs

Leaders & Notable People

The history of the Siletz is in many ways the history of all Indian tribes in America: a story of heartache, perseverance, survival, and revival. It began in a resource-rich homeland thousands of years ago and today finds a vibrant, modern community with a deeply held commitment to tradition. The Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians―twenty-seven tribes speaking at least ten languages―were brought together on the Oregon Coast through treaties with the federal government in 1853–55. For decades after, the Siletz people lost many traditional customs, saw their languages almost wiped out, and experienced poverty, killing diseases, and humiliation. Again and again, the federal government took great chunks of the magnificent, timber-rich tribal homeland, a reservation of 1.1 million acres reaching a full 100 miles north to south on the Oregon Coast. By 1956, the tribe had been “terminated” under the Western Oregon Indian Termination Act, selling off the remaining land, cutting off federal health and education benefits, and denying tribal status. Poverty worsened, and the sense of cultural loss deepened. The Siletz people refused to give in. In 1977, after years of work and appeals to Congress, they became the second tribe in the nation to have its federal status, its treaty rights, and its sovereignty restored. Hand-in-glove with this federal recognition of the tribe has come a recovery of some land--several hundred acres near Siletz and 9,000 acres of forest--and a profound cultural revival. This remarkable account, written by one of the nation’s most respected experts in tribal law and history, is rich in Indian voices and grounded in extensive research that includes oral tradition and personal interviews. It is a book that not only provides a deep and beautifully written account of the history of the Siletz, but reaches beyond region and tribe to tell a story that will inform the way all of us think about the past. Watch the book trailer: http://www.youtube.com/user/UWashingtonPress#p/u/1/NEtAIGxp6pc

The People Are Dancing Again: The History of the Siletz Tribe of Western Oregon

Brown, Melissa

Getches, Wilkinson, Williams and Fletcher’s Cases and Materials on Federal Indian Law is the leading law school casebook on federal Indian law. It has an unprecedented focus on Native nation building, including cutting-edge materials on tribal economies and tribal justice systems unavailable elsewhere. The sixth edition retains classic material on the history of federal Indian law and policy, including the medieval origins of the “Doctrine of Discovery,” and the shifting eras of Indian law leading to the current nation-building era. The book covers: The federal tribal relationship Tribal sovereignty and jurisdiction Indian religion and culture Water rights Treaty rights Rights of Alaska natives and native Hawaiians International legal perspectives

Cases and Materials on Federal Indian Law (American Casebook Series)

WILLIAMS, ROBERT

Getches, David

Fletcher, Matthew

Administrative Law

West Academic Publishing

Vision and Place: John Wesley Powell and Reimagining the Colorado River Basin

The Colorado River Basin's importance cannot be overstated. Its living river system supplies water to roughly forty million people, contains Grand Canyon National Park, Bears Ears National Monument, and wide swaths of other public lands, and encompasses ancestral homelands of twenty-nine Native American tribes. John Wesley Powell, a one-armed Civil War veteran, explorer, scientist, and adept federal administrator, articulated a vision for Euro-American colonization of the "Arid Region" that has indelibly shaped the basin--a pattern that looms large not only in western history, but also in contemporary environmental and social policy. &nbsp; One hundred and fifty years after Powell's epic 1869 Colorado River Exploring Expedition, this volume revisits Powell's vision, examining ts historical character and its relative influence on the Colorado River Basin's cultural and physical landscape in modern times. In three parts, the volume unpacks Powell's ideas on water, public lands, and Native Americans--ideas at once innovative, complex, and contradictory. With an eye toward climate change and a host of related challenges facing the basin, the volume turns to the future, reflecting on how--if at all--Powell's legacy might inform our collective vision as we navigate a new "Great Unknown."

McCool, Daniel

Robison, Jason

Minckley, Thomas

University of California Press

A virtual manifesto that defines the ethics of place breaks down the interests and constituencies battling to define the nature of the new American West and offers imaginative, long-term, legal compromises to land-use dilemmas.

THE EAGLE BIRD: MAPPING A NEW W

Science & Math

Nature & Ecology

Pantheon

Breaks down the interests and constituencies battling to define the nature of the new American West and offers imaginative, long-term, legal compromises to land-use dilemmas

Eagle Bird: Mapping a New West

Vintage

Every energy sector out there wants a piece of the Peace River Valley, one of the last great wild places in North America. The oil industry wants it, the frackers, the solar, wind and nuclear industries. 
 Why? 
 As Charles Wilkinson paddles through the issues he engages hydro and natural gas energy executives, oil company reps, nuclear spokesmen, scientists, academics and activists. What starts to becomes clear is that the tricky business of energy supply and demand does not play out in isolation. It involves everyone who turns on a computer, starts a car, charges a cell phone. With clarity, even handedness and a good deal of wit, Charles Wilkinson connects all of us all to this sweeping energy issue that is rapidly transforming our world. The Peace River is in northwestern Canada, but it could be anywhere as the issues are universal. Peace Out was inspired by Charles Wilkinson's award-winning documentary of the same name.

Peace Out: Adventures on the Road to Green Energy

Red Deer Press

The Paintree and Other Stories

London Magazine Editions

A Tour Through Asia Minor and the Greek Islands: With an Account of the Inhabitants, Natural Productions, and Curiosities : For the Instruction and Amusement of Youth

Asia

Nabu Press

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Books by Wilkinson, Charles