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takeovers 115grandfather. The hope was to resolve the status of Frank’s Landingthat by her death had been embroiled in debate.”Valerie and her family had recently pored over documents at thebia, hunting for information on the condemnation of the NisquallyReservation that could shed light on the status of Willie’s six acres.“In her lifetime, the state of Washington did not enact or promulgateone statute or one regulation that would have allowed Valerie to fishfor salmon as a Nisqually or Puyallup Indian,” Hank Adams says.At the time of her death, Valerie was awaiting sentencing for athird-degree assault conviction stemming from a September 1969tussle with a Fisheries officer and a two-foot-long vine maple club. “Iwas going to protect my property,” Valerie told the court. In Valerie’sdefense, Billy’s daughter Maureen Frank testified that officers treatedher cousins like “men” and burst into tears on the witness stand.Valerie was named a codefendant in an upcoming trial on the jurisdictionof Frank’s Landing and whether the land should be treated asa reservation. “The trial meant so much to her,” said Adams. “Nowthe best memorial to her would be a free Frank’s Landing.”The signs warned intruders to stay off Indian land. Puget SoundIndians established a camp in August 1970 on the banks of thePuyallup River, a glacier-chilled waterway that springs from the westside of Mount Rainier. Every September, the salmon run thePuyallup. For thousands of years, Indian fishermen caught a bountifulcatch there as silvers and kings headed home to spawn in the PacificNorthwest.But trouble was in the air on September 9, 1970. Campers, a mix oftribal fishermen and supporters, guarded nets to protect them fromstate raids.“The camp was set up . . . because the pigs down there . . . beat upIndian people for fishing and just for being there,” said Sid Mills, aFrank’s Landing activist.Billy headed for the Landing to wait out the storm. “What Billydid was take the children. His own daughter, Maureen, spent some