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IntroductionBilly Frank Jr. is a fisherman, and when he dies he hopes that’s howhistory remembers him. He is not a casual angler who passes sunnyafternoons away in search of tall tales and kings. Fishing is part ofBilly’s dna. It dominates his history. It defines his future. Billy has avisceral need to protect salmon and scars to show for his trouble. In asociety fascinated by advancing technology, Billy will take you backto nature. He will show you the great rivers where the salmon run,and he will tell you the story of his mysterious fish.In fact, Billy’s entire life is rooted in a war over the fish, brutal clashesthat reached a fever pitch in the 1960s and 1970s. Havoc on the wateraroused the attention of the country. Some even called it the greatfish war of the Northwest.The great fish war did not deal only with salmon. While the stateof Washington called the crackdown on Indian fishing conservation,Indians called it racism and an abrogation of a treaty. To NativeAmericans, fishing is a sovereign right. They ceded land to the U.S.government, but they never gave up their right to the fish. Theyreserved this right in a treaty and depended on the promise made byIsaac Stevens, superintendent of Indian Affairs: “I will write it downin the treaty that you and your people have the right to take fish atthese old fishing places, and I pledge the Americans to keep this5