Sid Mills Fish-in Arrest (1968)

Sun Oct 13, 1968

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Image: Photo from the Facebook page “We the Indigenous”

On this day in 1968, while conducting a “Fish-in” protest on the Nisqually River in Washington state, activist Sid Mills was arrested. This was just one action from Mills’ campaign of civil disobedience in demand of lawful fishing rights.

The Fish Wars were a series of protests in the 1960s and '70s in which Native American tribes around the Puget Sound pressured the U.S. government to recognize fishing rights granted by the Point No Point Treaty. The acts of protest often involved participants fishing “illegally” on rivers that previous treaties, then ignored, had granted them rights to.

On this day in 1968, while conducting a Fish-in protest at Frank’s Landing on the Nisqually River, activist Sid Mills was arrested. He issued a statement:

"I am a Yakima and Cherokee Indian, and a man…I served in combat in Vietnam-until critically wounded…I hereby renounce further obligation in service or duty to the United States Army.

My first obligation now lies with the Indian People fighting for the lawful Treaty to fish in usual and accustomed water of the Nisqualiy, Columbia and other rivers of the Pacific Northwest, and in serving them in this fight in any way possible.

…My decision is influenced by the fact that we have already buried Indian fishermen returned dead from Vietnam, while Indian fishermen live here without protection and under steady attack…"