- There's a reason why this is such a unique story.

I think about the reason that it hasn't been told yet, because there's no other... - Wow.

Nobody else who can tell it but me.

- Wow.

- Anybody who knew my father, they felt that Billy magic, that Billy love.

If you met him for the first time, he'd give you a hug and felt like you'd met him 100 times.

Well, usually Fridays were for going out, hanging out with your friends, we'd go sit at the mouth of the river.

Pretty soon, he'd lift the motor up, I'd be like, "Dad, are we going back?"

And he'd be like, "Well, the tide, you know, "we're kinda high and dry now."

It was his way of slowing us down, of showing us like, "Look, we're not going anywhere 'til the tide changes."

You know, we have to slow down and remember who we are at times as Indian people.

(Antonette speaks in Luhshootseed) - Means most highly respected.

We would call him like a hereditary chief.

In my eyes, that's how I see Uncle Billy.

- My uncle goes, "Hey babe, what happened to your car?

"Your dad wouldn't fix it?"

I said, "No."

My uncle come out with a little mallet and hit it, and then popped the side back out.

He goes, "There, it's fixed."

- He was just in there by himself, sitting at the corner table with a cup of coffee.

We'd hear his stories about his experiences fishing during the '60s, the civil disobedience protests that they had to go through just to exercise their treaty rights.

Marlon Brando came here.

- In 1854, territorial governor Isaac Stevens made treaties with all the Indians in Washington.

The Indians gave up all claims to the land and the territory, except for special areas reserved to them.

In return, they were to receive payments and were promised that they and their descendants would always have the right to fish in their usual and accustomed ground.

- Our usual and accustomed ground...

The state of Washington would close the river down for conservation, so they'd go out, they'd catch all the fish out in the bay and in the ocean, and then when our fish finally came back to the deep South Sound, they would shut the river down.

My father and many others said, "Wait a sec, this isn't right."

- He brought people together.

He brought people to the table, he brought attention to this issue that treaty rights weren't being honored.

- Washington fisheries and game departments say that to conserve the fish, the mouth of the rivers must remain closed to net fishing, but the river mouths always were the fishing grounds of the Indians.

- They fought Fish & Game, they fought the state and the feds as well.

- There were hundreds and hundreds of fish-ins.

It was about showing the public.

- My dad took the net out to put it in the water and there was game agents coming out of the woodwork, like the trees and the bushes, like they were all hiding there.

- And they had those wooden billy clubs.

- Just started beating everybody up, even young women.

- They arrested mom and my auntie right there.

Wouldn't let go of the net, so they pulled the net and grabbed them and pulled them over the boat.

- My uncle, my dad, my brothers, my grandpa.

- Yeah, that was a struggle when I was a kid.

- I was 12, what do you think?

- Chinese American and indigenous people, as a minority in this country, we all have to fight for your rights and to speak out your story.

This piece eventually is gonna be cast into bronze, will be installed in the Congress National Statuary Hall.

He has lots of the photographs.

Some of them, he is fighting, demonstrating, holding a fist, or give the public speech, but there's one picture which really strikes me.

- One of the most fondest memories of my dad and brother and I is all three of us being able to be on the water together, and my dad was 50 when he had me, you know, so by the time I started getting interested in fishing, he was in his early 70s, and so I'm just, like I said, grateful for my brother.

- Tie up that middle anchor now.

Ah, that looks good.

Yeah, that looks good.

- I used to love hearing stories from my brother and some of our other fishermen about how many fish they used to catch, you know?

And now it's like, shoot, we're lucky to catch 100 fish in one season.

The way I look at it, and I saw what my dad was doing, is he wanted me to learn how to hang in that setting net, be able to, in case the fish do come back at the rate we hope they do, we'll be ready, you know, for that next generation, and this is all part of being on the river, you know, everybody being... a lot of us don't get to see each other like we used to anymore so.

I was trying to tell him last week too, about the balance that we gotta bring back of us being on the water, that Frank energy and that beautiful blood, you know, because I think of my dad, he'd always talk about, you know, when Gramps was older, he'd go shave 'em, you know?

And you remember that probably, right?

And I think about that, and so, you know, Dad's goal was always to get, for Sugar and I to shave him.

He always told me, he's like, I'm gonna get him, you know, one of those mugs and the old razors, and so, you know, we lost him a little bit early, and so coming down today, I was thinking like, man, well we can still get that mug.

I'll still be able to at least shave Sugar when he gets older, you know?

- Now Dad, when you was living back over here on your property across the river, was there a lot more fish, Dad, at that time than there is today?

- Oh yeah.

The river was just full of fish.

And the Nisqually Indian he lived in paradise.

Everything grew here.

- Historians haven't, in the past, historians haven't valued Indigenous knowledge.

- Look, these two old Indians, Willie Frank Sr. and Billy Frank Jr. could have been very bitter and hateful human beings.

145 00:11:12,672 --> 00:11:16,676 - Billy Frank has really been, become a symbol.

- This Billy Frank Jr. statue, we do have a chance to tell it.

- It's a moment that all Native Americans across the country can be proud of.

- That picture, he's so calm, with his smile.

I saw a shadow of my grandfather.

He really shows that kind of how widely open his personality is and the forgiveness, and he has.

- I often find myself thinking, what would Billy feel about this?

- He always put his hand out and then he grabbed your shoulder and pulled you in for one of the biggest hugs and he'd say, "God damn, it's good to see you."

- "Jesus Christ, what the hell is going on here?"

He'd wonder if it was gonna bring the salmon back.

He'd wonder how we're gonna protect and enhance our treaty rights for the next seven generations.

- I really believe we have a chance to tell the real history now, and I hope that, you know, everybody kind of wants to learn about who Billy Frank Jr. was.

- Let's really start to make progress on the things and the policies that he was trying to affect for the last 30 years by utilizing the treaty rights, by listening to the tribes, by accepting and implementing tribal solutions, 'cause we are the stewards of the land.

- All these years, and we're still fighting and we'll keep fighting until the last man standing.