WEBVTT - SYMHC Classics: Six Impossible Episodes - Other Ins 0:00:02.520 --> 0:00:06.840 Happy Saturday. I don't think we've done an installment of 0:00:06.960 --> 0:00:10.799 six impossible episodes as a Saturday Classic before. Maybe we have, 0:00:11.039 --> 0:00:14.560 but I think today is a first. This classic is 0:00:14.600 --> 0:00:18.560 inspired by a lawsuit that has been filed by seventeen 0:00:18.600 --> 0:00:22.320 states regarding section five oh four of the Rehabilitation Act 0:00:22.320 --> 0:00:26.720 of nineteen seventy three. This filing is initially focused on 0:00:26.760 --> 0:00:31.600 the Biden administration's inclusion of gender dysphoria as a protected 0:00:31.680 --> 0:00:36.239 disability under this Act, but the lawsuit also argues that 0:00:36.280 --> 0:00:40.640 section five oh four itself is unconstitutional, so with today's language, 0:00:41.120 --> 0:00:45.720 Section five oh four begins quote, no otherwise qualified individual 0:00:45.840 --> 0:00:50.000 with a disability in the United States shall, solely by 0:00:50.040 --> 0:00:53.600 reason of his or her disability, be excluded from the 0:00:53.640 --> 0:00:58.240 participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected 0:00:58.280 --> 0:01:03.680 to discrimination, under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance, 0:01:03.840 --> 0:01:08.160 or under any program or activity conducted by any Executive 0:01:08.160 --> 0:01:11.080 agency or by the United States Postal Service. 0:01:12.080 --> 0:01:14.680 We have talked about Section five oh four and how 0:01:14.760 --> 0:01:19.760 disabled people, supported by a broad coalition of allies, successfully 0:01:19.800 --> 0:01:23.520 demonstrated for the US government to actually write the regulations 0:01:23.520 --> 0:01:27.960 needed to implement and enforce this law four years after 0:01:28.000 --> 0:01:31.360 it had been passed. That was in our episode Six 0:01:31.440 --> 0:01:36.360 Impossible Episodes Other INDs. As a note, Judy Human, who 0:01:36.400 --> 0:01:39.479 we talked about in this episode, died on March fourth, 0:01:39.560 --> 0:01:43.800 twenty twenty three. This episode originally came out February fifth, 0:01:43.880 --> 0:01:51.080 twenty twenty so enjoy Welcome to Stuff You Missed in 0:01:51.160 --> 0:01:57.080 History Class, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:02:00.440 --> 0:02:03.160 Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. 0:02:03.360 --> 0:02:05.080 Wilson and I'm Holly Frye. 0:02:05.280 --> 0:02:08.840 I started talking immediately as I could see that Holly 0:02:09.000 --> 0:02:10.160 was taking a. 0:02:09.880 --> 0:02:10.520 Drink of water. 0:02:12.240 --> 0:02:15.560 So not long ago on the podcast, we talked about 0:02:15.560 --> 0:02:17.639 the sit in movement in the United States of the 0:02:17.720 --> 0:02:20.520 nineteen sixties, and today we're kind of coming back to 0:02:20.600 --> 0:02:24.440 that theme with an addition of six Impossible Episodes. For 0:02:24.680 --> 0:02:27.160 listeners who are new to our show, this is when 0:02:27.160 --> 0:02:29.240 we take a shorter look at six topics that, for 0:02:29.320 --> 0:02:31.680 one reason or another, we can't quite tackle as a 0:02:31.720 --> 0:02:35.280 standalone episode. That can be for all kinds of reasons, 0:02:35.639 --> 0:02:39.399 including how much information is available and how broad the 0:02:39.639 --> 0:02:43.480 topic itself is. This time we are looking at what 0:02:43.600 --> 0:02:48.000 I'm just calling other ins, so other direct action demonstrations 0:02:48.040 --> 0:02:51.280 and similar protests that have some similarities to that sit 0:02:51.320 --> 0:02:54.760 in movement that we talked about earlier. A couple of 0:02:54.840 --> 0:02:58.560 today's topics might have worked as whole episodes, but I 0:02:58.639 --> 0:03:01.680 really like having them as part of this collection because 0:03:01.720 --> 0:03:06.400 together they illustrate a wide variety of ways that these 0:03:06.480 --> 0:03:09.280 kinds of demonstrations have worked in the United States. They 0:03:09.320 --> 0:03:14.000 point out some similarities and differences in these movements, so 0:03:14.080 --> 0:03:15.680 we're keeping them all together today. 0:03:15.960 --> 0:03:19.720 And our first event took place in Alexandria, Virginia. A 0:03:19.720 --> 0:03:22.480 lot of articles about it today call it the Alexandria 0:03:22.520 --> 0:03:26.120 Library sit in, but accounts and newspaper reports from the 0:03:26.200 --> 0:03:29.600 time described it as a sit down strike. On August 0:03:29.680 --> 0:03:32.480 twenty first, nineteen thirty nine, a group of young black 0:03:32.520 --> 0:03:35.680 men tried to get library cards at the whites only 0:03:35.800 --> 0:03:39.320 library on Queen Street in Alexandria, Virginia, which is the 0:03:39.400 --> 0:03:43.760 Kate Waller Barrett Branch Library today. Their names were William Evans, 0:03:43.960 --> 0:03:48.440 Otto L. Tucker, Edward Gattis, Morris Murray, and Clarence Strange, 0:03:48.760 --> 0:03:50.800 and they were all between the ages of nineteen and 0:03:50.840 --> 0:03:54.520 twenty two. So they each came into the library one 0:03:54.560 --> 0:03:57.560 at a time and asked Alice Green, who was the 0:03:57.600 --> 0:04:00.400 assistant librarian on duty, if they could register for a 0:04:00.440 --> 0:04:03.720 library card. She told each of them know that the 0:04:03.760 --> 0:04:07.200 library was for whites only, and then from there each 0:04:07.200 --> 0:04:09.520 of them would pick a book from the stacks and 0:04:09.560 --> 0:04:11.320 then sit down at a table to read it, or 0:04:11.360 --> 0:04:14.240 at least to try to read. Later on, some of 0:04:14.280 --> 0:04:16.480 them gave interviews where they talked about being way too 0:04:16.520 --> 0:04:19.240 nervous to actually concentrate on what was on the page, 0:04:19.880 --> 0:04:23.000 so once one person had gotten a book and sat down, 0:04:23.200 --> 0:04:25.360 the next person would come in and do the same thing. 0:04:25.960 --> 0:04:28.839 With five black men sitting at five different tables in 0:04:28.880 --> 0:04:32.320 the library and refusing to leave, Green wasn't sure what 0:04:32.400 --> 0:04:35.960 to do. She sent the library's page, William Adam, to 0:04:35.960 --> 0:04:39.080 the home of the head librarian, Catherine Scoggin to tell 0:04:39.120 --> 0:04:42.520 her what was going on. Skagin went to city hall 0:04:42.640 --> 0:04:45.120 to discuss what was happening with the city planner and 0:04:45.160 --> 0:04:46.120 the chief of police. 0:04:46.640 --> 0:04:48.960 Soon police were on the scene of the library, and 0:04:49.040 --> 0:04:51.920 a sixth participant in this, who was fourteen year old 0:04:51.920 --> 0:04:54.880 Bobby Strange, had been tasked with keeping watch over the 0:04:54.920 --> 0:04:58.760 library and then going to get Attorney Samuel Wilbert Tucker, 0:04:58.920 --> 0:05:02.679 known as sw four his law office, which was nearby 0:05:02.839 --> 0:05:04.640 when the police got there. S W. 0:05:04.920 --> 0:05:08.320 Tucker had graduated from Howard University in nineteen thirty three, 0:05:08.839 --> 0:05:11.680 studied law on his own, and passed the Virginia Bar 0:05:11.800 --> 0:05:14.320 exam at the age of only twenty, a year too 0:05:14.440 --> 0:05:17.760 young to actually be sworn in. He had arranged the 0:05:17.800 --> 0:05:20.760 sit downstrike at the library, and his brother Otto, was 0:05:20.800 --> 0:05:24.239 one of the people sitting in. Back in nineteen twenty seven, 0:05:24.520 --> 0:05:27.960 sw and Otto had been arrested after refusing to give 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:30.359 up their seat on a trolley to a white passenger, 0:05:30.720 --> 0:05:35.200 so they already had some experience in civil disobedience. Sw 0:05:35.320 --> 0:05:37.880 and a friend had also been denied library cards shortly 0:05:37.880 --> 0:05:40.840 after the library opened. He was hoping to use that 0:05:40.960 --> 0:05:43.520 as part of a court case to force the library 0:05:43.520 --> 0:05:46.239 to integrate. The sit in was part of that plan 0:05:46.279 --> 0:05:46.760 as well. 0:05:47.360 --> 0:05:51.000 SW Tucker had also gotten a photographer to document the scene, 0:05:51.320 --> 0:05:54.760 and that photographer captured a picture of the demonstrators being 0:05:54.880 --> 0:05:58.200 escorted out of the building by police. What you won't 0:05:58.240 --> 0:06:00.640 see if you look at this photo online is that 0:06:00.720 --> 0:06:03.799 by the time that happened, a crowd of about three 0:06:03.880 --> 0:06:08.040 hundred angry spectators, along with some other reporters had also 0:06:08.080 --> 0:06:13.040 gathered around the building. The demonstrators were charged with disorderly conduct, 0:06:13.160 --> 0:06:16.400 and Tucker arranged for their release from jail. In terms 0:06:16.440 --> 0:06:20.120 of Tucker's legal action, the library was taxpayer funded and 0:06:20.200 --> 0:06:23.520 black residents paid taxes but weren't allowed to use it, 0:06:24.120 --> 0:06:26.120 so his hope was that the courts would force the 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:29.960 library to allow equal access to black residents. But rather 0:06:30.000 --> 0:06:33.599 than integrate the library, the city of Alexandria rushed through 0:06:33.640 --> 0:06:37.680 approvals for a new library for black patrons, the Robert H. 0:06:37.880 --> 0:06:42.719 Robinson Library, which opened on February fourteenth, nineteen forty. When SW. 0:06:42.839 --> 0:06:45.839 Tucker got a letter inviting him to register for a 0:06:45.880 --> 0:06:49.360 library card at that branch, he answered with a refusal, 0:06:49.640 --> 0:06:52.960 insisting that he reissued the card he had already applied 0:06:52.960 --> 0:06:56.280 for at the library that had already existed. He went 0:06:56.320 --> 0:06:59.600 on to write, quote, continued delay beyond the close of 0:06:59.640 --> 0:07:02.400 this month in issuing me a card for use the 0:07:02.440 --> 0:07:05.240 library on Queen Street will be taken as refusal to 0:07:05.279 --> 0:07:09.279 do so, whereupon I feel justified in seeking aid of 0:07:09.400 --> 0:07:11.040 court to enforce my right. 0:07:11.640 --> 0:07:13.840 Tucker went on to become the lead lawyer for the 0:07:13.920 --> 0:07:18.120 NAACP in Virginia, During his legal career, he argued before 0:07:18.160 --> 0:07:21.760 the US Supreme Court several times, including in the attempts 0:07:21.760 --> 0:07:26.160 to overturn public school segregation in Virginia. Today, an elementary 0:07:26.200 --> 0:07:29.080 school in Alexandria is named in his honor, and the 0:07:29.080 --> 0:07:33.800 former Robinson Library is the Alexandria Black History Museum. In 0:07:33.840 --> 0:07:37.720 October twenty nineteen, a judge dismissed the disorderly conduct charges 0:07:38.040 --> 0:07:40.600 against the young men who sat in, which had never 0:07:40.640 --> 0:07:41.360 come to trial. 0:07:41.960 --> 0:07:44.440 So one of the really interesting things about this sit 0:07:44.520 --> 0:07:47.040 in is that it used the same strategy that the 0:07:47.120 --> 0:07:51.600 NAACP and other civil rights organizations were using really extensively 0:07:51.680 --> 0:07:54.040 later on. It's not like nobody had ever thought to 0:07:54.040 --> 0:07:56.480 do this, but he was sort of doing something that 0:07:56.480 --> 0:07:58.760 would become a really huge part of the movement later, 0:07:58.800 --> 0:08:01.600 and that was pairing d wrecked action with legal action. 0:08:02.240 --> 0:08:05.800 The Alexandria sit in predated the parts that we really 0:08:05.840 --> 0:08:07.800 think of as the most active parts of the civil 0:08:07.880 --> 0:08:11.600 rights movement, but this strategy was really similar to a 0:08:11.600 --> 0:08:12.960 lot of what was going on later on. 0:08:13.440 --> 0:08:16.040 Next up, we have a relatively early moment in the 0:08:16.080 --> 0:08:19.320 movement for LGBTQ rights in the US, back when it 0:08:19.360 --> 0:08:23.080 was more commonly known as the homophile movement. The Mattachine 0:08:23.120 --> 0:08:25.960 Society was one of the earliest gay rights organizations in 0:08:26.000 --> 0:08:30.120 the United States. One documented as being older is Chicago 0:08:30.240 --> 0:08:33.600 Society for Human Rights, which was founded in nineteen twenty four. 0:08:33.920 --> 0:08:35.880 We covered that on the Show in twenty fifteen. 0:08:36.840 --> 0:08:39.839 The Mattachine Society was first founded in Los Angeles in 0:08:39.920 --> 0:08:43.160 nineteen fifty one, and then other chapters formed in other 0:08:43.200 --> 0:08:46.679 cities around the US after that. And in nineteen sixty six, 0:08:46.760 --> 0:08:50.560 members of New York City's Matachine Society challenged regulations that 0:08:50.640 --> 0:08:54.559 prohibited gay men from being served alcohol in New York's bars. 0:08:55.280 --> 0:08:58.400 Those regulations came from the New York State Liquor Authority 0:08:58.760 --> 0:09:01.640 in the form of an acquirement that bar patrons had 0:09:01.640 --> 0:09:05.720 to display quote orderly conduct. In the liquor authorities view, 0:09:05.760 --> 0:09:10.839 homosexuality was inherently disorderly, although the policy didn't specifically mention 0:09:11.000 --> 0:09:15.160 sexual orientation. Police frequently rated bars that were believed to 0:09:15.160 --> 0:09:18.480 have a gay clientele, and bars posted signs saying that 0:09:18.520 --> 0:09:21.400 men had to be facing the bar while drinking. This 0:09:21.559 --> 0:09:25.920 was part of an overall climate of homophobia, stigmatization, and harassment, 0:09:25.960 --> 0:09:28.680 and it was not unique to New York. Other states 0:09:28.679 --> 0:09:32.719 had similar policies, some of which specifically referenced homosexuality. 0:09:33.320 --> 0:09:37.000 On April twenty first, nineteen sixty six, three Matachine Society 0:09:37.040 --> 0:09:39.679 members went to bars in New York City with the 0:09:39.679 --> 0:09:42.160 hope of being denied service so that then they could 0:09:42.160 --> 0:09:45.520 file suit and try to get that policy overturned. They 0:09:45.559 --> 0:09:47.920 included Dick Leisch, who was the head of the New 0:09:48.000 --> 0:09:50.840 York chapter of the Matachine Society, as well as Craig 0:09:51.000 --> 0:09:55.160 Rodwell and John Timmins. A fourth man, Randy Wicker, also 0:09:55.280 --> 0:09:58.920 joined them. As they went on, they had informed reporters 0:09:58.920 --> 0:10:01.120 of what they were doing ahead time, and they called 0:10:01.160 --> 0:10:01.920 it a sip in. 0:10:02.480 --> 0:10:05.160 This turned out to be a little easier said than done, though. 0:10:05.720 --> 0:10:07.600 The men's first choice had been a bar that had 0:10:07.600 --> 0:10:10.600 a sign posted in the window that said if you're gay, 0:10:10.720 --> 0:10:13.840 go away, But as soon as the staff there realized 0:10:13.840 --> 0:10:16.520 that there were reporters on the premises, they closed down 0:10:16.559 --> 0:10:19.280 for the day. At their next stop, the men told 0:10:19.280 --> 0:10:21.920 the bartender that they were homosexual, but that they would 0:10:21.960 --> 0:10:24.840 not be disorderly, and they asked to be served, and 0:10:24.880 --> 0:10:27.640 in that case, the bartender served them, which is what happened. 0:10:27.640 --> 0:10:29.000 At their next stop, as well. 0:10:29.440 --> 0:10:32.160 There are interviews I think it was with Dick Leish 0:10:32.200 --> 0:10:34.120 where he was talking about at this point, they were like, 0:10:34.200 --> 0:10:37.440 we've we've got to get turned down at the next bar, 0:10:37.600 --> 0:10:39.320 or we're going to have to table this for later 0:10:39.400 --> 0:10:43.360 because we're going to be like too inebriated to make 0:10:43.400 --> 0:10:46.920 the argument that were not disorderly. So they finally wound 0:10:46.960 --> 0:10:49.760 up at a bar called Julius's in Greenwich Village, which 0:10:49.800 --> 0:10:52.320 they thought would be hyper sensitive to their presence there 0:10:52.440 --> 0:10:55.520 because it had recently been raided by police the same 0:10:55.559 --> 0:10:57.640 as before. They sat down at the bar, they told 0:10:57.720 --> 0:10:59.480 the bartender that they were gay, but they were going 0:10:59.520 --> 0:11:02.120 to remain orderly, and they said that they wanted to 0:11:02.160 --> 0:11:02.800 be served. 0:11:03.440 --> 0:11:06.280 The bartender had already put glasses in front of them 0:11:06.320 --> 0:11:09.240 and covered them with his hands, saying I can't serve you. 0:11:09.320 --> 0:11:12.880 Then this led to a dramatic photo captured by Fred 0:11:12.960 --> 0:11:15.599 macdera of the Village Voice, with a three man in 0:11:15.679 --> 0:11:19.160 coats and ties facing the bartender and the bartender covering 0:11:19.200 --> 0:11:19.960 their glasses. 0:11:20.480 --> 0:11:23.040 With the help of the ACLU, the men filed legal 0:11:23.040 --> 0:11:26.400 action against the State Liquor Board and the bar. New 0:11:26.480 --> 0:11:29.080 York City's Commission on Human Rights got involved with it 0:11:29.120 --> 0:11:31.920 as well, so under the threat of a lawsuit, the 0:11:31.960 --> 0:11:34.920 liquor Board changed the policy. Then in nineteen sixty seven, 0:11:34.960 --> 0:11:37.160 which was just a few years later, a New York 0:11:37.240 --> 0:11:40.199 Court of Appeals issued a ruling in the case Kerma 0:11:40.240 --> 0:11:44.360 Restaurant Corporation versus State Liquor Authority, and that court ruling 0:11:44.400 --> 0:11:49.400 specifically said that homosexuality was not inherently disorderly. That ruling 0:11:49.520 --> 0:11:52.720 did not end discrimination at New York's bars, though the 0:11:52.760 --> 0:11:56.000 Stonewall riots started after a police raid on June twenty eighth, 0:11:56.080 --> 0:11:59.240 nineteen sixty nine, that was another two more years after 0:11:59.280 --> 0:12:01.920 that Appeal's go or ruling had happened. We are going 0:12:02.000 --> 0:12:04.160 to take a quick sponsor break before we go on 0:12:04.400 --> 0:12:17.400 to some more actions. The Matachine Society sipin we talked 0:12:17.400 --> 0:12:20.400 about a moment ago was inspired by the nineteen sixties 0:12:20.440 --> 0:12:23.160 civil rights sit ins that we just covered on a podcast, 0:12:23.240 --> 0:12:25.880 and that was also true of our next active protest, 0:12:25.920 --> 0:12:28.160 which is the fish ins that took place in the 0:12:28.200 --> 0:12:31.959 Pacific Northwest in the nineteen fifties and sixties and beyond. 0:12:32.679 --> 0:12:35.720 But the context for that protest stretches all the way 0:12:35.720 --> 0:12:37.040 back to the nineteenth century. 0:12:37.520 --> 0:12:40.920 Isaac Ingele Stevens became governor of what was then Washington 0:12:41.080 --> 0:12:44.960 Territory in eighteen fifty three. One of his objectives as 0:12:45.000 --> 0:12:47.840 governor was to secure as much land as possible from 0:12:47.840 --> 0:12:50.200 the indigenous tribes and nations who were living in the 0:12:50.200 --> 0:12:53.720 Pacific Northwest. As we discussed in our recent two parter 0:12:53.800 --> 0:12:57.119 on the occupation of Alcatraz. He did this through treaties, 0:12:57.400 --> 0:13:00.800 and these treaties detailed the terms under which Native nations 0:13:00.800 --> 0:13:04.959 ceded land to the United States. These treaties ultimately assigned 0:13:05.000 --> 0:13:07.440 more than ninety percent of the total land to the 0:13:07.520 --> 0:13:11.079 United States, with the rest being established as reservation land. 0:13:11.640 --> 0:13:15.880 At least thirteen tribes and nations were signatories to these treaties, 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:20.640 including then a Squally, the Pewallup, and the Muckleshoot, although 0:13:20.679 --> 0:13:24.200 the exact number is a little complicated because Stevens treated 0:13:24.360 --> 0:13:29.040 individual villages as separate tribes when he was negotiating these treaties, 0:13:29.120 --> 0:13:31.600 under the idea that a smaller group would have less 0:13:31.640 --> 0:13:32.760 negotiating power. 0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:35.959 These treaties covered a lot of points in the relationship 0:13:36.040 --> 0:13:39.400 between the Indigenous nations and the United States, but one 0:13:39.440 --> 0:13:43.360 important point was fishing rights. While there were multiple treaties 0:13:43.400 --> 0:13:46.280 at work. They all had similar language. Here the quote 0:13:46.559 --> 0:13:49.920 right of taking fish at all usual and accustomed grounds 0:13:49.920 --> 0:13:53.880 and stations is further secured to said Indians in common 0:13:54.000 --> 0:13:55.520 with all citizens. 0:13:55.000 --> 0:13:58.800 Of the territory, So the Native nations, I mean, this 0:13:58.840 --> 0:14:01.360 has been the case with all all of the Native 0:14:01.400 --> 0:14:04.080 American history that we've talked about on the showy. A 0:14:04.080 --> 0:14:07.040 lot of these treaties were heavily skewed in favor of 0:14:07.120 --> 0:14:11.920 the United States versus the indigenous tribe or nation. In 0:14:11.960 --> 0:14:14.720 this case, though, all of the nations involved refused to 0:14:14.800 --> 0:14:18.040 sign the treaties without that point about fishing rights, because 0:14:18.080 --> 0:14:20.600 not only was fishing a major source of food, but 0:14:20.680 --> 0:14:23.240 the fish and the act of fishing also held religious 0:14:23.240 --> 0:14:26.520 and spiritual significance. And from Stevens point of view, he 0:14:26.640 --> 0:14:30.280 was totally willing to make that concession for very pragmatic reasons, 0:14:30.320 --> 0:14:34.000 because if the indigenous people did not retain their fishing rights, 0:14:34.440 --> 0:14:37.000 then the government was going to be obligated to provide 0:14:37.000 --> 0:14:39.760 them with some other kind of food source. At first, 0:14:39.760 --> 0:14:42.640 the indigenous nations were able to exercise their rights to 0:14:42.680 --> 0:14:46.240 fish in the waterways around the Pacific Northwest using their 0:14:46.280 --> 0:14:50.200 traditional methods which included using gillnets, which are like underwater 0:14:50.280 --> 0:14:53.400 walls made of netting. There just weren't that many non 0:14:53.440 --> 0:14:56.640 Indigenous people in the Pacific Northwest yet, and at first 0:14:56.720 --> 0:14:59.680 those who were there were more interested in other industries. 0:15:00.960 --> 0:15:04.280 But as the non indigenous population started to grow, Indigenous 0:15:04.320 --> 0:15:07.880 people started having more trouble exercising those rights. And that 0:15:08.000 --> 0:15:11.880 also was true as federal policy toward Indigenous people went 0:15:11.880 --> 0:15:14.640 through all of those shifts that we talked about in 0:15:14.680 --> 0:15:19.080 the Occupation of Alcatraz episodes. The state of Washington started 0:15:19.080 --> 0:15:22.640 to interpret that treaty language as meaning that the Indigenous 0:15:22.680 --> 0:15:27.200 people had fishing rights only on their reservations, and that 0:15:27.360 --> 0:15:30.680 was in defiance of some federal court rulings, which weren't 0:15:30.720 --> 0:15:35.120 always totally clear and decisive, but they generally upheld the 0:15:35.200 --> 0:15:38.640 Native people's rights to fish in other waterways as well. 0:15:39.080 --> 0:15:42.720 These restrictions made it increasingly difficult for Indigenous people in 0:15:42.760 --> 0:15:46.360 the Pacific Northwest to fish. The best runs for salmon 0:15:46.440 --> 0:15:50.640 and steelhead trout were outside of the reservation's boundaries. On 0:15:50.680 --> 0:15:53.560 top of that, during the period of allotment, the reservations 0:15:53.560 --> 0:15:57.840 themselves got smaller. Then, when the federal government implemented its 0:15:57.920 --> 0:16:00.920 termination policies, which were posted to get rid of the 0:16:00.960 --> 0:16:04.120 reservations and make Native people quote subject to the same 0:16:04.200 --> 0:16:07.680 laws and entitled to the same privileges and responsibilities as 0:16:07.680 --> 0:16:11.440 are applicable to other citizens of the United States. The 0:16:11.480 --> 0:16:14.800 state of Washington and to a lesser extent, Oregon became 0:16:14.840 --> 0:16:19.800 increasingly focused on enforcing fishing and conservation laws, specifically when 0:16:19.880 --> 0:16:23.720 violated by Native people, even though those treaties were still 0:16:23.720 --> 0:16:24.240 in place. 0:16:24.720 --> 0:16:27.560 Yeah, it's like the state laws were contrary to the 0:16:27.560 --> 0:16:31.040 treaty language, but the treaties had not been abolished in 0:16:31.080 --> 0:16:35.040 any way. They were still in effect. Running alongside all 0:16:35.080 --> 0:16:39.800 of this was a perception among predominantly white sport fishers 0:16:39.960 --> 0:16:43.560 that the indigenous people were what was to blame for 0:16:43.720 --> 0:16:47.440 declining populations of salmon and steelhead trout, and this was 0:16:47.480 --> 0:16:51.120 in defiance of actual data. Between nineteen fifty eight and 0:16:51.160 --> 0:16:54.400 nineteen sixty seven, Indigenous people caught six and a half 0:16:54.440 --> 0:16:57.880 percent of the catch in the Pacific Northwest, White sport 0:16:57.960 --> 0:17:02.240 fishers caught twelve point two percent, and then commercial fishing 0:17:02.280 --> 0:17:05.439 operations took all the rest. More than eighty percent of 0:17:05.480 --> 0:17:09.800 the catch was through commercial fishing operations, not through indigenous 0:17:09.800 --> 0:17:12.880 people or sport fishers doing their own thing. I can 0:17:12.880 --> 0:17:16.359 tell you firsthand that that belief persisted into the seventies 0:17:16.400 --> 0:17:18.679 when I lived there as a kid. That does not 0:17:18.760 --> 0:17:19.720 surprise me at all. 0:17:19.760 --> 0:17:23.600 I remember hearing neighbors, adult neighbors discuss how they wanted 0:17:23.600 --> 0:17:27.560 to go fishing, but then said very disparaging things about 0:17:27.600 --> 0:17:30.840 the native population and how they had ruined it for everyone. Yeah, 0:17:30.880 --> 0:17:34.320 we talked in our behind the scenes after the Greensboro 0:17:34.400 --> 0:17:37.919 Lunch Counter sit Ins episode about how like we'll be 0:17:38.040 --> 0:17:41.440 doing research on something and the whole topic is angering, 0:17:41.480 --> 0:17:43.399 but then there will be one element that just is 0:17:43.720 --> 0:17:48.880 particularly viscerally angering, and the things that were said about 0:17:48.920 --> 0:17:51.760 like the indigenous people are trying to get something for nothing, 0:17:51.800 --> 0:17:54.600 Like I got so angry over and over in this 0:17:54.720 --> 0:17:57.560 part of it. And eventually the only safe place for 0:17:57.600 --> 0:18:00.520 an Indigenous person to fish in the Pacific Northwest was 0:18:00.520 --> 0:18:06.160 on a reservation. Outside a reservation, Indigenous fishers were being harassed, arrested, 0:18:06.200 --> 0:18:10.240 and jailed and having their equipment confiscated by police, including 0:18:10.280 --> 0:18:14.600 their boats. Plus outside of the reservations, nets and traps, 0:18:14.800 --> 0:18:18.639 which were part of traditional indigenous fishing practices were outlawed. 0:18:19.040 --> 0:18:21.280 So this was still a few years away from the 0:18:21.320 --> 0:18:25.120 occupation of Alcatraz and the rise of an intertribal movement 0:18:25.200 --> 0:18:28.040 for Indigenous rights that we just discussed back in November. 0:18:28.640 --> 0:18:31.600 In the Pacific Northwest and the nineteen fifties and early sixties, 0:18:31.720 --> 0:18:36.000 most tribal leaders were taking a more conciliatory approach to things. 0:18:36.520 --> 0:18:41.040 The National Congress of American Indians was explicitly not in 0:18:41.080 --> 0:18:44.160 favor of the direct action methods that the civil rights 0:18:44.200 --> 0:18:47.600 movement was using, finding them really to be too aggressive 0:18:47.800 --> 0:18:51.040 and contradictory to Indigenous culture. So like there was a 0:18:51.280 --> 0:18:53.720 banner hanging from their headquarters at one point that said 0:18:53.720 --> 0:18:57.679 something along the lines of like, Indigenous people don't demonstrate, like. 0:18:57.720 --> 0:18:59.679 They were not in favor of sit ins or marches 0:18:59.800 --> 0:19:01.399 or earth or any of those kinds of things at 0:19:01.480 --> 0:19:04.639 this point as a trend among leadership. 0:19:04.680 --> 0:19:07.480 But not everyone agreed, and in nineteen sixty four, the 0:19:07.520 --> 0:19:12.399 Survival of the American Indian Association SAIA was established, with 0:19:12.480 --> 0:19:16.480 a focus on direct action and civil disobedience. One of 0:19:16.480 --> 0:19:19.760 the organization's demonstrations was a series of fish ins around 0:19:19.800 --> 0:19:22.679 the Pacific Northwest. They were not the first people to 0:19:22.720 --> 0:19:26.560 do this. For example, Robert Satayakum was arrested while fishing 0:19:26.560 --> 0:19:29.400 in nineteen fifty four, and he hoped that his arrest 0:19:29.440 --> 0:19:31.520 would lead to a court ruling that would clarify the 0:19:31.560 --> 0:19:36.160 Indigenous Nations treaty rights. Unfortunately, his criminal record went well 0:19:36.200 --> 0:19:39.240 beyond this act of civil disobedience. That whole story is 0:19:39.280 --> 0:19:41.000 outside the scope of this episode. 0:19:41.200 --> 0:19:45.680 So these fishians arranged by the SAIA started on February 0:19:45.760 --> 0:19:48.960 twenty seventh of nineteen sixty four, and they continued well 0:19:49.040 --> 0:19:53.160 into the nineteen seventies, sometimes as individual fishing events and 0:19:53.200 --> 0:19:58.160 sometimes as prolonged demonstrations that established encampments with fishing going 0:19:58.160 --> 0:20:01.720 on throughout that whole time. The demonstrators had legal and 0:20:01.800 --> 0:20:05.119 strategic advice from Jack Tanner, who was the director of 0:20:05.160 --> 0:20:09.520 the Tacoma, Washington chapter of the NAACP. They also had 0:20:09.520 --> 0:20:13.720 the attention of celebrity supporters, including Marlon Brando, who was 0:20:13.840 --> 0:20:16.080 arrested at a fish in on March second of nineteen 0:20:16.160 --> 0:20:19.040 sixty four, but wasn't ultimately charged with a crime. 0:20:19.480 --> 0:20:23.359 These fish ins attracted a lot of criticism, at least 0:20:23.359 --> 0:20:27.080 at first. Many indigenous leaders disagreed with the strategy entirely 0:20:27.480 --> 0:20:31.399 preferring to focus on compromise. Jack Tanner's colleagues in the 0:20:31.440 --> 0:20:35.040 civil rights movement criticized his involvement, saying it was taking 0:20:35.040 --> 0:20:40.000 his focus away from Black Americans. The Washington State Sportsman's Club, 0:20:40.000 --> 0:20:42.639 which was a lobbying organization that had a lot of 0:20:42.640 --> 0:20:46.480 influence over the state Game Department, described Native people as 0:20:46.480 --> 0:20:50.080 trying to flaunt the rules and get special privileges. On 0:20:50.160 --> 0:20:53.880 December sixth, nineteen sixty four, they issued a statement encouraging 0:20:53.880 --> 0:20:56.479 the state to get rid of all fishing regulations quote 0:20:56.720 --> 0:20:59.760 to allow such waters to become barren until such time 0:20:59.800 --> 0:21:02.439 as the Congress of the United States or the courts 0:21:02.480 --> 0:21:05.639 of our Land sets up enforceable regulations that will allow 0:21:05.680 --> 0:21:09.200 the state to carry on a reasonable fisheries management program. 0:21:09.840 --> 0:21:13.320 This was kind of a burn it all down mentality. Overall, 0:21:13.640 --> 0:21:18.080 the white media portrayed the Indigenous protesters as backward and lawless. 0:21:18.720 --> 0:21:21.600 So nonviolence was a core part of the strategy for 0:21:21.680 --> 0:21:24.560 the civil rights movement in the United States for a 0:21:24.600 --> 0:21:27.399 lot of the time, but that wasn't really entirely the 0:21:27.440 --> 0:21:31.280 case in the fish in movement. The demonstrators were repeatedly 0:21:31.400 --> 0:21:35.359 targeted by Game wardens and by police, including being beaten 0:21:35.440 --> 0:21:39.200 with clubs and sprayed with tear gas. On December seventh, 0:21:39.320 --> 0:21:43.520 police making an arrest rammed demonstrators canoe with their boat, 0:21:43.600 --> 0:21:46.520 which jumped to the demonstrators into the water. It is 0:21:46.600 --> 0:21:50.000 not entirely clear whether that was an accident or intentional. 0:21:50.680 --> 0:21:54.639 At some encampments, native people carried firearms to defend themselves, 0:21:54.680 --> 0:21:57.040 and at others they fought back with things like stones 0:21:57.080 --> 0:22:01.080 and paddles. After a brawl on October thirteenth of nineteen 0:22:01.119 --> 0:22:04.920 sixty four, the ACLU agreed to defend some of the demonstrators. 0:22:05.280 --> 0:22:07.800 At first, the ACLU really focused on people who had 0:22:07.800 --> 0:22:10.800 been charged with interfering with police, and then they later 0:22:10.880 --> 0:22:14.720 expanded it to include defending people who were arrested for fishing. 0:22:14.760 --> 0:22:17.280 As was the case with the occupation of Alcatraz. This 0:22:17.320 --> 0:22:20.680 turned into an inter tribal movement, with supporters from other 0:22:20.760 --> 0:22:24.120 Native nations traveling to the Pacific Northwest from other parts 0:22:24.160 --> 0:22:28.040 of North America to support the demonstrators. The movement also 0:22:28.200 --> 0:22:32.320 gradually gained more support among non indigenous people, including members 0:22:32.359 --> 0:22:35.879 of the American Friends Services Committee and the Black Panther Party. 0:22:36.520 --> 0:22:39.560 In September of nineteen sixty eight, a massive protest was 0:22:39.600 --> 0:22:44.120 planned that pulled together all these populations. It was supposed 0:22:44.160 --> 0:22:46.280 to involve five days of fishing, but it went on 0:22:46.480 --> 0:22:47.480