Fish Wars: Tribal Rights and Resiliency in the Pacific Northwest with Kestrel Smith

Free and open to all.

In the 1960s and 70s, tribes throughout the Pacific Northwest launched protests and acts of civil disobedience to pressure the government to recognize their fishing rights. Now known as the “Fish Wars,” the lessons from these events remain relevant today.  

In this talk, professor Kestrel A. Smith surveys the evidence and events before and after the Fish Wars, which rocked Washington State for decades. Encompassing tribal sovereignty, treaties, statehood, and the fish themselves, the Fish Wars are a powerful reminder of our interconnectedness. Understanding these events is a first, and essential, step in achieving social, cultural, and political justice.  

Kestrel A. Smith (she/her) is the Department Chair of the American Indian Indigenous Studies (AIIS) program at Wenatchee Valley College-Omak. Much of her work has focused on how to place Indigenous epistemologies and education within broader historical and cultural contexts to better understand the contemporary Indigenous experience. In the…