PORT TOWNSEND — In observance of Billy Frank Jr. Day, Rebecca Miles, his great-niece and executive director of the Nez Perce Tribe, will speak at 7 tonight.
The free talk will be at Quimper Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 2333 San Juan Ave.
To open the event, Marlin Holden, Jamestown S’Klallam Tribal member and descendant of Chief Chetzemoka, will welcome Miles to Port Townsend and give a blessing.
After Miles’ keynote speech, local groups will briefly discuss their work to save wild salmon and orcas. Descendants of Port Townsend resident Mary McQuillen and Makah tribal members will perform the closing ceremony.
Billy Frank Jr. Day was established by Washington state in November 2015 when President Barack Obama awarded Frank a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom.
The following month, the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge was renamed in Frank’s honor.
Frank is remembered for his courage and persistence in standing up for off-reservation native fishing rights that resulted in the 1974 Boldt Decision, U.S. V. Washington, giving treaty-holding tribes the right to 50 percent of the available fish harvest.
After this decision, his focus became salmon habitat restoration and protection of the land and water to bring back the fish harvests.
Miles will share memories about Frank and her work as the leader of the Nez Perce Tribe.
She also will highlight the tribes’ efforts to breach four dams on the Snake River to restore wild salmon runs on the Snake and Columbia Rivers.
The event is sponsored by QUUF Native Connections Action Group.
