P
Register,” an annual listing of tribes recognized as
eligible for federal funds and services by the secre-
tary of the interior.
The Supreme Court affirms Indians’ right to
use modern fishing methods.
Pressured by non-Indian sports fishermen, the leg-
islatures of Washington, Oregon, and California
outlaw large gillnets, which commercial Indian
fishermen use to catch large numbers of steelhead
trout. The Indian fishermen sue in state court,
claiming that these laws violate their tribes’ fishing
rights as confirmed by treaty (see entry for MAY 24
TO JUNE 11, 1855).
In Washington v. Washington State Commercial
Passenger Fishing Vessel Association, the Washington
state court rules against them on the rationale that
gillnets, a 20th-century fishing technology, did not
exist when the treaties were made. The Supreme
Court, however, reverses this decision. It maintains
that the Indians’ fishing methods do not affect their
right to fish in their traditional areas.
The Makah open a cultural
center.
Developed with tribal funds, the Makah Cul-
tural and Research Center opens in the village
of Neah Bay in Washington State. The facility
houses an exhibit gallery and a laboratory, which
preserves more than 80,000 artifacts, including
55,000 collected at the Ozette site (see entry for
1970). The center also manages a highly successful
program through which Makah elders instruct pre-
schoolers and kindergartners in the tribe’s language.
February 12
The family of American Indian Movement
activist John Trudell dies in a fire.
At a demonstration outside the FBI headquarters in
Washington, D.C., John Trudell, the national chair-
man of the American Indian Movement, denounces
the federal agency and burns an American flag. Twelve
hours later, the house of Trudell’s father-in-law on
the Duck Valley Reservation in Nevada is engulfed in
flames. Killed in the fire are Trudell’s wife, three chil-
dren, and mother-in-law. The FBI investigates and
determines the fire was an accident; Trudell accuses
his political adversaries of setting the blaze.“We are statistics that ev-
eryone has heard about, the
unemployed, uneducated, al-
coholics, welfare recipients....
[The American Indian Move-
ment’s] functions have been
to educate our own people
and to try and educate the
white Americans as to the fact
that we exist today.... We are
concerned about what is hap-
pening to our people now,
because, you know, we don’t
like to be a statistic.”
—John Trudell in a 1975 state-
ment on the AIM’s purposeMay 29Mohawk traditionalists take over the
Akwesasne police station.
On the Akwesasne reservation, tribal police arrest
Loran Thompson, a traditional Mohawk leader, on
a minor charge. Outraged by the policemen’s ac-
tions, other traditionalists demand they resign but
the policemen refuse. The traditionalists then take
over the tribal police station in protest, prompting
the tribal government to request New York State
to send troops in to help resolve the conflict. The
standoff reflects a long feud between two factions
on Akwesasne—one that recognizes only the au-
thority of traditional leaders and one that accepts
the leadership of the tribal council supported by the
United States. The incident will be diffused when