Navy names ship after American Indian tribal chief

The Navy will title a future Navajo-class towing, salvage and rescue ship after an American Indian activist from Washington state who spent a long time combating for tribal fishing rights.

The USNS Billy Frank Jr. (T-ATS-11) will bear the title of a pacesetter of the Nisqually Tribe who served as a navy policeman within the Marine Corps through the Korean War. He led a grassroots marketing campaign within the Sixties and Seventies after state officers blamed a decline within the salmon inhabitants on American Indians reasonably than elevated sport and industrial fishing.

“Escalating arrests and raids led to protests at the state capitol and ‘fish-ins’ arranged by Frank and others,” the Navy stated final week. “Over the course of these demonstrations, Frank was arrested over 50 times and became the face of the movement.”

In 1974, a federal choose in Tacoma, Washington, dominated that the Nisqually Tribe had the fitting to fish of their “usual and accustomed places.” Frank later spent greater than 30 years as chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

He died in 2014 on the age of 83.

“I am honored for the opportunity to name a naval ship after Billy Frank Jr., a man who was a proponent and leader for Native American rights,” stated Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro. “Billy Frank Jr. spent his life serving others and his namesake ship will do the same as it travels around the world enabling humanitarian assistance and the maintenance of freedom.”