The Navy will name a future Navajo-class towing, salvage and rescue ship after an American Indian activist from Washington state who spent decades fighting for tribal fishing rights.
The USNS Billy Frank Jr. (T-ATS-11) will bear the name of a leader of the Nisqually Tribe who served as a military policeman in the Marine Corps during the Korean War. He led a grassroots campaign in the 1960s and 1970s after state officials blamed a decline in the salmon population on American Indians rather than increased sport and commercial fishing.
“Escalating arrests and raids led to protests at the state capitol and ‘fish-ins’ arranged by Frank and others,” the Navy said last week. “Over the course of these demonstrations, Frank was arrested over 50 times and became the face of the movement.”
In 1974, a federal judge in Tacoma, Washington, ruled that the Nisqually Tribe had the right to fish in their “usual and accustomed places.” Frank later spent more than 30 years as chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.
He died in 2014 at 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,” said 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.”
Navajo-class ships are named after prominent American Indians or tribes. They provide the Navy with ocean-going tug, salvage and rescue capabilities. They are capable of towing Navy ships and have 6,000 square feet of deck space for support equipment.
