Janet McCloud

Despite tribal treaties, such as the Treaty of Medicine Creek of 1854, with the federal government that guaranteed fishing and hunting rights to Indians in their traditional tribal lands and waters, state agents periodically squared off with Native Americans.

Janet McCloud (also known as Yet-Si-Blue; March 30, 1934 – November 25, 2003) was a prominent Native American and indigenous rights activist.

Janet Renecker (Yet-Si-Blue) was born on the Tulalip Reservation on March 30, 1934.

She was the oldest of three girls and a descendant of Chief Seattle's family, and she lived a childhood marked by poverty and alcohol abuse.

Throughout her early years, she and her family moved often, from Tulalip to Taholah on the Quinault Reservation and, later, to Seattle's International District.

Her stepfather drank and had trouble finding work.

She often took refuge in churches and foster homes, spending much of her formative years in the city—mainly out of touch with tribal customs and traditions.

"She thought taverns and drinking was the only way in life," Barbara McCloud, her daughter, said.

She married and divorced young before meeting a Nisqually tribal fisherman and electrical lineman named Don McCloud in the early 1950s.

The couple soon married, and together would have eight children: six girls and two boys.

But as salmon and steelhead numbers began dwindling in the 1960s, the state began exerting more authority over tribal fisheries, attempting to conserve the catch for the commercial- and sport-fishing industries.

Injunctions were issued allowing the state to regulate tribal fisheries, and the Washington State Supreme Court upheld them.

Indians began mobilizing.

The McClouds founded the activist group Survival of American Indians Association.

And, in defiance of court orders, members began staging demonstrations dubbed "fish-ins", the beginning of what would come to be known as the Fish Wars.

Joining her husband; his stepbrother, Nisqually tribal member Billy Frank, Jr.; Puyallup Indians Bob Satiacum and Ramona Bennett, and others, Janet McCloud helped organize the protests at the Nisqually River and Puyallup River, into which tribe members cast traditional nets deemed illegal by the state.

Invariably, the "fish-ins" would lead to raids and arrests at the hands of game agents.

But the events drew worldwide attention.

Indian elders and activists converged on Washington State.

Actor Marlon Brando and rights activist Dick Gregory went to Western Washington, joined fish-ins and lent their celebrity to the cause.

And the Black Panthers stood side-by-side with Indians in protests at the state Capitol in Olympia.

All the while, Janet McCloud documented the struggle as editor of Survival News, a newsletter that presented the natives' side of the fish wars.

She found an old mimeograph machine at a local thrift store, brought it home and recruited her children to help.

"All us kids would be all right here, sorting and stapling all the papers together, late into the night," daughter Sally McCloud recalled.

Janet's children also stood on the battle lines.

On January 6, 1962, dozens of Washington State game wardens stormed a group of Indians fishing the Nisqually River, arresting five men, including some of McCloud's relatives, for illegal fishing.

"When the raid ended after more than eight hours of sorties in wet brush and on the muddy, swollen stream, five Indians had been arrested and charged with `operating set nets capable of taking game fish.'"

During one famous fish-in at Frank's Landing on the Nisqually on Oct. 13, 1965, a boat carrying several native fishermen, including Janet's husband and two sons, set a tribal net in the river as game wardens lay in waiting.

"From the other side of the river shouts were heard: 'Get em! Get the dirty S.O.B.s!'" McCloud wrote later.

"In the twinkling of an eye, three big powerboats emerged from the underbrush, were quickly launched and used to ram the Indians' boat."

Her son, Jeff McCloud, not yet 10 and a non-swimmer, was dumped in.

A scuffle broke out on the shore, where native women and children had gathered peacefully to watch the demonstration.

They pelted wardens with debris, while game agents wrestled and beat some of the protesters.

"If Mom knew that was going to happen, she would've never brought us there," daughter Nancy Shippentower Games said.

Six people were arrested, including Don and Janet McCloud.

She served six days and refused to eat while incarcerated.

Eventually, the Indians' efforts paid off.

Her activism helped lead to the 1974 Boldt Decision, for which she was dubbed "the Rosa Parks of the American Indian Movement."

She co-founded Women of All Red Nations (WARN) in 1974.

The first convening of the Indigenous Women's Network was in her backyard in Yelm, Washington, in August 1985.