[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 6747]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               THE BILLY FRANK, JR., TELL YOUR STORY ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Washington (Mr. Heck) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HECK of Washington. Mr. Speaker, we hear a lot about rap sheets 
these days. We hear of a lot of young people defined simply by their 
brushes with the law. But for this man, Billy Frank, Jr., his story was 
so much more than the crimes for which he was arrested--not convicted I 
might add. His rap sheet, Martin Luther King's rap sheet, Rosa Park's 
rap sheet, and Congressman John Lewis' rap sheet are just a piece of a 
larger narrative about the struggle for social justice.
  Billy Frank, Jr., was the Pacific Northwest's foremost advocate for 
restoration of Native American fishing treaty rights, a dream he lived 
and saw realized. He cherished clean water and salmon, and he was a key 
voice in the recovery of the Puget Sound, the largest estuary in the 
United States of America. Billy was also a proud patriot. He served in 
the United States Marine Corps where, ironically, he was a member of 
the military police.
  Billy passed away a year ago May 5. But he really isn't gone. His 
story is here in the Halls of Congress, in which he was so often seen 
and which he roamed on behalf of his beloved causes, including 
protecting the Puget Sound, our fisheries, and the cause of clean 
water.
  His story is in the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge, which we now 
protect to give our wildlife a clean and sustainable place to live and 
which was made possible by a great former Member of the House of 
Representatives, Norm Dicks. Billy was born, raised, and grew up at 
Frank's Landing, which was literally just a hop, skip, and a jump from 
the wildlife refuge and is where his family lived for perhaps thousands 
of years. He fished in the Nisqually River, which snakes through the 
Nisqually Wildlife Refuge, and that is the location of where he was 
arrested more than a dozen times--well, okay, it was actually 59 times.
  The bill I introduced this week, H.R. 2270, will rename that refuge 
after Billy Frank, Jr., and it will also make the place of the signing 
of the Treaty of Medicine Creek a National Historic Site. It will make 
sure that the story of that site is told, especially by the descendants 
of those who lived that history. Those tribes will be involved in the 
development and the understanding behind that site and what it means to 
them now and before.
  Mr. Speaker, Billy was often asked, How do you do this? How do you 
effectively advocate on behalf of clean water and salmon--as he did--
over so many decades? Billy always had the same answer. He would say, 
``Tell your story. Tell your story.''
  So when people go to the Billy Frank, Jr., Nisqually National 
Wildlife Refuge, they will be able to see why--why--he held fish-ins. 
They will see why he risked arrest so many times. They will see why he 
ultimately worked with others to help protect his home and the home of 
the fish. They will see why he did all these things.
  Like many young people today, he fought for what he believed in, and 
later in his life he worked with lawmakers to build consensus. In fact, 
he was a master consensus builder. How do I know this? Well, he was 
nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. He actually won the extremely 
prestigious Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism award, and he 
has had not one but two books written about him.
  So my hope is that when people drive by the sign that directs them to 
the refuge, maybe they will feel a little bit of that Billy Frank, Jr., 
magic. Maybe they will wonder who he was, what he did, and find out 
about his story. For those of us who knew him, it will be a great 
reminder of a hero. In fact, I would count Billy Frank, Jr., a man I 
knew many decades and loved, more than a hero. He was truly a great 
man. He was the Pacific Northwest equivalent of Nelson Mandela or 
Martin Luther King, Jr. or Desmond Tutu.
  That is how great a man he was. Here is what Billy said: ``I don't 
believe in magic. I believe in the Sun and the stars, the water, the 
tides, the floods, the owls, the hawks flying, the river running, the 
wind talking. They are measurements. They tell us how healthy things 
are because we and they are the same. That is what I believe in. Those 
who learn to listen to the world that sustains them can hear the 
message brought forth by the salmon.''
  Billy Frank, Jr., and his stories have to be told, and that is why I 
invite my colleagues today to join in cosponsorship of H.R. 2270. Join 
me and all the members of the Washington State House delegation, and 
Mr. Cole and Ms. McCollum, the co-chairs of the Native American Caucus, 
in cosponsoring the Billy Frank, Jr., Tell Your Story Act.

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