Billy Frank Jr. statue one step closer to U.S. Capitol after House approves bill
A statue honoring the late Billy Frank Jr., Nisqually tribal member who championed treaty rights and protecting the environment, is one step closer to being on display at the U.S. Capitol.
The state House of Representatives approved a bill Monday that would start a process to replace Washington’s Marcus Whitman statue in the National Statuary Hall Collection with a statue of Frank. After a bipartisan 92-5 vote, the proposal will now head to the Senate.
“Billy Frank Jr. has walked every watershed to the east and the west of the mountains,” Rep. Debra Lekanoff (D-Bow) said on the House floor Monday. “He has stood in every river and collaborated with local, tribal, state, federal communities to say ‘How do we rise together to protect the values of Washington state? How do we stand together?’”
Lekanoff (Tlingit/Aleut) is House Bill 1372’s prime sponsor.
The National Statuary Hall Collection features 100 statues, with each state contributing statues of two notable deceased residents. Washington’s honorees are Marcus Whitman and Mother Joseph.
Whitman was a physician and missionary who helped lead wagon trains west. He and his wife started a mission near present-day Walla Walla and aimed to convert native Americans to Christianity. After an outbreak of measles that devastated the Cayuse, relations unraveled and the Whitmans were killed by members of the tribe.
Since 2000, states have been able to ask the Joint Committee on the Library of Congress to approve a statue’s replacement, after both the state’s legislature and governor have approved the plan.
Statues that are replaced must have been displayed for at least 10 years, unless there’s a waiver. The Whitman statue more than qualifies: It has been there about 70 years.
The bill requests the statue of Whitman be replaced with a statue of Frank, creates the committee that would carry out that process, and directs the governor to send a written request to the Architect of the Capitol.
Funding for the statue could come from gifts, grants, and endowments.
The original bill directed the governor to choose a county where the Whitman statue would then be displayed. An adopted amendment from Rep. Skyler Rude (R-Walla Walla) would bring the Whitman statue back to Walla Walla County.
Lekanoff supported bringing Whitman back to the land he called home and standing him up in his community, saying he represents a rich piece of the state’s past while a new statue of Frank is an opportunity that reflects “the new history.”
“We have the opportunity to bring Marcus Whitman home and we can look at him more,” said Rep. Mark Klicker, Rude’s seatmate. “I had the chance at Statuary Hall to see him a number of times. Once we can put him in a place and view him and let everybody within our community and our area — that’s a great thing. And I’m excited to see Billy Frank Jr. be able to represent our state.”
Rude had voted against the bill in committee, but ultimately voted for its final passage. Voting no were Republican Reps. Jeremie Dufault of Selah, Brad Klippert of Kennewick, Bob McCaslin of Spokane Valley, Robert Sutherland of Granite Falls, and Brandon Vick of Vancouver.
In explaining his vote, Klippert said he doesn’t have an issue with the Billy Frank Jr. statue, but doesn’t want the Whitman statue removed.
Frank was renowned as a fierce advocate for endangered salmon and treaty rights. He organized “fish-ins” that ultimately led to the Boldt Decision, a 1974 case named for the trial court judge George Hugo Boldt, which affirmed the rights of treaty tribes to half of harvestable salmon and named them co-managers of state fisheries.
According to the bill, he was arrested more than 50 times for exercising his treaty-protected right to fish for salmon. The first time, he was just 14 years old.
Testimony was passionate about Frank in public hearings on the bill this session. The leaders from several tribes and Lt. Gov. Denny Heck were among those who spoke. House Minority Leader Rep. J.T. Wilcox of Yelm shared his memories of Frank on the House floor, calling him possibly “the greatest man who was born in Washington,” speaking to his work and to his ability to bring people together.
Wilcox met him because Frank and Wilcox’s father were part of the Nisqually River Council.
“He’s a great man, because after all that he went through — and I think it was very, very hard, harder than any of us can imagine — he forgave,” Wilcox said. “He didn’t get bitter. He forgave everybody. He never gave up his struggle and he went on to expand it. He was never bitter.”
Frank served as Chair of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission for nearly three decades. In addition to the many awards received in life, President Barack Obama posthumously awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015. He died in 2014 at age 83.
Correction: This story originally indicated that Rep. Debra Lekanoff is the first Native American woman to serve in the state House of Representatives and/or that she’s the only serving in the Legislature. However, the House does not keep an official record of the background of its members, according to a House Democrats spokesperson.
Sen. Lois Stratton, who served in the House from 1979 to 1985, was a member of the Spokane Tribe, according to an online biography and her obituary in The Spokesman-Review. A “Political Pioneers” profile for Rep. Gladys Phillips, who served in the House from 1950 to 1952, notes her father was Native American. The caucus spokesperson confirmed Lekanoff is not the first, and that they do not know if others are serving who do not wish to self-identify as Native American. The story has been corrected.
This story was originally published March 9, 2021 at 5:45 AM.
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