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State House approves bill for Billy Frank Jr. statue

Published 11:47 am Tuesday, March 9, 2021

** ADVANCE FOR WEEKEND OCT. 8-9 ** Billy Frank pauses to remember distant times as he walks along the Nisqually River near Olympia, Wash. Thursday, April 14, 2005 where he was born and lived as a child. The Nisqually Indian elder and activist contributed leadership and multiple arrests to the battle fought by Northwest Indian tribes for their treaty-negotiated salmon-fishing rights. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
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** ADVANCE FOR WEEKEND OCT. 8-9 ** Billy Frank pauses to remember distant times as he walks along the Nisqually River near Olympia, Wash. Thursday, April 14, 2005 where he was born and lived as a child. The Nisqually Indian elder and activist contributed leadership and multiple arrests to the battle fought by Northwest Indian tribes for their treaty-negotiated salmon-fishing rights. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
Billy Frank pauses to remember distant times as he walks along the Nisqually River near Olympia in 2005. The Nisqually Indian elder and activist was a leader in the battle fought by Northwest tribes for their treaty-negotiated salmon-fishing rights. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, file)

Associated Press

OLYMPIA — A statue honoring the late Billy Frank Jr., a 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 Olympian reports 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 is the first Native American woman to be elected to the chamber.

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.

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