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National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

Johnny Buck

Wanapum Indian Tribe ChiefHanford, WA

DisplacedNative American

Johnny Buck was Chief of the Wanapum tribe during the 1940s when Manhattan Project came to Hanford, Washington.

He cultivated a relationship with officer-in-charge Franklin Matthias in order to get access to his tribe’s ancestral fishing sites for a period of time. 

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By 1984, the Wanapum Tribe numbered two full-blooded survivors. One was Frank Buck, 16 years old when the Army came to build the Hanford Engineer Works.

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