Pan-Tribal Activism in the Pacific Northwest: The Power of Indigenous Protest and the Birth of Daybreak Star Cultural Center

(Hardback)

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On September 27, 1975, activist Bernie Whitebear (Sin Aikst) and Seattle Mayor Wes Uhlman broke ground on former Fort Lawton lands, just outside Seattle Washington, for the construction of the Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center. The groundbreaking was the culmination of years of negotiations and legal wrangling between several government entities and the United Indians of All Tribes, the group that occupied the Fort lands in 1970. The peaceful event and sense of co-operation stood in marked contrast to the turbulent and sometimes violent occupation of the lands years before. Native Americans who joined the UIAT came from all parts of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. Inspired by the Civil Rights and protest era of the 1960s and 1970s, they squared off with local and federal government to demand the protection of civil and political rights and better social services. Both the scope and the purpose of this book are manifold. The first purpose is to challenge the predominant narrative of Anglo American colonization in the region and re-assert self-determination by re-defining the relationship between Pacific Northwest Native Americans, the larger population of Washington State, and government itself. The second purpose is to illustrate the growth in Pan-Indian/Pan-Tribal activism in the second half of the twentieth century in an attempt to place the Pacific Northwest Native American protests into a broader context and to amend the scholarly and popular trope which characterizes the Red Power movement of the 1960s as the creation of the American Indian Movement (AIM). In this book, casual students of history as well as academics will find that Fort Lawton represents the zone of conflict and compromise occupied by Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest in their ongoing struggle with colonial society.

Reviews

Power, politics, and protests ignited a little-known, explosive event in the Pacific Northwest during the era of Red Power: violence between the US army and the United Indians of All Tribes in March 1970. Historian Vera Parham weaves the story of this conflict and its meaning in American history through the words of Native American participants and contemporary documents. This fascinating tale unfolds in the pages of this excellent study by the foremost authority of Native American activism in the Pacific Northwest. -- Clifford E. Trafzer, University of California, Riverside
The Native American occupation of Fort Lawton was a watershed moment in Seattle's history, but one that has not received the attention it deservesuntil now. Vera Parham offers a rich and detailed history of the occupation and the creation of Daybreak Star, giving us for the first time robust insight into what the occupation and its many legacies have meant for both the city and its inhabitants, indigenous and otherwise. -- Coll Thrush, University of British Columbia
Vera Parhams new book is a welcome study of civil rights-era Native activism in the specific regional context of the Pacific Northwest. Parham examines the events leading up to the 1970 Fort Lawton occupation in Seattle, Washington, and explores how a multi-tribal urban-dwelling coalition of activists drew on a long tradition of regional multi-tribal activism in their efforts to address problems of poverty and discrimination faced by Seattles Native community. Of particular interest is her evaluation of the combination of circumstances unique to Seattle that allowed the coalition to succeed in obtaining land and building a Native-run urban institution, the Daybreak Star Cultural Center, which continues to exist to the present day. -- Rebecca Kugel, University of California, Riverside

Author Bio

Vera Parham is associate professor of history at American Public University.