On the morning of March 8, 1970, a coalition of Native Americans and supporters performed a takeover and occupation of the then recently decommissioned Fort Lawton, in what is now known as Seattle's Discovery Park, to demand social and cultural resources for Seattle's growing urban Native American population. This nonviolent occupation would later lead to the establishment of the Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center in Seattle's Discovery Park, an organization committed to providing social services and cultural connection to Indigenous people in the Puget Sound region. 

 

Leading the protest was activist, Bernie Whitebear, born in the small Eastern Washington town of Inchelium as a member of the Colville Confederated Tribe; an amalgalation of the Colville, San Poil, Nespelem, Lakes, Southern Okanogan, Entiat, Methow, Columbia, Wenatchi, Palus, and Nez Perce tribes. As a young man, Whitebear fished the Puyallup river, a job he found was one of few that he could find in the region due to discriminatory hiring practices against Native Americans at the time. In 1961 he moved to Seattle and began organizing events with the hope of making Native problems more visible to white populations as well as constructing a sense of heritage and identity for Native Americans living in urban areas. 

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The protest was inspired by the federal governments Relocation and Termination policies created during the 1950's to deal with the "Indian problem." These policies motivated Native Americans to move off of reservations to urban cities, with the promise of more educational and job opportunity. By doing this, the government hoped that once people left the reservations, they could liquidate the funding and services they were responsible for providing under the administrative authority of the BIA. Between 1950 and 1970, the Native population in Seattle rose from 700 to 4,000. Native people who relocated cities found however, that there were little funds or services to support the growing Native population, who were often discriminated against in predominantly white cities like Seattle. 

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In 1970, Richard Nixon signed a bill into law that allowed for non-federal entities to acquire surplus federal land, which gave the city of Seattle permission to acquire the recently decommissioned Fort Lawton at little to no cost. Several petitions were crafted to use some of the land for a Native American cultural center, but these petitions were quickly rejected by city officials. Inspired by the progress made by Seattle's chapter of the Black Panther Party, Whitebear organized a takeover of Fort Lawton that would rely on militant, nonviolent, action. 

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On the morning of March 8th, 1970, more than a hundred protesters invaded the North and South ends of Fort Lawton, setting up teepees and drum circles singing traditional Native American songs. While the protestors were violently removed with tear gas and military force, the protest continued outside Fort Lawton's gates for over three weeks in a demonstration known as Resurrection City. The momentum and media coverage these protests garnered inspired negotiations between the city and the UIATF that cumulated in March 1972 with the granting of 40 acres of land and funds to develop the current Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center. 

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