thumb|Daybreak Star Cultural Center

thumb|Early evening [[rainbow during 2007 Seafair Indian Days Pow Wow on the center's grounds.]]

thumb|Dancers in regalia during the grand entry of the 2007 Seafair Indian Days Pow Wow.<!--Note: Due to the sacred nature of regalia, it is offensive to refer to regalia as "costumes".-->

The Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center is a Native American cultural center in Seattle, Washington, described by its parent organization United Indians of All Tribes as "an urban base for Native Americans in the Seattle area." Located on 20 acres (81,000 m<sup>2</sup>) in Seattle's Discovery Park in the Magnolia neighborhood, the center developed from activism by Bernie Whitebear and other Native Americans, who staged a generally successful self-styled "invasion" and occupation of the land in 1970. Most of the former Fort Lawton military base had been declared surplus by the U.S. Department of Defense. "The claim [Whitebear and others made] to Fort Lawton was based on rights under 1865 U.S.-Indian treaties promising reversion of surplus military lands to their original owners."

The existing building, a work of modern architecture incorporating many elements of traditional Northwest Native architecture, was designed by Arai Jackson Architects and Planners and completed in 1977. In 2004, plans were approved to supplement it with a complex of three additional related buildings, to be known as the People's Lodge. This was Whitebear's final dream project before he died of cancer in 2000. But in 2006, after agreements had been reached between the tribes, the city and nearby residents on a reduced size for the new project, the Center decided to postpone construction indefinitely for lack of funds.

Daybreak Star, a major nucleus of Native American cultural activity in its region, functions as a conference center, a location for pow wows, the location for a Head Start school program, and an art gallery. The center's permanent art collection includes a variety of large art works by and about Native Americans, notably Blue Jay, a 30-foot (9 m) wide, 12 foot (3.7 m) high sculpture by Lawney Reyes, Whitebear's brother. It was commissioned by and hung prominently for more than 30 years at the Bank of California building in downtown Seattle. (After the Bank of California merged with Union Bank in 1996 to form Union Bank of California, the work was donated to the Daybreak Star Center.) Also included in that donation was a major oil painting by Guy Anderson, based on a traditional Northwest Native representation of a whale.

Bernie Whitebear is memorialized by the Bernie Whitebear Memorial Ethnobotanical Garden next to the Center building.

History

In 1970, the U.S. federal government was in the process of reviewing military needs and planned to declare as surplus much of the grounds of Fort Lawton, located on Puget Sound in the northwestern section of the Magnolia neighborhood. The state's two U.S. Senators, Henry M. "Scoop" Jackson and Warren G. Magnuson amended the U.S. Land and Water Conservation Act of 1965, reducing the previous 50-100 percent cost of acquiring surplus federal government property to 0-50 percent, so that such property might be acquired by bodies other than real estate developers. The property would initially be transferred to the city but was not constrained in use. In that period of Indian activism, many of Seattle's urban Indians were concerned to gain a land base within the city. (As of the early 21st century, about 25,000 Indians from a variety of tribes live in the Seattle area.) Joe DeLaCruz, leader of the Quinault, conducted outreach to every tribe in Washington State to try to gain their support for gaining land in Seattle.

Kinatechitapi's first efforts to open discussions about the property with the City of Seattle, in advance of surplus land being transferred to the city, failed. The city, under mayor Wes Uhlman, said it would not open discussions until it had acquired the land, and referred the group to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). As Whitebear later wrote, "This action displayed their ignorance of both the BIA's restricted service policy, which excluded urban Indians, and also the disregard and disfavor urban Indians held for the BIA."

Kinatechitapi members split between a faction that called for direct action and one that preferred to wait until the city acquired the land, in order to conduct negotiations. Prominent among those who preferred to wait was Pearl Warren, founder of the American Indian Women's Service League, who was concerned that a militant attitude would result in the city's reducing its provision of services to urban Indians. Members agreed that those who wished to take more extreme action would not use the name Kinatechitapi.

Direct action

The more militant faction, led by Bernie Whitebear, soon adopted the name "American Indian Fort Lawton Occupation Forces". Local activists Ella Aquino and Ramona Bennett helped plan the occupation. The group planned to invade the base from two directions, with one group scaling the bluffs from Elliott Bay while another scaled the fence near the Lawton Wood community on the north side of the base. The group committed to nonviolence in this action.

American Indian soldiers and others were protesting at Fort Lewis, near Tacoma, linking native rights to opposition to the Vietnam War. At the behest of the Fort Lewis coalition, actress Jane Fonda came to Seattle at the time of the invasion of Fort Lawton.</blockquote>

On the evening of March 7, 1970, at a pow-wow held at the Filipino Community Hall in south Seattle, invasion plans were announced. The following day, March 8, 1970, about 100 "Native Americans and sympathizers" confronted military police in riot gear at the fort, while about 500 supporters staged a legal protest outside the gates. Some of the invaders reached the base chapel, where a Sunday service was in progress, but in general, skirmish lines were quickly formed and the military police contained the invasion. Some of the invaders failed to maintain non-violence, especially when confronted by what Whitebear characterized as "overly aggressive handling by the MPs". MPs (Military Police), aided by regular Army troops and Seattle Police, initially placed the invaders in the fort stockade, then ejected them from the fort. The Indian activists established a tipi encampment outside the fort.

United Indians of All Tribes Foundation

Organizing as the United Indians of All Tribes Foundation (UIATF) with Whitebear as executive director, the Indians used tactics ranging from politicking to occupation of land to celebrity appearances to gain more support. Whitebear forged a relationship with Tom McLaughlin, deputy regional director of the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare and through him with Buck Kelley, the regional director and top political appointee for HEW in the region. UIATF, which had previously avoided dealing with the BIA, now went through the National Congress of American Indians to approach the BIA and request a freeze on plans to transfer land at Fort Lawton until the issue between UIATF and the city was resolved. BIA commissioner Louis Bruce imposed such a freeze for a time, but eventually backed off at the behest of his boss, the Department of the Interior. In addition, the City granted $600,000 to the American Indian Women's Service League for a social services center. and undertook fundraising (including a one million dollar grant from the state), and supervision of design and construction. Whitebear's brother Lawney Reyes joined with architects of Arai Jackson to design the facility, which used traditional Native American elements in a modern building. It opened in 1977.

In the same era when Daybreak Star was being constructed, Whitebear was appointed to the Seattle Arts Commission. The UIATF was granted an $80,000 arts grant for the center. The center has wireless Internet access ("UIATF-A").

Notes

References

  • Lawney L. Reyes, White Grizzly Bear's Legacy: Learning to be Indian, University of Washington Press, 2002. .
  • Lawney L. Reyes, Bernie Whitebear: An Urban Indian's Quest for Justice, University of Arizona, 2006. . .
  • Bernie Whitebear, "Self-Determination: Taking Back Fort Lawton. Meeting the Needs of Seattle's Native American Community Through Conversion", Race, Poverty & the Environment, Volume IV, Number 4 /Volume V, Number 1 Spring - Summer 1994 , p.&nbsp;3–6.
  • [https://www.unitedindians.org/]
  • https://www.unitedindians.org/arts-culture/sacred-circle-gallery/
  • https://www.unitedindians.org/daybreak-star-center/
  • https://sacredcirclegiftsandart.com/pages/locations