Early in the morning of March 8, around 100 Indigenous activists climbed the fences around the Fort Lawton US Army Base outside Seattle, Washington. They set up camp there as a form of protest, because the fort was to be turned into a city park, but they instead wanted the land returned to the United Indians of All Tribes, an organization uniting the Indigenous Peoples of the Puget Sound.
This protest happened because many Indigenous people in Seattle were facing big challenges. Life on reservations was hard, so many young Indigenous people moved to cities like Seattle to find jobs, homes, and an education. But city governments and the Bureau of Indian Affairs didn’t support young Indigenous peoples, and there were no cultural centers or housing projects for them. With Fort Lawson shutting down, the Indigenous community in Seattle had asked it be returned to them and used for their own needs. But instead, the City of Seattle wanted to turn it into a park.
Many of these activists were led by a new generation of Indigenous leaders like Sinixt leader Bernie Whitebear, who were inspired by the direct action of Black Power movement.
Although the US Army quickly and violently removed the protesters from inside the base, many stayed outside the gates. They built a protest camp called ‘Resurrection City’ which lasted for three weeks. After many days of protest, the group succeeded in negotiating the return of 20 acres of land back. This land is now home to the Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center.
The Fort Lawton struggle was part of a new chapter of Indigenous activism. But not everyone agreed with the choice to occupy Fort Lawton. Some older Indigenous leaders didn’t like the idea of occupying land and preferred slower political work.
Stó꞉lō writer Lee Maracle, who travelled from Canada to camp at Resurrection City, struggled to connect with the Native American activists, noted that there were major differences between Indigenous peoples in both countries, and they did not always get along.
Even so, the protest showed that the colonial border between Canada and the US, which has divided Indigenous peoples, was beginning to fade. The name ‘Resurrection City’ pointed to historic and ongoing Indigenous networks that have existed long before colonization.