Bernie Whitebear was born in the town of Nespelem on the Colville Reservation in 1937. After growing up in poverty on the reservation, he moved to Western Washington in 1955 and shortly became a fisherman on the Puyallup River. In the late 1950s, Bernie Whitebear joined a campaign of activism to protect Native fishing rights, which had been guaranteed by treaty in the 1850s and had since been infringed upon. This struggle continued through the 1960s and early 1970s with several court cases. In 1974, Judge George Boldt of the US District Court for the Western District of Washington ruled to uphold Native fishing rights and to define this right as half of the fish harvest each year. Judge Boldt's decision was confirmed by the 9th Circuit Appeals Court the next year.

Whitebear continued fighting for the rights and welfare of Native peoples on other issues. In 1970, he was one of the leaders of a demonstration in Fort Lawton which claimed part of the military facility for Native peoples by right of discovery. After the protesters briefly occupied part of the facility, armed military police forced them out. However, the demonstrators remained encamped outside Fort Lawton and continued to press their claim. After years of negotiation, the United Indians of All Tribes Federation led by Bernie Whitebear was granted land to construct the Daybreak Star Cultural Center. The agreement also led to the establishment of Discovery Park.

Bernie Whitebear worked to include Native rights in the bigger fight for civil rights in the region. He joined with fellow leaders of minority communities Bob Santos, Larry Gossett, and Roberto Maestas to form the Minority Executive Directors Coalition, informally called the "Gang of Four." They worked together to support and fight for the rights of all minority groups. Bernie Whitebear died of cancer in 2000.

Handwritten on sleeve: Bernie Whitebear.
Date photograph was filed at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (date of photograph and file date may differ by a month or more): October 1971.

Caption information source: "Bernie Whitebear and the Urban Indian Fight for Land and Justice," by Joseph Madsen, https://depts.washington.edu/civilr/whitebear.htm ; "Whitebear, Bernie (1937-2000)," by Patrick McRoberts, HistoryLink.org Essay 5170. https://www.historylink.org/File/5170