Fort Lawton was a United States Army post located in the Magnolia neighborhood of Seattle, overlooking Puget Sound. In 1968 the site was rejected for proposed defense upgrades, and the Army began downsizing the property. In 1970 the United Indians of All Tribes Foundation (UIATF) presented a claim to all lands that might be declared surplus by the Army. Led by activist Bernie Whitebear (1937-2000), Seattle area Native Americans and sympathizers staged a non-violent occupation of the surplus land they had filed to acquire. The City of Seattle also applied to acquire the land, and the federal government ultimately insisted that the two come up with a joint plan. In November 1971 UIATF was given a 99-year lease on 20 acres in what would become Seattle's 534 acre Discovery Park. In addition, the City gave $600,000 to the American Indian Women's Service League for a social services center, which became the Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center, built in 1977 as “an urban base for Native Americans in the Seattle area.”

In this image Jean Halliday, center, a member of the Duwamish Tribe, makes beaded necklaces during a demonstration at the Federal Courthouse in downtown Seattle. The demonstration was held to protest a hearing before U. S. Commissioner Walter J. Roseberg where 17 people were charged with entering Fort Lawton after previously having received expulsion orders.

Caption information source: The Seattle Times, April 6, 1970, page 12
Caption information source: https://www.seattle.gov/parks/find/centers/discovery-park-environmental-learning-center/discovery-park-history
Caption information source: http://www.unitedindians.org/daybreak-star-center
Caption information also derived from captions written by Post-Intelligencer staff and attached to the back of the photograph.