The Third Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) was held in Seattle from November 30 to December 3, 1999. Trade ministers and other officials from the WTO's 135 member nations met in an unsuccessful attempt to plan negotiations to further deregulate free trade. Tens of thousands of activists for many causes gathered to protest what they saw as the WTO's favoring of corporate interests over social and environmental concerns.

Here, a group of Indigenous drummers play and sing on First Avenue near Seattle Center. Native American groups protested the WTO’s threat to treaty rights and tribal sovereignty. In the background is the old International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (I.B.E.W.) building, which was demolished in 2021.