1970 Fort Lawton Occupation

In 1970 Native American activists occupied surplus U.S. Army land at Fort Lawton (now part of Discovery Park) to press for urban Indigenous cultural space and services. Negotiations involving the activists, the City of Seattle, and federal authorities led to the transfer of a portion of the Fort Lawton site to the United Indians of All Tribes Foundation. That transferred land became the site of the Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center, established in the 1970s to support Native arts, ceremonies, and community programs. The occupation is regarded as a landmark action in Seattle's Indigenous civil rights history.