City Agrees to New Deadline

Northwest Justice Project and the City of Seattle have reached an agreement to extend the Nickelsville campsite clearance deadline to Friday to align with United Indians of All Tribe's request that the encampment move on by Friday noon. Nickelsville organizers have agreed to vacate the site on Friday to meet the new deadline.

“My clients are very grateful to United Indians of All Tribes for their support of the encampment,” said Eric Dunn, an Attorney for Northwest Justice Project. “Their commitment to let them stay gave us the opportunity to bargain with the city for this extended deadline.”

The Indians Have Decided.

Just this morning, United Indians of All Tribes was feeling between a rock and hard place over Nickelsville. While Nickelsville organizers have consistently described this organization as "very gracious," public statements of support from UIAT have been as qualified as possible without actually asking them to leave.

"I think there was a misunderstanding," said Marty Bluewater, the foundation's executive director. "The [homeless] group thought the land we occupied for our center might be federal land or land we actually own. When there had been talk in the wind about moving out there, we weren't able to give any permission, as much as we'd like to help."

"Our response at this point is to see how much we can support them and their needs," Bluewater said. "We let them know that we aren't in the position to give that permission. ... We're obviously kind of caught in the middle here. We want to help where we can, but we have partnerships with the city on a number of things."

All the while, Nickelsville leadership has said, "If they ask us to leave, we will."

Now, it doesn't look like that's going to happen. Late this afternoon, UIAT delivered an unqualified statement of support for Nickelsville. One in three Native Americans is homeless, they said. "We intend to intervene," they said. There will be tipis at Nickelsville, for real. It was signed, "in peace and solidarity."

This makes me so happy I can barely stand it.

Anyone who has been on the wrong side of the Nickels administration knows how unpleasant that can be, and how easily and completely access is denied to perceived enemies. I'm sure the past few days haven't been pleasant. But they weighed it out, made their decision, and are standing with the homeless.

Much still rests upon Monday morning's exparte hearing in King County Superior Court, where competing notions of who has a right to do what where will begin to get sorted out.

Meanwhile, a large show of support at Nickelsville on Monday before noon is critical.

I've only heard the document United Indians of All Tribes presented to Nickelsville described third-hand. Someone read it to Revel and Revel told me what she heard. So I'm being a bit vague here. But it sounded to me like the Indians are maybe a little pissed at how the city's been dealing with things.

There was something in there about the city stomping around on their notions of what is sacred. I'm paraphrasing here.

If that's the case, I'm remembering a church in Ballard that, in around 2001, pushed back hard. When threatened with fines and harassment for hosting Tent City, Trinity United Methodist's Reverend Rich Lang went all church and state on their asses, and the city couldn't backpedal fast enough. This marked the beginning of the city's acceptance of a permanent Tent City in Seattle.

Mark Sidran and Mayor Schell tryed to bully the wrong organization. It's not hard to imagine Tom Carr and Mayor Nickels making the same mistake.

—Photo by Revel

City Slightly Delays Move On Nickelsville

The latest breaking news is that the City Attorney's office has agreed to repost the site with a new deadline of noon Monday for residents to leave or risk arrest. Moments ago, someone from Land Use showed up at the camp with the new notices. The Northwest Justice Project is seeking a restraining order to prevent the clearance, and expects a hearing to be scheduled for Monday morning. It's another Nickelsville down-to-the-wire Hail Mary, but one thing I've learned is that these folks are not to be under-estimated.

This morning Revel and I drove out there to see the encampment, nestled into an out of the way scenic glen behind the Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center in Discovery Park. A more invisible and out of the way location is hard to imagine. One camper became misty eyed as he showed us his campsite, near a bucolic mossy pool situated next to a small creek. Despite this mornings' rain and the palpable anxiety of the campers, one could sense a great peace emanating from the ground itself.

United Indians of All Tribes, whose land is on a 99-year lease from the City of Seattle, is between a rock and a hard place. They have, say Nickelsville organizers, been "extremely gracious," although they are unable to give permission to the campers to remain. The city is reserving this right to themselves. United Indians of All Tribes is out on a limb here, and I imagine that Nickels and crew are leaning as hard as they can to break it off beneath them.

That Nickelsville has arrived at this place is fitting. Like homeless people, American Indians have been screwed a hundred ways from Sunday, and their own rights to this land were established through a takeover during the heyday of Red Power by the legendary Seattle activist Bernie Whitebear.

On the morning of March 8, 1970, two half-mile long columns of vehicles began forming in a south Seattle neighborhood. The vehicles moved north towards Seattle’s Magnolia neighborhood and the recently decommissioned Fort Lawton Army installation. As the convoys headed north onlookers could see the red cloth banners streaming from the antennas of the automobiles. When the caravans reached their destinations, both the north and south sides of Fort Lawton, the occupants of the cars launched a coordinated effort to occupy the fort and establish it as a cultural and social services center for Seattle’s growing Native American population. In the midst of the ensuing struggle, the occupation’s principal organizer Bernie Whitebear stated, “We, the Native Americans, reclaim the land known as Fort Lawton in the name of all American Indians by right of discovery.”

Whitebear's history of the founding of UIAT can be read here, and the Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project account of the takeover is here. Like that of Nickelsville, this is the story of people who have been pushed too far fighting back.

Nickelsville supporters are asked to be on hand at the site noon Monday for a show of solidarity, and to come by when possible to say hello and take away some trash. They're poor, but they're clean.