The Daybreak Star Cultural Center is a Native American cultural center in Seattle, Washington, described by its parent organization United Indians of All Tribes as "an urban base for Native Americans in the Seattle area." Located on 20 acres (81,000 m²) in Seattle's Discovery Park in the Magnolia neighborhood, the center owes its existence to Bernie Whitebear and other Native Americans, who staged a generally successful self-styled "invasion" and occupation of the land in 1970 after most of the Fort Lawton military base was declared surplus by the U.S. Department of Defense. "The claim to Fort Lawton was based on rights under 1865 U.S.-Indian treaties promising reversion of surplus military lands to their original owners."
The existing building, a work of modern architecture incorporating many elements of traditional Northwest Native architecture, designed by Arai Jackson Architects and Planners, dates from 1977. In 2004, plans were approved to supplement it with a complex of three more related buildings, to be known as the People's Lodge, which was Bernie Whitebear's final dream project before he died of cancer in 2000 However, in 2006, after agreements had been reached between the tribes, the city and nearby residents to reduce the originally-planned size to one all parties agreed to, a decision was made to postpone construction indefinitely for lack of funds.
Daybreak Star, a major nucleus of Native American cultural activity in its region, functions as a conference center, a location for pow wows, the location for a Head Start school program, and an art gallery. The center's permanent art collection includes a variety of large art works by and about Native Americans, notably "Blue Jay", a 30 foot (9 m) wide, 12 foot (3.7 m) high sculpture by Bernie Whitebear's brother Lawney Reyes, which came to the Center in 2004 after hanging prominently for over 30 years at the Bank of California building in downtown Seattle. (The Bank of California merged with Union Bank in 1996 to form Union Bank of California.) Also included in that donation was a major oil painting by Guy Anderson based on a traditional Northwest Native representation of a whale.
Bernie Whitebear is memorialized by the Bernie Whitebear Memorial Ethnobotanical Garden next to the Center building.
The Center has wireless Internet access ("UIATF-A").
Read more about Daybreak Star Cultural Center: Origin of Daybreak Star
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—Paul Celan [Paul Antschel] (1920–1970)
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