During their cross-country journey of America during the early 1970s, Green Arrow and Green Lantern stumble upon an argument in the Pacific Northwest that’s on the verge of turning violent. “A hundred years ago, the chief of our tribe – Ulysses Star – made a deal with Washington,” a young Native American explains when the two superheroes arrive on the scene. “We wouldn’t hassle the white settlers if we could have exclusive right to the lumber.”
All official records of that agreement, however, have been lost. “You’re plain outta luck,” the white Theodore Pudd thus replies. “Cause officially this land is up for grabs, and I grabbed it!”
The “Hard Traveling Heroes” era of the Green Lantern/Green Arrow comic book series highlighted various social issues rocking America at the time, and the “Ulysses Star is Still Alive” storyline from issue 79 is a prime example. As Sherry L. Smith explains in her 2012 book, Hippies, Indians, and the Fight for Red Power, a Native American Movement emerged during the 1960s – similar to the African American Civil Rights Movement – with young Native Americans using a combination of peaceful protests and acts of civil disobedience to fight for their own rights.
In the state of Washington, one of those rights centered on tribal fishing. “The white-eyes swiped our land, broke treaties, herded us like animals onto reservations,” Green Arrow and Green Lantern were told in a previous issue. “Now, the big-bellies in the Capital are talking about taking away our fishing rights. Next, they’ll want the marrow from our bones.”
The various treaties signed in the Pacific Northwest included clauses that guaranteed Native American fishing rights. One hundred years later, Washington began placing restrictions on fishing, as well as requiring all fishermen to have permits. Native Americans ignored these rules, believing that their treaties superseded the state laws, and soon found themselves arrested and their fishing gear confiscated. As a result, a series of protests known as “fish-ins” erupted in 1964 and didn’t end until the courts ruled in favor of Native Americans ten years later.
The Treaty of Fort Laramie, meanwhile, granted the Sioux Nation the right to claim any government land decreed as surplus. When Alcatraz prison was abandoned during the 1960s with no firm plans for future usage, Native Americans from San Francisco “invaded” the island, claimed it as their own and remained there from November 1969 until June 1971.
Washington Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson introduced a bill in Congress authorizing the sale of surplus federal lands to cities for use as recreational parks around that same time, and the list included Fort Lawson in Seattle. Inspired by the takeover of Alcatraz, between 70 and 100 Native Americans invaded the fort on March 8, 1970. They were immediately arrested by military police and escorted to jail.
Actress Jane Fonda – an antiwar activist who had sympathized with the previous fish-ins – happened to be in Seattle and attended a press conference that included Bernie Whitebear, head of the newly created United Indians of All Tribes. Fonda’s presence ensured national media coverage, not only of the initial invasion but a second held on March 15 that likewise ended with the intervention of military police.
Young Native Americans embraced protests like fish-ins and the takeover of Alcatraz because such actions inevitably brought greater media attention and raised awareness on a wider scale. Members of the older generation, however, still believed in the traditional routes of working with the federal government, lobbying Congress, and using the courts to achieve their goals. As the Green Lantern/Green Arrow comic book demonstrates, these two approaches often went hand-in-hand, with protests raising the necessary awareness so that the traditionalists had more leverage when they pursued conventional methods.
Thus while Green Lantern attempts to find an existing copy of the lumber agreement, Green Arrow takes a more radical approach after he and Black Canary – who has joined the pair of superheroes on their cross-country trip – visit the local reservation. When Black Canary tells her counterpart that the Native Americans have “been under the white man’s heel for so long they’ve lost faith in themselves,” Green Arrow decides to masquerade as the ghost of their long-dead chieftain, Ulysses Star.
“Whether or not I’m what I appear to be isn’t important,” he tells them. “But what I represent is! You were once a proud people, a great people, and you can be again. First, though, you have to stop playing doormat and be willing to fight for your rights!”
While Native Americans may have been depicted as “doormats” within the pages of Green Lantern/Green Arrow, their actions in San Francisco, Seattle, and a host of other cities during the 1960s and 70s proved that their faith remained intact. That’s not to say that life on a reservation wasn’t harsh – Bernie Whitebear noted that Native Americans had a 37 percent unemployment rate in Seattle compared to 7 percent for non-Natives, and that while the average lifespan for white Americans was 64 years, it was a mere 44 years for Native Americans.
Yet despite such condition – as well as because of them – the spirit of many Native Americans remained strong and they were more than willing to fight for their rights without the aid of a “white savior superhero,” even if he did carry a bow-and-arrow.
The efforts of Bernie Whitebear and United Indians of All Tribes stand as testament to Native American resilience. In addition to the two aborted invasions, Native Americans formed a makeshift camp outside the gates of Fort Lawson and kept vigil for the next three weeks. Having proven their resolve, Whitebear next pursued legal channels to have the surplus land granted to Native Americans rather than the city of Seattle, and even petitioned the federal government’s Bureau of Indian Affairs for support.
Although Fort Lawson was still handed over to Seattle, Mayor Wes Uhlman expressed a willingness to allow Native Americans to open a cultural center on the land as long as it was open to the public. As a result, the non-profit United Indians of All Tribes Foundation received a 99-year lease for sixteen acres of the now-dubbed Discovery Park at a cost of one dollar per year, with the right to renew the lease in two 100-year extensions.
In the Green Lantern/Green Arrow comic book, the Native Americans rally to confront Theodore Pudd and his men when they arrive to cut down the disputed trees. Just as violence is about to break out between the two camps, Green Lantern makes a reappearance. Although he was unsuccessful in his search for a copy of the lumber rights agreement, he was able to convince a local congressman to investigate the tribe’s claims.
Thus like in the real-world of Seattle, it took a combination of physical protest and legal maneuvering to end the conflict in favor of the Native Americans of the DC Universe as well.
Anthony Letizia