Source: Fraser, C. (1998). "Interview with a Native Woman Warrior." In Revolution, She Wrote (pp. 131-133). Seattle, WA: Red Letter Press.
Originally Published: Freedom Socialist, Fall 1976
Transcription/Markup: Philip Davis and Glenn Kirkindall
Copyleft: Internet Archive (marxists.org)
2015. Permission is granted to copy and/or distribute this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.
On the evening of October 23, 1976, a small but daring group of Pacific Northwest Indians, the Puyallup Tribe, electrified the nation by suddenly and efficiently taking control of Cascadia Juvenile Reception and Diagnostic Center, located just outside the city of Tacoma, Washington. The land and massive building had been stolen from the tribe by federal and state governments. Though once an Indian hospital, it was now a notorious juvenile jail. For seven eventful days, the entire region held its breath. Hundreds of Indians from tribes around the country and supporters of all races from neighboring cities came to help defend the tribe against potential government attack and bolster their negotiations with nervous federal and state bureaucrats. The uprising resulted in a substantial victory for the Puyallups. An agreement was hammered out at the eleventh hour, guaranteeing the return of Cascadia as a medical and social welfare center for the tribe, which it still remains.
Two days into the siege, Ramona Bennett, Chairwoman of the Puyallup Tribe and chief organizer of the takeover, granted an hour-long interview to Clara Fraser. Below is an abridged version of the interview published in the Fall 1976 Freedom Socialist newspaper.
Fraser: I’m not going to ask you to “explain” your action here at Cascadia. I am familiar with the background of broken promises by the federal and state authorities and you know that the Freedom Socialist Party and Radical Women strongly endorse your taking back what is yours. When your leaders asked for our assistance, we were happy to help and to furnish personnel and supplies. What needs to be said about the meaning of what you’re doing that the press isn’t reporting?
Bennett: There are two very important things that are not being adequately explained. One is that we have for the past several years objected to the program that has been called Cascadia Diagnostic Service. We have believed for a long time that this is a real Dark Ages program.
The kids who are already in trauma are being further traumatized by that sudden rip, the jolt of losing what little they’ve got in their home communities. And that hurts.
It really hurts the kids who are already in trouble, that sense of removal.
To me, it’s like taking a little wild mouse that lives in the woods, that has its little nest, that gathers food, that does its little things for amusement. You take that little mouse and you put it in an aquarium with a concrete floor and you watch it bounce off the floor and you say, gee, that’s a defective mouse! Look how crazy it is, running around hurting itself.
To me, that’s what this program is like. It’s inhumane.
Fraser: American capitalism seems to hate children in general, and delinquent or dependent kids are lost in our correction systems. It’s barbaric.
Bennett: Now the other main problem is I don’t think any of the regular press understands how critical our social needs really are. We have the highest arrest rate, the highest teenage suicide rates, the highest unemployment rates, the highest infant mortality rates. Our elders have the highest rate of tuberculosis, diabetes, disease.
The press also repeatedly makes the removal of the kids at Cascadia the main issue, when the real issue is the property question and the illegal action of the state in denying us our property. The issue is that the state knows they have been operating here on stolen property for 17 years and they haven’t done a damn thing about it.
Fraser: As a socialist feminist, I am excited about the high quality and participation of Puyallup women in tribal affairs, about the strong and skillful leadership of the women. How do you see the relationship of feminism with the Native American struggle?
Bennett: I have quite a few feelings on the subject. I don’t believe any women can be totally liberated until their society is liberated, until their families are liberated, and we have no liberated citizens so long as my people are suffering and dying. We are moving for the liberation of our whole community. We are moving for economic and social liberation.
We have four women on a tribal council of five, and the reason I see for our success is that we are a non-drinking council, and we also have a very high level of awareness of the needs of our people. So our tribe is advancing more rapidly than other tribes.
Fraser: Women generally are more aware then men of social needs because we’re closer to them. And your women are very strong to be able to resist alcohol and alcoholism. But how do you explain the fact that so many women actually came to constitute the tribal council leadership?
Bennett: Well, our societies were always matriarchal and women were always important. Our men built the longhouses and the canoes, did the fishing, and controlled many of the social aspects of our society. But the women were involved with medicine, justice, education, decisions. Now the male occupations have been removed from our community and the men are deprived of their traditional work. The women have been able to retain many of their roles, so the women have stayed strong. It used to be that all of our people were strong, but the women had an advantage. The women have managed to remain strong.
Fraser: And your goal is to rebuild total strength?
Bennett: Yes. Where the men have been knocked down, the women give a helping hand. We want those men to learn from us what a community is and what mutual help is because we’ll be looking to them for leadership in the future. We need them side by side with us, working as our partners.
We’ll keep this land and this building, too. It’s all ours, and you fight for what’s yours.