43 Facts About Hank Adams

Henry Lyle Adams was an Native American activist known as a successful strategist, tactician, and negotiator.

Hank Adams was instrumental in resolving several key conflicts between Native Americans and state and federal government officials after 1960.

Hank Adams was instrumental in working to assert and protect Native American fishing and hunting rights on traditional territories free of state restrictions.

Hank Adams participated in the American Indian Movement, including its occupation of the Department of Interior Building in Washington, DC in 1972 and in the 71-day standoff of the Wounded Knee incident in 1973.

In both cases Hank Adams played important roles in negotiating peaceful resolutions of volatile situations.

Hank Adams continued his work to press for tribal sovereignty, as well as with tribes to restore the role of their elders.

Hank Adams was born to an Assiniboine family on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Montana on May 16,1943.

Hank Adams's birthplace was Wolf Point, Montana known as Poverty Flats.

Hank Adams was renamed as John Adams, and his children retained the surname.

Hank Adams, known as Yellow Eagle, had one sister, Lois.

Hank Adams's family moved to Washington State toward the end of World War II.

Hank Adams was student-body president, editor of the school newspaper and yearbook, and played football and basketball at Moclips-Aloha High School in Moclips, Washington, graduating in 1961.

Hank Adams worked part of the time in a sawmill on the Quinault Reservation.

Hank Adams attended the University of Washington for two years, from 1961 to 1963.

Hank Adams left university in November 1963 immediately after the assassination of President John F Kennedy and pursued full-time work on suicide prevention for Native American youth.

Hank Adams joined the National Indian Youth Council in 1963.

Hank Adams organized a protest march for March 3,1964 on Washington's capital Olympia, to call attention to the state's attempt to limit Indian treaty fishing rights.

Hank Adams invited Brando to the event, whose visit garnered national media attention.

In 1964 and 1965, Hank Adams was active as the research secretary for the National Congress of American Indians.

In 1968 Hank Adams became the leader of the Survival of American Indians Association.

Hank Adams was arrested several times for protest actions between 1968 and 1971.

In 1968, Hank Adams served on the national steering committee of the Poor People's Campaign, organized by Martin Luther King Jr.

Hank Adams was among the Native Americans in April 1968 who occupied the National Mall in Washington DC and "reached out across the racial divide in common cause with other poor people".

Hank Adams led a group of over 100 residents of Resurrection City, including Native Americans in tribal regalia, to the United States Supreme Court in Washington DC on May 29,1968.

Hank Adams's efforts resulted in 25 tribal leaders gaining entrance to the building, where they chanted and drummed during hours of waiting.

In 1968 and 1972, Hank Adams sought the Republican nomination as candidate for the House of Representatives from Washington's 3rd congressional district.

Hank Adams continued to work on the fishing rights issue, lobbying representatives in Washington.

Hank Adams compiled and presented information critical to making the case for Native American fishing rights in the legal challenge United States v Washington.

At the trial, Hank Adams served in the unprecedented role of lay lawyer, directly representing tribal fishermen in front of Judge Boldt at the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington.

Hank Adams was active on the issue as a strategist and worked in concert with Billy Frank Jr.

Hank Adams continued to work with issues related to the Boldt Decision throughout his lifetime.

Hank Adams was active in the American Indian Movement and accompanied members of AIM on their 1972 Trail of Broken Treaties protest caravan across the country.

The Trail of Broken Treaties caravan stopped in Minneapolis, Minnesota where Hank Adams drafted a proposal of Twenty Points, listing a series of demands.

Hank Adams was instrumental in saving Indian lives in two of the major Red Power protests of the early 1970s.

Months later, Hank Adams participated in the 1973 occupation of Wounded Knee :.

Hank Adams helped to end the occupation in a peaceful manner.

Hank Adams was the intermediary between Frank Fools Crow, the head of the Lakota occupation, and representatives of President Richard Nixon's White House.

Hank Adams worked mainly behind the scenes on both of these issues.

Hank Adams dedicated this film to his sister-in-law, Valerie Bridges, who died in a drowning incident while demonstrating for fishing rights.

The film was shown in 1972 to occupiers of the Main Interior Building, BIA headquarters in Washington, DC Hank Adams later said that since the film showed violence against Native American women during protests, it may have contributed to the occupiers trashing the Interior building.

Hank Adams was considered by many in the Indian community as one of the most influential people in the movement.

Hank Adams was a member of the Franks Landing Indian Community of the Nisqually people.

Hank Adams died on December 21,2020, in Olympia, Washington.