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114takeoversa journalist in bewilderment. “‘How do they get along with everybodyelse?’ They are everybody else,” he was told.Protests continued at the fort until the government agreed tonegotiate a land deal. Days before Halloween in 1973, Jacksondedicated Discovery Park to the British sloop hms Discovery thatexplored Puget Sound in the eighteenth century. “The whole countryowes you a debt of gratitude,” Jackson told the crowd. The city ofSeattle, Native Americans, and the federal government signed aninety-nine-year lease to construct a center to promote Indianculture, heritage, and education. In May 1977, the Daybreak StarIndian Cultural Center at Discovery Park opened its doors.As takeovers continued in 1970, tragedy struck the family, withthe death of Valerie Bridges, Billy’s niece. Billy and Valerie shareda passion for the Nisqually River. She had grown up at Frank’sLanding—swimming, fishing, and watching Billy’s children—andwas considered an expert swimmer. One May afternoon she lingeredafter a swim with her sister Alison, following a long day plantingbare-root seedlings for an industrial tree farm.Willie, Billy’s father, organized an all-out search when Valerie failedto return from the river. Georgiana Kautz remembers a dog continuallyplunging into the river and returning to shore. Eventually,the canine led the search party to Valerie’s shampoo bottle, glasses,and comb; her body was discovered nearby. Most likely, Valerie hadsuffered a seizure or a leg cramp. She had been taking medication forperiodic blackouts.Indians came together 150-strong to bury Billy’s niece. SemuHuaute, a Chumash medicine man, directed in the production of afuneral wheel. “These people that I loved so much . . . all of a suddenare gone . . . Valerie, my niece . . .,” Billy says, reflecting on the timeperiod. Until she died, Valerie fought for Frank’s Landing and theright of Indians to fish there. Days before the river claimed Valerie’slife, she and Alison swam out in the channel to “determine by stringmeasure, how much land across the river should belong to their