During this same period, Whitebear became particularly interested in health issues among Seattle's Indians. At this time, Seattle's estimated 25,000 urban Indians had "no health services, no organization, no money and no meeting place except an old church on Boren Avenue".
Alaskan Native Bob Lupson had helped to organize a free clinic for Indian People at Seattle's
Public Health Hospital (later the
Pacific Medical Center); other key figures in the clinic were Lyle Griffith, an
Oglala Sioux who was then a medical resident at the University of Washington, and his wife Donna Griffith, and later New Yorkers Peter and Hinda Schnurman, Jill Marsden from England, and pharmacist Eveline Takahashi. Whitebear left Boeing to help operate the clinic. In 1969 it established itself as a separate non-profit, the Seattle Indian Health Board (SIHB). In 1970, Whitebear became the group's first executive director. Lawney Reyes characterizes the SIHB as "the first major achievement for the Indian community in Seattle," and said that his brother became executive director not because he knew anything in particular about healthcare but "because he was Indian and well spoken." Jill Marsden increasingly acted as the true administrator of the group. After about a year Whitebear resigned, in order to focus on acquiring a land base for Seattle's urban Indians. After a national search,
Luana Reyes, Whitebear's sister, was hired as executive director after a business career in
San Francisco. Over the next decade, she developed SIHB as a 200-employee institution recognized as a national model. She was later appointed as the deputy director of the federal
Indian Health Service (a political appointee position). Shortly after this, Whitebear became deeply involved in a movement for Seattle Indians to acquire a share of the land to be declared surplus at
Fort Lawton, as the government downsized this army post. The group was influenced by the Indians of All Tribes (IAT), a mostly student group of activists who had
occupied Alcatraz Island, site of
a federal prison, in
San Francisco Bay. Initially, the Seattle movement called themselves
Kinatechitapi,
Blackfoot for "All Indians". Their first efforts to open discussions with the City of Seattle in advance of the turnover of the land failed. The City said it would not open discussions until it acquired the land, and referred them to the
Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). As Whitebear later wrote, "This action displayed their ignorance of both the BIA's restricted service policy, which excluded urban Indians, and also the disregard and disfavor urban Indians held for the BIA." Prominent among those who preferred to wait was Pearl Warren, founder of the American Indian Women's Service League, who was concerned that a militant attitude would undercut the existing city-funded services. It was peaceably agreed that those who wished to take more extreme action would not use the name "Kinatechitapi", The more militant faction soon adopted the name "American Indian Fort Lawton Occupation Forces". According to Whitebear, her presence "captured the imagination of the world press. American Indians were attacking active military forts along with one of the nation's leading opponents of United States involvement in the Vietnam War." Her presence transformed "an effort to secure a land base for urban Indians" into "a bizarre, ready-for-prime-time, movie scenario, complete with soldiers, modern-day Indians, and anti-war activists. Without really appreciating it at the time, the Indian movement had achieved, through Jane Fonda's presence, a long-sought credibility which would not have been possible otherwise." On March 8, 1970, Whitebear was among the leaders of about 100 "Native Americans and sympathizers" who confronted military police in riot gear at the fort. The MPs ejected them from the fort, but they were able to establish an encampment outside the fort. Organizing as the United Indians of All Tribes Foundation (UIATF), they used tactics ranging from politicking to occupation of land to celebrity appearances. Some of the key politicking came at the federal level: UIATF, like the city, filed to directly acquire land that the federal government was releasing, and the federal government ultimately insisted that the two come up with a joint plan. Negotiations, confrontation and even a
Congressional intervention combined in November 1971 to give them a 99-year lease on 20 acres (81,000 m2) in what would become Seattle's
Discovery Park, with options for renewal without renegotiation. In addition, the City gave $600,000 to the American Indian Women's Service League for a social services center. — joined with architects Arai Jackson to design the facility, which opened in 1977. Reyes later became a curator of art and author, writing a personal memoir and a biography of his brother (''Bernie Whitebear: An Urban Indian's Quest for Justice'', 2006). Along with
Bob Santos,
Roberto Maestas, and
Larry Gossett, Whitebear became one of Seattle's so-called "
Gang of Four" or "Four Amigos" who founded Seattle's
Minority Executive Directors's Coalition. He continued to build the UIATF as an institution, with programs ranging from the La-ba-te-yah youth home in the
Crown Hill neighborhood to the Sacred Circle Art Gallery at Daybreak Star. The center also operated a pre-school, family support programs, and sponsored a large annual
pow-wow every July. It supports a "social-service agency with more than 100 staffers, an annual budget of $4 million, and eight federally funded programs serving Indians - infants to elderly." In the same era when Daybreak Star was being constructed, Whitebear served on the
Seattle Arts Commission. In 1995, he was appointed to the board of the
National Museum of the American Indian, and was involved in the planning for the new museum Whitebear died of
colon cancer, July 16, 2000. ==Personal life==