American Indian Women's Service League, 1958-1971

This week's Tribal Perspective examines the American Indian Women's Service League (AIWSL), an organization founded in 1957 in Seattle, WA.. In the words of Pearl Warren, a Macaw tribal member and AIWSL's first director, the League served "to make Indians part of the community they live in and to get non-Indians to recognize us as an Indian group."

This influential organization challenged the assimilationist objectives of postwar federal Indian policy, and sought to remedy the growth of urban Indian poverty in Seattle following World War II.

The AIWSL brought about the creation of Seattle's first Indian Center in 1960, the United Indians of All Tribes organization, the Seattle Indian Health Board, the American Indian Youth Club, and Traditions and Beyond - an Indian arts and crafts board. AIWSL also published the Indian Center News, hosted an international urban Indian conference in 1968, and sometimes worked in coalition with other, non-native civil rights groups.

The following link to the Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project provides a wealth of resources for exploring the civil rights activism of urban Indians in the Pacific Northwest. Here you will find activist oral histories, followed by links to research reports, newspaper reports, photographic collections, digitized historical documents, and additional resource links:

Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project
http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/UrbanIndians.htm

Resources:
Seattle Indian Center

Seattle Indian Services Commission (SISC)--the umbrella organization containing members of: American Indian Women's Service League, Seattle Indian Center, Seattle Indian Health Board, and United Indians of All Tribes.

American Indian Women's Service League 45th reunion

The Seattle Indian Health Board (SIHB)

Traditions and Beyond, the American Indian arts and crafts retail shop at the Indian Center

The United Indians of All Tribes Foundation (UIATF)

Indian Center News Digital Archive 1960-1971
http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/indiancenternews.htm