Daughter of Maiselle McCloud Bridges and Alvin Bridges, Alison was an activist for Native treaty fishing rights as a child and teenager. She grew up and lived most of her life at Frank's Landing. She was 13 when the police attacked Billy Frank Jr and every other Native person present on Oct 13,1965. She remembered “This game warden, he grabbed me by the hair and he started to slam my head into the log." A picture of her being arrested as a minor at the September 9th violent police attack on the Puyallup fish camp became one of the best known photos from the Fish Wars. Alison and her sisters Suzette and Valerie were present and sometimes arrested at many of the major Red Power actions of the 1970's including the takeover of Fort Lawton which resulted in the successful creation of Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center. She was also present at the BIA takeover and Trail of Broken Treaties. At the armed takeover of the Cushman Hospital, she delivered the eviction notice to the state along with Ramona Bennett and Carolyn Clark. She later served as Chair of the Wha-he-lut Indian School at Nisqually, and was a coucilperson on Puyallup Tribal Council.

The exact location of the failed colony is somewhat debated however it was most likely somewhere near Winyah Bay, South Carolina. Ayllon and a slaving party had landed there in 1521 and kidnapped ~60 Indigenous peoples including Francisco de Chicora. He returned in 1526 with ~600 settlers and slaves. The failure of this colony is notable for many reasons, not least of which is that these enslaved Africans he brought were the first enslaved Africans to be brought to what would become the continental US and thus the first who led a slave revolt. Also notable is that Francisco de Chicora, who was brought as a guide to help with trade with the local Indigenous population, promptly deserted the settlers and returned to his people. The settlers quickly developed problems with human waste in their water source causing outbreaks of dysentery and other diseases. Things deteriorated quickly for the settlers after their leaders death. Around the same time settlers forced themselves on a local village to demand supplies which the village resisted and the settlers were killed. Enslaved Africans burned down one of the shacks of Doncel, a would-be replacement leader. By mid-November all settlers had left. Approximately ~150 of the 600 survived. It is unclear from the documentation what happened the enslaved people. It's possible they escaped and joined the local Indigenous peoples but nothing is recorded.