Birthday of Alison Bridges (later Gottfriedson)

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.