Joe DeLaCruz

DeLaCruz grew up on the Quinault Reservation in Taholah Grays Harbor County, Washington, the eldest of 10 children. In high school he was student-body president and a four-sport athlete. He fished in the summers with his grandfather on the Quinault River, drove a school bus and worked at the local lumber mill.

He served two years in the United States Army in Germany, then attended Portland State University in Portland, Oregon, after which he took a federal government job in that city. In 1967, he came back to the reservation as tribal business manager, and in 1971 was elected tribal president, a position he held for 22 years.http://nwindian.evergreen.edu/jdlc.html {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081012063037/http://nwindian.evergreen.edu/jdlc.html |date=2008-10-12 }} Joe DelaCruz Center], The Evergreen State College, accessed online 2009-06-04, says "more than 25 years", but [http://tribalselfgov.org/remembrance/remembrance_page.asp Remembrance Page], tribalselfgov.org, accessed online 2009-06-04, seems to concur with the Times obituary. They say he served 1972-1993.

DeLaCruz was significantly involved in the rising militancy among Native Americans in the early 1970s. He participated in the 1970 confrontations at Fort Lawton in Seattle, Washington that led to the founding of the United Indians of All Tribes Foundation and the Daybreak Star Cultural Center. He was one of the organizers of the 1971 protest that blocked logging roads at the Chow Chow Bridge against companies that were logging on tribal lands and demanded the right for the Quinaults to manage their own natural resources. He advocated for Native salmon fishing rights and rights to control their coastal beaches. Under his leadership, the Quinaults hired their own juvenile counselors, police officers and foresters. He was one of the architects of the Centennial Accord, which delineates the principles of government to government relationship between the tribes and the State of Washington.[http://www.tribalgov.pdx.edu/bio_tonasket.php Mel Tonasket], The Institute for Tribal Government, Portland State University. Accessed online 2009-06-04.

He was elected president of the National Tribal Chairmen's Association (1977) president of the National Congress of American Indians (1981), serving four years in the latter post. From 1984 until his death, DeLaCruz served as chair of public policy at the Center for World Indigenous Studies.

After his 2000 death from a heart attack, he was memorialized by the establishment of the Joe DelaCruz Center for Advanced Studies in Tribal Government, a project of Northwest Indian Applied Research Institute (NIARI) at The Evergreen State College.[http://nwindian.evergreen.edu/jdlc.html Joe DelaCruz Center] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081012063037/http://nwindian.evergreen.edu/jdlc.html |date=2008-10-12 }}, The Evergreen State College. Accessed online 2009-06-04.

{{reflist}}

• Lawney L. Reyes, Bernie Whitebear: An Urban Indian's Quest for Justice, University of Arizona, 2006. {{ISBN|0-8165-2521-8}}. {{ISBN|978-0-8165-2521-8}}.

• [http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=9877 Biography] at HistoryLink
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20081012063037/http://nwindian.evergreen.edu/jdlc.html Joe DelaCruz Center for Advanced Studies in Tribal Government], The Evergreen State College. Page includes a photo of DelaCruz.
• Joe DeLaCruz, [http://www.nzdl.org/fast-cgi-bin/library?e=d-00000-00---off-0ipc--00-0----0-10-0---0---0direct-10---4-------0-1l--11-en-50---20-about---00-0-1-00-0-0-11-1-0utfZz-8-00&a=d&c=ipc&cl=CL1.7&d=HASH428d6c1ee55b0b84f72b70 Keynote Address to the National Fisheries Conference, Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs National Indian Brotherhood], 1980-05-20. Fourth World Documentation Project.
• Joe DeLaCruz, [http://puka.cs.waikato.ac.nz/cgi-bin/library?e=d-00000-00---off-0ipc--00-0----0-10-0---0---0direct-10---4-------0-1l--11-en-50---20-about---00-0-1-00-0-0-11-1-0utfZz-8-00&a=d&c=ipc&cl=CL1.9&d=HASH6008a72bd03e05f5bcd455 "Defending Our Inalienable Rights: We Cannot Fail Our Children"], Presidential Address to National Congress of American Indians, 1984-09-10. Fourth World Documentation Project.
• Joe DeLaCruz, [http://nzdl.sadl.uleth.ca/cgi-bin/library.cgi?e=d-00000-00---off-0ipc--00-0----0-10-0---0---0direct-10---4-------0-1l--11-en-50---20-about---00-0-1-00-0-0-11-1-0utfZz-8-00&a=d&c=ipc&cl=CL1.6&d=HASH01bee3c0ff5ec93e9f2ca2b2 Indian Governments and Neighboring Governments: Sovereign Equality and Standards of Conduct Within the Context of Government-to-Government Relations], remarks before the Seminar on Government-to-Government Relations. American Indian Opportunity. Renton Sheraton Hotel. February 25, 1985.
• Joe DeLaCruz, [http://indian.senate.gov/1998hrgs/0407_jd.htm Testimony on behalf of the Quinault Indian Nation] before the United States Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, Field Hearings On Senate Bill 1691 - Tribal Sovereign Immunity, April 7, 1998, Seattle, Washington. Fourth World Documentation Project.

{{Quinault Indian Nation}}

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Category:1937 births

Category:2000 deaths

Category:20th-century Native American leaders

Category:Native American activists

Category:Native American leaders

Category:People from Grays Harbor County, Washington

Category:Portland State University alumni

Category:Quinault people