Hank Adams

Henry Lyle (Hank) Adams (born 1943, Sioux-Assiniboine) is a Native American rights activist who was based in Washington state for much of his life. His activities have also taken him to Washington, DC and Wounded Knee, South Dakota. His family moved to Washington State from Montana when he was a child, and he has lived and worked there most of his life.

He was instrumental in working to assert and protect Native American fishing and hunting rights as free of state restrictions and of seeking action through protests and court challenges. The issue was settled by the United States Supreme Court ruling in United States v. Washington (1974), known as the Boldt Decision, generally affirming native treaty fishing rights, and effectively making the tribes co-managers with the state of salmon and other fishing resources.

He participated in the American Indian Movement, including its occupation of the Department of Interior Building in Washington, DC in 1972 and in the Wounded Knee incident in 1973. In both cases Adams played important roles in negotiating peaceful resolutions of volatile situations. He continued his work to press for tribal sovereignty and to restore the role of elders in the tribes. In 2006 he was given the 'American Indian Visionary Award' by Indian Country Today.

Henry Lyle (known as Hank) Adams was born to an Assiniboine family on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Montana on May 16, 1943. His birthplace was Wolf Point, but nicknamed as Poverty Flats. In 1944, his family moved to Washington State, seeking defense industry jobs. They settled in Grays Harbor County, Washington, on the Olympic Peninsula south of the Quinault Indian Reservation. While growing up, Adams worked as a child and youth as a fruit and vegetable picker on nearby farms.

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