Hank Adams

Activism Adams joined the National Indian Youth Council (NIYC) in 1963. He invited Brando to the event, whose visit garnered national media attention. Brando was arrested at the "fish-in" and was swiftly released. This collection of 200 members was concerned with protecting traditional Indian fishing rights, which were under pressure from sports and commercial fishermen and local governments. Native Americans asserted that their rights to fish superseded state regulations. Near the end of 1968, Adams became directly involved in the struggle and fought against state fishing regulation of Native Americans on the Nisqually River in Washington. This had been traditional Nisqually territory before the tribe ceded it to the United States. Adams was arrested several times for protest actions between 1968 and 1971. Adams led a group of over 100 residents of Resurrection City, including Native Americans in tribal regalia, to the United States Supreme Court in Washington DC on May 29, 1968.

The courts acted to uphold the treaty-protected fishing rights. They empowered tribes to partner with the state of Washington to co-manage the salmon and other fishing resources. where Adams drafted a proposal of Twenty Points, listing a series of demands.

Wounded Knee incident In February 1973, AIM protesters led what became known as the Wounded Knee incident, a 71-day occupation protest within the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Adams helped to end the occupation in a peaceful manner. He was the intermediary between Frank Fools Crow, the head of the Lakota occupation, and representatives of President Richard Nixon's White House. Leonard Garment, the lead White House aide in resolving both the Interior building takeover and the Wounded Knee incident, said: "Hank Adams' role in the peaceful resolution of some very difficult problems is still vividly clear in my mind.".

Legacy Adams was considered by many in the Indian community as one of the most influential people in the movement.

Adams was a member of the Franks Landing Indian Community of the Nisqually people.

Honors The American Institute for Public Service honored Adams in 1981 with a Jefferson Award for Public Service. Adams received an Abraham Lincoln Award from the National Education Association in 1971 for "courageous actions in support of equal opportunity" and for his "tireless activism". In 2006 he was honored with the American Indian Visionary Award by Indian Country Today, the third person to receive the award. On May 16, 2024, a Google Doodle was created to celebrate his commitment to social justice and the environment.