"Gang" keeps on fighting

These days their hair is whiter and they've even — egad — worn tuxes.

But the fightin' words — and the mutual joshing — still come on strong when members of the Gang of Four gather, as they did Friday at Discovery Park's Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center to decry the Bush administration's budget and the effects they say it would have on children and seniors.

The Gang of Four is just three now. The original gang, also known as the Four Amigos — Larry Gossett, Roberto Maestas, Bob Santos and the late Bernie Whitebear — formed in the late 1960s, after they met at demonstrations and organizing meetings. They realized they could band together to address common issues. Plus, they just liked hanging out together.

Throughout the '60s and '70s, they supported each other through Chinatown International District protests against construction of the Kingdome, demonstrations for Indian fishing rights, and the occupation of Seattle's vacant Beacon Hill School, which they wanted for a Latino community center. The school eventually became headquarters for El Centro de la Raza, a social-service and community center.

Over the years, they've taken on other community roles, sometimes fighting the government, sometimes working for it.

Gossett is now a King County councilman. Maestas is executive director of El Centro de la Raza. Santos is the soon-to-retire executive director of Inter*Im, a nonprofit in the International District that encourages community-based development.

Whitebear, who died of cancer in 2000, founded and headed the United Indians of All Tribes Foundation, an umbrella social-service organization for the urban Indian community.

They also created the King County Minority Executive Directors Coalition, which brings together leaders of 120 minority nonprofits to ensure funding for social services.

They still get together quite a bit socially. And Whitebear's spirit is still with them whenever they gather, they say.

Surely Whitebear, who in the 1970s led a Native American occupation of Discovery Park's Fort Lawton that led to the creation of the Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center, would've approved of the rabble-rousing speeches at the press conference Friday.

Joining the old-time Amigos was Phil Lane Jr. the new head of United Indians of All Tribes, who talked of the economic costs of the Iraq war and the cuts to programs such as Head Start, Medicaid and Medicare.

Santos recalled that when the Gang of Four first got together, "this country wasn't very sensitive to Third World peoples. And we're still here! We're still fighting for the same things! I don't know what's happened."

"I'll join any of you who want to sit in front of the White House," Santos challenged the audience.

It's unclear whether the Gang of Four — with Lane — will actually get together more often now to strategize and organize community actions, as they have in the past.

There are no firm plans at the moment, though Gossett said Friday's event signaled the start of a more formal, organized building of coalitions across racial lines.

In any case, the friendship endures for the Amigos.

They received a ritzy award last year, for which they flew to Washington, D.C., to attend a $1,000-a-plate dinner.

They realized they had to wear tuxes — something they had done only occasionally before (including that time they did a group dance to Gladys Knight and the Pips at an Asian-American community talent event).

"As we get older, we get a little bit more mellow," Santos said. "We enjoy all the phases of this life now — the tuxedos and the honors being presented."

Janet I. Tu: 206-464-2272 or jtu@seattletimes.com