Occupation of Alcatraz

The Occupation of Alcatraz (November 20, 1969 – June 11, 1971) was a 19-month long protest when 89 American Indians and their supporters occupied Alcatraz Island. The protest was led by Richard Oakes, LaNada Means, and others; John Trudell was the spokesman. This group lived on the island together until the protest was forcibly ended by the U.S. government.

"Indians of All Tribes" redirects here. For the Seattle organization, see United Indians of All Tribes.
Occupation of Alcatraz
Part of Red Power movement
Graffiti from the occupation of Alcatraz as it appeared in 2010
DateNovember 20, 1969 – June 11, 1971 (1969-11-20 – 1971-06-11) (1 year, 6 months and 22 days)
Location
Alcatraz Island

37°49′36″N 122°25′22″W
Caused byClaimed violations of the Treaty of Fort Laramie
GoalsAwareness of American Indian oppression
Parties to the civil conflict
Lead figures
Leonard Garment
Bradley H. Patterson, Jr.		 Richard Oakes
John Trudell
LaNada Means
Number
89 (November 20, 1969)
Hundreds (at peak)
15 (June 11, 1971)
Casualties
Death(s)One (accidental)
Graffiti on the Water Tower

The protest group chose the name Indians of All Tribes (IOAT) for themselves.[1] The IOAT claimed that, under the Treaty of Fort Laramie between the U.S. and the Lakota tribe, all retired, abandoned, or out-of-use federal land was returned to the Indians who once occupied it. Alcatraz penitentiary had been closed on March 21, 1963, and the island had been declared surplus federal property in 1964, so a number of Red Power activists felt that the island qualified for a reclamation by Indians.

The Occupation of Alcatraz had a brief effect on federal Indian Termination policies and established a precedent for Indian activism. Oakes was shot to death in 1972, and the American Indian Movement was later targeted by the federal government and the FBI in COINTELPRO operations.

Background

In 1963, Belva Cottier, a Rosebud Sioux social worker living in the San Francisco Bay Area, read an article that the Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary was to be closed and the property given to the City of San Francisco. Remembering the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie, she and her cousin, Richard McKenzie, located a copy of the treaty and proposed that if the property was surplus land of the government, Sioux could claim it.[2][3] She planned and organized an occupation and a court action to obtain title to the island.[2][3][4] On March 8, 1964, a small group of Sioux demonstrated by occupying the island for four hours.[5] The entire party consisted of about 40 people, including photographers, reporters and Elliot Leighton, the lawyer representing those claiming land stakes. According to Adam Fortunate Eagle, this demonstration was an extension of already prevalent Bay Area street theater used to raise awareness. The Sioux activists were led by Richard McKenzie, Mark Martinez, Garfield Spotted Elk, Virgil Standing-Elk, Walter Means, and Allen Cottier. Cottier acted as spokesman for the demonstration, stating that it was "peaceful and in accordance with Sioux treaty rights." The protesters were publicly offering the federal government the same amount for the land that the government had initially offered them; at 47 cents per acre, this amounted to $9.40 for the entire rocky island, or $5.64 for the twelve usable acres. Cottier also stated that the federal government would be allowed to maintain use of the Coast Guard lighthouse located on the island. The protesters left under threat that they would be charged with felony. This incident resulted in increased media attention for indigenous peoples' protests across the Bay Area.[6]

The United Council of the Bay Area Indian community initially considered writing a proposal and filing an application for the use of Alcatraz by Sioux people under the conditions of their treaty. Plans were drawn up for using the buildings on Alcatraz as a cultural center. Conversations about handing Alcatraz over to developers for commercial development created concern about the future availability of the island. A desire for more immediate action to claim space for the local Indian community was finally spurred by the loss of the San Francisco Indian Center to fire on October 10, 1969. The loss of the San Francisco Indian Center spurred action among indigenous peoples because of the importance it held within their community. The center provided Native Americans with jobs, health care, aid in legal affairs, and social opportunities. This detrimental loss happening on top of the Indians' already growing tension with the U.S. government prompted strategies[7] for obtaining Alcatraz for use by the local Indian community shifted from formal applications to more immediate takeover.[6]

In 1969, Adam Fortunate Eagle planned a symbolic occupation for November 9. University student leaders Mohawk Richard Oakes and Shoshone Bannock LaNada Means, head of the Native American Student Organization at the University of California, Berkeley,[8] with a larger group of student activists joined Fortunate Eagle. A group of five boats was organized to take approximately 75 indigenous peoples over to the island, but none of the boats showed up. Adam Fortunate Eagle convinced Ronald Craig, the owner of the Monte Cristo, a three-masted yacht, to pass by the island when their own boats did not arrive.[6] Oakes, Jim Vaughn (Cherokee), Joe Bill (Eskimo), Ross Harden (Ho-Chunk) and Jerry Hatch jumped overboard, swam to shore, and claimed the island by right of discovery.[9] The Coast Guard quickly removed the men, but later that day, a larger group made their way to the island again, and fourteen stayed overnight. The following day, Oakes delivered a proclamation, written by Fortunate Eagle, to the General Services Administration (GSA) which claimed the island by right of discovery, after which the group left the island.[10]

Though recently many people have claimed that the American Indian Movement was somehow involved in the Takeover, AIM had nothing to do with the planning and execution of the Occupation,[11] though they did send a delegation to Alcatraz in the early months in order to find out how the operation was accomplished and how it was progressing.

Occupation
Graffiti from the occupation, featuring a Navajo greeting, "Yata Hey"

In the early morning hours of November 20, 1969, 89 American Indians, including more than 30 women,[6] students, married couples and 6 children, set out to occupy Alcatraz Island.[1] A partially successful Coast Guard blockade prevented most of them from landing, but fourteen protesters landed on the island to begin their occupation. The island's lone guard, who had been warned of the impending occupation, sent out a message on his radio. "Mayday! Mayday!" he called. "The Indians have landed!"[12][13]

At the height of the occupation there were 400 people. Native and non-native people brought food and other necessary items to the people on the island, but the coast guard's blockades made it increasingly difficult to supply the occupants with food. The suppliers, after stealthily journeying across the bay via canoe, dropped off the supplies which then had to be carried up steep ladders.[7] The occupation lasted about 19 months but ended peacefully.[13][14] An employee of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Doris Purdy, who was also an amateur photographer, accompanied a group who went on November 29, stayed the night and recorded video footage.[15]

The protesters, predominantly students, drew inspiration and tactics from contemporary civil rights demonstrations, some of which they had themselves organized. The original fourteen students who occupied the Island were LaNada Means War Jack, Richard Oakes, Joe Bill, David Leach, John Whitefox, Ross Harden, Jim Vaughn, Linda Arayando, Bernell Blindman, Kay Many Horse, John Virgil, John Martell, Fred Shelton, and Rick Evening. Jerry Hatch and Al Miller, both present at the initial landing but unable to leave the boat in the confusion after the Coast Guard showed up, quickly turned up in a private boat. The first landing party was joined later by many others in the following days, including Joe Morris (a key player later as a representative of the Longshoreman's Union, which threatened to close both ports if the Occupiers were removed), and the man who would soon become "the Voice of Alcatraz," John Trudell.

Although she would not receive the same recognition from mainstream media as Trudell and Oakes would, LaNada Means, who was one of the first to arrive and one of the last to leave, organized written statements and speeches that outlined the purpose of the occupation. To the media and to the federal government, Means made it clear that the occupiers wanted complete Indian control over the island, under the Treaty of Fort Laramie, for the purpose of building a cultural center that included Native American Studies, an American Indian spiritual center, an ecology center, and an American Indian Museum. According to Means' grant proposal, the center would include full-time Indian consultants, Indian teachers, Indian librarians, and an Indian staff leading people around the center in order to tell the story of Indians of All Tribes.[16] The occupiers specifically cited their treatment under the Indian termination policy and they accused the U.S. government of breaking numerous Indian treaties.

Richard Oakes sent a message to the San Francisco Department of the Interior:

We invite the United States to acknowledge the justice of our claim. The choice now lies with the leaders of the American government – to use violence upon us as before to remove us from our Great Spirit's land, or to institute a real change in its dealing with the American Indian. We do not fear your threat to charge us with crimes on our land. We and all other oppressed peoples would welcome spectacle of proof before the world of your title by genocide. Nevertheless, we seek peace.[13]

President Richard Nixon's Special Counsel Leonard Garment took over negotiations from the GSA.[13]

On Thanksgiving Day, hundreds of supporters made their way to Alcatraz to celebrate the Occupation.[13] In December, one of the occupiers, Isani Sioux John Trudell, began making daily radio broadcasts from the island, and in January 1970, occupiers began publishing a newsletter. Joseph Morris, a Blackfoot member of the local longshoreman's union, rented space on Pier 40 to facilitate the transportation of supplies and people to the island.[13]

Cleo Waterman (Seneca Nation) was president of the American Indian Center during the takeover.[17] As an elder, she chose to stay behind and work on logistics to support the occupiers.[18] She worked closely with Grace Thorpe and the singer Kay Starr to bring attention to the occupation and its purpose.[17]

Thorpe, daughter of Jim Thorpe (Sac and Fox), was one of the occupiers and helped convince celebrities like Jane Fonda, Anthony Quinn, Marlon Brando, Jonathan Winters, Buffy Sainte-Marie and Dick Gregory, to visit the island and show their support.[13][19] Not only did Thorpe bring both national and international attention to the occupation, she also provided supplies necessary to keep the occupation alive. Thorpe supplied a generator, water barge and an ambulance service to the island.[8] Rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival supported the Occupation with a $15,000 (equivalent to $98,753 in 2019) donation that was used to buy a boat, named the Clearwater,[20] for reliable transport to Alcatraz.[13] As a child, actor Benjamin Bratt was present at the occupation with his mother and his siblings.[21]

Collapse and removal

On January 3, 1970, Yvonne Oakes, 13-year-old daughter of Annie and stepdaughter to Richard Oakes, fell to her death, prompting the Oakes family to leave the island, saying they just did not have the heart for it anymore.[13] Some of the original occupiers left to return to school, and some of the new occupiers had drug addictions. Some non-aboriginal members of San Francisco's drug and hippie scene also moved to the island, until non-Indians were prohibited from staying overnight.[13]

In an interview with "Radio Free Alcatraz", occupant and Sioux Indian, John Trudell, lamented of how, "water [was] still [their] big number one problem, and how "rapidly, [their] number two problem [was] becoming electricity". The government often shut off all electricity to the island, as well as made it difficult for water to reach the occupants in an effort to make them desert the island.[7]

After Oakes left, LaNada Means, John Trudell and Stella Leach were challenged with rebuilding the occupation's worsening reputation. Means, having been in a family that was always active in tribal politics, was comfortable briefing reporters on how reservations operated or directing occupiers on island clean up.[22] So when Robert Robertson, a Republican working for the National Council on Indian Opportunity, arrived on the island in 1970, just a week after Yvonne Oakes' passing, Means took the lead in trying to negotiate the grant for the cultural center. Along with Means, Robertson originally met with a group of occupiers to discuss safety and negotiations regarding the occupation. He was surprised that only ten men were present while forty American Indian women were present and active in discussion.[23] When the initial meeting ended, Means invited Robertson to a private dinner between her and three lawyers to propose a $500,000 grant to renovate the island.[24] Robertson, however, refused and would continue to refuse the occupiers' proposals until finally, in May 1970 the federal government began to transfer Alcatraz to the Department of the Interior and the National Park System.

LaNada Means attempted to find different routes to support Indians of All Tribes and those still on Alcatraz. Means believed that if she could hire a high-profile attorney to represent their claim for the Treaty of Fort Laramie, IOAT would win their case. However, as she travelled further and further away from the island to find supporters, rumors began that she was offered a screen test with a movie producer, therefore becoming an opportunist. When she returned she had found that Trudell and the occupation's attorney's disagreed with her approach. Ultimately, the remaining occupiers followed Trudell.[25] These opposing views between Means and Trudell are only one simple example of the power struggle that was one of the main reasons for the demise of the occupation. Comanche Indian Paul Chaat Smith, who works as an associate curator at the National Museum of the American Indian, speaks from personal experience that Indian leaders are often not united and frequently let power get in the way of the change they wish to make. This proved true in the Occupation of Alcatraz when the operation turned out to not be as united as the occupants first hoped it to be. Their demands proved contradictory of each other, and their inability to see past differences and compromise proved detrimental to the occupation of the island.[26]

By late May, the government had cut off all electrical power and all telephone service to the island. In June, a fire of disputed origin destroyed numerous buildings on the island.[13] Left without power, fresh water, and in the face of diminishing public support and sympathy, the number of occupiers began to dwindle. On June 11, 1971, a large force of government officers removed the remaining 15 people from the island.[13]

Though fraught with controversy and forcibly ended, the Occupation is hailed by many as a success for having attained international attention for the situation of native peoples in the United States,[27] and for sparking more than 200 instances of civil disobedience among Native Americans.[28]

Impact

The Occupation of Alcatraz had a direct effect on federal Indian policy and, with its visible results, established a precedent for Indian activism. "Alcatraz has unified Indians for a second time," one occupier told the Los Angeles Times. "The first time was against Custer."[12]

Robert Robertson, director of the National Council on Indian Opportunity (NCIO), was sent to negotiate with the protesters. His offer to build a park on the island for Indian use was rejected, as the IAT were determined to possess the entire island, and hoped to build a cultural center there. While the Nixon administration did not accede to the demands of the protesters, it was aware of the delicate nature of the situation, and so could not forcibly remove them. Spurred in part by Spiro Agnew's support for Native American rights, federal policy began to progress away from termination and toward Indian autonomy. In Nixon's July 8, 1970 Indian message, he decried termination, proclaiming, "self-determination among Indian people can and must be encouraged without the threat of eventual termination." While this was a step toward substantial reform, the administration was hindered by its bureaucratic mentality, unable to change its methodical approach of dealing with Indian rights. Nixon's attitude toward Indian affairs soured with the November 2, 1972 occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). Much of the Indian rights activism of the period can be traced to the Occupation of Alcatraz. The Trail of Broken Treaties, the BIA occupation, the Wounded Knee incident, and the Longest Walk all have their roots in the occupation. The American Indian Movement noted from their visit to the occupation that the demonstration garnered national attention, while those involved faced no punitive action. When AIM members seized the Mayflower II on Thanksgiving, 1970, the Occupation of Alcatraz was noted as "the symbol of a newly awakened desire among Indians for unity and authority in a white world."[29][20] The occupation of Alcatraz Island served as a strong symbol and uniting force for indigenous peoples everywhere because of the importance the island held in their ancestors' lives. Indians traveled to Alcatraz about 10,000 years before the Europeans even entered the Bay Area. Over the course of their history, the island served the purpose of a camping ground, was used as a place to hunt for food, and at one point became an isolated and remote place where law violators were held. The occupation which began in 1969 caused Native Americans to remember what the island meant to them as a people.[7] Although the Alcatraz occupation inspired many other Pan-Indian movements to occur, it also showed how gender played a part in Indian activism. Mainstream media had an obsession with documenting the stereotype of the male Indian warrior and as such it was only the men that were highlighted as being the leaders and creators of movements.[30] Women at the occupation of Alcatraz, such as LaNada Means and Stella Leach, receive little attention for contributing to the movement. As a result, the many women who had initiated movements such as the Wounded Knee Incident would never be as well known as Russell Means and other AIM leaders, even though, in the case of Wounded Knee, of the 350 occupiers, just 100 were men.[31] Quoted in John William Sayer's Ghost Dancing the Law: The Wounded Knee Trials, John Trudell admitted, in reflection, "We got lost in our manhood."[32]

Radio Free Alcatraz

The radio station formed a key ingredient in the occupation of Alcatraz. It broadcast half-hour programs at least 39 times via Pacifica stations KPFA (Berkeley), KPFK (Los Angeles), WBAI (New York), regularly at 7:15 pm PST, to more than 100,000 listeners.[33] Today, the Pacifica Radio Archives has physical copies of 39 broadcasts and four broadcasts have been digitally preserved and are available.[34] Its content consisted of discussions with various members of the occupation, whether Native American or not; and addresses by its prime mover, John Trudell, a Santee Sioux veteran. The station ended its operation when the Federal Government cut off electric power to the island in late May 1971. The FBI regarded Trudell as an especially dangerous voice for Native rights.[35]

Trudell spoke, in a calm midwestern voice, about key issues in Native life: forcible loss of ancestral lands, matters of spirituality, seriously contaminated water supply on Native reservations, sharp inequalities in infant mortality and life expectancy among Native Americans, as contrasted with the majority white US public. He addressed listeners as a plainspoken but calm mediator,[35] not in stinging rhetoric. Each program began with Buffy Sainte Marie’s song "Now That the Buffalo's Gone."[34]

Legacies

Some 50 of the Alcatraz occupiers traveled to the East Bay and began an occupation of an abandoned and dilapidated Nike Missile installation located in the hills behind the community of Kensington in June 1971. This occupation was ended after three days by a combined force of Richmond Police and regular US Army troops from the Presidio of San Francisco.[36] Moreover, the Alcatraz Occupation greatly influenced the American government's decision to end its Indian termination policy and to pass the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975.[13]

The Alcatraz Occupation led to an annual celebration of the rights of indigenous people, Unthanksgiving Day, welcome to all visitors to a dawn ceremony under permits by the National Park Service.

In March 1970, a Seattle-based group called the United Indians of All Tribes occupied Fort Lawton, demanding the return of Indigenous lands that were about to be declared surplus. The organization and their action was expressly modeled on the Indians of All Tribes and the occupation of Alcatraz. Bernie Whitebear, one of those involved, stated that "We saw what could be achieved there and if it had not been for their determined effort on Alcatraz, there would have been no movement here. We would like to think that Alcatraz lives on in part through Ft. Lawton."[37]

References
  1. Kelly, Casey Ryan (2014). "Détournement, Decolonization, and the American Indian Occupation of Alcatraz Island (1969–1971)". Rhetoric Society Quarterly. 44 (2): 168–190. doi:10.1080/02773945.2014.888464.
  2. Kamstra, Jerry (December 7, 1969). "The Grim Plight of the .... (pt. 1)". The San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle. San Francisco, California. p. 22. Retrieved August 12, 2020 – via Newspapers.com. and Kamstra, Jerry (December 7, 1969). "Urban Indian (pt. 2)". The San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle. San Francisco, California. p. 23. Retrieved August 12, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. Johnson, Troy (Autumn 1994). "The Occupation of Alcatraz Island: Roots of American Indian Activism". Wíčazo Ša Review. Cheney, Washington: Eastern Washington University. 10 (2): 63–79. doi:10.2307/1409133. ISSN 0749-6427. Retrieved August 13, 2020.
  4. Langston, Donna Hightower (Spring 2003). "American Indian Women's Activism in the 1960s and 1970s". Hypatia. New York, New York: Wiley. 18 (2): 114–132. ISSN 0887-5367.
  5. Warrior, Robert and Smith, Paul Chaat. Like a Hurricane: The Indian Movement from Alcatraz to Wounded Knee. New Press, 1996. p. 10
  6. Fortunate Eagle, Adam. Alcatraz! Alcatraz! The Indian Occupation of 1969–1971. Heyday Books, 1992.
  7. Johnson, Troy. The Occupation of Alcatraz.
  8. Donna Hightower Langston, "American Indian Women's Activism in the 1960s and 1970s," Hypatia 18, 2: 2003, 120.
  9. "Retired Site | PBS". Retired Site.
  10. Smith and Warrior (1996). Like a Hurricane. New York: The New Press. pp. 2–17.
  11. "Richard Oakes led Native Americans to occupy Alcatraz in 1969 — his tragic story is finally being told". Los Angeles Times. January 10, 2019. Retrieved May 26, 2020.
  12. "We Hold the Rock". The Attic. Retrieved July 25, 2018.
  13. "Alcatraz is Not an Island". PBS. Archived from the original on December 22, 2002. Retrieved May 23, 2017.
  14. Geographic, National (2010). National Geographic Indian Nations of North American. National Geographic. ISBN 978-1-4262-0664-1.
  15. Purdy, Doris (November 27, 2008). "Occupation of Alcatraz, 11-29-1969" – via YouTube.
  16. Paul Chaar Smith and Robert Allen Warrior, Like a Hurricane: The Indian Movement from Alcatraz to Wounded Knee, ( New York: The New Press, 1996), 76.
  17. "Alcatraz Island Occupation (1969-1971)". A Radical Guide. Retrieved May 26, 2020.
  18. "Dancer Rosy Simas exposes Native Americans' struggles". The San Francisco Examiner. October 6, 2015. Retrieved May 26, 2020.
  19. Zinn, Howard (2003), A people's history of the United States: 1492–present, New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., p. 528, ISBN 978-0-06-052842-3
  20. Kotlowski, Dean J. "Alcatraz, Wounded Knee, and Beyond: The Nixon and Ford Administrations Respond to Native American Protest," Pacific Historical Review, 72(2):201–227.
  21. "Film & Media - National Museum of the American Indian". Archived from the original on September 27, 2011. Retrieved December 7, 2009.
  22. Paul Chaar Smith and Robert Allen Warrior, Like a Hurricane: The Indian Movement from Alcatraz to Wounded Knee, ( New York: The New Press, 1996), 72.
  23. Paul Chaar Smith and Robert Allen Warrior, Like a Hurricane: The Indian Movement from Alcatraz to Wounded Knee, (New York: The New Press, 1996), 73.
  24. Paul Chaar Smith and Robert Allen Warrior, Like a Hurricane: The Indian Movement from Alcatraz to Wounded Knee, ( New York: The New Press, 1996), 74.
  25. LaNada Boyer, "Reflections of Alcatraz," American Indian Culture and Research Journal 18 (1994): 87.
  26. Smith, Paul. Like a Hurricane.
  27. Blue Cloud, Peter (1972). Alcatraz Is Not An Island. Berkeley: Wingbow Press.
  28. Johnson, Troy R. (1996). The Occupation of Alcatraz Island. Urbana & Chicago: Illini-University of Illinois Press.
  29. Johnson, Troy R. "Roots of Contemporary Native American Activism," American Indian Culture and Research Journal, 20(2):127–154.
  30. Donna Hightower Langston, "American Indian Women's Activism in the 1960s and 1970s," Hypatia 18, 2: 2003, 128.
  31. Donna Hightower Langston, "American Indian Women's Activism in the 1960s and 1970s," Hypatia 18, 2: 2003, 127.
  32. John William Sayer, Ghost Dancing the Law: The Wounded Knee Trials (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997), 224.
  33. "Radio free Alcatraz | Pacifica Radio Archives". pacificaradioarchives.org. Retrieved August 28, 2019.
  34. Engle, Megan (2019) "The Native American Occupation of Alcatraz Island: Radio and Rhetoric," Pursuit - The Journal of Undergraduate Research at the University of Tennessee: Vol. 9 : Iss. 1 , Article 5. Available at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/pursuit/vol9/iss1/5
  35. "The radio broadcaster who terrified the FBI". theweek.com. January 27, 2019. Retrieved August 28, 2019.
  36. Berkeley Gazette, June 15–18, 1971
  37. Johnson, Troy R. (1996). The Occupation of Alcatraz Island: Indian Self-determination and the Rise of Indian Activism. University of Illinois Press. pp. 223–224. ISBN 978-0-252-06585-9. Retrieved February 8, 2016.

Further reading
  • Alcatraz Is Not an Island, "Indians of All Tribes" (Peter Blue Cloud). Berkeley: Wingbow Press/Bookpeople, 1972
  • Johnson, Troy R. The occupation of Alcatraz Island: Indian self-determination and the rise of Indian activism. University of Illinois Press, 1996, 273 pp. ISBN 0-252-06585-9
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