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Aerial View of Alcatraz Island during Indian Occupation, Teepee at Center, 1971
Courtesy National Archives, San Bruno
This
month, the California Historical Society honors Native American Heritage Month
with a look at the nearly 19-month-long Indian occupation of Alcatraz and the
enduring outcome that came to fruition 40 years later. Through imagery and the
voices of those who were there, we revisit this event, a defining moment in the
Native American civil rights movement.
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On November 20, 1969, a
group of American Indians successfully breached a Coast Guard blockade and
made
landfall on Alcatraz Island, shut down by the government six years earlier. The
group, which called itself Indians of All Tribes (IOAT) claimed the land by
“right of discovery,” and, some said, earlier treaties between Indians and the federal
government. Previous attempts to claim Alcatraz in 1964 and the spring of 1969
had led to the Coast Guard blockade.
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American Indians Arriving on Alcatraz
Island, 1969
Photograph by Vincent
Maggiora, San Francisco Chronicle Collection
California Historical Society
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"We hold The Rock"
Richard Oakes, Mohawk, Occupation Leader
Issues around land—its
meaning, the rights to it, and the abrogation of those rights—are frequently at
the heart of modern land claims, as evidenced by current protests over the oil
pipeline near North Dakota’s Standing Rock Sioux tribal lands. One hundred
years before the occupation of Alcatraz, the Modoc War of 1872–73 in far
northern California presaged the later occupation with a similar claim to native
lands and a months-long standoff between the native peoples of the Klamath
Basin area and the federal government. The site is now memorialized as part of
the Lava Beds National Monument.
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John Trudell, Spokesperson, American Indian Occupation of Alcatraz Island, August 1970
Photograph by Barney Peterson, San Francisco Chronicle Collection,
California Historical Society
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“If you wanted to make it in America as an Indian, you had to
become a hollow person and let them remold you. . . . Alcatraz put me back into
my community and helped me remember
who I am. It was a rekindling of the spirit.”
John Trudell, Santee Sioux
At times during the
occupation of Alcatraz, there were reportedly hundreds of members of more than
20 tribes on the island. The occupation focused worldwide attention on the
ongoing grievances of American Indians and gained support from national
celebrities, local residents, labor unions, and other organizations that helped
supply the occupiers with food and medical supplies.
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American Indian Woman and Child, Alcatraz Island, November 1969
Photograph by Dave Randolph, San Francisco Chronicle Collection,
California Historical Society
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“It was idealistic, and the generosity of the
spirit of the people proved that we could change anything. People on the island
were very strong about freedom of speech, freedom of dissent.
I saw the
importance of dissent in government."
Wilma Mankiller, Cherokee Nation
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Delivering Food, American Indian Occupation of Alcatraz Island, November 1969
Photograph by Vincent Maggiora, San Francisco Chronicle collection
California Historical Society
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“We're Indians, all of us, and we belong on Alcatraz. Indians never had
prisons—yet here, in this white man's prison, we have found freedom for the
first time.”
La Nada Means, Shoshone Bannock
By 1971 conditions on the
island, which had been challenging from the start, deteriorated to the point
where, on June 10, armed federal agents stepped in and removed the dozen or so
people who remained. In 1972 the island became a national historic site as part
of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.
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Coast Guard Protecting American Indian Property, November 1969
Photograph by Vincent Maggiora, San Francisco Chronicle Collection,
California Historical Society
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"The
occupation of Alcatraz exceeded our wildest dreams. It caused major changes in
government policies toward Indians."
Adam Fortunate Eagle Nordwall, Chippewa
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FBI and GSA Officers Reassert Federal Ownership of Alcatraz Island, June 11, 1971
Photograph by Vincent Maggiora, San Francisco Chronicle Collection,
California Historical Society
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In the aftermath of the
occupation, federal policies toward Native Americans changed. Many tribal lands
were returned. Native American activism continued, such as the occupation of
Wounded Knee (1973). Of more enduring impact, in 2011 “We Are Still Here,” a
permanent multimedia exhibition documenting the occupation, opened in the
Alcatraz cellblock basement. The exhibition satisfies one of the demands of the
occupiers: to establish a cultural center on the island.
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“We Are Still Here,” 2011
Courtesy Richard Oaks Multicultural Center
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“This
exhibit is going to allow us to tell our story behind it. It’s going to allow
us to express ourselves in a way that America hasn’t heard our voice. It’s
going to give to a lot of tribes that have lost their ways and touch with their
own culture, because of assimilation, lack of the language.”
Frankie
Rivera, Navajo
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Entrance, “We Are Still Here” Exhibition, 2011
Courtesy, San Francisco State News; photo by Philip M. Klasky
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“A lot of
native kids don’t know the history of Alcatraz, they know a little bit about
it, but they don’t know why we did it, and the reasons that we did it, and how
it changed everything, how it started a whole new way of looking at yourself as
an indigenous person.”
Michael
Horse, Yaqui/Mescalero Apache
The
exhibition, which opened on November 20, 2011, was produced by students and faculty at San Francisco State and
California State University East Bay. It was esigned to mark the occupation that
began on the same day of 1969. In addition to the
exhibition, signs of the occupation are still visible to visitors of Alcratraz today.
Alison
Moore
Strategic
Initiatives Liaison
Shelly
Kale
Publications
and Strategic Projects Manager
Sources
Alex
Arbuckle, “When Native American activists took control of Alcatraz for 18 months”;
http://www.aol.com/article/news/2016/11/14/when-native-american-activists-took-control-of-alcatraz-for-18-m/21605574/
“Exhibit
on historic 1969–71 occupation of Alcatraz Island Opens,” San Francisco State News; http://news.sfsu.edu/exhibit-historic-1969-71-occupation-alcatraz-island-opens
Meredith
May, “American Indians get permanent exhibit at Alcatraz,” San Francisco Chronicle, Nov. 21, 2011; http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/American-Indians-get-permanent-exhibit-at-Alcatraz-2288648.php
National
Native American Heritage Month (2016); http://nativeamericanheritagemonth.gov/
National
Park Service, Alcatraz Island, “We Hold the Rock”; https://www.nps.gov/alca/learn/historyculture/we-hold-the-rock.htm
National
Park Service, Lava Beds National Monument, “The Modoc War”; https://www.nps.gov/labe/learn/historyculture/index.htm
Lulu
Orozco, “Alcatraz Exhibit Highlights Native American History, Golden Gate Express, May 1, 2014; http://goldengatexpress.org/2013/05/01/we-are-still-here/
San
Francisco State University, Bay Area Television Archive, “Occupation and
Ownership of Alcatraz Island”; https://diva.sfsu.edu/collections/sfbatv/bundles/18779
Malia
Wollan, “Antigovernment Graffiti Restored, Courtesy of Government,” New York Times, Dec. 24, 2012; http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/25/us/alcatraz-american-indian-occupation-graffiti-preserved.html
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Now on View at the California Historical
Society
Two exhibitions about Native Americans bridge the past and present:
Two exhibitions about Native Americans bridge the past and present:
Native Portraits: Contemporary Tintypes by Ed
Drew features portraits of members of the Klamath, Modoc, and Pit
River Paiute tribes, some of them descendants of Modoc War survivors.
A selection
of Modoc War images by Eadweard J. Muybridge and Louis H. Heller from the
California Historical Society collection are some of the objects displayed in Sensationalist Portrayal of the Modoc War,
1872–73.
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