Occupation Alcatraz, a Milestone of
Red Power
The 1960s is a decade synonymous with civil disobedience
campaigns and social protest. From November 1969 to June 1971 the abandoned
prison of Alcatraz became part of the frontline to these campaigns. On the 20th
November 1969, eighty-nine Native Americans slipped across the San Francisco
Bay, intent on occupying the island. The occupation would land Alcatraz and
Native American plight in the spotlight of American and world media.
The activists, who called themselves the Indians of All
Tribes (IOAT) occupied the Island to bring national attention to the broken
treaties and the poor treatment of Native Americans. The occupation was sparked
by a growing sense of a loss of Indian identity. As part of America's policy of
termination, Native Americans were being moved from their reservations to urban
areas, for the reservations to then be developed, robbing Indians of what
little land and sense of culture they had remaining.
The IOAT claimed Alcatraz Island as Indian land by 'right of
discovery', and requested funding from the U.S government for a cultural and
education centre. The occupiers stated that the 1869 Fort Laramie Treaty,
between the Sioux and the US, gave Indians the right to all retired or unused
land that was previously Indian. Their offer of twenty-four dollars’ worth of
glass beads and red cloth as payment for the island, allegedly being what
European settlers paid for Manhattan in the seventeenth century, was only to
illustrate to the world the centuries of unfair treatment suffered by the
Indians.
However, by June 1971, a cultural and education centre had
not been funded and the eleven remaining Indians were removed by armed federal
officers. In terms of the occupiers demands Alcatraz was a failure but the
occupation became a rallying point for the Red Power Movement. Alcatraz became
a symbol of self-determination and of broken promises and treaties from the
U.S. government.
Alcatraz provoked a national response. Wide support was
gained with celebrities such as Marlon Brando publicly supporting Native American
struggles. In response, less than a year into the occupation, in July 1970,
President Nixon spoke declaring that it was time for the Indian future to be
"determined by Indian acts and Indian decisions".[1]
The Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, passed in 1975,
granted this. The act effectively ended the policy of termination, giving
grants directly to recognised Indian tribes which could then be administered.
Alcatraz brought Native American rights to the forefront of the government’s attention.
It captivated the nation and was a milestone for the American Indian Movement.
It sparked a decade of activism and protests such as Wounded
Knee in 1973, The Longest Walk in 1978 and the Trail of Broken Treaties, the
latter being a cross country protest that attempted to bring the government’s
attention to broken treaties and Indian rights. The occupation of Alcatraz
Island was ultimately a "watershed moment in Native American protest"[2].
It gained national attention and represented a big step in the Red Power
movement for Indian rights.
By Adam Knight
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