Alcatraz Is Not An Island

The Richard opes student services school state said we're going to take over an island in the middle of San Francisco Bay. There was a splash and a water ritual started swimming. Stay tuned for Alcatraz is not an island. The Indian occupation of Alcatraz major funding for this program was provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Additional funding was provided by the California Council for the Humanities.

The Pechanga band of loosing you Indians. The Muskogee Creek tribe of Oklahoma and George Cattermole. Long ago a Lakota man had a dream. He said there would come a time in the future long after the destruction of the buffalo in the Indian Nations when a new generation of young Indian warriors would take back a piece of land around surrounded by water in the West. Alcatraz is as the occupation West has been told by many people with many different versions and I don't know that there is a final version but it has evolved into something else which is like so many other Western

stories almost mythic proportions. In 1969 there's a group of people who were elated to stand up and say we want our freedom. We want to be made of people who want the right to self-determination. It's revolutionary. Alcatraz. And 69 Alcatraz today. It's a positive recognition of us as a people. Before Alcatraz. The rest of the world didn't really know we existed. As lightning strikes the Golden Gate fire dances the city streets a Navajo child whimpers the tides pull. And Cheyanne dance lowly on the ground. Tomorrow's breathing my shadow's heart and a tribe is an up

and a tribe is an eye in silhouette dances of my beautiful people hearts in heaven and spirit written in a drums lifecycle and a tribe is an island for Africa. It would be fitting and symbolic that ships from all over the world. The Golden Gate were first Indian. And thus be a reminder of the true history of this nation. This tiny island would be a symbol of the great West Indian. The best. The best. Almost immediately following landing War era there began a series of governmental

policies that were designed to make sure that we didn't exist anymore as tribal people that we no longer kept our language our our our cultural identity our religion and most importantly our land and I tell resources. Well nearly 90 percent of their land was taken over by whites. American Indians were subjected to government policies designed to force them into mainstream society government and missionary boarding schools were established in an attempt to transform American news into something more European and white. I was raised outside of a town called Hana Oklahoma in a traditional home where my parents spoke the Muskogee language. My mother had braided my hair for me it's very long and when I got to Carter they told me that they would have to cut it off. So they cut my hair off below the ears.

In the 1950s the government embarked upon a new set of programs known as relocation and terminations in order to fully assimilate American Indians and declare entire tribes nonexistent. Government officials come along says Come Out sign up for relocation. We're going to shipyard free of charge. You and your family grandma grandpa if you want to come along we'll ship ya to Oakland to San Francisco. We got to Oakland and we had a letter stating that somebody from the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office would come and meet us at the train station. And when we got off there was nobody there. The moment they got their first paycheck even if it was a temporary job the government says we're through with you. Along with the relocation program what's the most insidious federal project of the 20th century called terminations. 1953 determination policy that government basically says we're going to get out of the Indian business. We're going to wipe out every reservation in the country. We're going

to abrogate the remaining 350 treaties are not going to close down the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Four and a half centuries after contact the first Americans were becoming invisible Americans. They were Navajo Lakota and Chippewa. They were Pomo. Another. One is people in the cities they started looking for each other and finding each other which is not what the people in the relocation options had intended. I found that there was quite a community here in the area. Still tribal groups are starting to come together it was a Navajo club the pomo club the high they think it I would go on Saturday afternoons to the Intertribal Frenchie pass and just sit there and visit with Siebel because in many feel good that there was somebody that had experience early life similar to mine.

In 1962. We organized an umbrella group called United Bay Area Council of American Indian affairs so that we would have a greater voice in the community. The civil rights crusade. The Free Speech Movement. Vietnam in the 1960s student camps across the country exploded in protest and rebellion. In the midst of this political upheaval. A new generation of Bay Area urban Indians came together with their own grievances. He became increasingly aware of the fact that the Bureau of Indian Affairs relocation program dropped us off in the city and ended their relationship with us so we began requesting that they allow us to attend the universities. We didn't believe it was enough just to get vocational training.

They can get into the universities now. But when they get there there are no course it's the history books still say they're savages. And so India people start wanting some programs American Indian Studies programs. We all started the Indian Native American Studies Program at the same time. That's where we started a lot of activism on the campus of San Francisco State. For some reason the Indian man were at San Francisco State and the Indian women were at Berkeley. We just formed one student group as the Bay Area Indian community continue to grow. So did the need for social homes and community centers. And students organized to press their own issues. They also sought out a common gathering place. The American Indian Center in San Francisco was the. Single most important social focal point of all American Indians in the Bay Area. I remember coming to the dances on Friday night and meeting a lot of other. Indian people there at that time I was serving as a vice president of the Indians and while I was a student as had

just posted. So we used a lot of the meeting rooms and we more or less hung out there. Within this evolving community the seeds of a new pan indian activism took root. The social clubs begin to take more of a political overtone they start talking about we should we should do something. There was an article at that time I think it said that the the American Indian is actually a great slumbering giant get ready to rise off of its knees. In 1962 the federal government began to look at the cost of operating prison on Alcatraz Island new prisons were easier or less expensive to operate and so in 1963 it was decided that the prison on Alcatraz be closed. A stew woman buy them a bell the cutie and her cousin living in the Bay Area seem to recall an eight hundred sixty eight Sioux treaty that said unused federal

land that's been abandoned is available to be reclaimed by the Sioux people. That group doesn't make a very long occupation about contrast. The hole wouldn't last less than half a day really. But that puts into the head at least as far as I can tell. The idea of Alcatraz as a place for Indian people in the area. And 1968 the government declared Alcatraz surplus property and that's when the United consul he said we're going to make a proposal. We're going to see if we can do something with that island because we remembered what the sewers had tried to do with that claim. So we started a proposal and we had five different concepts of a spiritual center an educational center a museum and environmental or Ecology Center. All of these things were to be for the benefit of a new people. As the United Council waited for response. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a

controversy all retail development plan submitted by Texas oil millionaire HL Hunt. And then on October 9th 1969 a terrible disaster struck San Francisco. The Indian Center burned down. I was very sad people. Now we don't have a place to gather anymore and people are really putting the pressure on me about what we're going to do. You know. I called Don Patterson and earlier from our and I told him I have an idea of how they can get a new India etc. and the idea was to take Alcatraz. We got into psych class and we start talking about Indian activism and I Gurley Mary Lee justice she said why don't we take Alcatraz and why Alcatraz. Oh that looks just like most reservations anyway right. It's removed from society and there's no running water and unemployment to be very great there's not enough game to support that

population. And all of these things are just typical of an Indian reservation in the country so it was a good kind of satire. If you will to use all of that to say if if you think life for us on that island is going to be so tough why don't you take a look around any Indian reservation. And if you're appalled with what you see on Alcatraz look at those reservations and let's do something about it. It's at the hallowing party at the Phillies house of the plants begin to mature. He had all kinds of media TV guys newspaper reporters politicians. I think Dad himself. Confident enough at this party to tell the media it was going to happen. We're going to take Alcatraz. It takes the whole connection. Adam with the boats Tim with the media and the students have the bodies. One of the students was a young Mohawk from the Aqua sauce and a reserve on the Canadian border in upstate New

York. Richard Oakes we lived in married student housing called Gator via San Cisco state and we spent a lot of nights sitting up all night talking with the elders of the white roots of peace Richard. He had been a steel worker and he told me that he didn't go into the long houses that he didn't know a lot about the religion of Mohawks. But after the roots of peace left he said that he would through a complete transformation. He became more into Indian things and Indian activism and started respecting the traditions of his people. I had arranged for five boats to take a whole group of Indians out of the island and we had all the media there. Everybody had been cleared and quietly because we wanted to pull a surprise on the United States government. And there was Adam Richard and a lot of other Native Americans all waiting for these votes and they didn't show up. And said I went to Adam and said I don't you know this is all going to fall apart right here as the votes are there.

I had the proclamations in my hand and I give it to Richard I said Richard Reed approximations keep him busy because I got to go find a vote. So Richard took off with all of the media following along and I went the other way and I saw a two masted barque and there upon the crowd was the skipper he looked like a girlfriend and we know a tedious person. Craig I think was his name. And said we want to go to after trying to claim it a name in people. Mr. Craig said well you know I am flying under foreign flag so I can't take yielding Lanty dear but I can take you around and came back and tell us and he said well you know to if that's a good enough hell we'll do it. We pulled up there was laughing and cheering and camera crews all over and even people on the pier they were they were cheering you know they thought it was some kind of movie or something. And as we veered around to the north side there was a splash in the water. Richard also

had go overboard and start swimming toward the island. Another gun injury hedgerow Ross Harden job bill for Guy seven guys all told off in the water. And Captain Craig said Look adults are seen going to what I said the first woman over there take the islet aka trash for the good people I mean he says you can't do that he says about what flying the flag of Canada here this could be considered an act of war. And I remember it real good because four of them over on this side against the tide and the only smart me was Joe Bill and he just floated with the tide right to the docks at that cheer went up from the pole everybody was excited happy and pounding the drum because symbolically we had done what we set out to do. And so Richard decides that he will make this leap of faith into the bay. And if the boat won't take him that he'll go on his own.

In many ways that can be seen as the turning when the shift of energy and of leadership moves then to Richard as the person who made that leap. Richard Oakes decides that things in fact needed to be much more radical than a symbolic takeover of the island. And so Richard and a group decided that they would return to the island the evening of the night. We got on the island and it was beautiful. We were hiding out on the island finding out our places and then the Coast Guard arrived. They would be so close sometimes trying to keep back your laughter because you didn't want to give yourself away we felt like that you know. We were such kids. The next morning when she was came out to Alcatraz. To look at the Indians Richard off in the group the students came out of their hiding place on the island and they met with he handed from the General Services Administration and they read a letter of

demand to the federal government hereby offer the following treaty we have purchased said Alcatraz Island for $24 and glass beads and red cloth. A precedent set by the white man's purchase of a similar round about three hundred years ago. We know that $24 a trade goods for the 16 acres more than was paid when Manhattanite it was sold but we know that land values have risen over the years all for twenty a dollar and twenty four cents per acre is greater than its forty seven cents per acre the white man is now paying the Californians for their land. OK what are your plans now. I guess we can go home. And then which gives us all who are a little upset about that why he did what. We told which we were going to go back out here again. Throughout the cold and winter nights we tended to our bias. Would you act like it's close around and watch the waves crash higher build the cold

waves beat on our. Tribal. Indian hearts and stout men think we'll go away but we'll live this winter out to the north wind is our brother Jack in her shop. I we are the warriors of Alcatraz and we hold the rock. Following the removal on the early morning of the 10th of November 969 a large number the students go to the temporary Indian Center in San Francisco and start talking about the now the possibility of a much larger occupation. Richard Oakes then got down to the University of California at Los Angeles because of the sizable Indian student population there. Richard Oakes eloquently put a proposal in front of us and said we're going to take over an island in the middle of San Francisco Bay. That night in Campbell Hall. Richard Oakes coming explaining what had

happened on November 9 when it had been in 1960 for him coming to the end in this very traditional Mohawk way. By the end of that speech nearly half of the students from UCLA had decided to join up. They decided to go to Alcatraz. Through some talking with Richard I agreed. To call a friend who had also been at that party in Sausalito and who own the no name bar. So on November 20th 1969 I had just gotten off work. My friend Dennis Wright leave me and I went around to the front corner of the bar to have my afterword lemon a hard hundred 51 proof rum and or issues. Dennis turned and came back down to me and he said Perry said there's some guy on the phone says he's an Indian. And I think he wants to talk to you. The voice on the other end of the phone said Hi my name is Al Miller I'm a friend of Tim Finley.

And I understand that you might have a boat and I need you to take me and a bunch of Indians to somewhere in the middle of salmon Cisco Bay. And I can't tell you where. I said Al I said it's got to have something to do with Alcatraz you all did something there about a week or so ago. He said OK Peter it is Alcatraz. I said Well terrific. Now how many people are we talking about. He said Oh he said somewhere around 80 to 90 people. By. The way that's a lot of folks out that way won't fit along my boat. So I rounded up three wooden sailboats and owners who were game to do this with the sailors in tow. We ran around the harbor and borrowed enough life jackets for 60 Indians. And we agreed that we would embark for Alcatraz right after the bars close down which was 2 o'clock in the morning.

The Sausalito police were going nuts. These five or six policemen began noticing these crowds of young Indian men and women coming into town all carrying sleeping bags and. Bags of groceries and I don't recall the captain's name it was one of those things that we didn't really want to ask because we all assumed we were heading to jail and I wanted honestly to be able to say I don't know who the captain was and I don't know the name of the boat was I'd even look at the name of the boat. I was just happy that we were on our way. I jumped down into the cockpit. And I happen to land on one of one of the blanket rolls and the blanket roll yelped. And made a noise. There was a little girl.

Turns out Richard in any oaks had smuggled aboard. Against my rules of no children. Their daughter. And. I had a thought at the time I said you know they've broken a rule I said. Maybe I should just turn back. But. We didn't. We went and we got people off without anybody falling down between the boat and the dock and we just ran all over the island looking for fortifications and how we were going to defend it and all of a sudden that lion a little caretaker House and the door burst open and out came this little guy with a watch cap on and he looks around and he starts jumping up and saying mayday mayday the Indians of land. We have nothing to fear. We are not seeking to destroy the US government we are not seeking to

overthrow the US government. We are seeking to change that which must be changed. I believe there are 90 souls Indians on the island at the present time. I believe after talking to them they do not intend to leave. And I'm heading back to San Francisco to. Give consideration to what the actions of the might take within 24 hours the Coast Guard did in fact put up a blockade around Alcatraz Island. The truth was the local pirates just weren't going to let any blockade stop them from running supplies and new Indian blood out to the island. I had just gotten out of classes and I had gone back to my apartment in Fresno and I had heard about the occupation. I'm not sure if it was the radio or the TV We heard about when I think it was a ticker tape came over in the afternoon of November 20th

1969 Indian dress. We came to San Francisco and made inquiries about how to get to the island. Our first question was well whose title do you know whose jurisdiction in terms of the federal government. I remember my sister and my two aunts and myself we were able to get on this tiny tiny speedboat. Took us a little while to find out that this was federal property so the jurisdiction therefore was in the administrative general services and the next thing you know we were coming across and it felt like we were being thrown out of the water. I was so afraid Mr. Garman said to Mr. Lindsey what are you going to do about the Indians on Alcatraz. And Mr. Garment we're going to call in the federal marshals on have them out of there by noon tomorrow I should be ordered everybody welcomed us because they said how did you get there there was a blockade there not anybody. Carmen told comes a grumble if you call after cops I'm giving you the instructions wilderness and the negotiator from the White House out there call off your cops our own work how demeaning you. Everybody was here before us made us feel so welcome. You need to come up here you have. Your Bracci

bedrolls we didn't bring anything we just came. If one Indian was killed but you clean elderly infirm and you know one of the kids it would course. End in tears and treasure. Maybe a billion dollars we would want to put it in those terms and you could just be measurable. So I told the local federal authorities and I want Brett Patterson to be alerted to every move everything takes place there I mean this the information will come here. That's Al Haig once said we are in charge. Indeed she said. We claim part of the late fee there's 10 to set up a nation on it. And so people are coming from literally everywhere. A young guy showed up one day and he was all done whole he had feathers and beads tied all over him south and was

saluting red power all over the place you know and so we ask him what his tribe was nice a Comanche loans were good you know your homeboy Comanches or from Obama or you from Latin Anadarko or I could tell that he didn't know of any of those places. And as we kind of push a little bit said well how do you know your commands and he said My mom told me and I said Well when did your mom tell you that and he said well last Wednesday. The saloon watching the newsman Alcatraz Stang and me and my sisters and my mom and dad and he said I just blurted out loud Gee I wish I was in then I'd go to Alcatraz. His mom rocked and broke the news to him and said Son you are an Indian your half Comanche. On Thanksgiving Day. Hundreds of Native Americans and their supporters came to Alcatraz to celebrate a day of victory to honor cultures and to express their

renewed pride in Indian identity. I really wanted to go that day. I felt it was very important that my children also accompany me because of who they were as Muskogee people. I was married to this person that really didn't view the occupation as a good thing. They told me that I couldn't go to Alcatraz. My concern for being Indian was becoming stronger. And then I realized that sort of the east in the West can't meet. And that's when I decided to to get a divorce. And we can see a very important turning point in my life. As the media descended upon the island. The world watched and listened to Indian people. Once again. We're not leaving the silence so we get from this government the deed to the land. You're probably subject to arrest of course and you've painted on a building someone could claim that was defacing government property. Are you prepared to face charges. We are.

We're prepared to stay as long as we have to. I came up by Thanksgiving weekend and I I met with Richard and I liked what we talked about. So I hitchhiked back down to Los Angeles and got my family and we moved up here within the week. You have other people like when Neda who in fact had been to boarding school. Other people who knew next to nothing about the Indian world coming into this who had been taken away by their parents when they were very young to be raised in middle class suburbs in Fresno or Bakersfield because their parents didn't want them to necessarily be a part of the the negative influences. The Indian world. We were the ones who are really just trying to. Survive trauma nation and relocation and we were the statistics. We were the ones that had the problems with alcohol or we had come from divided families and we had just come out of this meat grinder that's called democracy. When they came to Alcatraz it was like a home. It was like a community. It was like finding yourself again.

What is your tribe. By the leadership. Yeah. We work together. We had something that we could do in common and we all had a skill. I mean it was truly one of the strongest sense of community that I've ever really been a been a part of. The boats will come and see who the new people were were stars or not they're using their fame and notoriety to help it was a new move by them coming they helped us survive out there. They kept us in the media. You know I think that during that occupation or may have been close to 50000 people came from that island. And I mean just to have that visit and it was a very crucial piece of support there. It wasn't about material it was about spirit. We had a future. We weren't just here to be here. This is what we were going to stay.

We had our own territory and now we would have to build a society on that with all the rules and values that you envision ideally. Now we have to actualize and work it out. So that was a challenge before us. There was things that needed to be done you just did it. Ships would come and then boats would come in with food supplies and there were elders here who knew how to take preserving dry mean people fixing the toilets on the island. Rewiring the electricity dealing with all of the myriad problems that there are associated with trying to habitate this place that the U.S. government decided was not habitable by prisoners. There is one area that they had allowed prisoners to grow flowers and do gardening and there was surrounded bushes where you could see

the city and just so where's the cliffs which seals down and I decided to bring a teepee onto that island. And that's right he said put that teepee. We set up an office in San Francisco to bring donations. Lot of people say the women ran a lot of things. Coming from a traditional party coming from a tree a living tribe that's normal. The women are the backbone. They continue the life of the people they're the teachers. The cultural protectors. And so they were there. And they did what needed to be done. The women pretty well selected the readers. And when they had selected Richard Oakes to represent us there's just a dual sense of justice in this country. We'd like an end to this. Manny I want to address is a positive step in that direction. When I first met Richard dogs he came into the house and he said hello and he had a big grin on his face and here was this young strong looking man with

a head a curly hair was kind of shy when I first met him but it quickly showed his wit and his humor and his intelligence. One of the first things that I can remember from the early days of the occupation was going to council meetings and. I remember one in particular where Richard Oakes was speaking. And even though I was you know 11 and didn't really understand a lot of the things he was saying I was captivated just by his voice I guess. Everybody was. It just made you feel good to hear the words he was saying it would be fitting and Shabana that ships from entering a golden gate would first see Indian land. And thus be a reminder of the true history of this nation. This tiny island would be a symbol of the great whereas once ruled by free and noble Indians. He was really hard on Indians all over the country start to do things for themselves and he was a dreamer you know and that's what his dream was. We Indians of all tribes of the organization

formally put forth a list of us one at the university there one of the cultural center. In. The museum. What motivated us to do this is there are Indians across North America they are taking strong stands to give back the names of people who were caught on Alcatraz who were angry because he became aware politically and historically what have gone wrong with other people in this country. And you had a chance to change it. You had a chance to try to make something change. If they refuse this proclamation here that it will expose the true nature of this society that it does not have treaties. The government's reaction to the occupation was always negative. I had no idea as to the motivation and frankly I cannot. First it was yeah they weren't going to negotiate with us. And you know and so then we negotiate over that. The federal government knew that the public with support was very very strong. There was no harm being done at least no. And so the federal government could pretty well play a waiting game.

Do you think it possible to stay up there. It's indefinite how long we can stay here because we're not subject to any different type of conditions that we are subjected to in the city or on the reservation. In 1970 you have students who have to make a decision whether they're going to go back to their classrooms whether they're going to forfeit their scholarships their grants their loans.

And many of the students who had been the original occupiers leave a lot of them left went back to school but then we had enough people physical bodies on the island to maintain the occupation. But some of these people were little less idealistic than those of us who were out here originally. So there was a lot of people that wanted to talk to the press. They wanted to state what they don't have the tragedies about. But Richard Bush particularly. Because you know we had given birth to it that he would always talk about this being a catalyst for other activities and we need to protect it. Indian politics are just like everybody else's politics and that is of course in the governing the island there were a lot of different ideas of who was going to be in charge and who is going to make the rules and gets to be exempt from the rules. The more people that we would get on the island the more leaders would emerge. People thinking that you know they should be the rightful leader. There are more more challenges to Richard's leadership now with a burble but they became physical as well Richard.

He was confrontational he would get up in front of people. Pisano somebody being mistreated his face was in it. And that's what his wife and he would tell him don't trust everybody because some of these guys are jealous of you and you should know. There you see it but he trusted people he trusted everybody thought about him was a good person. The resentment was building up against him. And he said that she felt a cloud on the island. A-Rod was one of the children in our group. We were playing in the kitchen. And then we ran over to the apartment building where the guard stayed. And we were running up the stairwell. She was up above us I guess near the top of the stairwell. Freezer Sarfatti my.

God okes the daughter of Richard and his wife and he fell down into a concrete slab. She died very shortly thereafter. Richard. And his family were so sad. When you lose one of your children you're. Somebody from. A well-known family is the old saying you have to step back and you have to re-evaluate your position. He talked to self-injure Oh Sam I still remember the last conversation he said well you guys do what you can with it. I don't have the heart for it. I am.

Young. We have mourned the passing of a girl. And the drums have cleared the rainbow path and our voices have praised the wheeling sun. Day into dark. Night into a brighter day. We hold hands in a circle unbroken as eternal shadows dance for every. Girl a child a sister. A song. We have wept. Earth the sorrow. Flower. The hand. Of people. In the early days at the takeover it was very positive in there was a kind of euphoria going on. And then after Richard and Annie asked her daughter things seemed to change when New York's families hearts were broken with the death of Yvonne.

They left the island. It leaves a leadership void and there are a number of people who buy for that leadership role. There are controversies between leadership on the island now if so that wouldn't make you any more unique. But are there these kinds of problems and if so how are you trying to cope with them. And I think there has been a problem of lack of communication because some of our people had to leave for their entrance requirements for college and once another and this made us so short handed that we were unable to get any business done at our council meeting because we have to have a quorum. One thing that's important to understand is the demands do not change the the vision does not change they had wanted the title of the island they had wanted an Indian university a culture center. They were united in demanding self-determination sovereignty title of island and that those things because that was never changed was also in that time almost immediately afterwards that the negotiating team from Washington showed up.

Start to see certain battling drug generational lines or get drug between the highly pragmatic who immediately think very rightly invalidly about the bottom line what can we get out of this. What is the point when we stop and we say OK if we're offered a compromise we take it. There was all kinds of proposals being shot back and forth. One of them was a floater of an idea trade Alcatraz for Fort Mason but they turned the cold Alcatraz had become a symbol to the occupiers and they were the ones who dictated the policies. Our stand is Alcatraz Island it's it's a stand of self-determination. The people who stayed. To their credit held on to their ideals. Everyone was going to that island thinking the same things our ancestors thought.

You can deal with this government the US government speaks and has spoken in the past of having Indian people control their own lives and their own destiny. And yet the proposal that we submitted to the US government concerning Alcatraz was rejected. Not only was it turned down it was never considered in Mr. Robertson's statement he said that they considered the proposal and rejected it because it was unfeasible. All that we get out of this meeting with the US government and their representative is that they are going to continue to do as they have done in the past which is to do our thinking for us and run things their way. The government was never going never going to build a university on Alcatraz or give them $300000 for a cultural center on Alcatraz Island or even give them title to Alcatraz. This was not anything we were going to do. When I first went there I had my criticisms and disagreements with the government but its While I was there at some time in that process I really came to understand that the government was the enemy of our culture. You don't feel it's an inordinately high number of hazards are they then a large number of accidents.

Well there are hazards here definitely this island is definitely a hazardous place I mean if you don't watch your step I mean anybody can have an accident. The electricity was cut off the water barge was removed. One boy fell between the boat in the dock and had to be cared for at the hospital. No running water no plumbing no showers. You begin to get some reports of violence on the island but that's also a ways to get to the general public to stop supporting or start lessening their support and start get rumors of things happening on the island. They called us militants. And I find it very interesting because what had we done that was militant. It was peaceful. We were unarmed. This was body politics body and spirit politics is exactly what it was. In June of 970 there was a fire on Alcatraz Island that destroyed the warden's quarters. The doctor's orders and the orders around the lighthouse. It will never be known who started that fire. It could have been their side it could have been our side because in some ways I can see where everybody had a vested interest in that fire. You get right down to it.

The government is a good pretense to come take us out our side. Well let's burn down historic buildings. They may put this new park system but nobody can see where the preacher lived or where the warden lived. It burned not only the warden's house but it also burned the inside of the lighthouse. This was a more serious matter because the light house here on Alcatraz was an important part of the navigation aids system in San Francisco Bay. The pleasure boaters in the Bay Area and the Coast Guard were tremendously upset. The Coast Guard was infuriated and the commandant came to the White House and said look we are quite concerned about this. But the Indian people on Alcatraz Island had told the Coast Guard that they could come and restore the navigation aid soon as they returned the electricity to the island. One of the most difficult things to understand without contrasts in imagining it is 19 months 19 months is a long time. The end of it comes at the end of really hold on decline. It becomes as it were a war of attrition at that time they were trying to starve or

Soudan you know make it so unbearable that people would leave the publicity turn time temp family rights and describe sea conditions in late 1970 and he equates a situation on Alcatraz Island to the situation in the book Lord Of The Flies. Soon as they destroy your publishing these people lose interest in the island people start to turn against you the Indian people start turn against United and they're going to take you off the island. World attention decreased American interest in a decreased in France decreased and Coast Guard pressure increased. On June the 11th 1971 a large force of federal marshals TSA Special Forces Coast Guard FBI went out and removed the final 15 people from Alcatraz Island with rifles guard dogs fancy Island often play starts on the Alcatraz. They call our tiny 4:30 yesterday afternoon and told him that they would have word

concerning the deed to the island they would have. First Monday morning. And that's what we were waiting for. They came in while they were doing one thing with the left and the right. They lied to us. They guaranteed us no actually be taken against those Indians that settled one way or the other. The young. To. Stand on Alcatraz though it may be my last past souls are with me once again tis the gathering of the past. So once again the world will know a proud people they could not kill then as a united army we will walk on Alcatraz. The question was not whether or not the Indian will boil over into protest

politics but when and how. Richard while he was off the island was injured and it was in a coma for over 30 days. I was there the night that he got hit with a pool cue. He was hospitalized. His medicine people from Cuba along with Matt Brown isn't it Thomas Payne yaka brought him back to life after all hope had been given up. Before that he was getting withdrawn already. This Alcatraz thing it's been kind of a bad experience for him and he came out of the coma and he was injured. He was in a wheelchair and it brought him down to a power to San Francisco Indian Center. We shook hands with him and talked to him and hugged him. And about a month later they brought news down to us that he had been shot by this guy named Morgan up there in Santa Rosa. They ran a horse ranch and we had heard about this guy before that he had roughed up Indian kids or that he was always insulting the Indian kids.

And that day he had done something to Indian kids. And Richard went down there and there it is again about him being confrontational he went right up to his face and the guy shot him killed it. You are. By the time they went to the prosecutor it was involuntary manslaughter. This enraged him. We decided to have a march to Washington D.C. to make it a federal crime to kill an Indian because the local authorities they let their caretaker go. At the same time there was other movements other organizations trying to do so.

A similar event the American Indian Movement uses his death as the as the motivating factor for the March on Washington D.C. So we all went together. It was called a trail of broken treaties. His death fueled the activists who were part of the Trail of Broken Treaties they found this and this tremendous energy and wanting to memorialize his gift to you and your other tries. After the Trail of Broken Treaties we occupied the be-I building in Washington D.C. for seven days surrounded by 500 Park Service police and U.S. Marshals. Trust becomes the symbol becomes the catalyst. After the building we were called to we need to try to help the Oglala civil rights organization bring attention to their issues. Once you've seen it liberated territory you cannot live the same.

Following the Alcatraz occupation there were suddenly two other occupations of federal facilities across the United States many of which were led by people from Alcatraz Island. We all Indian people individually we will try. We'll walk the media we'll walk the United States government the Congress or that that. Some attention paid to American Indian needs was popular in the country so the legislation started Mr. Nixon on the 8th of July 1970 sent a message to Congress and recommended a whole series of very fine reform measures for Indian people. President Nixon officially repudiated the determination policy of the United States government. The Navajo code returned 40 million acres. We return blue lake to lean way below people. The Klamath people got forty eight thousand acres of land returned. Lands it was seized by Theodore Roosevelt who was interested in expanding parklands

housing education and employment. All of those things that we talked about began to all of a sudden show up. Over the years people would come up to me and the president came up in a discussion I said oh I was there at the very beginning when I was a part of that occupation. People would tell me that you can't have imagined how that transformed my life. We were able to raise not only the consciousness of other American people but our own people as well. At the end of the occupation the takeover I felt like that was just the beginning of the transformation process for myself. I did become more outspoken. I was happy to join these people that were being confrontational with the system. It helped produce the revival of our languages the revival of our old indian ways of our traditions and the Indian

renaissance. For me it was like going home. There was a spiritual revitalization for us again all of a sudden we're together we see that we're not as alone as it appeared that we were we located began to renew an interest in our tribal community. When you're out in the society you got to know who you are. When you come through. Every Thanksgiving they have an unthinkable Alcatraz mailer to remind people still of the continuing struggle that even the people had just to get the rights that other people take for granted. In a way in lines of a flame that kind of died down but never went away. Now out of that fire came all these different people spread in all different directions to do incredible work. These things would not be. If it had not been for that week at all. Richard. Folks once said Alcatraz is not an island it's an idea to idea that you can recapture and be control of your lives your destinies self determine.

Your future. I'm sure today because I'm obsessed with with the troops I mean I want people to know what. The struggle was about. Their guys and. What they were doing so much that they're not here today and it's not a matter of you know fame and fortune it's the story's got to be told and it's not over yet. To learn more about this program visit PBS online at PBS or R.G.. The.

Major funding for this program was provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Additional funding was provided by the California Council for the Humanities. The band of loose annual Indians the Muskogee Creek tribe of Oklahoma and George Cattermole. To order Alcatraz is not an island on home video cassette. Call 1 800 3 4 3 5 5 4 0 0 0.