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The nineteen-month occupation of Alcatraz Island that began on November
20, 1969 is a watershed in the American Indian protest and activist movement.
Prior to this event, Indian activism was generally tribal in nature, centered
in small geographic areas, and focused on specific issues such as illegal
trespass on Indian lands or violation of Indian treaty rights for access
to traditional hunting and fishing sites. The Alcatraz occupation brought
together hundreds of Indian people who came to live on the island and thousands
more who identified with the call for self-determination, autonomy, and
respect for Indian culture.
Today, the Alcatraz occupation is recognized as the springboard for the
rise of Indian activism that began in 1969 and continued into the late
1970s, as evidence by the large number of occupations that occurred shortly
after the November 20, 1969 landing. These occupations continued through
the BIA headquarters takeover in 1972, Wounded Knee II in 1973, and the
June 26, 1975 shootout between American Indian Movement members and Federal
Bureau of Investigation agents on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South
Dakota. Alcatraz was the catalyst for this new activism as it became more
organized and more "pan-Indian." Many of the approximately seventy-four
occupations of federal facilities and private lands that followed Alcatraz
were either planned by or included people who had been involved in the
occupation of the island.
The Indian people who organized the occupation and those who participated
either by living on the island or working to solicit donations of money,
water, food, or electrical generators, came from all walks of life. Some,
like Richard Oakes and LaNada Boyer, were college students trying to better
themselves and Indian people through education. Others, such as Adam (Nordwall)
Fortunate Eagle, Dorothy Lonewolf Miller, and Stella Leach, had relocated
to the Bay Area and were successful in their own businesses or careers.
As the occupation gained international attention, Indian people came from
Canada, from South America, and from Indian reservations across the United
States to show support for those who had taken a stand against the federal
government. Thousands came; some stayed, and others carried the message
home to their reservations that Alcatraz was a clarion call for the rise
of Red Power.
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