{"id":1708,"date":"2019-08-01T09:27:00","date_gmt":"2019-08-01T09:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/?page_id=1708"},"modified":"2019-08-01T09:27:00","modified_gmt":"2019-08-01T09:27:00","slug":"native-americans-occupy-alcatraz-1969","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/28-the-unraveling\/native-americans-occupy-alcatraz-1969\/","title":{"rendered":"Native Americans Occupy Alcatraz (1969)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In November 1969,\nNative American activists occupied Alcatraz Island and held it for nineteen\nmonths to bring attention to past injustices and contemporary issues\nconfronting Native Americans, as state in this proclamation, drafted largely by\nAdam Fortunate Eagle of the Ojibwa Nation.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To the Great White Father and All His People:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We, the native Americans, re-claim the land known as\nAlcatraz Island in the name of all American Indians by right of discovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We wish to be fair and honorable in our dealings with the\nCaucasian inhabitants of this land, and hereby offer the following treaty:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We will purchase said Alcatraz Island for twenty-four\ndollars ($24) in glass beads and red cloth, a precedent set by the white man\u2019s\npurchase of a similar island about 300 years ago. We know that $24 in trade\ngoods for these 16 acres is more than was paid when Manhattan Island was sold,\nbut we know that land values have risen over the years. Our offer of $1.24 per\nacre is greater than the 47 cents per acre the white men are now paying the\nCalifornia Indians for their land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We will give to the inhabitants of this island a portion of\nthat land for their own, to be held in trust by the American Indian Government\n\u2014 for as long as the sun shall rise and the rivers go down to the sea \u2014 to be\nadministered by the Bureau of Caucasian Affairs (BCA). We will further guide\nthe inhabitants in the proper way of living. We will offer them our religion,\nour education, our life-ways, in order to help them achieve our level of\ncivilization and thus raise them and all their white brothers up from their\nsavage and unhappy state. We offer this treaty in good faith and wish to be\nfair and honorable in our dealings with all white men.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We feel that this so-called Alcatraz Island is more than\nsuitable for an Indian Reservation, as determined by the white man\u2019s own\nstandards. By this we mean that this place resembles most Indian reservations,\nin that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. It is isolated from modern facilities, and without adequate means\nof transportation.<\/li>
  2. It has no fresh running water.<\/li>
  3. It has inadequate sanitation facilities.<\/li>
  4. There are no oil or mineral rights.<\/li>
  5. There is no industry so unemployment is great.<\/li>
  6. There are no health care facilities.<\/li>
  7. The soil is rocky and non-productive; and the land does not\nsupport game.<\/li>
  8. There are no educational facilities.<\/li>
  9. The population has always exceeded the land base.<\/li>
  10. The population has always been held as prisoners and kept\ndependent upon others.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Further, it would be fitting and symbolic that ships from\nall over the world, entering the Golden Gate, would first see Indian land, and\nthus be reminded of the true history of this nation. This tiny island would he\na symbol of the great lands once ruled by free and noble Indians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    USE TO\nBE MADE OF ALCATRAZ ISLAND<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    What use will be made of this land?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Since the San Francisco Indian Center burned down, there is\nno place for Indians to assemble and carry on our tribal life here in the white\nman\u2019s city. Therefore, we plan to develop on this island several Indian\ninstitutes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1. A Center for Native American Studies will be developed\nwhich will train our young people in the best of our native cultural arts and\nsciences, as well as educate them to the skills and knowledge relevant to\nimprove the lives and spirits of all Indian peoples. Attached to this center\nwill be traveling universities, managed by Indians, which will go to the Indian\nReservations in order to learn the traditional values from the people, which\nare now absent in the Caucasian higher educational system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    2. An American Indian Spiritual center will be developed\nwhich will practice our ancient tribal religious ceremonies and medicine. Our\ncultural arts will be featured and our young people trained in music, dance,\nand medicine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    3. An Indian Center of Ecology will be built which will\ntrain and support our young people in scientific research and practice in order\nto restore our lands and waters to their pure and natural state. We will seek\nto de-pollute the air and the water of the Bay Area. We will seek to restore\nfish and animal life, and to revitalize sea life which has been threatened by\nthe white man\u2019s way. Facilities will be developed to desalt sea water for human\nuse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    4. A Great Indian Training School will be developed to\nteach our peoples how to make a living in the world, improve our standards of\nliving, and end hunger and unemployment among all our peoples. This training\nschool will include a center for Indian arts and crafts, and an Indian Restaurant\nserving native foods and training Indians in culinary arts. This center will\ndisplay Indian arts and offer the Indian foods of all tribes to the public, so\nthey all may know of the beauty and spirit of the traditional Indian ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    5. Some of the present buildings will be taken over to\ndevelop an American Indian Museum, which will depict our native foods and other\ncultural contributions we have given to all the world. Another part of the\nMuseum will present some of the things the white man has given to the Indians,\nin return for the land and the life he took: disease, alcohol, poverty, and\ncultural decimation (as symbolized by old tin cans, barbed wire, rubber tires,\nplastic containers, etc.). Part of the museum will remain a dungeon, to\nsymbolize both Indian captives who were incarcerated for challenging white\nauthority, and those who were imprisoned on reservations. The Museum will show\nthe noble and the tragic events of Indian history, including the broken treaties,\nthe documentary of the Trail of Tears, the Massacre of Wounded Knee, as well as\nthe victory over Yellow-Hair Custer and his army.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In the name of all Indians, therefore, we re-claim this\nisland for Indian nations, for all these reasons. We feel this claim is just\nand proper, and that this land should rightfully be granted to us for as long\nas the rivers shall run and the sun shall shine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    SIGNED, INDIANS OF ALL TRIBES<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    November 1969 San Francisco, California<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    In November 1969, Native American activists occupied Alcatraz Island and held it for nineteen months to bring attention to past injustices and contemporary issues confronting Native Americans, as state in this proclamation, drafted largely by Adam Fortunate Eagle of the Ojibwa Nation. To the Great White Father and All His People: We, the native Americans, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":819,"menu_order":7,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1708","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1708"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1709,"href":"http:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1708\/revisions\/1709"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}