San Francisco became the heart of young, Indigenous activism during the late 1960s after the United States government attempted to dismantle the reservation system and integrate Native Americans into urban areas. This policy enforced by the Truman and Eisenhower administrations, called "termination," would lead to the loss of recognition of the few remaining elements of Indian sovereignty. This sparked Red Power Movement, in which activists demanded economic aid and self-determination for Native American communities. One significant event that marked the beginning of this movement actually occurred in the Bay Area when Native American activists occupied Alcatraz Island in protest.
Alcatraz had originally been Indigenous land that was taken illegally by the United States government. After the Alcatraz penitentiary closed in 1963 and was declared surplus federal property in 1964, many Native Americans believed that it should be returned to the Indians who originally occupied it according to the Ford Laramie Treaty. A group that called themselves the "Indians of All Tribes," led by Richard Oakes and LaNada Means, reoccupied Alcatraz in 1969 and managed to stay there for 18 months. The group used similar strategies to the black and Latino civil rights movements: they participated in non-violent protest in hopes of opening the eyes of the American public to the injustice they faced.The occupation of Alcatraz boosted the Red Power Movement and inspired a number of occupations and sit-ins that also advocated for Native American Rights. As a result of these protests, Native Americans received more control over their education and economy on the reservations. There was also a great rise in self-respect that caused the number of Americans who identified as Indians to double between 1970 and 1990.
It's really interesting how there is a pattern of targeted groups of people using nonviolence as a way of gaining freedom. I researched further into the strategies that the indigenous activists used upon entering Alcatraz Island on a boat. The activists cited the Treaty of Fort Laramie to argue that the agreement between the US and the Sioux stated that all abandoned federal land was to be returned to the native people. When the Native Americans arrived, they wrote in red letters across the water tower, "Peace and freedom. Welcome. Home of the Free Indian Land" as a way to mark their territory without imposing harm upon others. The activists even offered to buy Alcatraz for $24 in glass beads and red cloth. Due to the movement's inventive strategies, it got attention from the media and received donations from across the country.
ReplyDeletehttps://wagingnonviolence.org/2019/11/how-spirit-indigenous-occupation-alcatraz-lives-on-50-years-later/