![]() ![]() Famous people made donations without a thought about how those donations would be or could be used. ![]() The activists had brought a lot of pot but not enough jackets or bedrolls. Oakes was accused of misappropriating funds. They wanted the island to revert to Indian control and for a spiritual and ecological center and a museum to be built there - all of it staffed by Native personnel.Īlmost immediately, bickering and ill will descended on the activists. The group, which called itself the Indians of All Tribes, began articulating its vision in earnest via news conferences, radio interviews and news broadcasts. Oakes became the lead spokesman, and while accounts vary, LaNada Means (no relation to the fellow activist Russell Means) and John Trudell also took up leadership positions. The Rock, they thought, would make a perfect replacement for the destroyed Indian center. After the San Francisco American Indian Center had burned down, and the community needed a new place to gather, Oakes and Nordwall put forward the idea of another occupation. Alcatraz had been categorized as surplus land by the United States government, sitting unused since the prison there was closed in 1963. Previous attempts to occupy the island had been made by Native American activists, who cited provisions in the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, which said that unused federal lands could be open to claims by certain Native Americans. Like many such direct actions, it was both practical and improbable. The protest was the brainchild of Adam Nordwall, a middle-aged Ojibwe businessman from the Red Lake Reservation in Minnesota, who owned a pest control company, and Richard Oakes, a charismatic young Mohawk ironworker who had left the East Coast and traveled to San Francisco, where he found work as a bartender. Or reclaiming it, depending on your point of view. They intended to make landfall on territory belonging to the United States government with the intent of claiming it for themselves. They boarded three boats and sailed from the small, foggy harbor in Sausalito, Calif., to Alcatraz Island. ![]() 20, 1969, more than 70 Native Americans gathered before dawn on a dock in San Francisco Bay. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |