Alcatraz Occupation

The Overlook

By Tom Clavin

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          I am on the road again this week, so I hope faithful readers won’t mind an update of a previous column about an event that occurred 55 years ago this week.

Early use of Alcatraz Island by indigenous people is difficult to reconstruct, as most tribal and village history was recorded and passed down generation-to-generation as an oral history. However, it appears that Alcatraz was used as a place of isolation or exile for tribal members who had violated a tribal law or taboo, as a camping spot, an area for gathering foods (especially bird eggs and sea-life), and as a hiding place for many Indians attempting to escape from the California Mission system.

Once Alcatraz Island became a prison, both military and civilians were incarcerated there. Among these were many American Indians. The largest single group of Indian prisoners sentenced to confinement on Alcatraz occurred in January 1895 when the U.S. government arrested, tried, and shipped 19 Moqui Hopi to the island.

On November 9, 1969, Indian people once again came to Alcatraz Island when Richard Oakes, an Akwesasne Mohawk, and a group of Indian supporters set out in a chartered boat to symbolically claim the island for the Indian people. On November 20, this symbolic occupation turned into a full-scale occupation.

There had been a previous occupation, in March 1964. It lasted for only four hours and was carried out by five Sicangu Lakota, led by Richard McKenzie and his wife, Belva Cottier. This short occupation was significant because the demands for the use of the island for a cultural center and an Indian university would resurface almost word for word in the larger, much longer occupation of 1969.

The 1969 occupation was planned by Oakes, a group of Indian students, and a group of urban Indians from the Bay Area. Since many different tribes were represented, the name "Indians of All Tribes" was adopted for the group. They claimed the island in that name. In meetings following the November 9 occupation, Oakes and his fellow American Indian students realized that a prolonged occupation was possible. Oakes visited the American Indian Studies Center at UCLA where he recruited Indian students for what would become the longest prolonged occupation of a federal facility by Indian people to this very day. Eighty Indian students from UCLA were among the approximately 100 Indian people who occupied Alcatraz Island.

Richard Oakes was described by most of those as handsome, charismatic, a talented orator, and a natural leader. Once the occupiers had established themselves on the island, organization began. An elected council was put into place and everyone on the island had a job -- security, sanitation, day care, school, housing, cooking, laundry, etc. All decisions were made by unanimous consent of the people.

The federal government initially insisted that the Indian people leave the island, placed an ineffective barricade around it, and eventually agreed to demands by the Indian council that formal negotiations be held. From the Indians’ side, they wanted the deed to the island and to establish an Indian university, a cultural center, and a museum. The government negotiators insisted that the occupiers could have none of these and that they leave the island.

Soon, the Indian organization fall into disarray. Two groups rose in opposition to Oakes, and as the Indian students began returning to school in January, they were replaced by Indian people from the urban areas and from reservations who had not been involved in the initial occupation. Additionally, many non-Indians now began taking up residency, some from the San Francisco hippie and drug culture. The final blow to the organized leadership occurred when Oakes's 12-year-old stepdaughter fell three floors down a stairwell to her death. Oakes and his wife left the island and the two competing groups maneuvered back and forth for leadership.

The FBI was directed to remain clear of the island. The Coast Guard was directed not to interfere, and the Government Services Administration was instructed not to remove the Indians. While it appeared to those on the island that negotiations were actually taking place, in fact, the federal government was playing a waiting game, hoping that support for the occupation would subside and those on the island would elect to end the occupation. At one point, secret negotiations were held where the occupiers were offered a portion of Fort Miley, in San Francisco, as an alternative site to Alcatraz Island. By this time, mid-1970, however, those on the island had become entrenched.

Upping the tension, the government shut off all electrical power and removed the water barge which had provided fresh water to the occupiers. Three days following the removal of the barge, a fire broke out and several historic buildings were destroyed. The government blamed the Indians, and the Indians blamed undercover government infiltrators trying to turn non-Indian support against them.

The population on the island became a problem as time passed. There were reports of the open use of drugs, fighting over authority, and general disarray of the leadership. Still, the occupation continued into 1971 with various new problems emerging. To raise money to buy food, the occupiers began stripping copper wiring and tubing from the buildings and selling it as scrap metal. (Three of the occupiers were later arrested, tried, and found guilty of selling some 600 pounds of copper.) In early 1971, the press, which had been largely sympathetic to this point, turned against them and began publishing stories of alleged beatings and assaults.

In January 1971, two oil tankers collided in the entrance to the San Francisco Bay. Though it was acknowledged that the lack of an Alcatraz light or fog horn played no part in the collision, it was enough to push the federal government into action. President Richard Nixon gave the go ahead to develop a removal plan. On June 10, armed federal marshals, FBI agents, and special forces police swarmed the island and removed those who remained on it -- five women, four children, and six unarmed Indian men. The occupation was over.

By the way: After leaving Alcatraz, Richard Oakes continued his activism. He helped the Pit River tribe in their attempts to regain nearly 3 million acres of land that had been seized by Pacific Gas & Electric. Oakes also planned to create a "mobile university" dedicated to creating opportunity for Native Americans. However, in September 1972, Oakes was shot and killed in Sonoma, California, by Michael Morgan, a YMCA camp manager. Oakes reportedly confronted him and Morgan responded by drawing a handgun and shooting the 30-year-old Oakes, who was unarmed. Morgan was charged with voluntary manslaughter but was acquitted by a jury that determined the killing was an act of self-defense.

Tom Clavin is the bestselling author/co-author of 25 books, including Bandit Heaven, which was published last month by St. Martin’s Press. Please go to your local bookstore or to Bookshop.org, Amazon.com, BN.com, or tomclavin.com to purchase a copy.