Occupying Alcatraz: Native American Activists Demand Change
CHAPTER ONE AN ATTEMPTED INVASION Sunday March 8 1964 was no ordinary day That afternoon A L Aylworth noticed a strange commotion brewing by the waterfront on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco California Aylworth was the caretaker of the recently shuttered prison on Alcatraz As he drove his rusty pickup truck toward the dock he spied a crowd of approximately 40 Native Americans and several members of the media in boats by the shore Not knowing their intentions Aylworth approached the group and politely asked them to vacate the island As he began to explain they were trespassing Elliot Leighton a lawyer from the American Indian Council Alcatraz which sits in San Francisco Bay was a federal prison from 1934 to 1963
stepped forward Leighton flipped open his briefcase took out a stack of papers and began reciting the Sioux Treaty of 1868 aloud And it is further stipulated that any male Indians over eighteen years of age of any band or tribe that is or who shall hereafter become a party to this treaty who now is or shall hereafter become a resident or occupant of any reservation or territory not included in this tract of country designated which is not mineral land nor reserved by the United States for any special purpose other than Indian occupation shall be entitled to receive from the United States a right to the land When Leighton finished Aylworth looked around at each member of the group He grunted and scratched his head Though the reference to the 1868 treaty was not a serious legal route to seizing the island it was clear the protesters were serious about getting their message across As if realizing that matters had gotten out of his control Aylworth shrugged and said Well I guess if you want it you can have it A Desire for Action In the weeks and months leading up to that fateful March day the Native American community in the San Francisco Bay Area had been searching for a way for their voices to be heard Like many Native Americans throughout
the country they had become frustrated by their THE TREATY OF 1868 During the mid 1800s the US increasing lack of civil government enacted a series liberties and loss of control of treaties that forced Native Americans to give up their over their ancestors land land and move onto federally sanctioned reservations In For years they had been 1868 a council was held at embroiled in ferocious Fort Laramie in present day Wyoming The result of the legal battles in the courts meeting was a treaty with and through the Indian the Sioux which entitled the tribe to land in the surrounding Claims Commission Black Hills But in 1874 General George ICC to receive monetary A Custer led an expedition compensation for these into the Black Hills What he and his men found there losses It was time to do gold changed the situation something drastic a dramatically They immediately started encroaching on Sioux protest that would hunting territory to find more The Sioux fought back Two force the government years later the Sioux defeated to act and bring about Custer and his troops in a fierce battle at Little Bighorn River In positive change for Native retaliation the US government confiscated the land from the American people Sioux In 1877 The question of One group in who actually owns the land the government or the Sioux is particular the San hotly disputed to this day Francisco Sioux Club had already been working on a plan After the federal prison on Alcatraz Island closed in 1963 the US Justice Department declared the land
