Occupying Alcatraz: Native American Activists Demand Change
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
INDIAN CLAIMS COMMISSION The US Congress created the ICC on August 13 1946 for the purpose of hearing and processing legal claims made by Native Americans against the United States Most of these claims involved treaty violations and what many in Native communities considered to be the wrongful confiscation of their ancestral lands Though it was only expected to last a decade the three member commission operated until September 1978 when the US Court of Federal Claims took control over any outstanding cases During that time nearly all of the federally recognized Native American nations filed at least one claim Approximately 342 awards totaling more than 800 million were distributed The individual judgments ranged from several hundred dollars to 31 2 million However many Native Americans believed no monetary compensation would bring true justice to the situation Critics felt the ICC simply forced Native Americans to monetize unfairly seized lands excess property Since then the government had been dragging its feet in coming up with a viable idea for what to do with the island and buildings Members of the Sioux Club were sure this was exactly the opportunity the Native American community needed Spearheaded by Richard D McKenzie president of the American Indian Council Allen Cottier Martin Martinez Garfield Spotted Elk and Walter Means a plot was hatched to peacefully invade and occupy Alcatraz Island The five Sioux leaders and their followers would charter a tugboat and pack it with enough food and supplies to last for 30 days After
they landed they would establish a control center INFAMOUS ALCATRAZ from which they could From the 1850s to 1963 San state their demands to Francisco Bay housed one of the strictest and most the government terrifying maximum security prisons in US history Notorious The First criminals such as gangster Occupation Al Scarface Capone and murderer Robert Birdman of On that breezy March Alcatraz Stroud were locked up in cramped cells behind afternoon in 1964 the its walls Nicknamed The Rock Sioux Club's scheme almost because of its steep jagged cliffs the prison was a virtually worked After Aylworth escape proof fortress Many attempts were made during stepped aside the five its years in operation first as Sioux leaders trekked up a military jail until 1933 then as a federal prison from 1934 the hill McKenzie waved to 1963 But no inmates are an American flag while known to have successfully escaped Due to expensive Cottier read a statement he maintenance costs the government shut down had written on deer hide Alcatraz in 1963 parchment We'll be more fair to the government than they were to us Cottier said We'll pay them forty seven cents an acre same as they paid California tribes when the government took their land 5 Walter Means and his son 26 year old Russell hammered a beat up mop handle into the ground to mark and claim their territory Another Sioux leader Tom
