Occupying Alcatraz: Native American Activists Demand Change
Brown scrambled up a stone railing and flashed a tin tray in the air three times to signal success to anyone watching back on the mainland The other Native Americans back near the boats whooped RUSSELL MEANS hollered and danced Russell Means was born in unison on the Pine Ridge Sioux Reservation in South Dakota But their euphoria was on November 10 1939 His short lived While the family moved to California when he was a young child group was busy celebrating His brief trip to Alcatraz with Aylworth had called his his father in 1964 when he was 25 years old inspired Means boss Richard Willard to stay active in the Native American rights movement In the last acting warden of 1973 he and other leaders of Alcatraz at Willard's home a Minnesota based group the American Indian Movement in Concord California AIM commanded a 71 day When Willard arrived armed standoff with Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI on the island he ordered agents and federal troops at Wounded Knee a town the intruders to leave at where a massacre of Native once Fight it in court Americans by US troops took place in 1890 The siege Don't fight it out here he resulted in hundreds of arrests and the deaths of two bellowed You got no right protesters In 1987 Means to trespass here You're campaigned to become the Libertarian Party's candidate violating the law and I'm for the US presidency but he lost to Ron Paul telling you somebody's going to get hurt
It's Over for Now After nearly four hours on the island Leighton advised McKenzie and his crew to back down Reluctantly they packed up their supplies boarded the boats and charted a course back to the mainland As they neared the shore The March 1964 occupation did not last long but it would be followed by more successful efforts to bring attention to Native American protests LOR medim M
civil they saw a boatload of disgruntled federal marshals speeding toward the island in the other direction The next morning a headline in the San Francisco Examiner read Wacky Invasion Nearly three weeks later on March 27 McKenzie and the other Sioux leaders tried another approach They filed a written petition with the government In it they stated their intentions to establish a university for Native American students on the island But the government denied their petition In July 1964 Alcatraz became the property of the General Services Administration GSA a federal agency tasked with among other duties managing government buildings and land The first takeover of Alcatraz had apparently failed But it wouldn't be the last Following the example of McKenzie and his crew and emboldened by rights protests breaking out throughout the country other Native Americans would soon take up the cause Members of various tribes would try twice more to occupy Alcatraz Their third attempt on November 20 1969 was the most successful and lasted more than 19 months As were many other periods in US history the 1960s and 1970s were a time of great upheaval for Native Americans Most were determined to set the record straight about the injustices that had befallen them for
Richard Oakes and others spearheaded a campaign that became a milestone in the history of Native American activism centuries Although each one of them deserves credit the key leaders of the Alcatraz movement included people such as Richard Oakes John Trudell and Stella Leach Many of these people are not well known today But without these hidden heroes extraordinary change for Native Americans and the country as a whole might not have happened
