Roots of Contemporary Native American Activism
Abstract
On 11 June 1971, twenty-five years ago, U.S. government forces reoccupied Alcatraz Island in the San Francisco Bay, ending the Indian occupation of the island that had begun on 20 November 1969. The removal force consisted of ten FBI agents, along with United States marshals from the San Francisco, Sacramento, and San Diego offices, armed with handguns, M-1 thirty-caliber carbines, and shotguns. Supporting the marshals were the federal protective officers, a group that had been formed in April 1971 as a security arm of the GSA. These officers were equipped with radio transceivers, thirty-eight-caliber revolvers and ammunition, helmets, batons, and flashlights. Only fifteen Indians remained on the island to face this formidable force: six men, four women, and five children. The nineteen-month occupation came to an end. The impact of the Alcatraz occupation went beyond the individual lives and consciousnesses it helped to reshape, however. The events on Alcatraz marked the beginning of a national Indian activist movement, sometimes referred to as ”Red Power,” that kept national attention on Indian rights and grievances. The founding of Deganawidah Quetzalcoatl University (DQU) in California, the Trail of Broken Treaties, the takeovers of the BIA, the siege at Wounded Knee, the Longest Walk-all of these followed in the wake of Alcatraz.