Great Wall Institute: The Process of the Great Wall of Los AngelesMain MenuResearch of the DecadesResearch1960s Illustration DevelopmentIllustration DevelopmentPlaylists of the DecadesPlaylistssparcinla.org185fc5b2219f38c7b63f42d87efaf997127ba4fcGreat Wall Institute - Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC)
1969-1971 Occupation of Alcatraz: Richard Oakes Interview 3
1media/Screen Shot 2023-04-01 at 1.27.37 PM_thumb.png2023-04-01T20:28:11+00:00Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a4911Graffiti from the occupation of Alcatraz reading: “Peace and Freedom-Welcome, Home of the Free Indian Land”. “yes sir, we will further guide the inhabitants [white people] in a proper way of living, we will offer them our religion our education our life ways in order to help them achieve our level of civilization and thus raise them and all our white brothers up from their savage and unhappy state, we offer this treaty in good faith and wish to be fair and honorable in our dealings with all white men, this tiny island would be a symbol of the great land once ruled by free and noble Indians and to this, we are on the island so we know this is all the true and the uses to be made of this Alcatraz Island, since the San Francisco Indian Center burned down there is no place for Indians to assemble and carry on our tribal life right here in the right white man’s city therefore we plan to develop on this island several Indian Institutes; one a Center for Native American Studies will be developed which will train on documents of the Trail of Tears, the massacre at Wounded Knee, as well as a victory over yellow-haired Custer and his army, in the name of all Indians therefore we reclaim this land for our Indian nations, for all these reasons we feel this claim is just and proper and that this land should rightfully be granted to us for as long as the river shall run in the Sun shall shine, signed Indians of All Tribes November 1969, San Francisco, California.”-Richard Oakes Interview, November 1969.plain2023-04-01T20:28:11+00:00November 1969Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a49