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)
1media/Screen Shot 2022-10-21 at 4.35.43 PM_thumb.png2022-10-21T23:39:23+00:00Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a491969-1971 Occupation of Alcatraz: Proclamation1On Nov. 26, 1969, just before Thanksgiving Day Indians of All Tribes, issued the following press release indicating the seizure of Alcatraz Island. The 4-page press release reprinted by the Journal of American Indian Education in 1970 indicates that Alcatraz Island will be used for several Indian institutions including: 1. A Center for Native American Studies 2. An American Indian Spiritual Center 3. An Indian Center of Ecology 4. A Great Indian Training School 5. Creation of an American Indian Museummedia/Screen Shot 2022-10-21 at 4.35.43 PM.pngplain2022-10-21T23:39:23+00:001969Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a49
1media/Screen Shot 2022-10-21 at 4.43.22 PM_thumb.png2022-10-21T23:45:02+00:00Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a491969-1971 Occupation of Alcatraz: Indian American Land1A Native American girl paints a sign that reads "Indian American Land" on a wall of Alcataz Island in San Francisco Bay. In 1969, dozens of Native activists took over the former federal prison site in protest of U.S. policies, claiming it as a cultural and spiritual center. In response, a growing movement of young Native Americans sought to reclaim their sovereignty through what they called the Red Power movement. Media savvy and galvanized by the protest movements of the 1960s, they staged high-profile protests to raise awareness of Native issues. (Native Americans are telling their own stories to counter stereotypes of Indigenous life.) One of the first was the occupation of Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay, home to a decommissioned prison where Hopi men and other Native Americans had once been held. In November 1969, a group calling itself “Indians of All Tribes” took over the island and proclaimed it a cultural and spiritual center in the name of all Native Americans. The occupation lasted until June 1971, when it disintegrated due to organizational issues, infighting, and worsening conditions as the U.S. government cut off power and water to the island.media/Screen Shot 2022-10-21 at 4.43.22 PM.pngplain2022-10-21T23:45:02+00:001969-1971Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a49
1media/Screen Shot 2022-10-26 at 3.44.07 PM_thumb.png2022-10-26T22:51:37+00:00Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a491969-1971 Occupation of Alcatraz: Occupiers standing on the dock at Alcatraz1On November 20, 1969, a group of Native students landed on an uninhabited Alcatraz and reclaimed it as Indian Land, beginning nineteen months of occupation. Leaders included Richard Oakes, an Akwesasne Mohawk and Chair of the Native American student group from San Francisco State College and LaNada War Jack, a member of the Shoshone Bannock Tribes and Chair of the Native American students from UC Berkeley. Thousands of Native people from across the country joined the original group of 80 occupiers. The Indians of All Tribes demanded that the federal government recognize treaties with Indian tribes, they demanded a Native American cultural center, and they demanded that land be returned. As the Occupiers discussed their plans, they wrote messages of peace and freedom around the island as well as submitting formal proposals and architectural plans. You can see several of their messages and symbols recently restored here at the dock.media/Screen Shot 2022-10-26 at 3.44.07 PM.pngplain2022-10-26T22:51:37+00:001969Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a49
1media/Screen Shot 2022-10-21 at 4.45.28 PM_thumb.png2022-10-21T23:48:46+00:00Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a491969-1971 Occupation of Alcatraz: Playing basketball near main entrance1Native Americans play ball games at the main dock area on Alcatraz in San Francisco during their occupation of the island in 1969. The week of Nov. 18, 2019, marks 50 years since the beginning of a months-long Native American occupation at Alcatraz Island in the San Francisco Bay.media/Screen Shot 2022-10-21 at 4.45.28 PM.pngplain2022-10-21T23:48:46+00:001969-1971Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a49
1media/Screen Shot 2022-10-26 at 3.36.51 PM_thumb.png2022-10-26T22:39:15+00:00Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a491969-1971 Occupation of Alcatraz: People arrive during the Native American occupation of Alcatraz Island1People arrive during the Native American occupation of Alcatraz Island in San Francisco, in November 1969.media/Screen Shot 2022-10-26 at 3.36.51 PM.pngplain2022-10-26T22:39:15+00:00November 1969Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a49
1media/Screen Shot 2022-10-21 at 4.56.45 PM_thumb.png2022-10-21T23:59:05+00:00Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a491969-1971 Occupation of Alcatraz: Coast Gaurd ward off supporters in boats as they circle Alcatraz Islamd1U.S. Coast Guard picket beat wards off from Alcatraz Island a small craft with sign carrying supporters of the Indian "invasion" of Alcatraz. Federal officials withdraw a Sunday afternoon deadline for the surrender of the island by the Indians, who had vowed to hide from marshals in the 12-acre maze of old buildings and caves. About 120 are on the Island.”media/Screen Shot 2022-10-21 at 4.56.45 PM.pngplain2022-10-21T23:59:05+00:001969-1971Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a49
1media/Screen Shot 2022-10-26 at 4.09.17 PM_thumb.png2022-10-26T23:11:16+00:00Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a491969-1971 Occupation of Alcatraz: A young brave from New Mexico at a Thanksgiving feast on Alcatraz Island1A young brave from Nogales, New Mexico, at a Thanksgiving feast on Alcatraz Island on November 27, 1969. For Native American students at San Francisco State University and other schools around the Bay Area, the protests and strikes at University of California, Berkeley during the 1960s, were a glimpse into how political activism could begin to address the injustices Native people had long suffered. In meetings at San Francisco’s American Indian Center and Warren’s, a bar in the Mission District’s “Little Res,” a plan was hatched to take over Alcatraz Island, whose world-famous prison had recently been decommissioned and its land declared “surplus.” The siege of Alcatraz officially began on November 20, 1969, with two major goals — to agitate for Native American self-determination and sovereignty and to establish a Native American cultural center, museum and college on the island. In the 1960s, War Jack says, “just to identify yourself as a Native person would bring immediate discrimination and racism. [Alcatraz] helped us re-establish our self-identification as Native people. People developed pride.”media/Screen Shot 2022-10-26 at 4.09.17 PM.pngplain2022-10-26T23:11:16+00:00November 27, 1969Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a49
1media/Screen Shot 2022-10-26 at 4.04.49 PM_thumb.png2022-10-26T23:06:09+00:00Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a491969-1971 Occupation of Alcatraz: Two activist walking through a cell block1Two activists walking through the abandoned Alcatraz prison during the occupation. The island, The Times reported, became “a focal point symbolic of Indian people.” Dec. 7, 1969.media/Screen Shot 2022-10-26 at 4.04.49 PM.pngplain2022-10-26T23:06:09+00:00December 7, 1969Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a49
1media/Screen Shot 2022-10-21 at 4.59.21 PM_thumb.png2022-10-22T00:01:40+00:00Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a491969-1971 Occupation of Alcatraz: Celebration1Occupants on Alcatraz Island, gather in front of the main cell block with the island's water tower in the background, during the occupation of Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay, California, 11th November 1970. The occupation was a 19-month long protest when 89 Native Americans and their supporters occupied Alcatraz Island from 20th November 1969 to 11th June 1971 when the United States Government forcibly ended the protest.media/Screen Shot 2022-10-21 at 4.59.21 PM.pngplain2022-10-22T00:01:40+00:001969-1971Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a49
1media/Screen Shot 2022-10-21 at 5.01.58 PM_thumb.png2022-10-22T00:03:23+00:00Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a491969-1971 Occupation of Alcatraz: Three men and a dog inside the cell block of Alcatraz1Demonstrators inspect prison galleries in main cell block on Alcatraz Island, after this former Federal peniteniary was invaded by Indians for the 2nd time in less than two weeks. Seventy eight young demonstrators landed on the island before dawn and said they would stay to secure the right to build an Indian education and cultural center on Alcatraz.media/Screen Shot 2022-10-21 at 5.01.58 PM.pngplain2022-10-22T00:03:23+00:001969-1971Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a49
1media/Screen Shot 2022-10-21 at 5.07.27 PM_thumb.png2022-10-22T00:08:40+00:00Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a491969-1971 Occupation of Alcatraz: LaNada Means presents a proposed cultural center1At a press conference celebrating the one year anniversary of the occupation, LaNada War Jack presents an architectural model and blueprint for the creation of a “$6 million tuition free university,” by the Indians All Tribes.media/Screen Shot 2022-10-21 at 5.07.27 PM.pngplain2022-10-22T00:08:40+00:00November 20, 1970Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a49
1media/Screen Shot 2022-10-26 at 3.22.16 PM_thumb.png2022-10-26T22:22:31+00:00Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a491969-1971 Occupation of Alcatraz: Woodcut print by Elvin Willie1A woodcut by 14-year-old Elvin Willie (whose name is misspelled above) appeared in the first issue of the Indians of All Tribes Alcatraz Newsletter produced during the occupation. January 1970.media/Screen Shot 2022-10-26 at 3.22.16 PM.pngplain2022-10-26T22:22:31+00:00January 1970Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a49
1media/Screen Shot 2022-10-26 at 3.24.31 PM_thumb.png2022-10-26T22:24:52+00:00Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a491969-1971 Occupation of Alcatraz: Sioux woman with a drink in cell1A young Sioux woman with a hot drink in a cell where she sleeps in the main cell block of Alcatraz Island during the occupation of Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay, California, 26th November 1969.media/Screen Shot 2022-10-26 at 3.24.31 PM.pngplain2022-10-26T22:24:52+00:00November 26, 1969Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a49
1media/Screen Shot 2022-10-26 at 3.29.33 PM_thumb.png2022-10-26T22:31:13+00:00Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a491969-1971 Occupation of Alcatraz: Leaders of the American Indian Movement hold a press conference1Left to right, Richard Oakes, Earl Livermore, and Al Miller, leaders of the American Indian Movement hold a press conference at Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary on December 24, 1969, during their takeover in 1969-70.media/Screen Shot 2022-10-26 at 3.29.33 PM.pngplain2022-10-26T22:31:13+00:00December 24, 1969Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a49
1media/Screen Shot 2022-10-26 at 3.36.05 PM_thumb.png2022-10-26T22:36:18+00:00Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a491969-1971 Occupation of Alcatraz: Native and Indigenous elders from throughout the country joined the young occupiers of Alcatraz Island for a meeting1Native and Indigenous elders from throughout the country joined the young occupiers of Alcatraz Island for a meeting they said was the most important since the ‘Ghost Dance’ days of the 1880s. When, in 1956, the Bureau of Indian Affairs launched yet another assimilationist policy, the Indian Relocation Act, the intention was to further undermine Native communities by moving youth from Indian Reservations to urban centers throughout the West. Instead, the opposite occurred. Native people began, for the first time, to find support across tribal lines among the more than 100,000 relocated Indigenous people who shared similar histories of Indigenous identity and cultural survival… For Native American students at San Francisco State University and other schools around the Bay Area, the protests and strikes at University of California, Berkeley during the 1960s, were a glimpse into how political activism could begin to address the injustices Native people had long suffered. In meetings at San Francisco’s American Indian Center and Warren’s, a bar in the Mission District’s “Little Res,” a plan was hatched to take over Alcatraz Island, whose world-famous prison had recently been decommissioned and its land declared “surplus.” The siege of Alcatraz officially began on November 20, 1969, with two major goals — to agitate for Native American self-determination and sovereignty and to establish a Native American cultural center, museum and college on the island. In the 1960s, War Jack says, “just to identify yourself as a Native person would bring immediate discrimination and racism. [Alcatraz] helped us re-establish our self-identification as Native people. People developed pride.”media/Screen Shot 2022-10-26 at 3.36.05 PM.pngplain2022-10-26T22:36:18+00:00December 23, 1969Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a49
1media/Screen Shot 2022-10-26 at 3.52.20 PM_thumb.png2022-10-26T22:53:53+00:00Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a491969-1971 Occupation of Alcatraz: View of the fire which burned most of the night on Alcatraz Island1View of the fire on June 2, 1970, which burned most of the night on Alcatraz Island, destroying the lighthouse, warden’s home, and infirmary of the former federal penitentiary. John Trudell (Sioux) stands in the foreground. He lived on the island with his family.media/Screen Shot 2022-10-26 at 3.52.20 PM.pngplain2022-10-26T22:53:53+00:00June 2, 1970Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a49
1media/Screen Shot 2022-10-26 at 3.54.11 PM_thumb.png2022-10-26T22:57:27+00:00Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a491969-1971 Occupation of Alcatraz: A man stands outside a tepee1A man stands outside a tepee set up on Alcatraz during the occupation with view of the Golden Gate Bridge in the backgroundmedia/Screen Shot 2022-10-26 at 3.54.11 PM.pngplain2022-10-26T22:57:27+00:001969-1971Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a49
1media/Screen Shot 2022-10-26 at 3.57.47 PM_thumb.png2022-10-26T22:59:22+00:00Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a491969-1971 Occupation of Alcatraz: Posed Photo1The only posed photo from the occupation. It was taken by Art Kane and appeared in the June 2, 1970 issue of Look Magazine. The identified occupiers in the front row, left to right, are John Trudell holding Tara Trudell, Annie Oakes, Richard Oakes, Stella Leach, Ray Spang, and Ross Harden. Peeking out behind Ray Spang is Joe Morris, and seated behind Richard and Stella Leach is Luwana Quitiquit.media/Screen Shot 2022-10-26 at 3.57.47 PM.pngplain2022-10-26T22:59:22+00:00May, 1970Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a49
1media/Screen Shot 2022-10-26 at 3.25.44 PM_thumb.png2022-10-26T22:28:58+00:00Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a491969-1971 Occupation of Alcatraz: Occupiers moments after being removed from Alcatraz Island1Indian occupiers moments after their removal from Alcatraz Island on June 11, 1971. Left: Oohosis, Cree from Canada. Right: Peggy Lee Ellenwood, Sioux from Wolf Point, Montana.media/Screen Shot 2022-10-26 at 3.25.44 PM.pngplain2022-10-26T22:28:58+00:00June 11, 1971Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a49
1media/Screen Shot 2023-04-01 at 1.14.05 PM_thumb.png2023-04-01T20:15:42+00:00Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a491969-1971 Occupation of Alcatraz: Newspaper announces surrender1San Francisco Chronicle cover after the peaceful surrender of Alcatraz by Indian occupiers on June 11th, 1971.media/Screen Shot 2023-04-01 at 1.14.05 PM.pngplain2023-04-01T20:15:42+00:00June 11, 1971Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a49