Occupying Alcatraz

For almost two years, from November of 1969 to June of 1971, the Native Americans occupied the island of Alcatraz. Their occupation was a symbol of Native American history with the U.S. government. The island of Alcatraz was symbolic of Native history with the U.S. government for a variety of reasons. Most of these reasons are stated in the Proclamation that was written by the Native Americans who occupied the island for two years. The similarities between Alcatraz and the Native American reservations are huge in number. Derived directly from the Proclamation, these similarities are:

(1) Both are isolated from modern facilities and, and without adequate means of transport

(2) Both have no fresh running water

(3) Both have inadequate sanitation facilities

(4) Both have no oil or mineral rights 

(5) Both have no industry and so unemployment is very great

(6) Both have no health- care facilities

(7) Both have soil that is rocky and non-productive, and land that does not support game

(8) Both have no educational facilities

(9)  Both have a population that has always exceeded the land base

(10) Both have populations that have always been held as prisoners and kept dependent upon others

 In addition to the similarities stated in the Proclamation, Dean Rader in Engaged Resistance also talks about other more obvious similarities. First off, the land was taken from the Native Americans and claimed although the Americans really had no entitlement to it. Second off, the inhabitants of the reservations were placed there by the government just as the prisoners of Alcatraz were sent there by the government. Thirdly, due to the geography of the island, the prisoners were isolated from the rest of society, much like the Native Americans were isolated on their own little patches of land. 

The occupation of Alcatraz was symbolic of Native American history with the U.S. government. While they were on the island, the Native Americans made use of it, adding their art and poetry to the walls of the decrepit buildings.The island wasn’t being used and so the Native Americans took it over and made it their land of symbolism. Through occupying the island, they were able to share with the U.S. government just a sliver of the dissatisfaction that they felt for the ruling elite. They got to share with the world how unhappy they were with having their land taken away from them at only a fraction of the cost. They were unhappy with the way in which they were pretty much kicked out of their homelands to go live on reservations that pretty much only had the basic amenities of a prison like Alcatraz. Through their occupation of Alcatraz, they were able to practice aesthetic activism. They were able to nonviolently engage the U.S. government that had taken away some of their basic human rights, reducing them to mere prisoners of the system. Through their “graffiti”, they were able to call Native Americans to arms. Playing off of the Black Power rallies of the 1900’s, they spread the message of Red Power around the island. Playing with national symbols such as the bald eagle, they announced “this land is my land”. Claiming their right to the island through discovery was just one more way through which they mocked the system that had so unceremoniously taken their land from them by right of “discovery”. Today, their graffiti-ed occupation of the island stands as the as the longest occupation of any federal facility in the history of the United States" (10). The symbolism of it is quite remarkable. Just as the prisoners of Alcatraz were confined to an island so also had the Native Americans been confined to the reservations for quite awhile. Not only was the symbolism rich in this act of engaged resistance but it also led to art and literature that continue to give a voice to the Native American people.

                                                A picture from the occupation of Alcatraz. 

                                                Notice the symbolism of the occupation to 

                                                Native American history with the U.S. 

                                                government.

Cited Literature

Rader, Dean. Engaged Resistance: American Indian Art, Literature, and Film from Alcatraz to the NMAI. Austin: University of Texas, 2011. Print.