Today in Labor History November 20, 1969: Indigenous activists seized control of Alcatraz Island, in San Francisco Bay, and occupied it until the U.S. Government ousted them 19 months later. The protest group called themselves Indians of All Tribes. They took the island because, according to the Treaty of Fort Laramie, all retired, abandoned or out-of-use federal land was to be returned to the Indians who once occupied it. Since Alcatraz had been closed for over 6 years, and the island had been declared surplus federal property, indigenous activists believed that the island was theirs to reclaim. One of the organizers of the Occupation, Richard Oakes, was shot to death in 1972 by a white supremacist YMCA counselor in Sonoma, CA. And the American Indian Movement (AIM) was targeted by the FBI’s COINTELLPRO. Other organizers of the Alcatraz Occupation included LaNada Means, head of the Native American Student Organization at the University of California, Berkeley, and poet, musician and songwriter John Trudell. At the height of the movement, there were 400 people occupying the island. They set up a school, daycare center, and health clinic. Trudell began making daily radio broadcasts from the island. The longshore union rented space on Pier 40 to coordinate the delivery of supplies. Grace Thorpe, daughter of Olympic champion and multisport indigenous superstar, Jim Thorpe, helped convince celebrities like Jane Fonda, Anthony Quinn, Marlon Brando, Jonathan Winters, Buffy Sainte-Marie and Dick Gregory, to visit the island and show their support, bringing national and international attention to the cause. AIM also formed coalitions with the Black Panthers and the Brown Berets, who help run security on the island.
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