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Every November since 1975, Indian people have gathered on Alcatraz Island, in the San Francisco Bay, on what they call “Un-Thanksgiving Day,” to honor the occupation and those who participated and still fight for Indian rights today. This year was the 40th anniversary of the American Indian Movement occupation of Alcatraz, and was commemorated in a two-night event in San Francisco titled “Indigenous renewal: Alcatraz occupation Remembrance + Ohlone Presence Celebrated.”
“Before AIM (the American Indian Movement), Indians were dispirited, defeated and culturally dissolving. People were ashamed to be Indian. You didn’t see the young people wearing braids or chokers or ribbon shirts in those days. Hell, I didn’t wear them. People didn’t Sun Dance, they didn’t sweat, they were loosing their languages. Then there was that spark at Alcatraz, and we took off. Man, we took a ride across this country. We put Indians and Indian rights smack dab in the middle of the public consciousness for the first time since the so called Indian wars…AIM laid the groundwork for the next stage in regaining our sovereignty and self-determination as nations, and I am proud to have been part of that.” – Russell Means, Oglala Lakota
In Nov. 20, 1969, until June 11, 1971, more than 5,600 Indians joined in the occupation of Alcatraz, from many different backgrounds and nations, claiming it as Indian land under the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty, which promised Lakota people surplus Federal land.
In a background of US policies of Relocation and Termination, of the government attempting to dissolve all remnants of Indian cultural and racial identities in America’s “melting pot” and to end all treaty rights in order to grab the little land and resources Indians still had, fed up with economic, social, political neglect and with widespread racist policies of harassment and abuse, the Indian youth of the sixties was ready to take a stand and make a difference, and they did.
They ignited a spark that fed many fires of activism, and that reasserted Indian identity.
No longer were Indians going to submit to the dominant culture’s ideas of what an Indian should think, how he should act, what she should feel … specifically, no longer were Indians going to let themselves be coerced into pretending to be White.
“If you wanted to make it in America as an Indian, you had to become a hollow person and let them (the government and White American society) remold you…Alcatraz put me back into my community and helped me remember who I am. It was a rekindling of the spirit.” – John Trudell, Santee Lakota
A few years after Alcatraz, Congress passed 52 legislative proposals on behalf of Indians to support tribal self-rule. They included passage of the Indian Self-determination and Education Act, revision of the Johnson O’Malley Act to better educate Indians, passage of the Indian Financing Act, passage of the Indian Health Act and the creation of an Assistant Interior Secretary post for Indian Affairs.
Mount Adams was returned to the Yakima Nation in Washington State, and 48,000 acres of the Sacred Blue Lake Lands were returned to Taos Pueblo in New Mexico.
During the occupation Nixon quietly signed papers canceling the policy of termination, which was designed to end federal recognition of tribes and of all treaties.
“Indian lands were being drained. Indians were marked for destruction so that the government could take over the lands and the coal, uranium, timber and water on them.” – Fortunate Eagle, Red Lake Ojibwa
While the FBI busied itself with its secret anti-dissident operation COINTELPRO and in listing Indian activists as “enemies of the state”, popular support for their causes poured from many quarters ... many wanted to see them succeed, and went out of their way to help them.
After the occupation, AIM began a series of national protests, among them the takeover at Wounded Knee in 1973 and the Longest Walk in 1978, demanding that the government honor treaty obligations. Since then, Indian activists have fought on many fronts, for fishing rights, land and grazing rights, for sacred sites, protesting athletic teams Indian mascots, working for the repatriation of sacred objects taken from Indian lands, of thousands of Indian remains kept in museums throughout this nation. And in an era of energy crisis, Indian are still forced to resist the corporate takeovers of their natural resources and the pollution or draining of water tables under their lands by industry.
The yearly reunion and ceremony at Alcatraz is meant to honor and give thanks to the individuals who, by taking such a stand, helped Indian people remember who they are, and paved the way for the revival of the Indian spirit. It is officially an “Un-Thanksgiving” as far as the dominant culture’s holiday is concerned, yet is it truly an Indian Thanksgiving.
Raphael Montoliu lives in Lakeport.
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