Indians of All Tribes (Organization)

The Occupation of Alcatraz (November 20, 1969 – June 11, 1971) was a 19-month long protest when 89 Native Americans and their supporters occupied Alcatraz Island. The protest was led by Richard Oakes, LaNada Means, and others, while John Trudell served as spokesman. The group lived on the island together until the protest was forcibly ended by the U.S. government.

The protest group chose the name Indians of All Tribes (IAT) for themselves.[1] IAT claimed that, under the Treaty of Fort Laramie between the U.S. and the Lakota tribe, all retired, abandoned, or out-of-use federal land was to be returned to the Indigenous peoples who once occupied it. As Alcatraz penitentiary had been closed on March 21, 1963, and the island had been declared surplus federal property in 1964, a number of Red Power activists felt that the island qualified for a reclamation by Indians.

The Occupation of Alcatraz had a brief effect on federal Indian Termination policies and established a precedent for Indian activism. Oakes was shot to death in 1972, and the American Indian Movement was later targeted by the federal government and the FBI in COINTELPRO operations. On January 3, 1970, Yvonne Oakes,[47] 13-year-old daughter of Annie and stepdaughter to Richard Oakes, fell to her death, prompting the Oakes family to leave the island, saying they did not have the heart for it anymore.[17] Some of the original occupiers left to return to school and some of the new occupiers had drug addictions. Some non-indigenous members of San Francisco's drug and hippie scene also moved to the island, until non-Indians were prohibited from staying overnight.[17]

On January 11, 1970, a letter from Earl Livermore,[48] was written to National Council on Indian Opportunity.[49][50]

In an interview with "Radio Free Alcatraz," occupant and Sioux Indian, John Trudell, lamented that "water [was] still [their] big number one problem" and how, "rapidly, [their] number two problem [was] becoming electricity." The government often shut off all electricity to the island and made it difficult for water to reach the occupants in an effort to make them desert the island.[7]

After Oakes left, LaNada Means, John Trudell, Stella Leach, and Al Miller were challenged with reorganizing and did so upon creating Indians of All Tribes. Means, having been in a family that was always active in tribal politics, was comfortable briefing reporters on how reservations operated or directing occupiers on island clean up.LaNada Means attempted to find different routes to support Indians of All Tribes and those still on Alcatraz.

Alcatraz Island was occupied in November 1969 by Indians of All Tribes, a group of about one hundred Native American college students and activists from UCLA and the San Francisco Bay Area. Led by Richard Oakes, the occupation was organized to draw attention to the sociopolitical situation of Native Americans and to encourage their self-determination. After changes in leadership, the influx of non-Native persons, growing violence and drug abuse, and increasing isolation in the community, the federal government was prompted to remove the Indians from the island in June 1971.