In 1953, Congress passed a resolution that took more than one million acres of American Indian land and displaced more than 11,000 people. In return for this upheaval, Indians were promised vocational training, financial assistance, and job placement--if they agreed to leave their rural homes for American cities. The program was a disaster, and thousands of Indians found themselves stuck in places such as San Francisco without any meaningful support from the federal government. Far removed from family and the social structure that had sustained them on their traditional lands, poverty, discrimination, and disillusionment took a heavy toll on the displaced.

By the early 1960s, however, many urban American Indians were beginning to organize and advocate for their rights. This nascent American Indian Movement, like the Civil Rights and Women's Rights movements, had a significant core of radical participants. Organizers and warriors who firmly believed that the traditional means of non-violent, inoffensive protests would not serve the Indian cause. To succeed, Indians like Richard McKenzie argued, "Government buildings would have to be occupied."

In 1963, the Bureau of Prisons vacated Alcatraz Penitentiary. Indian organizers claimed the land under an 1868 government treaty with the Sioux that entitled Indians to hold surplus government land. The Indians hoped to build a cultural center and a school on the island, but the San Francisco board of supervisors overlooked their claims in favor of a recreational use proposal. This rejection of Indian claims on Alcatraz ran headlong into a growing American Indian rights movement, especially strong in the Bay Area and increasingly radical in nature.

On November 20, 1969, 79 Indian adults and six children from a variety of tribal affiliations landed on Alcatraz. In a message sent to the Department of the Interior Office in San Francisco, attorney R. Corbin Houchins and Indian organizer Richard Oakes stated:
"We native peoples of North America have gathered here to claim our traditional and natural right to create meaningful use for our Great Spirit's land."

During the occupation, the Indians on Alcatraz established a governing council notable for the strong leadership provided by Indian women like Lanada Boyer. Mainland supporters of the occupation ran Coast Guard blockades in small boats to deliver supplies, food, and medicine to the island. As time passed, both the Indians and government officials settled into the long process of negotiations to resolve the dispute.

The occupation of Alcatraz Island lasted until June 11, 1971, when the last remaining Indians were peaceably escorted off the island by armed federal officers. Alcatraz was turned over to the National Park Service for management in October of 1972, and it later became a part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Although the objectives of the organizers were not fully achieved, the occupation remains a signal event in the history of the American Indian movement.

Source:
Johnson, Troy R. We Hold the Rock: The Indian Occupation of Alcatraz, 1969 to 1971. San Francisco: Golden Gate National Parks Association, 1997.