Title: We hold the rock, the Indian occupation of Alcatraz 1969 to 1971
Photographer(s): Various photographers
Writer(s): Troy R. Johnson
Designer(s): Reuter Design San Francisco,California, U.S.A.
Publisher(s): Golden Gate National Parks Association,San Francisco,California, U.S.A.
Year: 1997
Print run:
Language(s): English
Pages: 56
Size: 21,5 x 28 cm
Binding: Softcover
Edition:
Print: Heritage Graphics, U.S.A.
Nation(s) and year(s) of Protest: U.S.A., 1969-1971
ISBN: 978-1883869281
In NOVEMBER 1969, Alcatraz Island, a foggy, wind-swept speck in San Francisco Bay, became the rallying point for a pivotal event in the history of Native American civil rights.
The island, vacated by the Bureau of Prisons in 1963, had long been a symbol, first of military protection and then of the federal government's determination to isolate and punish more of the country's notorious criminals.
On 20 November 1969, it became the place where a group of committed Indian activists - men, women and children - made their stand for justice and fair treatment. Here, on this cold island, the people of the Sioux, the Creek, the Mono, the Pomo, the Piaute, the Navajo, the Mohawk, the Chippewa and dozens of other tribes told the world that the time had come for America to make good on its treaties and agreements with their people.
This is a story with an idealistic beginning, a tumultuous middle and an unsatisfactory end. But it was not a failure. In the words of Wilma Mankiller, former chief of the Cherokee Nation, the occupation of Alcatraz 'relit [the] flame and, out of the fire, all these people spread out in different directions to do incredible work'.
This is the story of how that flame was rekindled.
By the introduction of the book.