Occupation of Alcatraz

The Occupation of Alcatraz (November 20, 1969 – June 11, 1971) was a 19-month long occupation of Alcatraz Island and its prison complex, then classified as abandoned surplus federal land, by 89 American Indians and their supporters. The occupation was led by Richard Oakes, LaNada Means, and others, while John Trudell served as spokesman. The group lived on the island together until the occupation was forcibly ended by the U.S. government. The protest group chose the name Indians of All Tribes (IAT) for themselves. IAT claimed that, under the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868) 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 American Indians. The Occupation of Alcatraz had a brief effect on federal Indian Termination policies and established a precedent for American Indian activism. Oakes was later shot to death in 1972. The American Indian Movement was targeted by the federal government and FBI in COINTELPRO and similar surveillance operations.