Indian Land Forever

"Indian Land Forever": The 50th anniversary of the Alcatraz Island takeover

The 1960s comedian Lenny Bruce once wrote that Native
Americans' worst mistake when Europeans supposedly discovered America
was believing possession really is nine-tenths of the law.

It's now common knowledge that the arrival of European settlers
ushered in centuries of violence and misery for America's First Peoples.
But when Bruce wrote those words, American mythology hadn't yet
accepted that stark reality.

So, it was a wake-up call when, 50 years ago this fall, Native
American activists seized the notorious prison island of Alcatraz in San
Francisco Bay, which had recently been closed by the government. Their
leader, 27-year old Mohawk Richard Oakes, cited an 1868 Indian treaty
that gave natives the rights to abandoned federal land. "We invite the
United States to acknowledge the justice of our claim," he said.

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For more info:

• Alcatraz Island (National Park Service)


• Alcatraz History


• douglasbrinkley.com