National Park After Dark - Reclaiming The Rock: Golden Gate National Recreation Area

Episode Date: November 8, 2021

Alcatraz Island is synonymous with prison. Almost every book, TV show and movie portrays this rocky island in San Francisco Bay as a place where big name gangsters like Al Capone or Alvin Karpis were locked away.  But what you may not know is that this same location renowned for violence and incarceration also served as a beacon of peace and symbol of regaining freedom. After hundreds of years of people avoiding it and risking bullets in their backs to escape it, there was time that people risked it all to gain access to the island, and who repeatedly returned despite being forcibly removed. This week we welcome Native Heritage Month by discussing the Occupation of Alcatraz. For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials at:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!Thank you to this week’s partners!Beam: 40% off the first three months of any product subscription, or 20% off a one-time purchase.beamorganics.com/npad. You may pause or cancel anytime.Prose:  Get a free in-depth hair regimen and 15% off your first custom hair care order at prose.com/NPADAMC Shudder: Try Shudder free for 30 days with code NPADFor a full list of our sources, visit http://npadpodcast.com/episodes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Prisons. Buildings constructed to hold individuals as a form of punishment for committing crimes. A place, I think it's safe to say, that the vast majority of us actively try to avoid. While there are literally thousands of citizens of crimes, state and federal prisons, local jails, and detention facilities across the United States, there are a few that come to mind most menacingly. Rikers Island, Eastern State Penitentiary, San Quentin State Prison, and Sing-Sing Correctional Facility are among them. Each of these facilities has their own unique and often dark past, but none so famous as The Rock. This island,

sitting ominously amongst the crashing waves of San Francisco Bay, is home to the quintessential maximum security prison. Alcatraz has gone down in history as a site synonymous with violence, imprisonment, and oppression. Throughout its past, those who have found themselves on the rock have been dying to get off of it. Inmates have filed down bars, popped through roofs, dug through tunnels, and plunged into icy shark-infested waters all in hopes of escaping their confines. But what you may not know is that this same location, renowned for violence and incarceration, also served as a beacon of peace and a symbol of regaining freedom. The penitentiary closed its doors, but the island was not forgotten. After hundreds of years of people digging their heels into the dirt,

avoiding the rock at all costs, and risking bullets in their backs to escape it, from November of 1969 to June of 1971, there were people risking it all to make it to the island, and who repeatedly returned despite being forcibly removed. After a long long time, history of fighting to flee the island, the occupation of Alcatraz provided a brief moment in time where people didn't want to run from it, but instead fought to occupy it. Welcome to National Park After Dark. That was a really good intro. The fact that we're talking about breaking into Alcatraz and not out of it. What a twist when you were describing the way people escape and how everyone wants to leave and shark-infested waters, I was just thinking the whole time of

that story of the three guys who actually did escape Alcatraz. And I could just picture it, especially because there's like shows on it and they show how they escape, their escape route. And I'm really excited that we're doing a different story because that one's so well known. Yeah. And it's great that you brought that up because that is what I know of Alcatraz. That's what I was brought up basically from movies and TV and all that. And like you said, that story and others are so well publicized that you just think Alcatraz and prison. escape attempts. And this episode is not going to be like that. We'll cover the history of Alcatraz and touch upon some of that stuff, but that's not what the main episode is about. So Alcatraz

with a twist is what today is all about. So the reason that I chose this episode today is because November is Native American Heritage Month. So in light of that, this episode is going to bring us to an event that brought a huge amount of awareness to the Red Power Movement. So let's get acquainted with the island itself. Alcatraz Island is located off of the shores of San Francisco, California in San Francisco Bay. It is nicknamed the rock for a reason, as the island is a rocky area of about 22 acres located a mile and a half offshore. In ways of plant and animal life, this island was pretty sparse for most of history. The Miwok tribe, who once inhabited large swaths of Northern California, believed that the island contained evil spirits. And

and used it as a place of banishment or isolation for tribe members who broke tribal laws. They largely avoided it other than the occasional visit to gather bird eggs for food. It was first seen by European eyes in the late 1700s. A Spanish explorer named Juan Manuel de Alea Iranzara and his crew set sail from Mexico to explore California and are thought to be the first non-native peoples to sail into the San Francisco Bay. He dubbed the island, Ila de los Alcatraz's, island of the pelicans, and it was largely a seabird habitat. So he just called it like it is. He's like, it's a rock with a bunch of birds on it. Bird rock, California.

And it literally is a rock. It has no freshwater sources and only a handful of permanent species, including deer mice, which found their way onto the island via human activity throughout the years, and little banana slugs. Most of the plants and flowers on the island that are there today were actually introduced as well. Over the years, different military officers, prisoners, and wardens all tended to gardens on the island and introduced over 200 species of plants since the 1800s. So there are actually like big gardens on Alcatraz right now and so many nice colorful flowers and vegetation and stuff, but that was all introduced. Now it's nice for all the visitors who go, but none of it's native.

Right. The water surrounding the rock are quite different. California sea lions, North American River otters, leopard sharks, great white sharks, humpbacks, gray and blue whales, harbor porpoises, bottled nose dolphins, and harbor seals are just a few of the species that swim the seas surrounding the island. The bay itself is teeming with life, but the water itself is very cold. The average temperature of the bay is 53 degrees. Oof, yeah, I've touched that water before and not warm. Yeah, no, that's a no for me, dog. A relatively barren, sandstone, rocky outcropping of an island with no fresh water and little plant in animal life that was thought to be evil,

may not seem like the top of anybody's wish list, but you'd be wrong. The island was privately owned, sold to the Mexican government, and then later came under control of the United States in 1848. government was quick to set up shop as it realized the island could be used as a defensive site for the bay. Construction soon began and Fort Alcatraz was born. And on this island was actually the first, they constructed the first lighthouse on the entire west coast on Alcatraz. Yeah. So the fort, Fort Alcatraz was finished in 1859 and it included docks, a guardhouse, barracks, offices, armed barracks, and even a moat complete with a drawbridge. It became a very powerful player in coastal defense.

Alcatraz had a moat? Yeah. But it's in a body of water. Like that is the moat. I don't get it, okay? It's like you have to cross the water and then we built a man-made body of water around the rock in a body of water. I think it was a dry moat. What?

Like a trench? point of someone give us clarification I don't know I kind of just read it so tilted my head a little bit like huh and just kept going so so anyway this mo that was there for a while was there too and it wasn't long until there was a need to house prisoners on the island so you know different military posts obviously have a lot of soldiers when they act up or break rules they need a prison Just the way you said that was so funny. You act up, you go to prison. You break the pool, you go to prison.

This is the way it works. So it was then in 1859 that that was the first year that Alcatraz was used as a prison. And it continued to serve as a military prison throughout the 19th century. And it started with just like a single cell in the guardhouse. Okay, you have one or two people that are acting up and need to be thrown in jail. It's just like the basement of the guardhouse. It wasn't a separate building or anything at first, but it just progressed over time. It started as a military prison, but it wasn't just for soldiers.

People caught celebrating the death of President Lincoln were sent here, along with southern sympathizers during the Civil War. U.S. Army deserters and those who resisted the army and prisoners of war were all detained here. Native Americans were also sentenced to time here. Some were scouts that were involved in mutiny. others violated different laws of war, but most famously were 19 members of the Hopi tribe, who found themselves here when they resisted sending their children to boarding schools, which were meant to extinguish their culture and indoctrinate children with the Anglo-American ideals.

That's really sad. We've been covering a lot of indigenous people stories, and I feel like it's such a recurring theme of just trying to get rid of their entire culture. It's depressing as hell. So as time went on and the defensive purposes of the island became obsolete, Alcatraz was redesigned and a new emphasis was put on the prison. Starting in 1907, the prisoners were put to work, essentially building their own cage. At the time, they were building the largest reinforced concrete structure in the whole world. And it was finished in 1912.

And when it finished, the workers became its first inmates. Wait, what? They made them build their own prison? Yes. That's crazy. That's like building, that's like when you hear of people digging their own graves. You're building your own prison. Well, I guess if you're the one building your prison, like make some good escape routes. Yeah, well, I mean, there were lots of escape attempts throughout history, not even just when it was the Alcatraz we know of today with the big escape attempts that are in movies and all of that. And I didn't get too too into it again because

I wanted to focus more on the occupation story, but when Alcatraz was, before it was this maximum security prison, it was a low security prison. Like there were times that the inmates could go around the island, walk around the island throughout the day. They could go out on work duty. They only had to report back to their cells like a certain amount of times a day. Like it was very lax. That obviously changed throughout history. me of the dry tortugas episode that we did and there it was the same thing because they're on such a remote island it didn't matter people could walk around and do whatever they wanted you're not going anywhere right and i think that was kind of the thought when it's like okay you're going to jump into those

waters good luck okay bye and it's so weird because you see the island from photos like from shore it doesn't seem far away at all no it seems like it's right there all and i were in san francisco a few years ago and we wanted to go do the tour and we walked to the boat dock where they were doing it from but we had missed the timeline or something and we were there for a very short amount of time so we didn't get to do it but it just seemed even the boat ride it had signs and it was like 20 minutes or something like yeah very very short so if you can imagine a civil war era prison you probably imagine a dark dingy cold filthy disease ridden structure and essentially that's what the early days of Alcatraz looked like as a military prison, but the army ceased their operations on the

island by the 1930s. It was too expensive to operate, and logistically it was really difficult and very expensive to get supplies to and from the island. And now that the military presence wasn't as needed, they kind of just wanted to take their exit and back away from the island. So it was good timing, though, because when you think of 1930s, what do you think of? The Great Depression? Well, there's that, but there's also the big gangster era. Right, right, right, gangsters. Like the Great Depression,

organized crime, mobsters, etc. So, the gangster organized crime heyday was happening in the 1930s. And with organized crime in full upswing, the government needed a solution. Alcatraz was just revamped to a mess. maximum security prison. So in 1933, it was transferred to the Bureau of Prisons. The prison was now open to civilians, but no prisoner would actually be directly sentenced here from the courts. They had to earn their transfer to the Rock from other facilities by exhibiting horrible or violent behavior, attempting to escape, assaulting inmates or other guards, wherever they were

housed previously. So if they were too much to handle at whatever facility they were at, before, they would kind of earn a ticket to Alcatraz because it was kind of reserved for the worst of the worst inmates at this time. At this point, this is where the most infamous inmates come into play. We have George Machine Gun Kelly, Al Capone, Robert Stroud, aka the Birdman of Alcatraz, and Floyd, who was the driver for Bonnie and Clyde. And from our neck of the woods, James Whitey Bulger, they all spent time here. Wow. I didn't know Whitey Bulger spent time there. Mm-hmm. Oh. So the island definitely had its famous faces, but it also had famous escapes.

Alcatraz and breakout attempts kind of go hand in hand. When it was a military prison, like I said, there was some escape attempts then, too. At least 80 men attempted to escape in 29 separate attempts. Most of them were captured and returned, some drowned, and the other's fates were lost to history. As a maximum security prison, 36 men attempted to escape in 14 separate attempts. attempts. Again, most of them were captured in return. Seven of them were shot and killed by guards during their escape attempts. Two of them drowned and another five were never found. Life on Alcatraz for inmates was hell, just as it was designed to be. Other than the rock, it was also nicknamed

Helcatraz. Inmates were treated poorly and kept under deprivation and at times intolerable conditions. Harsh punishment and solitary confinement added to the atmosphere. Suicides and murder were common on the island along with death due to illness. So it's kind of safe to say that prisoners rejoiced when the announcement came that Alcatraz was shutting down. A combination of rising costs, it was the most expensive state or federal institution of its time, along with deteriorating facilities and a change in mindset prompted the shutdown. Prison reform with a new philosophy of rehabilitation rather than harsh punishment was sweeping the nation. And in March of 1963, the last prisoners were transported off the island. Imagine being on that boat as a prisoner. You've been stuck there

dreaming of your escape and you get to go out on a boat instead of swimming and drowning. Just to another facility. I mean, you're still in prison, but I just imagine being on that island had a different vibe than any other place. True. So alas, the island was returned to the seabirds and sat vacant. Then, a year later, citing the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie, that allowed natives to claim any unoccupied retired and abandoned government land, a small group of Sioux made a brief but impactful stand on the island. The occupation only lasted four hours, but it caught the attention of Californians and beyond. This brief stand served as the first domino that would trigger a massive movement, led by an unlikely man named Richard Oakes. Richard Oaks was a young man living in New York when the Sioux occupied Alcatraz. Richard came from the Awanowski Mohawks and was brought up immersed in American Indian activism.

In the 1950s, federal relocation policies were underway, with a goal of emptying reservation communities. This resulted in cities like Seattle, San Francisco, and Brooklyn becoming melting pots for many different native tribes. Again, something I never knew. I never knew of this policy in the 50s. you? No, this is the first time I'm hearing of it. The federal government sold the idea to Native communities that it was a way to escape poverty-stricken reservation life, and the Oaks took this chance and moved from Northern New York from the St. Regis Reservation to Brooklyn. Richard's parents divorced, and their family went through a bit of a rough patch. It resulted in him

and his brother winding up in an orphanage for a couple of years. As a young adult, Richard dropped out of high school and found himself running the streets of New York as a gang member and a street fighter, where he ran into trouble with the law and fought in different turf wars with other ethnic gangs in a Brooklyn neighborhood known as Little Cognawaga. But as a 16-year-old, he followed his father's path of working on New York City skyscrapers and bridges doing iron work. It was risky but very well-paying work, and Richard rebuilt his life as he worked in construction. He heard of the American Indian Revolution, gaining traction and wanted to be a part of it. He sold his work tools, quit his job, and drove cross-country

to San Francisco. He left behind his family, a broken marriage, and a son in New York, in hopes of starting again in California. Along the way, he stopped at reservations and various native communities. He asked them about their lives and how relocation was affecting them. The federal relocation policies were, surprise, surprise, not all they cracked up to be. Thousands of native peoples found themselves in large cities with no money, little job opportunities, and no cultural support, which led to many of them turning to crime, drugs, and alcohol. When he arrived in California, he enrolled as a student in San Francisco State College, he got involved with political organization studies and also married a woman named Anne, who brought seven children into their marriage.

Armed with the knowledge of the issues facing different native communities and the implications of the government termination policies, combined with the drive to change it, Richard deemed to create a new native nation, one where members of any tribe could come together as one unified nation. He believed that tribes could maintain their separate identities but also find strength in working together. He envisioned a nation where any native person could come to participate in native ceremonies, live and work, receive support from, and feel accepted by the community. And this vision, transcended into reality in the form of Alcatraz Island. In early November of 1969, Richard and a small group of protesters made their way to the island in the night.

They only lasted one night before authorities removed them, but this was just the start. A couple of weeks later, under 27-year-old Richard's leadership, what has become known as the occupation of Alcatraz began. He was only 27. What were you doing when you were 27? Nothing special. Think about that for a second. Like, what were you all doing when you were 27 and this guy's leading a movement here? Yeah.

We've grown soft in our comfortable years. It's crazy. Like, there's a lot of footage of him on YouTube and stuff, different news clips and stuff, because this blew up all over the media. And you watch him and he doesn't look young. He, I don't know if it's the way he speaks or carries himself or what it is, but he just looks a lot older. And what he accomplished at such a young age and how it changed.

We'll talk about how it changed things. It's just incredible. So Richard and a group of supporters, which were largely comprised of different students, because remember, he's in shortly out of college. You know, he's not far removed from college days. They chartered a boat to symbolically claim the island. The group consisted of members of different tribes, so the name Indians of all tribes was adopted for this group.

They claimed the island by right of discovery and began moving in. They took over the old warden's house as well as the guards quarters and wrote personalized messages and graffiti across the island, including Custer had it coming, red power, peace, freedom, welcome, home of the free Indian land. And while all this protesting was peaceful, the group did have demands and they outlined it in the Alcatraz Proclamation. What did that consist? of great question so glad you asked this episode is brought to you by prime obsession is in session and this summer prime originals have everything you want

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your next obsession is waiting Watch only on Prime. So it's quite long, but I feel that it is extremely important to read it in its entirety and verbatim because they just really stuck it to the U.S. government. It's kind of like, it's very serious, of course, but there's a lot of like backhanded statements. You'll see. Okay, yeah. Okay, so this was the Alcatraz Proclamation.

You can look it up, but it was also published. in its entirety in different newspapers at the time. It says, we, the Native Americans, reclaim the land known as Alcatraz Island in the name of all American Indians by right of discovery. We wish to be fair and honorable in our dealings with the Caucasian inhabitants of this land and hereby offer the following treaty. We will purchase said Alcatraz Island for $24 in glass beads and red cloth, a president set by white man's purchase of a similar island about 300 years ago. We know that $24 in trade goods for these 16 acres is more than what was paid when Manhattan Island was sold, but we know that land values have risen over time. Our offer of

$1.24 per acre is greater than the 47 cents per acre the white man are now paying for the California Indians for their land. We will give to the inhabitants of this land a portion of that land for their own. to be held in trust by the American Indian government for as long as the sun shall rise and the rivers go down to sea, to be administered by the Bureau of Caucasian Affairs. We will further guide the inhabitants in the proper way of living. We will offer them our religion, our education, and our lifeways in order to help them achieve our level of civilization, and thus raise them in all their white brothers up from their savage and unhappy state. We offer this treaty in good faith and wish to be fair and honorable in our dealings with all white men. We feel that this so-called Alcatraz Island is more suitable as an Indian reservation, as determined by the white man's own standards. By this, we mean that this place resembles most Indian reservations. In that, one, it is isolated from modern facilities and without adequate means of transportation.

Two, it has no fresh running water. 3. The sanitation facilities are inadequate. 4. There are no oil or mineral rights. 5. There is no industry and so unemployment is very great. 6. There are no health care facilities. 7. The soil is rocky and nonproductive and the land does not support game. 8. There are no educational facilities. And 9. The population has always been held as prisoners and kept dependent upon others.

Further, it would be fitting and symbolic that ships from all over the world entering the golden gate would first see Indian land and thus be reminded of the true history of this nation. This tiny island would be a symbol of the great lands once ruled by free and noble Indians. Since the San Francisco Indian Center burned down, there is no place for Indians to assemble and carry on tribal life here in the White Man City. Therefore, we plan to develop on this island several Indian islands. institutions, a center for Native American Studies, an American Indian spiritual center, an Indian Center of Ecology, a great Indian training school, and an American Indian Museum. In the name of all

Indians, we reclaim this island for our Indian nations, and for all of these reasons. We feel that this claim is just and proper, and that this land should rightfully be granted to us for as long as the river shall run and the sun shall sign. Signed, Indians of of all tribes, November, 1969. Wow. What a statement that is. Just when it was talking about the reservation and it's like, well, this should be a indigenous person reservation or a native reservation because there's no real facilities, there's no health care, it's not livable, and this is what you've given us throughout the

entire country. So why not just give us this one too? It's such a powerful statement and it's kind of like, how do you argue with that? It's like, you can't say it's not true because it is. You know what this kind of reminds me of on a different level, but just in the same, like making a big statement was the crazy horse memorial that we went to. Because South Dakota natives, it wasn't actually the person building it. It's not even native, or the family building it. It's not even native.

But he was just so moved by everything. They took Mount Rushmore. And then a couple miles down the road, they're building. Crazy Horse, which is like, I forget how many times the size of it, but it's huge. Just his face is the size of all of Mount Rushmore. And they're really taking the chance to save their history and keep it going and make a mark on it. And it just kind of reminded me of that the way that these people are really making a statement in what they're doing. Yeah. And the most interesting part of everything we learned at Crazy Horse, I know this isn't related to Alcatraz, but

But remember they said that when we were watching the little like informational movie history of the monument, how they refuse taking any funds from the government. They're like, you have screwed us over enough times. We are not taking any help from you. It's like we're not relying on you for this because we want this done. And we don't want this to be something that you can take away at some point. Or that you were involved in. Or involved in.

Like we don't care if it takes five years, 10 years. 100 years, we'll do it in our own time and without assistance from you. That is a bold statement. And the person who, I forget his name, who originally started building it, he was this famous sculptor. And natives came to him and was like, please help us with this. We love your work. And he had like million dollar sculptures in Europe that were being offered to him. And he said no to them because he agreed to build crazy horse for free. And now his family has been keeping building it for however long. And I remember one of the things that they said in that video was, it can take a long time, just make it right. That's right. He was a pole. I think he was

originally from Poland or Polish descent, but he was from Boston. I remember that that clicked. Yeah. He wasn't native. He just really, he just really felt for native people's movement and for everything that they had been through. He wanted to be someone that contributed to keeping their history alive and certainly has done that. Crazy Horse and kind of went off topic of Alcatraz, but if you're ever in South Dakota, go to Crazy Horse. It is so cool and there's so much history and it's just a really interesting place to go. Yeah, it was certainly one of our, if not the highlight of our South Dakota trip. I still have, I bought a necklace in their gift shop. There was this guy there who's

very, very nice and he was taking coins and he was engraving that, not engraving them. What would do you, what would the word be? He was doing like little cutouts of that. Yeah, I don't know how to describe it. And he had one and it was a Patagonia coin and he was doing the cutout of it and there's a sun in the middle of it and he did the whole cut out. All the proceeds go to Crazy Horse. So, and I loved the way that he did it and it's beautiful and I still wear it. I'm wearing it right now actually. Yeah, look at that. Yeah.

It's the yellow. The yellow caught your attention. It is. I love yellow. It's my favorite. I had a. As you're wearing a yellow sweatshirt. Bright yellow sweatshirt.

So yes, going back to. to the proclamation of Alcatraz, there's just, you could break that down and really get into all of the innuendos. And for lack of a less eloquent term, a lot of fuck use to the government. And while also constructing very legitimate points. So they take this proclamation and they present it to the United States government. And the government really didn't take well to it or the whole occupation in the first place. I can imagine. Yeah.

So the Coast Guard attempted to remove supporters. And then they started to set up different blockades around the island to try and deter or inhibit other supporters from gaining access to the island, which also failed. At this point in time, Richard sent out a message to the San Francisco Department of the Interior. Like, they're serious about this. They want to get their message out there and they want discussion. It's not, they're not just sitting there and spewing all this stuff into the abyss.

They want a discussion and they want this to go somewhere. So he sent out this message saying, quote, We invite the United States government to acknowledge the justice of our claims. The choice now lies with the leaders of the American government. To use violence upon us as before, to remove us from our great spirits land, or to institute a real change in its dealing with the American Indian. We do not fear your threat. threat to charge us the crimes on our land. We and all other oppressed peoples would welcome

spectacle of proof before the world of your title by genocide. Nevertheless, we seek peace. So they're saying kind of like your move. You've dealt with affairs between Native people's for hundreds of years in a terrible way. This is your chance to do it differently. What are you going to do about it? And what did they do? So several ways. weeks into the occupation, it was gaining traction. This wasn't just a small group of supporters anymore. Media caught wind of it and it exploded. So by Thanksgiving, so they first gone into the island in early November, but by Thanksgiving, the island reached 600 people. On this tiny bird rock. On bird rock, yep. Alcatraz, when it was a prison, held about

1,000 to 1,300 prisoners, plus all the guards and other staff. So it can support that much. many people, but just having this movement start as just a small handful of people and then all of a sudden having hundreds of people come to take a stand and be part of the occupation was bigger than Richard could have imagined it would be. And this wasn't just a protest. This wasn't just a picket line with people holding signs. They started organizing themselves quickly. So a governing council was formed. The island was set up with its own hospital, a school for the children, a kitchen, a public. Relations Department and even a radio station called Radio Free Alcatraz. So people were like living here, living here, not just protesting. They were, wow. Yes. Well, as the proclamation stated, they wanted to create a community. This is where they wanted to set up a place where anybody of native descent doesn't matter what tribe you are from, you can come here and be accepted. And this is all in 1969. Yes. Our parents were alive for this.

Yeah, I know. It's wild. We went to the moon in 1969. Oh, God. You don't know why I know that. Is it the same reason why I know that? Say it at the count of three. One, two, three.

Even Stevens. Well, there it is. We went to the moon in 19-169. Not 19-68. But the year after. Oh, yeah. Yes. Everybody that's 30, like 30 to 32 or whatever, is like singing the same song. And like you really butcher the lyrics, please stop.

Well, that's all I know of it. So good for everybody, I guess. Anyways, yes, this happened in 1969. Along with all of the different departments and things that they were building, they also had a security group. And they patrolled the island. They named themselves the Bureau of Caucasian Affairs, which was a total stab at the Bureau of Indian Affairs that the U.S. government had. It kind of feels like showing someone else how you're treating them. Like they're mimicking how they've been treated and doing it towards them and being like,

so now that you're seeing it from the other side, what does this look like now? Does it make sense? No, it doesn't. How does it make you feel? Yeah, that's such a good point. Like they are not doing anything more aggressively or differently. If anything, they're doing things with more leeway. and more opportunity for conversations, they're essentially holding a mirror up to the U.S. government

and saying, okay. What does this look like? What does this look like to you? Yeah, exactly. While all of this was happening, the government kind of started this waiting game. They just didn't really want to make a move either way at first. They kind of wanted to see what was going on because they didn't know if it was going to take hold and it was going to transform into this big thing or if it was going to fizzle out.

So they kind of just, it was like a stalemate at first. But the media, like I said, caught wind of this. And it really solidified their position of non-interference because a huge outpouring of support started coming from a lot of different places and from big public figures of the time. Celebrities like Marlon Brando and Jane Fonda visited the island when it was occupied. And even the big rock band Credence Clearwater Revival donated boats. to the cause, supported the cause. I love CCR. I've been such a big fan of theirs since I was like six. Another group that we have all heard of also contributed their support and that was the Hells Angels. So people from all walks of life are supporting this. So the government is seeing

the outpouring of love and support for this occupation and they're kind of just not making a move. Because they're the bad guys now with all this. Like no one's agreeing with them and they see that. Right. So how would it look if they forcibly removed everybody despite having a clear desire from the native groups to discuss and do history differently? So with all of this, the government did decide to make a move eventually and they sent some officials to discuss the social needs of the group. They ended up offering a portion of another fort called Fort Miley, which was in San Francisco, go as kind of like an alternative site for the group to carry out their vision. But the native group said no.

They refused alternatives. The occupation had been going so well up into this point. They'd made so much headway. They weren't going to compromise on something that they felt didn't deserve compromise. It kind of sounds like a slap in the face a little bit. It's like, okay, you've made your point. Here, you can have part of this other for it. Like, just get out now.

It's kind of what it sounds like they were. offering. And to them, it was like, okay, so this is discontinued federal land. Like, you're not even using it anymore. You don't want it. It's discarded. So if we really want to rewind, of course, the island was theirs in the first place. It was taken. It changed hands a bunch of times. Mexican government, U.S. government, it was used for a variety of different reasons. And now that the federal government was finally like, you know what, we have no use for it anymore. there's deteriorating buildings all over the place. Like, it's not being used.

And now all of a sudden, the natives want to take a stand on it and use it as kind of a symbol for this big movement. All of a sudden, it's an issue. Like, I don't know. Never mind if we want this. We didn't want it, but we don't want you to have it. So now we want it. That's, that's it, exactly.

So the occupation was going well for the first few months. But things began to change. In early 1970, life on the island took a turn. Outsiders who were more interested in rent-free living than the actual cause were starting to make their way onto the island and they started trashing it. And drugs and alcohol that was originally banned were starting to infiltrate into the island and into the population on the island as well. Just ruining their whole stance when you, that's putting a big stain on their movement. Because now you can paint this as like, it's a bunch of homeless, partying, drug users. Even Richard himself, I didn't put in the notes, but in one of the interviews,

he did say the biggest problem facing the movement right now is vagrants and hippies. That's exactly what he said. Also, another thing to know was a ton of the supporters in the original groups were students and they had to leave the island to go back to school. So that knocked down the numbers of the occupation significantly. So with the dwindling number of supporters, coupled with a decreased effort of fighting the original cause, really started to hurt the occupation. And then in January of 1970, the occupation lost its leader. One of Richard's stepdaughters, Yvonne, slipped through an iron railing and fell three stories onto the concrete in a building on the island. She was transported to a mainland hospital to undergo brain

surgery but passed away three days later. Heartbroken and discouraged, Richard Oaks and his family never returned to Alcatraz. No, after all that work he was doing. Yeah. And there was again a clip online from a news station at the time and the reporter is asking about Yvonne and because at the time she's in the hospital and Richard is outside of the hospital giving an update on what's going on with this family and things like that. And it kind of struck me as a little insensitive, but the reporter asked him, well, where's your heart at? Is it here or an Alcatraz? It's like it's here with my family right now. Right. And that's what you said. Alcatraz is still going on like I'm with my family. I don't know. I just thought that was kind of like a cringy question.

It's like trying to make you look bad and make you choose one or the other when you, your heart's in both of them. But right now, you have a priority. And that's what he said. He's like, I'm torn. But of course, I'm going to stay here with my family and she didn't make it and she did pass away and he just kind of him and his family decided to not return to the island. That's so sad. So with this, with no clear leadership, the condition of the organization began to unravel. A dwindling group of activists remained on the island but received two more blows. In May, the government cut off all power to the island in an effort to force the remaining members out. And a few weeks later, a large fire engulfed most of the island and destroyed several historic buildings. So some people claim that the fire may have

been set purposefully as another effort to get everybody the last of everyone out. Some say it was an accident, but no matter what happened, it was a huge blow to the morale of the last remaining members of the occupation. At this point in time, living conditions were terrible, and as the months dragged on, it was clear that while there were still people physically on the island, there was no organization. The original heart of the occupation and the organization was gone. On June 11th of 1971, armed federal marshals removed the last of the Alcatraz residents. It was a little skeleton crew of just six men, five women, and four children. Wow. From 600 plus. Yeah. And I'll post several pictures on our

socials on Instagram and Facebook and I'll post a bunch on Patreon but it is insane all of the pictures of all of these people occupying because this occupation was 19 months this was a long time that's so long and there's all these pictures

of people in native garb in all the cell blocks hanging out in all the cell blocks celebrating together living there all these signs like they're hiring or electing council members there's children playing. Like, there's a legit community going on here for over a year. Why don't we learn about this kind of stuff in high school, elementary school? This is so interesting.

I've never heard of this, not once. So, Richard Oakes, he did so much, but he died and he was only 30. How do you die? He was shot and killed. Oh, because of his stance on everything? Kind of, you could say. So it wasn't directly related to Alcatraz, but he was shot and killed after an altercation with a man named Michael Morgan. So Michael Morgan was a YMCA camp manager with a reputation for being a white supremacist and for being very tough with Native American children that attended the YMCA camp. So Richard had some confrontations with Morgan in the days prior

to the shooting because he had concern of the way that Morgan was treating a particular child, a native youth that had been accused of stealing horses from the camp. So, he was bringing up his concerns about the way that this man was treating this child. They had some arguments about it. And on the day of his death, despite Richard being unarmed, Morgan claimed that he acted in self-defense and shot and killed him. Wow. Richard's widow, yeah, what a guy. It gets better. Well, it gets worse. So Richard's widow claimed that Richard would have been unable to attack this guy due to some severe injuries he had sustained from a previous. beating that left him with some blurry vision and difficulty walking for Morgan to say,

well, he leapt up me and attacked me and was trying to attack me to her that didn't jive, especially because he was on, Richard is unarmed. He has no weapon. And he's been through a different person beat him so hard that he had permanent injuries. I think it's unclear if it was in his adult life or if it was when he was younger and he was a part of all of the gangs in New York and did a lot of street fighting. Right. I forgot about that whole part. But either way, his wife was saying this just doesn't add up. And the whole self- Given his background anyway, it's like you had a gun and he was unarmed, but that doesn't make sense. He was put on trial and an all-white jury acquitted him. Of course. That's horrible. What year?

1972. Wow. That just like, the fact that it's so recent. Such a good point that you brought up, Why are we not learning in this in school? We learned about during the civil rights, the black power of movement. We learned about the Trail of Tears and removing natives from their homeland. Why didn't we learn about the native movement? It's a shame. I know you can't possibly learn about every single event in all of history in school. It's just not doable.

But there is certainly an emphasis placed on certain events over others and some that are probably deliberately not included. And I think as we go through our adult lives and as we pursue different topics and learn more and more, that becomes clearer. It's kind of like Christopher Columbus. You learn all about Christopher Columbus in school growing up, right? And then I think in school we had like a little sentence said here or there that was like, you know, he wasn't the best guy, but he found America kind of. So we have a holiday. And that was it. And that was all you. learned and you just learn, but you learn so much, you learn like where he was from, how long he was on the ships for, when he got here, how long it took him to get more. You know, you learned so much about him and they really breeze past the whole. They're like, Thanksgiving, we all sat around with all the natives and we made food and things are lovely and now we live here.

You know, it's just like they emphasize certain things and leave out others. So as we get older and hear stories like this and research more stories, it's really, interesting to hear the real story on both sides. Exactly. So Richard Oaks vision may not have been completely fulfilled, but the occupation of Alcatraz sparked change and ignited solidarity in the Red Power Movement. As a direct result of this occupation, federal relocation policies were abandoned, and more than 50 legislative proposals supporting tribal self-determination, health and education were introduced. Millions of acres of ancestral lands across the country were returned to tribal hands, including the eastern half of Mount Adams here in Washington.

Many members of the occupation were left changed and went on to continue their activism and participated in other demonstrations and occupations, including protests at Plymouth Rock, Mount Rushmore, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Native American author, musician, and political actors. activist John Trudell said of his time on the island, quote, Alcatraz put me back into my community and helped me remember who I am. It was a rekindling of the spirit. Alcatraz made it easier for us to remember who we are.

And Benjamin Brat, who was another Alcatraz occupier, said, quote, it is easy to pass off the Alcatraz event as largely symbolic. But the truth is, the spirit and dream of Alcatraz never died. it simply found its way to other fights. Native sovereignty, repatriation, environmental justice, the struggle for basic human rights. These are issues Native people were fighting for then and are the same things we are fighting for today. And I think that statement is immensely powerful. We tend to speak of Native history as kind of just that as history.

And personally, I'm guilty of framing it that way as well, even if I don't intend. to. One of our listeners a few months ago had a really good point in an earlier episode. I think it's when I covered the Everglades. She wrote us a really kind message and said, I think I said the Seminole people once called this area home. And she pointed out, she's like, hey, we're still here. And that was such a good point because we just say things like it was once this way or these people once did this or they once believed. And I think that Native Heritage Month and the story of Alcatraz is a really important reminder that native and indigenous peoples and their stories, they don't just live in books. They're here. And that age-old problems that they faced before,

they haven't resolved. They've just evolved throughout time. I think that we all need to make a better, a bigger effort in recognizing that and to be part of the change that. is just so far overdue. In 1972, Congress created the Golden Gate Recreation Area and Alcatraz became part of it. The Park Service modified some of the facilities on the island that were damaged from that fire that we discussed earlier, but it opened Alcatraz to the public in 1973. And since then, it's actually become one of the most popular park service locations. The Alcatraz occupation also led to a yearly celebration called Un-Thanksgiving, or the Indigenous People's Sunrise Ceremony.

The event is held every single year on Thanksgiving Day on the island in honor of the indigenous peoples of the Americas to promote their rights and to commemorate the survival of tribes. It serves as the counter-selebration to the traditional American Thanksgiving and during the celebrations, group Dance Before Sunrise, speak out for their rights and honor their ancestors by recognizing their culture and heritage. That's so cool. That's really special. I would love to go to that.

Yeah. It's open to the public. Hundreds and hundreds of people go every single year. I really like that. The National Park Service has several virtual exhibits right now on their site that describe the occupation. And they really dive into Native American civil rights. And they also have a lot of different links to information about indigenous women of the movement, the Red Power Movement in general, and how Native American activism is continuing on through. generations. So if you're like me, you probably have always wanted to visit California and buy a ferry ticket to Alcatraz with visions of ghosts and hauntings dancing in your head. And you may have

even done your research into what cell Al Capone spent four and a half years in, or maybe have your own detail theory of what really happened to the brothers John and Clarence Anglin. Did they really make it off the island after their great escape? Or are they just two more victims of the icy waters? A number of tours are held on and around the island. You can choose between day tours, night tours, haunted tours, behind-the-scene tours, narrated tours, or self-guided ones. And you may have even been on one, sound recorder in hand, hoping to catch a disembodied EVP in the cell blocks, and walked right past the graffiti that serve as remnants of the occupation of Alcatraz, and had no idea of the greater meaning the wall art has. If you visit this national park site or see its iconic prison in movies like Catch Me If You Can or The Book of Eli, just know that this rock, known by so many for so long as a place of confinement, was known also as a very important symbol of freedom.

And that's it. That's all I have on Alcatraz. I love that episode. I'm so glad that you did that, because one, because I feel like there has to be more people who haven't heard of this like us. Like I said, I don't know if we were recording or not when I said it, but like, I really do feel ashamed that I didn't know this. And I felt like I know Alcatraz and I could list off all the famous gangsters and even the different types of hauntings that have been there. And I can't tell you how many shows and specials I've seen about Alcatraz that have never mentioned this. And maybe it's just because I have a particular interest. And that interest is about haunted and dark history. And, it's maybe not geared towards civil rights history, but I would think that such a big and important event would have been at least mentioned in the history of the island. Yeah, that was really cool. And I like, I really liked at the end how you tied it into things that you can see when you're there because it just makes it so much.

These stories come alive so much more when we can listen to them and say, I'm going to go there. I'm going to go see exactly what you're talking about. If I go to Alcatraz now, I'm going to look for that graffiti that you're talking about. And you'll know it's importance and why it's still there. I really hope that everyone learned something. Imagine everyone's like, yeah, we know. And George Washington was the first president.

We get it. We know. If you knew all that, so sorry. It's just a little refresher. But to everybody else, I hope you enjoyed it. And you look at Alcatraz a little bit differently now. That being said, still really want to go. And I feel like a broken record.

We always say that. Like, people stop the episode at this point. As soon as we're like, it's on our list. We get it. It's on my list. And people are like, like, stop. Delete. Unsubscribe.

Last thing, I do have a book recommendation, of course. It is a book by Kent Blancet. And it's called A Journey to Freedom, Richard Oaks, Alcatraz, and the Red Power Movement. And Danielle will add that link to our book recommendations on our website, mpad podcast. So you can go on there. Thanks everybody for joining. I don't think we have anything.

Oh, did we do an introduction? Welcome to National Park After Dark. My name's Cassie. And I'm Danielle. Did we not do that? I can't remember. No, we definitely, definitely didn't. Okay.

And this is National Park After Dark. Welcome. And goodbye. Enjoy the view. But watch your back. Bye. Bye. Thank you so much for joining us again this week.

If you have a trail tale or a story suggestion, send us an email at NPAD Podcast at gmail.com. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook at National Park After Dark and on Twitter at NPAD Podcast. Come hang out with us on Patreon for more monthly bonus episodes and exclusive content. And when you support our sponsors, you're also supporting this show. For more information on our sponsors, you can go onto our show notes. For more information on our show, our book recommendations, merch updates, and more. visit our website npADpodcast.com. Check out the show notes also for source information and please rate,

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