Superintendent Chat

Richard McClements, Shonto Preparatory School

 

Most Americans understand that our country’s westward push displaced many Native Americans.  Most know that our government’s treaties with the various tribes were broken time after time.  Anyone who studies history realizes that people in many countries around the world have mistreated and pushed aside other people – because of their religion or simply because they were different. 

 

I think most Americans would agree that our forefathers did a severe injustice to the American Indian.  Yet they rationalize that the people who did that lived long ago.  They assume that now that we live in modern times that Native Americans have been assimilated into our culture and that Indians have the same rights as all Americans.  I thought so, too.

 

Now that I live among you, my eyes are being opened as I learn more and understand more.  Recently, I wanted to know more about Navajo Sovereignty Day since I was asked to provide a welcome address to celebrate the day.  I went to the Internet and discovered, to my amazement, that the Native American takeover of Alcatraz in the late 1960’s was instrumental in providing more sovereignty for Indians across America.  The following represents some of the key facts of that famous act of Native Americans fighting for justice and self-determination:  http://www.pbs.org/itvs/alcatrazisnotanisland/

 

  • In the 1950’s, President Eisenhower implemented relocation and termination of programs as the official policy of the federal government.  This plan (shockingly) encouraged Indian people to move off of the reservations and into the major cities.  This would allow the government to liquidate Indian land and put an end to federal treaties and agreements.   This policy would mean that the tribes would lose their special relationships that they had enjoyed under federal law, including the tax-exempt status of their land and federal responsibility for Native economic and social well being.
  • In 1953, Congress passed a resolution to seize more than a million acres of Indian land and displaced more than 11,000 people.  They were also seeking to close down the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
  • Indian activism began to surface, and on November 20, 1969, 79 American Indians began an 18-month occupation of Alcatraz, a former federal prison, located on an island off San Francisco, CA. 
  • The Coast Guard set up a blockade to prevent food and supplies from reaching the island. 
  • The government gave them 24 hours to leave.
  • The Native American leader, Richard Oakes, telephoned the following message to the Department of the Interior:

“We invite the United States to acknowledge the justice of our

claim.  The choice now lies with the leaders of the American government – to use violence upon us as before to remove us

from our Great Spirit’s land, or to institute a real change in its

dealing with the American Indian.  We do not fear your threat

to charge us with 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.”

  • The Native American occupiers list of demands included the return of

Alcatraz to the American Indians and sufficient funding to build, maintain, and

Operate an Indian cultural complex and a university. 

  • The  US Government rejected all demands at that time.
  • On the island, the Indians organized themselves.  Everyone had a job, and each had a right to vote.
  • Several days later, it was Thanksgiving.  Hundreds of other Native Americans came to the  island to celebrate and express their renewed pride in Indian identity.
  • The occupiers also had strong support from the entertainment industry.  Stars including Jane Fonda, Marlon Brando, Jonathan Winters came to Alcatraz.  The famous rock band, Creedance Clearwater Revival donated $15,000 to the cause.
  • In December, the federal government cut all electrical power and disconnected incoming phone lines.  The main water and fuel lines were now leaking.
  • The winter was hard as some of the original group left and others arrived who were less idealistic. 
  • On July 8, 1970, President Nixon announced a new policy of “self-determination without termination” for Native Americans.  The government also stated that it would  not seek to remove the Native Americans from Alcatraz, but it did not re-instore the electricity and other items.
  • The public became extremely concerned about the loss of electricity on Alcatraz meant that the lighthouse and fog signals there could not operate.  Attempt to fix them meant with resistance from the Indians.
  • On June 11, 1971, a large force of federal marshals, GSA Special Forces, Coast Guard, and FBI agents removed the Native Americans from the island.  The occupation had lasted 19 months and nine days.
  • The takeover of Alcatraz was one the most successful protest action of the 20th century.  It led to 74 other takeovers of federal agencies by Native Americans in the years that followed.
  • President Nixon ended the federal government policy of determination and gave Native Americans self determination.  From 1970 to 1971, the federal government passed 52 legislative proposals on behalf of Native Americans.  President Nixon also doubled funds for Indian health care.

 

Things still have a long way to go.   But as I now know, your sovereignty was the result of your “own Boston tea party” just off the shores of San Francisco.