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The Occupation of Alcatraz

Back in the day on November 20th, 1969, a group of nearly eighty Native peoples sailed to the abandoned island of Alcatraz and occupied it. Once upon the grounds of the former federal penitentiary, the activists issued a proclamation to the ‘Great White Father and his People.’ The words of the document read, “We are on Alcatraz Island to make known to the world that we have a right to use our land for our own benefit,” and ended with the emphatic slogan “We Hold the Rock.” The occupation that began forty years ago today demanded that the U.S. government recognize Native peoples’ claim to the territory so that they could develop numerous institutions including spiritual, educational, and ecological centers. For the next eighteen months, the federal government waited out the occupation and never acquiesced to its demands.

On June 11th, 1971, federal marshals arrived to remove the final fifteen activists from the rock that had been held…

For Uprising, this is your truth professa’ saying it’s no mystery why they conceal our people’s history