June 6, 2006

Thirty-five years ago this month, federal officials escorted a little ragtag group of Indians and supporters off Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay. The 19-month occupation of the island helped bring about a sea change in the relationship between the U.S. government and Indian country.

The group began a daring effort to claim the island for an American Indian cultural center, museum and university. The symbolic occupation turned into a full-fledged one that lasted from Nov. 9, 1969, until June 11, 1971.

At the time of the occupation, Indians were still deep in the thralls of the “Termination Era” and its attendant policies.

Beginning in 1948, the U.S. government began seeking to terminate its trust relationship with American Indians. Reservation land would be sold off, and education, health and other federal services that were promised by treaties would be withdrawn.

During his vice presidency, Richard Nixon was a happy proponent of termination, and he was photographed smiling as he signed the termination documents for the Menominee Tribe of Wisconsin.

Rapid assimilation of Indian people into American culture was the ostensible motivation.

We were offered the federal Relocation Program, an effort to lure Indians from the reservations to urban areas. Relocation provided job assistance for low-wage workers and funding for one month’s rent and living expenses. The meager assistance often ensured that newly arrived Indians found themselves woefully unable to start a decent life. They simply exchanged rural poverty for urban poverty.

The Relocation Program meant that Indians were entitled to the same shoddy services, the same low-wage employment and the same low-class cultural status as other disenfranchised populations of color in the United States.

Ironically, Indians became the new immigrants.

In November 1969, a group of Indian students from UCLA set out for Alcatraz to change that. As many as 100 students and supporters, inspired by charismatic leaders, occupied the island in the nonviolent action. Soon the occupation drew the interest of the worldwide media, focusing attention on the group’s demands in particular and the status of Indian people in general.

The occupation became a public relations nightmare for the Nixon administration. Media and public sympathy for the protesters ran high for a few precious months.

By July 1970, Nixon delivered his famous Special Message on Indian Affairs, denouncing termination and supporting Indian self-determination policies.

In the next two years, Congress passed 52 legislative proposals supporting tribal self-rule. Nixon increased the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) budget significantly, doubled health care support and increased scholarship funds for Indian college students, in addition to many other programs.

Although the Alcatraz occupation alone was not solely responsible for reforms realized during the 1970s, it did draw crucial national attention to Indian country and set the stage for other important protests.

Nixon’s repeal of the termination policies ensured support for the forward-thinking legislation supporting Indian self-determination as we know it today.

On the anniversary of the occupation’s end, we must commemorate the hard work of the many Indians who contributed to these social reforms.

Mary Annette Pember, Red Cliff Ojibwe, is past president of the Native American Journalists Association. She is currently lives and works as an independent journalist in Cincinnati. She can be reached at pmproj [at] progressive [dot] org.