50th anniversary of the Alcatraz Occupation remembered

PRESS POOL

Native Americans gathered on Alcatraz Island in the territory of the Ohlone people.

This morning of Thursday, November 28, 2019, as families across the country gather around the table for a traditional Thanksgiving feast, the International Indian Treaty Council (IITC) hosted the 41st Annual Indigenous Peoples Thanksgiving Sunrise Gathering at Alcatraz Island, Ohlone Territory.

This year’s gathering commemorates the 50 anniversary of the Alcatraz occupation. It will honor the veterans of that historic event for Indigenous Peoples, which was organized by a group of Indian students and young people calling themselves “Indians of All Tribes”.

It began on November 20, 1969, and lasted 19 months, sparking international attention and an Indigenous Peoples movement for rights and justice which continues to this day.

International Indian Treaty Council’s Executive Director Andrea Carmen, Yaqui Nation emphasizes the importance of these annual sunrise gatherings.

“It’s very important that we continue to carry out these gatherings twice a year on this sacred and historic place to tell the truth about our histories, share our cultures and commemorate and give thanks to all those who have gone before us and who left us these ways, no matter what they had to sacrifice. We also give thanks for the lives of our children and future generations and recommit ourselves to do whatever is needed to protect Mother Earth and our ways of life so that they can survive and thrive.”

During the original occupation a group of young people and their families stayed on the island for 19 months in defiance of the Coast Guard and Federal government. Their actions called attention to the historic and ongoing repression of Indigenous Peoples in the United States, including massacres, Treaty violations, assimilation, termination, removal of Indigenous children to Boarding Schools and forced relocation. 

The occupation gave rise to an international Indigenous movement which includes work at the United Nations on urgent concerns such as human rights, environmental protection and climate change and inspired international solidarity campaigns to support critical struggles to halt criminalization and assassinations of Indigenous human and environmental rights defenders, destruction of sacred sites, border violence, land appropriations and missing and murdered Indigenous women. 

In the Words of Akwesasne Mohawk occupation leader Richard Oakes: “Alcatraz is not an island. It’s an idea.”

This is a developing story. Check back later for updates.