Friday, 27. November 2009

The Occupation of Alcatraz 1969-71


Forty Thanksgivings ago Alcatraz Island was occupied by a number of Native American activists as a protest. The occupation lasted until June of 1971 The best place to learn about it is PBS's website for Alcatraz Is Not an Island, Jim Fortier's documentary about the Alcatraz Occupation. Besides an overview of the events it has video interviews with the people involved. [RealPlayer required] Here are photographs of the occupation, mostly from newspapers. For a flavor of how the local media covered the events, here's the San Francisco Bay Area Television Archive's Occupation of Alcatraz Collection which has over 40 contemporary newsreports

A traditional Navajo greeting written on a wall.

A traditional Navajo greeting written on a wall.

csulb.edu pbs.org sfsu.edu wikipedia.org via