Alcatraz Island facility for Alcatraz. Alcatraz Island was occupied by Native American activists for the first time on March 8, 1964. The event was reported by, among others, the "San Francisco Chronicle" and the "San Francisco Examiner". Beginning on November 20, 1969, a group of Native Americans called United Indians of All Tribes, mostly college students from San Francisco, occupied the island to protest federal policies related to American Indians. Some of them were children of Native Americans who had relocated in the city as part of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' (BIA) Indian termination policy, which was a series of laws
Birdman of Alcatraz (film) Birdman of Alcatraz (film) Birdman of Alcatraz is a 1962 American biographical drama film starring Burt Lancaster and directed by John Frankenheimer. It is a largely fictionalized version of the life of Robert Stroud, a federal prison inmate known as the "Birdman of Alcatraz" because of his life with birds. In spite of the title, much of the action is set at Leavenworth Prison, where Stroud was jailed with his birds. When moved to Alcatraz he was not allowed to keep any pets. The film was adapted by Guy Trosper from the 1955 book by Thomas E. Gaddis. It was