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
Occupation of Alcatraz here. We would like to think that Alcatraz lives on in part through Ft. Lawton." Occupation of Alcatraz The Occupation of Alcatraz was an occupation of Alcatraz Island by 89 American Indians and supporters, led by Richard Oakes, LaNada Means, and others. They chose the name Indians of All Tribes (IOAT) and John Trudell was the spokesperson. According to the IOAT, under the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868) between the U.S. and the Lakota, all retired, abandoned or out-of-use federal land was returned to the Native people who once occupied it. Since Alcatraz penitentiary had been closed on March 21,