Before first light, 3,500 people gathered on Alcatraz Island today to remember the warriors who occupied Alcatraz Island, including Richard Oakes, and the Hopis once imprisoned here for refusing to be colonized. During the sunrise blessings, songs and dances, Native women were honored, who called for a new generation of American Indian warriors. The International Indian Treaty Council hosted the gathering.
Photos: Gathering on Alcatraz 2007; American Indian Movement staffs and Pit River Nation on Alcatraz/Photos Brenda Norrell
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Please see new article at the Censored Blog:
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Alcatraz Sunrise, Honoring the Warriors
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SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) -- Listen online to interview with Bill Means:
"We consider it relighting the fire of Indian survival, Indian resistance here in this hemisphere. To remind people that first of all, John Wayne didn't kill us all. That we're still alive, distinct cultures that are thriving here in America,” explained Bill Means, a Lakota and one of the founders of the International Indian Treaty Council. Means said it was only fitting that the protests took place in San Francisco in the 60s and 70s. "The civil rights movement as you know was going strong, the anti-war movement, so it was a time when the status quo was unacceptable for most Americans,” he said. “This being a hotbed of organization, a hotbed of liberation here in the Bay Area, Berkeley, etcetera, it was only right that Indian people also get together to take our rightful place in the struggle for civil and human rights." Means credits the Alcatraz protest with sparking a worldwide movement that is still very much alive today. "It started out here as a small spark, a small fire of resistance and survival. It's now become a worldwide movement of indigenous people culminated by the recent declaration that was recently passed at the United Nations."
Listen to KCBS interview with Bill Means:
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