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alcatraz_proclamation

DOC­U­MEN­T: AL­CA­TRAZ.TXT

I N D I A N S O F A L L N A T I O N S

THE ALCATRAZ PROCLAMATION

to the

Great White Fa­ther and his Peo­ple

1969

Fel­low cit­i­zen­s, we are ask­ing you to join with us in our at­tempt to bet­ter the lives of all In­di­an peo­ple.

We are on Al­ca­traz Is­land to make known to the world that we

have a right to use our land for our own ben­e­fit.

In a procla­ma­tion of No­vem­ber 20, 1969, we told the

gov­ern­ment of the Unit­ed States that we are here “to cre­ate a mean­ing­ful use for our Great Spir­it’s Land.”

We, the na­tive Amer­i­can­s, re­claim the land known as Al­ca­traz

Is­land in the name of all Amer­i­can In­di­ans by right of dis­cov­ery.

We wish to be fair and hon­or­able in our deal­ings with the

Cau­casian in­hab­i­tants of this land, and here­by of­fer the fol­low­ing treaty:

We will pur­chase said Al­ca­traz Is­land for twen­ty-­four dol­lars

in glass beads and red cloth, a prece­dent set by the white man’s pur­chase of a sim­i­lar is­land about 300 years ago. We know that $24 in trade goods for these 16 acres is more than was paid when Man­hat­tan Is­land was sol­d, but we know that land val­ues have risen over the years. Our of­fer of $1.24 per acres is greater than the $0.47 per acre the white men are now pay­ing the Cal­i­for­nia In­di­ans for their land­s.

We will give to the in­hab­i­tants of this is­land a por­tion of

the land for their own to be held in trust…­by the Bu­reau of Cau­casian Af­fairs…in per­pe­tu­ity — for as long as the sun shall rise and the rivers go down to the sea. We will fur­ther guide the in­hab­i­tants in the prop­er way of liv­ing. We will of­fer them our re­li­gion, our ed­u­ca­tion, our life-ways in or­der to help them achieve our lev­el of civ­i­liza­tion and thus raise them and all their white broth­ers up from their sav­age and un­hap­py state. We of­fer this treaty in good faith and wish to be fair and hon­or­able in our deal­ings with all white men.

We feel that this so-­called Al­ca­traz Is­land is more than

suit­able for an In­di­an reser­va­tion, as de­ter­mined by the white man’s own stan­dard­s. By this, we mean that this place re­sem­bles most In­di­an reser­va­tions in that:

  1. It is iso­lat­ed from mod­­ern fa­­cil­i­ties, and with­­out ad­e­quate means of tran­s­­por­ta­­tion.

  2. It has no fresh run­n­ing wa­ter.

  3. It has in­­ad­e­quate san­i­­ta­­tion fa­­cil­i­ties.

  4. There are no oil or min­er­al right­s.

  5. There is no in­­­dus­try and so un­em­­ploy­­ment is very great.

  6. There are no health-­­care fa­­cil­i­ties.

  7. The soil is rocky and non-pro­­duc­­tive, and the land does not sup­­port game.

  8. There are no ed­u­­ca­­tion­al fa­­cil­i­ties.

  9. The pop­u­la­­tion has al­ways ex­ceed­ed the land base.

  10. The pop­u­la­­tion has al­ways been held as pris­on­ers and kept de­pen­­dent up­­on oth­­er­s.

Fur­ther, it would be fit­ting and sym­bol­ic that ships from all

over the world, en­ter­ing the Gold­en Gate, would first see In­di­an land, and thus be re­mind­ed of the true his­to­ry of this na­tion. This tiny is­land would be a sym­bol of the great lands once ruled by free and no­ble In­di­an­s.

What use will we make of this land?

Since the San Fran­cis­co In­di­an Cen­ter burned down, there is

no place for In­di­ans to as­sem­ble and car­ry on trib­al life here in the white man’s city. There­fore, we plan to de­vel­op on this is­land sev­er­al In­di­an in­sti­tu­tion­s:

  1. A Cen­ter for Na­­tive Amer­i­­can Stud­ies will be de­vel­oped

which will ed­u­cate them to the skills and knowl­edge rel­e­vant to im­prove the lives and spir­its of all In­di­an peo­ples. At­tached to this cen­ter will be trav­el­ling uni­ver­si­ties, man­aged by In­di­an­s, which will go to the In­di­an Reser­va­tion­s, learn­ing those nec­es­sary and rel­e­vant ma­te­ri­als now about.

  1. An Amer­i­­can In­­di­an Spir­i­­tu­al Cen­ter, which will prac­tice

our an­cient trib­al re­li­gious and sa­cred heal­ing cer­e­monies. Our cul­tur­al arts will be fea­tured and our young peo­ple trained in mu­sic, dance, and heal­ing rit­u­al­s.

  1. An In­­di­an Cen­ter of Ecol­o­­gy, which will train and sup­­port

our young peo­ple in sci­en­tif­ic re­search and prac­tice to re­store our lands and wa­ters to their pure and nat­u­ral state. We will work to de-pol­lute the air and wa­ters of the Bay Area. We will seek to re­store fish and an­i­mal life to the area and to re­vi­tal­ize sea-life which has been threat­ened by the white man’s way. We will set up fa­cil­i­ties to de­salt sea wa­ter for hu­man ben­e­fit.

  1. A Great In­­di­an Train­ing School will be de­vel­oped to teach

our peo­ple how to make a liv­ing in the world, im­prove our stan­dard of liv­ing, and to end hunger and un­em­ploy­ment among all our peo­ple. This train­ing school will in­clude a cen­ter for In­di­an arts and craft­s, and an In­di­an restau­rant serv­ing na­tive food­s, which will re­store In­di­an culi­nary art­s. This cen­ter will dis­play In­di­an arts and of­fer In­di­an foods to the pub­lic, so that all may know of the beau­ty and spir­it of the tra­di­tion­al In­di­an ways.

Some of the present build­ings will be tak­en over to de­vel­op

an Amer­i­can In­di­an Mu­se­um which will de­pict our na­tive food and oth­er cul­tur­al con­tri­bu­tions we have giv­en to the world. An­oth­er part of the mu­se­um will present some of the things the white man has giv­en to the In­di­ans in re­turn for the land and life he took:

dis­ease, al­co­hol, pover­ty, and cul­tur­al dec­i­ma­tion (as sym­bol­ized by old tin can­s, barbed wire, rub­ber tires, plas­tic con­tain­er­s, etc.). Part of the mu­se­um will re­main a dun­geon to sym­bol­ize both those In­di­an cap­tives who were in­car­cer­at­ed for chal­leng­ing white au­thor­i­ty and those who were im­pris­oned on reser­va­tion­s. The mu­se­um will show the no­ble and trag­ic events of In­di­an his­to­ry, in­clud­ing the bro­ken treaties, the doc­u­men­tary of the Trail of Tears, the Mas­sacre of Wound­ed Knee, as well as the vic­to­ry over Yel­low-Hair Custer and his army.

In the name of all In­di­an­s, there­fore, we re­claim this is­land

for our In­di­an na­tion­s, for all these rea­son­s. We feel this claim is just and prop­er, and that this land should right­ful­ly be grant­ed to us for as long as the rivers run and the sun shall shine.

We hold the rock!