WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.920 --> 00:00:04.040 This is Latino USA, the radio journal of News and 2 00:00:04.160 --> 00:00:09.280 Courtures Latino USC Latin Latino USA. I'm Maria Inojosa. We 3 00:00:09.400 --> 00:00:13.040 bring you stories that are underreported but that mattered to you, 4 00:00:13.160 --> 00:00:15.040 overlooked by the rest of the media, and while the 5 00:00:15.040 --> 00:00:17.360 country is struggling to deal with these, we listen to 6 00:00:17.400 --> 00:00:20.960 the stories of Black and Latino Studios United Latino Front, 7 00:00:21.200 --> 00:00:25.520 a cultural renaissance organizing at the forefront of the movement. 8 00:00:26.239 --> 00:00:32.680 I'm Maria ino Jossa nose Bayan or La Latino USA. Listener, 9 00:00:33.040 --> 00:00:34.960 Here's an episode the Los Archivos. 10 00:00:35.600 --> 00:00:39.160 He's mister Harmon, All right, here's Harmon had ya hi. 11 00:00:39.320 --> 00:00:41.040 I have a proclamation I'd like to read you. 12 00:00:41.440 --> 00:00:44.840 It was nineteen sixty nine and twenty seven year old 13 00:00:44.920 --> 00:00:49.280 Native student Richard Oaks was standing on Alcatraz Island, the 14 00:00:49.320 --> 00:00:52.640 famous prison off the coast of San Francisco. It had 15 00:00:52.680 --> 00:00:55.240 been standing empty for the last six years. 16 00:00:55.560 --> 00:00:58.880 We the Native Americans, reclaimed this land, known as Alcatraz 17 00:00:58.920 --> 00:01:00.920 Island in the name of all all American Indians by 18 00:01:00.920 --> 00:01:02.560 writer Discovery Boy. 19 00:01:02.640 --> 00:01:04.880 Alcatraz everybody can see it. 20 00:01:04.920 --> 00:01:06.440 On one end of the country. You have the Statue 21 00:01:06.480 --> 00:01:09.520 of Liberty and it's just the opposite, we have a 22 00:01:09.560 --> 00:01:11.800 true reality of liberty. 23 00:01:12.200 --> 00:01:17.000 For centuries, conquerors and settlers stole land from indigenous tribes 24 00:01:17.400 --> 00:01:21.039 and struck up treaties they never intended to follow. And 25 00:01:21.120 --> 00:01:25.360 so years later, in nineteen sixty nine, Richard and fellow 26 00:01:25.440 --> 00:01:29.400 Native activists drew up their own deal for Alcatraz. 27 00:01:29.680 --> 00:01:31.560 We wish to be fair and honorable in our dealings 28 00:01:31.600 --> 00:01:34.200 with the Caucasian inhabitants of this land, and hereby all 29 00:01:34.240 --> 00:01:37.560 of the following treaty, we will purchase set Alcatraz Island 30 00:01:37.560 --> 00:01:40.080 for twenty four dollars in glass beads and red cloth, 31 00:01:40.480 --> 00:01:42.440 a president set by the white man's purchase of a 32 00:01:42.440 --> 00:01:44.040 similar island about three hundred years ago. 33 00:01:44.160 --> 00:01:47.080 Richard had a sparkle in his eye. He looked over 34 00:01:47.160 --> 00:01:51.240 Alcatraz with the dream of creating an indigenous mecca. 35 00:01:51.360 --> 00:01:53.600 Richard, can you describe for me again what it is 36 00:01:53.600 --> 00:01:56.040 you hope to build out here on Alcatraz? Build the Nations? 37 00:02:00.840 --> 00:02:04.640 From Futuro Media and the PRX, It's Latino Usa II 38 00:02:04.720 --> 00:02:08.320 Maria josin Today a show from our archives. The story 39 00:02:08.360 --> 00:02:11.680 of Richard Oakes, a founding leader of the Red Power 40 00:02:11.840 --> 00:02:22.320 movement in the late nineteen sixties, organizations like the Black Panthers, 41 00:02:22.520 --> 00:02:25.640 the Brown Berets, and the Young Lords were starting a 42 00:02:25.720 --> 00:02:31.040 national conversation about equal rights and protections. At the same time, 43 00:02:31.240 --> 00:02:34.919 an indigenous rights movement, the Red Power Movement, was also 44 00:02:35.000 --> 00:02:39.320 gathering steam. Richard Oaks, a charismatic citizen of the Mohawk Nation, 45 00:02:39.880 --> 00:02:43.640 was one of its founders, and he advocated resistance through 46 00:02:43.840 --> 00:02:48.920 reclaiming land from the white man. Alcatraz would become a 47 00:02:48.919 --> 00:02:52.840 symbol of Native resistance for Indigenous people of all tribes, 48 00:02:53.440 --> 00:02:57.160 and the Red Power Movement would lay down the foundation 49 00:02:57.480 --> 00:03:08.320 for future Native movements like Standing Rock. And so today 50 00:03:08.680 --> 00:03:11.640 we're telling the story of the life of Richard Oaks, 51 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:14.400 from how he got involved in the Red Power Movement 52 00:03:14.639 --> 00:03:18.160 and the occupation of Alcatraz to his untimely death when 53 00:03:18.160 --> 00:03:20.160 he was shot in the heart at the young age 54 00:03:20.200 --> 00:03:24.600 of only thirty. Producers Janice Yamoca and Antonia se Dehido 55 00:03:25.000 --> 00:03:27.280 tell us his story from the beginning. 56 00:03:29.200 --> 00:03:32.520 Picture Brooklyn in the early nineteen fifties, back when the 57 00:03:32.560 --> 00:03:36.120 Dodgers were still the Brooklyn Dodgers, there lived a small family, 58 00:03:36.320 --> 00:03:39.440 two brothers and their single mom. The eldest brother was 59 00:03:39.520 --> 00:03:46.000 named Richard Oakes. Richard and his brother had a typical childhood. 60 00:03:46.160 --> 00:03:49.000 They played stickball in the streets, walk their dog, and 61 00:03:49.120 --> 00:03:52.040 watched the Perry Como show at home, Silver. 62 00:03:51.840 --> 00:03:53.920 And Go, Silver and Gone. 63 00:03:54.600 --> 00:03:57.560 Everyone searched for Silver and Go, but. 64 00:03:57.520 --> 00:04:00.200 Their slice of Brooklyn was unique. 65 00:04:00.240 --> 00:04:03.080 The Oaks family lived in a thriving indigenous community of 66 00:04:03.160 --> 00:04:06.600 roughly seven hundred Mohawk people, and many of these Mohawk 67 00:04:06.600 --> 00:04:10.800 people were iron workers. In the nineteen thirties, skyscrapers like 68 00:04:10.840 --> 00:04:13.640 the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building were filling 69 00:04:13.640 --> 00:04:16.800 New York City's skyline, and it was often Mohawk iron 70 00:04:16.800 --> 00:04:20.479 workers that assembled the steel skeletons beam by beam. The 71 00:04:20.520 --> 00:04:23.200 majority of these Mohawk iron workers settled in the Gowanis 72 00:04:23.240 --> 00:04:24.960 neighborhood in Brooklyn. 73 00:04:24.920 --> 00:04:27.960 Gana wage and aquesasne Mohawks moved to the city from 74 00:04:28.000 --> 00:04:31.720 the reservations in Canada and Northern New York seeking opportunity 75 00:04:31.960 --> 00:04:35.880 by they often faced discrimination applying for work, since iron 76 00:04:35.880 --> 00:04:37.760 working was a job that not many wanted to do. 77 00:04:38.200 --> 00:04:40.159 It required being one hundred feet in the air without 78 00:04:40.200 --> 00:04:44.560 a safety harness. Many Mohawks filled these jobs. There was 79 00:04:44.600 --> 00:04:47.320 even a bar in the neighborhood called the Wigwam. It's 80 00:04:47.360 --> 00:04:49.400 closed now, but there used to be a sign posted 81 00:04:49.440 --> 00:04:52.280 over the door that read the greatest iron workers in 82 00:04:52.320 --> 00:04:54.320 the world passed through these doors. 83 00:04:55.800 --> 00:04:58.120 In the summers, Richard's mother would send him and his 84 00:04:58.160 --> 00:05:01.919 brother to Aquasosny, the reservo where Richard was born. The 85 00:05:01.960 --> 00:05:05.560 boys were still very exposed to Mohawk traditions like lacrosse, 86 00:05:05.839 --> 00:05:08.240 which has been whitewashed by white guys in college, but 87 00:05:08.400 --> 00:05:11.840 is also a cultural tradition of many tribes, including the 88 00:05:11.839 --> 00:05:13.600 Mohawk and Onondaga nations. 89 00:05:13.960 --> 00:05:17.440 Richard would wear an Onondaga lacrosse jacket when the streets 90 00:05:17.440 --> 00:05:19.560 of Brooklyn, and some of the kids in the other 91 00:05:19.560 --> 00:05:21.640 neighborhoods would kind of pick on them a little bit. 92 00:05:21.839 --> 00:05:25.159 That's Kent Blansett, professor of Native American Studies at the 93 00:05:25.240 --> 00:05:28.680 University of Nebraska at Omaha. He's also the author of 94 00:05:28.839 --> 00:05:31.800 A Journey to Freedom, a biography of Richard Oakes, and 95 00:05:31.880 --> 00:05:35.640 he's Native too. 96 00:05:36.600 --> 00:05:39.160 Richard grew into a strong young man, over two hundred 97 00:05:39.200 --> 00:05:41.960 pounds and over six feet tall. He started hanging out 98 00:05:41.960 --> 00:05:44.880 with neighborhood Native gangs and gone into fights, fights that 99 00:05:44.920 --> 00:05:47.320 he would win at sixteen years old, he dropped out 100 00:05:47.360 --> 00:05:50.200 of high school and joined the legacy of Mohawk ironworkers, 101 00:05:50.760 --> 00:05:54.359 but he kept getting in trouble. When Richard was about twenty, 102 00:05:54.400 --> 00:05:56.919 he was charged with assault and robbery and served some 103 00:05:57.040 --> 00:05:57.799 time in prison. 104 00:05:58.040 --> 00:06:00.760 I think he was very aware that that path of 105 00:06:00.839 --> 00:06:02.920 staying in the gangs that he was in in Brooklyn 106 00:06:03.360 --> 00:06:05.440 was not going to be a very good path to 107 00:06:05.480 --> 00:06:05.760 be on. 108 00:06:06.120 --> 00:06:08.760 Within a year, Richard's charges were reduced and he was 109 00:06:08.800 --> 00:06:12.240 out on parole, and then he started looking for something else. 110 00:06:14.000 --> 00:06:16.719 It was nineteen sixty three and the civil rights movement 111 00:06:16.880 --> 00:06:25.920 was in full year. Richard started to travel for his 112 00:06:26.040 --> 00:06:29.440 job as an iron worker. One of his projects took 113 00:06:29.520 --> 00:06:32.200 him to Rhode Island, where he fell in love with 114 00:06:32.240 --> 00:06:35.280 a local Italian American woman and married her. 115 00:06:35.560 --> 00:06:39.080 The story was that Richard was not welcomed by that 116 00:06:39.279 --> 00:06:42.000 father into this marriage. 117 00:06:44.600 --> 00:06:47.600 According to interviews with Richard's family, Richard's father in law 118 00:06:47.720 --> 00:06:49.839 did not want his daughter to be in a mixed 119 00:06:49.920 --> 00:06:50.880 race marriage. 120 00:06:51.040 --> 00:06:52.280 He said he was going to make. 121 00:06:52.200 --> 00:06:54.640 Sure that Richard had nothing to do with his daughter 122 00:06:55.360 --> 00:06:57.800 since the father was a high ranking cop and Richard 123 00:06:57.800 --> 00:07:02.200 had a criminal background, and didn't see any other choice. 124 00:07:02.440 --> 00:07:03.360 But to leave. 125 00:07:07.240 --> 00:07:10.800 Richard at that point, I think had lost everything and 126 00:07:10.840 --> 00:07:13.440 he had to kind of rethink his life in another way. 127 00:07:14.040 --> 00:07:15.560 He quit his job that same year. 128 00:07:16.080 --> 00:07:18.680 He said goodbye to everyone he knew, and he decided 129 00:07:18.720 --> 00:07:22.400 to start over by driving his red Ford Mustang across 130 00:07:22.440 --> 00:07:23.960 the country to San Francisco. 131 00:07:24.800 --> 00:07:26.480 Richard dropped out of the public school. 132 00:07:26.200 --> 00:07:28.880 System when he was sixteen, but on his journey west, 133 00:07:29.320 --> 00:07:31.000 he got a different sort of education. 134 00:07:31.560 --> 00:07:34.000 He was creating his own Indian studies course, but he 135 00:07:34.120 --> 00:07:38.120 was learning Native history. He began, you know, stopping at 136 00:07:38.120 --> 00:07:41.400 different reservations along the way, and he began interacting with 137 00:07:41.440 --> 00:07:43.640 a lot more Native peoples and asking, you know, hey, 138 00:07:44.000 --> 00:07:47.880 you know, how's termination affecting your people? How's relocation affecting you? 139 00:07:47.880 --> 00:07:49.000 You know, what's your history. 140 00:07:52.840 --> 00:07:56.320 Termination was a federal policy introduced in nineteen fifty three 141 00:07:56.520 --> 00:08:01.240 by Utah Senator Arthur Watkins. Basically, in mentavern stopped recognizing 142 00:08:01.280 --> 00:08:04.960 over one hundred tribes, essentially terminating them. 143 00:08:05.440 --> 00:08:08.840 At this point in history, tribes were federally recognized by 144 00:08:08.840 --> 00:08:12.640 the government, and in accordance with treaties, those tribes received 145 00:08:12.680 --> 00:08:16.360 federal funding for services like health care and education. But 146 00:08:16.680 --> 00:08:20.080 with the nineteen fifty three Termination Act, the government decided 147 00:08:20.120 --> 00:08:23.840 to stop recognizing tribes and pulled their funding. This act 148 00:08:23.920 --> 00:08:26.960 was a continuation of the US government's long standing push 149 00:08:27.040 --> 00:08:29.200 to quote americanize the Native people. 150 00:08:29.440 --> 00:08:31.760 Deserving the red men to live his own life and 151 00:08:31.840 --> 00:08:35.000 manage his own affairs. It is obvious there always must 152 00:08:35.040 --> 00:08:38.080 be influence by the majority of inhabitants in the United 153 00:08:38.080 --> 00:08:41.319 States to change the habits and customs of the minority. 154 00:08:42.000 --> 00:08:45.600 Such influences intended to be nothing other than helpful to 155 00:08:45.760 --> 00:08:48.880 raise the Indian standard of living, to make him happier 156 00:08:48.920 --> 00:08:49.800 and more comfortable. 157 00:08:50.400 --> 00:08:53.680 This time it was justified by rising McCarthyism and a 158 00:08:53.720 --> 00:08:57.199 fear that communism would spread in reservations, so the government 159 00:08:57.240 --> 00:09:00.679 took away their basic social services and their special task status, 160 00:09:00.760 --> 00:09:02.800 which drove some tribes to go bankrupt. 161 00:09:03.360 --> 00:09:06.800 The result, schools on reservations were no longer funded, so 162 00:09:06.920 --> 00:09:10.040 Native children couldn't get an education near home, and the 163 00:09:10.120 --> 00:09:13.360 act left many Natives homeless because they weren't able to 164 00:09:13.400 --> 00:09:16.400 pay the new property taxes. And there was another program 165 00:09:16.400 --> 00:09:19.920 at the same time called relocation, which also paid people 166 00:09:19.960 --> 00:09:22.720 to go to big cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, and 167 00:09:22.760 --> 00:09:25.800 San Francisco. They gave them a one way ticket, the 168 00:09:25.840 --> 00:09:29.080 promise of housing, a stipend, and some kind of job training. 169 00:09:29.880 --> 00:09:34.760 Both these policies termination and relocation pushed Indigenous people to 170 00:09:34.840 --> 00:09:42.040 leave the reservations and move to the cities. Back in 171 00:09:42.120 --> 00:09:45.320 nineteen sixty eight, Richard was driving across the country and 172 00:09:45.360 --> 00:09:50.200 seeing firsthand how these policies had affected Native people. When 173 00:09:50.200 --> 00:09:53.400 he arrived in San Francisco, he discovered it actually had 174 00:09:53.400 --> 00:09:59.160 a vibrant, urgeoning Indigenous community. Richard quickly fell into life there, 175 00:09:59.360 --> 00:10:02.280 met and met married a woman named Anne Marufo. She 176 00:10:02.400 --> 00:10:05.240 was a single mom with six kids from a previous marriage. 177 00:10:05.440 --> 00:10:07.680 She was also Native from the Kashaya Pomo nation. 178 00:10:08.440 --> 00:10:12.320 These kids became his life and they became an integral 179 00:10:12.320 --> 00:10:15.040 part of another Indian city, as I term it, which 180 00:10:15.120 --> 00:10:17.920 is founded out of the Mission District of San Francisco. 181 00:10:24.320 --> 00:10:26.840 So in the nineteen sixties there were an estimated ten 182 00:10:26.960 --> 00:10:30.559 thousand Indigenous people from different tribes living in San Francisco. 183 00:10:31.120 --> 00:10:33.880 One of those people was a UC Berkeley student named 184 00:10:34.000 --> 00:10:35.119 Lenida Warjack. 185 00:10:35.600 --> 00:10:40.760 That was that next generation that they were desperately trying 186 00:10:40.800 --> 00:10:43.800 to get us into the cities so that we would 187 00:10:43.840 --> 00:10:47.840 melt into the melting pot and become assimilated. 188 00:10:48.520 --> 00:10:51.520 Leneda had left the Shoshone Bannock Fort Hall Reservation in 189 00:10:51.559 --> 00:10:54.360 Idaho in her twenties, but the job training she was 190 00:10:54.400 --> 00:10:57.880 offered felt very limited, like going to cosmetology school to 191 00:10:57.880 --> 00:11:00.000 become a beautician, and that's not what she wanted. 192 00:11:00.559 --> 00:11:04.200 I just understood that after high school you go to college, 193 00:11:04.720 --> 00:11:08.840 so that was always my intention. And when I got 194 00:11:08.880 --> 00:11:13.080 out here, the university making the loudest noise was at 195 00:11:13.200 --> 00:11:16.680 UC Berkeley, and I said, I want to go over there. 196 00:11:17.200 --> 00:11:20.720 Lenita was the first Native student to attend UC Berkeley. 197 00:11:21.160 --> 00:11:23.720 There in the hotbed for groups like the Panthers and 198 00:11:23.760 --> 00:11:27.120 the Brown Berets, she became a big time activist in 199 00:11:27.160 --> 00:11:28.920 the growing Red Power movement. 200 00:11:32.440 --> 00:11:35.839 Red Power was an inner tribal movement all about self determination, 201 00:11:36.480 --> 00:11:39.720 the right for Native communities to govern themselves, and the 202 00:11:39.760 --> 00:11:43.960 movement fought for that right by reclaiming land, restoring broken treaties, 203 00:11:44.280 --> 00:11:50.040 and preserving Native history. 204 00:11:50.200 --> 00:11:52.720 You know, I met so many people at that time. 205 00:11:53.040 --> 00:11:57.200 Everything was just exciting. But you know, I just I 206 00:11:57.240 --> 00:12:00.320 can't remember when I first met Richard, but you know, 207 00:12:00.400 --> 00:12:05.320 I just knew him. It's like I've always known him. 208 00:12:05.640 --> 00:12:09.280 She remembers Richard from social gatherings and local palows. At 209 00:12:09.280 --> 00:12:11.640 the time, twenty six year old Richard Oakes was working 210 00:12:11.679 --> 00:12:15.320 as a bartender, but also as a community organizer. The 211 00:12:15.360 --> 00:12:17.760 war he worked at had turned into a watering hole 212 00:12:17.800 --> 00:12:21.920 for activists and student politics. Eventually, he was recruited to 213 00:12:22.000 --> 00:12:25.120 run the newly formed Native American Studies department at San 214 00:12:25.160 --> 00:12:26.079 Francisco State. 215 00:12:26.559 --> 00:12:29.360 Eloy Martinez, a citizen of the Southern Ute Nation and 216 00:12:29.400 --> 00:12:31.920 a friend of the Oaks family, remembers meeting Richard at 217 00:12:31.920 --> 00:12:33.080 a Vietnam war rally. 218 00:12:33.600 --> 00:12:36.640 He was real frendly. Yeah, he's friendly, but he was determined, 219 00:12:36.679 --> 00:12:39.920 you know, and he had wanted to talk about teams 220 00:12:39.960 --> 00:12:42.080 that needed to be done. And he asked me, he said, 221 00:12:42.120 --> 00:12:44.440 when all the Chicano was going to realize that they're Indians? 222 00:12:44.720 --> 00:12:46.800 And I says, but at the same time, the Indians 223 00:12:46.800 --> 00:12:50.000 realize that we are. So that's how we hit it off. 224 00:12:50.280 --> 00:12:52.400 Either remembers that Richard was the kind of guy who 225 00:12:52.480 --> 00:12:55.560 got a lot of attention. He was charismatic and tall, 226 00:12:55.679 --> 00:12:57.760 over six feet with floey black hair. 227 00:12:57.960 --> 00:12:59.640 Well, I can't describe him, but I can tell you 228 00:12:59.720 --> 00:13:02.520 what my wife said. She said, here is a movie. 229 00:13:02.559 --> 00:13:03.400 Start good Looking. 230 00:13:07.040 --> 00:13:09.680 One of the specific goals of the Red Power movement 231 00:13:09.880 --> 00:13:14.040 was to reclaim land. The students, including Richard and Leneda, 232 00:13:14.240 --> 00:13:16.560 started to do some research to figure out how they 233 00:13:16.559 --> 00:13:17.080 could do that. 234 00:13:18.040 --> 00:13:23.160 I'm cutting my own way through my own day, and 235 00:13:23.320 --> 00:13:26.360 all I dare say, use it smile. 236 00:13:27.320 --> 00:13:30.880 They developed a plan to take over Alcatraz. 237 00:13:31.440 --> 00:13:34.400 Dean Shavers, a citizen of the Lumby Nation and a 238 00:13:34.480 --> 00:13:37.320 junior E. C. Berkeley, remembers the first time he heard 239 00:13:37.320 --> 00:13:38.040 about this plan. 240 00:13:38.440 --> 00:13:41.079 I met Richard when he came to UC Berkeley, and 241 00:13:41.120 --> 00:13:44.240 he asked us to go help him take over Alcatraz Island. 242 00:13:44.400 --> 00:13:45.800 It was very casually mentioned. 243 00:13:46.320 --> 00:13:48.719 This was at an end of the year party at 244 00:13:48.720 --> 00:13:50.520 one of the students's apartments, and. 245 00:13:50.840 --> 00:13:52.320 I looked at him and said, you're crazy. 246 00:13:52.320 --> 00:13:53.319 I don't want that prison. 247 00:13:53.920 --> 00:13:57.040 Alcatraz Island is a tourist attraction today, but in nineteen 248 00:13:57.040 --> 00:13:59.840 sixty nine, it was a small, abandoned island surrounded by 249 00:13:59.840 --> 00:14:03.520 turbulent water just north of San Francisco Bay. The only 250 00:14:03.520 --> 00:14:06.680 way to get there was by boat. As a federal prison, 251 00:14:06.840 --> 00:14:10.000 it once held some of the country's most notorious criminals, 252 00:14:10.160 --> 00:14:12.840 like al Capone, and George machine Gun Kelly. But it 253 00:14:12.920 --> 00:14:15.480 closed in nineteen sixty three because it was too expensive 254 00:14:15.480 --> 00:14:18.480 to keep running and it had been sitting empty for 255 00:14:18.520 --> 00:14:19.200 six years. 256 00:14:19.560 --> 00:14:23.280 And Richard called me and he says, do you want 257 00:14:23.320 --> 00:14:26.840 to go out on a boat ride around Alcatraz? And 258 00:14:27.000 --> 00:14:28.680 so I said sure. 259 00:14:29.440 --> 00:14:32.960 Here's why this plan to take over Alcatraz actually made sense. 260 00:14:33.560 --> 00:14:36.240 According to a treaty from the eighteen hundreds, the US 261 00:14:36.360 --> 00:14:39.720 government is responsible for returning all abandoned and out of 262 00:14:39.840 --> 00:14:43.400 use federal lands to Native people. This treaty, like so 263 00:14:43.560 --> 00:14:46.120 many others made with Native people in the past, had 264 00:14:46.120 --> 00:14:49.480 been broken by the US government, but the students argued 265 00:14:49.800 --> 00:14:51.960 that the treaty still applied and they could use it 266 00:14:52.040 --> 00:14:55.680 rightfully to reclaim their land. And since Alcatraz was now 267 00:14:55.720 --> 00:14:59.040 abandoned and it was federal land, they felt the island 268 00:14:59.080 --> 00:15:02.680 should be returned to the native community. But word was 269 00:15:02.760 --> 00:15:05.840 going around that Alcatraz was going to be sold and 270 00:15:05.920 --> 00:15:07.040 turned into a casino. 271 00:15:07.560 --> 00:15:10.320 When we looked at that, it was like, oh, they're 272 00:15:10.360 --> 00:15:13.520 breaking another treaty, you know, right in front of our 273 00:15:13.680 --> 00:15:16.440 face in this day and age, And that was just like, 274 00:15:17.960 --> 00:15:18.920 let's go take it. 275 00:15:21.360 --> 00:15:22.600 Inspired by the same treaty. 276 00:15:22.640 --> 00:15:25.640 A group of Sioux activists had tried to take over 277 00:15:25.680 --> 00:15:29.240 the island in nineteen sixty four, five years earlier, but 278 00:15:29.320 --> 00:15:33.720 that occupation had only lasted a couple of hours. This time, 279 00:15:33.960 --> 00:15:36.120 Richard and the Native activists were going to try it 280 00:15:36.200 --> 00:15:39.520 bigger and riskier. They were going to move onto the 281 00:15:39.560 --> 00:15:40.920 island permanently. 282 00:15:51.080 --> 00:15:54.960 Coming up on Latino USA. The plan is set in motion. 283 00:15:55.880 --> 00:15:57.440 Stay with us, not the bays. 284 00:16:08.320 --> 00:16:12.520 Hello, this is Emilio Sambel here in Geneva, Switzerland. I'm 285 00:16:12.560 --> 00:16:15.440 now with the European Broadcasting Union, but I used to 286 00:16:15.520 --> 00:16:19.720 work with Latino USA back at its inception in the 287 00:16:19.800 --> 00:16:23.520 nineteen nineties. I had the great privilege and honor of 288 00:16:23.560 --> 00:16:27.640 working with and learning so much from Maria Martin, the 289 00:16:27.680 --> 00:16:31.400 program's creator, and of course Maria in no Josa, it's 290 00:16:31.480 --> 00:16:35.880 great host and broadcaster. Thank you both, and thanks to 291 00:16:35.920 --> 00:16:39.560 the entire team of the program for everything you've done 292 00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:44.000 to put the Latino community on the public radio map. 293 00:16:53.000 --> 00:16:56.560 And we're back. When we left off, the Red Power 294 00:16:56.640 --> 00:16:59.680 movement was going full force in the nineteen sixties and 295 00:16:59.720 --> 00:17:03.200 seven Francisco, and they were about to make a power 296 00:17:03.280 --> 00:17:08.960 play occupying the abandoned island. Of Alcatraz producer Jennie Yamoca 297 00:17:09.040 --> 00:17:12.760 and Antonia Serejidro pick up this story. 298 00:17:13.240 --> 00:17:15.679 The students would make a total of three attempts to 299 00:17:15.720 --> 00:17:19.560 occupy Alcatraz Island. The first time was on November ninth, 300 00:17:19.640 --> 00:17:22.359 nineteen sixty nine, and it was set up essentially to 301 00:17:22.400 --> 00:17:26.360 be a publicity stunt. Local media was there to capture 302 00:17:26.440 --> 00:17:29.080 the students pow wow dancing and singing on the pier. 303 00:17:39.560 --> 00:17:42.200 The cameras were rolling and Richard was wearing a black 304 00:17:42.200 --> 00:17:45.520 cardigan and a turquoise beaded headband wrapped around his head. 305 00:17:46.400 --> 00:17:49.879 Then he started reading from a collectively written document, the 306 00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:53.840 Alcatraz Proclamation, the same one we heard at the beginning 307 00:17:53.880 --> 00:17:54.399 of the story. 308 00:17:54.640 --> 00:17:57.119 We feel that the so called Alcatraz Island is more 309 00:17:57.160 --> 00:18:00.240 than suitable for an Indian reservation. I was determined of 310 00:18:00.240 --> 00:18:03.480 white man's own standards. By this remained that this place 311 00:18:03.520 --> 00:18:08.520 resembles most Indian reservations in that one it is isolated 312 00:18:08.560 --> 00:18:13.040 from modern facilities and without adequate means of transportation. Two 313 00:18:13.160 --> 00:18:16.239 it has no fresh running water. Three it has in 314 00:18:16.240 --> 00:18:17.880 adequate sanitation facilities. 315 00:18:18.280 --> 00:18:20.960 Four there are no oil for. 316 00:18:20.880 --> 00:18:22.200 Getting over to Alcatraz. 317 00:18:22.240 --> 00:18:24.359 The activists had gotten hold of a boat called the 318 00:18:24.400 --> 00:18:27.720 Monte Cristo. It was a boat that was used for reenactments, 319 00:18:27.800 --> 00:18:30.600 and the activists chose it ironically because it looked like 320 00:18:30.600 --> 00:18:33.600 the kind of ship that Columbus would have sailed. After 321 00:18:33.640 --> 00:18:37.640 the proclamation, the group of activists, some dressed in full regalia, 322 00:18:37.760 --> 00:18:40.280 boarded and the captain of the ship fired off a 323 00:18:40.280 --> 00:18:41.000 blank cannon. 324 00:18:41.480 --> 00:18:43.720 It wasn't enough for Richard Oaks. 325 00:18:43.920 --> 00:18:46.760 That's Kent, the biographer we heard from earlier. As the 326 00:18:46.760 --> 00:18:50.000 boat circled Alcatraz, Richard and a few others jumped off 327 00:18:50.040 --> 00:18:52.320 and swam two hundred and fifty yards to the island. 328 00:18:53.720 --> 00:18:54.280 Where is he? 329 00:18:54.600 --> 00:18:57.160 In this clip you can hear the reporter ask where 330 00:18:57.240 --> 00:18:58.639 is he, referring to Richard. 331 00:18:58.760 --> 00:18:59.840 I wody else pick it up. 332 00:19:01.960 --> 00:19:04.040 The coast Guard picked them up right away and brought 333 00:19:04.040 --> 00:19:07.120 them back to San Francisco. But that night the activists 334 00:19:07.119 --> 00:19:10.760 were already plotting how to get back For their second attempt, 335 00:19:10.920 --> 00:19:13.440 They got another boat to take them to Alcatraz secretly 336 00:19:14.000 --> 00:19:14.960 in the middle of the night. 337 00:19:15.600 --> 00:19:16.600 Here's Leneda again. 338 00:19:17.080 --> 00:19:22.760 The coast guard and helicopters and people storming all over 339 00:19:22.800 --> 00:19:25.119 the island looking for us, And we were just hiding 340 00:19:25.160 --> 00:19:30.480 out in our little secret locations, giggling around. At least 341 00:19:31.000 --> 00:19:33.960 I was, you know, it was because it was exciting 342 00:19:33.960 --> 00:19:37.080 and it was thrilling, and people were looking for us 343 00:19:37.119 --> 00:19:38.680 and they couldn't find us. 344 00:19:38.960 --> 00:19:41.159 The activist stay on the island until the next morning. 345 00:19:41.480 --> 00:19:44.680 A local reporter found Richard and some occupiers hiding out 346 00:19:44.680 --> 00:19:45.680 in the main cell block. 347 00:19:46.240 --> 00:19:47.960 Richard told the press, I think. 348 00:19:47.880 --> 00:19:50.720 It's about time this government starts recognizing that we young 349 00:19:50.720 --> 00:19:52.440 people I could take over our own destiny. 350 00:19:52.600 --> 00:19:55.000 The second small takeover was a hit with local media. 351 00:19:55.480 --> 00:19:57.400 The activists had lasted overnight. 352 00:19:57.760 --> 00:20:00.200 The Indian occupation was a short lived one and a 353 00:20:00.240 --> 00:20:02.800 peaceful one, but they say they'll continue to press their 354 00:20:02.840 --> 00:20:04.840 claim for the island and the center they could build 355 00:20:04.880 --> 00:20:06.280 here by legal means. 356 00:20:06.640 --> 00:20:09.679 Dean, the Berkeley student we heard from earlier, remembers the 357 00:20:09.800 --> 00:20:11.360 moment he heard about the takeover. 358 00:20:11.920 --> 00:20:14.680 Well, I went to the Native American student office at 359 00:20:14.920 --> 00:20:18.040 eight o'clock that Monday morning, and their Pope place was 360 00:20:18.080 --> 00:20:21.000 going crazy, and I said, what's going on? And one 361 00:20:21.040 --> 00:20:22.960 of the girls, because she says well, Richard and Lend 362 00:20:23.000 --> 00:20:25.919 and him swam over to Alcatraz and occupied it last night. 363 00:20:25.920 --> 00:20:26.760 I said, Oh my god. 364 00:20:27.200 --> 00:20:30.320 The activists were thrilled with all the publicity from these 365 00:20:30.320 --> 00:20:33.520 two trips the island, but they still wanted to take 366 00:20:33.560 --> 00:20:37.680 Alcatraz over for real. So for the third and final attempt, 367 00:20:37.760 --> 00:20:40.840 the activists prepared for two weeks. They wanted this one 368 00:20:41.000 --> 00:20:44.240 to be long term, and in the first few hours 369 00:20:44.280 --> 00:20:48.320 of November twentieth, nineteen sixty nine, about eighty Native people, 370 00:20:48.560 --> 00:20:52.560 including students but also families with children, got onto boats 371 00:20:52.600 --> 00:20:53.600 bound for the island. 372 00:20:53.960 --> 00:20:56.440 We got our sleeping bags out, got our pots and pans, 373 00:20:56.480 --> 00:20:59.000 getting ready to go, get on into the boats and 374 00:20:59.040 --> 00:20:59.480 go over. 375 00:21:00.840 --> 00:21:03.760 At dawn with tents and food, the boats of activists 376 00:21:03.760 --> 00:21:07.120 would dock on Alcatraz, and as the occupiers set foot 377 00:21:07.160 --> 00:21:10.919 on the island, the occupation of Alcatraz officially began. 378 00:21:18.119 --> 00:21:21.439 The next morning, press began to gather, and of course 379 00:21:21.920 --> 00:21:23.359 everybody thought why. 380 00:21:24.119 --> 00:21:26.680 The reporters really said, why, why you want a president? 381 00:21:26.680 --> 00:21:29.320 Well, we're going to make it a university. That's Richard's idea. 382 00:21:30.040 --> 00:21:32.800 The activists didn't just want to move in. They wanted 383 00:21:32.840 --> 00:21:35.879 to create an Indigenous mecca. They wanted to build a 384 00:21:35.960 --> 00:21:39.919 Native studies program with a traveling university, a Native spiritual center, 385 00:21:40.280 --> 00:21:43.800 a Native museum, and they even wanted a restaurant fully 386 00:21:43.880 --> 00:21:47.080 run and operated by Native people. And this time the 387 00:21:47.160 --> 00:21:51.000 occupation grabbed the nation's attention, including the White House. 388 00:21:51.480 --> 00:21:52.000 Here's Kent. 389 00:21:52.359 --> 00:21:55.639 Nixon during this time had been proclaiming himself as the 390 00:21:55.680 --> 00:21:57.240 new kind of Indian president. 391 00:21:57.680 --> 00:22:00.840 Many indigenous activists at the time, including Lenada and Dean, 392 00:22:01.400 --> 00:22:03.960 have actually said that Nixon was one of the best 393 00:22:04.000 --> 00:22:07.920 presidents to the indigenous community. President Nixon's football coach in college, 394 00:22:08.040 --> 00:22:10.639 Whillis Newman, was Native, and he was a man that 395 00:22:10.760 --> 00:22:14.400 Nixon said he admired only second to his father. According 396 00:22:14.400 --> 00:22:17.120 to Kent, Nixon was very concerned about the well being 397 00:22:17.119 --> 00:22:19.160 of Native students when the occupation began. 398 00:22:19.640 --> 00:22:22.080 The last thing he could do or wanted to have happen, 399 00:22:22.200 --> 00:22:25.119 is for the police or federal marshals or Coastguard to 400 00:22:25.200 --> 00:22:28.240 raid the island, have any Native people's or families get hurt, 401 00:22:28.280 --> 00:22:30.600