Drive behind occupation of Alcatraz still lingers behind 50 years later
FLAGSTAFF, ARIZ. >> On a chilly November night 50 years ago, a 7-year-old Peter Bratt and his four siblings accompanied their single mother from their San Francisco home for the pier. From there, they joined a group of indigenous activists on a small boat, bobbing in fog and rolling over what felt like tidal waves.
They eventually landed at their destination — Alcatraz Island. At first, all the young boy could see was a vast, “magical” playground. He and other children roamed the beaches, literally blazing their own trails. They explored buildings that had once housed prisoners, including Native Americans incarcerated there nearly a century earlier. It didn’t matter that there was no electricity or running water.
Despite his age, Bratt quickly comprehended that the adventure was the start of a movement. The adults banded together to take back a body of land that they felt didn’t belong to the U.S. government to begin with.
“I remember seeing these young Indian people from all over the country shouting to the world, ‘Red Power! You’re on Indian land,’” said Bratt, 57, and the older brother of actor Benjamin Bratt. “Whoa, that was a game changer. I felt like I was finally home.”
The 19-month occupation of Alcatraz, which started Nov. 20, 1969, is widely seen as a seminal event that reinvigorated tribes to organize in the face of a U.S. government steamrolling over their land, their rights and their identities. Many Native American activists today say they are still struggling to have their voices not only heard but respected. They point to recent examples like their ongoing fight against a proposed oil pipeline near the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota that they argued would contaminate water. President Donald Trump went on to permit it early in his term.
Alcatraz was the beginning of something, according to Bratt. His mother was among those keeping the momentum going. Their San Francisco home became a haven for Native American activists who were fighting for everything from fishing rights to treaty recognition. It also provided heroes for younger Natives beyond figures in history books.
“I think movements and events like Alcatraz and the Wounded Knee standoff, I think they gave us new role models and new warriors to look up to,” said Bratt, who visited Alcatraz earlier this month.
The 21-acre rock in the middle of San Francisco Bay was a federal prison for 29 years. Native Americans made up some of its population as far back as the 1870s, when it was a military prison, including 19 Hopi men incarcerated in 1895 after resisting cultural assimilation, according to the National Park Service.