Last month was the 50th anniversary of the occupation of Alcatraz. Why that anniversary? Well, as one of the leaders smartly declared at the time, “Alcatraz is not an island. It’s an idea’”
And so much of what we think of as the norm now, came out of that idea and the occupation.

Last month was the 50th anniversary of the occupation of Alcatraz. Why that anniversary? Well, as one of the leaders smartly declared at the time, “Alcatraz is not an island. It’s an idea’”

This is Trahant Reports.

The occupation began on Nov. 20, 1969 and lasted for 19 months.

The students said their purpose was “to better the lives of all Indian people”by making “known to the world that we have a right to use our land for our own benefit” and as an added twist, claimed Alcatraz “in the name of all American Indians by right of discovery.”

Today that legacy remains potent, a way for voices to be heard. Alcatraz was Standing Rock. Alcatraz was Idle No More. And, Alcatraz was a framework for many of the extraordinary public policy shifts that took place in the 1970s.

Richard Oakes, Akwesasne Mohawk, was a leader on the island and it was his phrase that Alcatraz was an idea.

And that idea started with a treaty — a right to claim unused federal property.

Some of the early ideas were inspiring. The island’s leaders set up a school, a clinic, and drew up plans for a major university and cultural center.

Before Alcatraz most people took for granted that states had full authority over all the people and that tribes were just an asterisk. But Alcatraz was a way of saying, “no, that’s not right.” Tribal citizens have rights in the Constitution that need to have an accounting. The federal policy of termination, for example, gave states primary authority over Native people. But by 1970 that policy had been rejected and replaced with clear support for tribal governments and sovereignty.

Another practical win from Alcatraz was the establishment of Native American studies programs at universities across the country. LaNada War Jack, Shoshone-Bannock, was a student at the University of California Berkeley and one of the leaders on the island. She had pressed the university to create a department of ethnic studies. Today Alcatraz is taught as history in the very classes that came about as a result of the occupation.

Fifty years is an interesting marker of time. So much of what we think of as the norm now, had its roots on that island. John Echohaw, Pawnee, is executive director of the Native American Rights Fund. That public interest law firm was founded after Alcatraz. As Echohawk recently said: Alcatraz “… 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 … the occupation marked a pivotal moment.”

Or, as he said on the island last month, Alcatraz was “our civil rights movement.”

I am Mark Trahant.