1 00:00:00,200 --> 00:00:01,120 Speaker 1: Here's miser harmon. 2 00:00:01,160 --> 00:00:03,760 Speaker 2: All right, here's to harmon. I had yes, say hi, 3 00:00:03,920 --> 00:00:05,640 Speaker 2: I have a proclamation I'd like to read you. 4 00:00:06,040 --> 00:00:09,400 Speaker 3: It was nineteen sixty nine and twenty seven year old 5 00:00:09,520 --> 00:00:13,880 Speaker 3: Native student Richard Oaks was standing on Alcatraz Island, the 6 00:00:13,920 --> 00:00:17,239 Speaker 3: famous prison off the coast of San Francisco. It had 7 00:00:17,280 --> 00:00:19,840 Speaker 3: been standing empty for the last six years. 8 00:00:20,840 --> 00:00:23,840 Speaker 2: The Native Americans reclaimed this land, known as Alcatraz Island 9 00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:25,840 Speaker 2: in the name of all American Indians by writer. 10 00:00:25,800 --> 00:00:27,840 Speaker 1: Discovery by Alcatraz. 11 00:00:28,560 --> 00:00:30,400 Speaker 2: Everybody can see it. On one end of the country. 12 00:00:30,440 --> 00:00:32,599 Speaker 2: You have the statue of liberty, and this is It's 13 00:00:32,640 --> 00:00:36,400 Speaker 2: just the opposite. We have a true reality of liberty. 14 00:00:36,800 --> 00:00:41,599 Speaker 3: For centuries, conquerors and settlers stole land from indigenous tribes 15 00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:45,639 Speaker 3: and struck up treaties they never intended to follow. And 16 00:00:45,720 --> 00:00:49,960 Speaker 3: so years later, in nineteen sixty nine, Richard and fellow 17 00:00:50,040 --> 00:00:54,000 Speaker 3: Native activists drew up their own deal for Alcatraz. 18 00:00:54,280 --> 00:00:56,160 Speaker 2: We wish to be fair and honorable in our dealings 19 00:00:56,200 --> 00:00:58,800 Speaker 2: with the Caucasian inhabitants of this land, and hereby all 20 00:00:58,840 --> 00:01:02,160 Speaker 2: of the following treaty, we will purchase set Alcatraz Island 21 00:01:02,160 --> 00:01:04,679 Speaker 2: for twenty four dollars in glass beads and red cloth. 22 00:01:05,080 --> 00:01:07,039 Speaker 2: A president set by the white man's purchase of a 23 00:01:07,040 --> 00:01:08,640 Speaker 2: similar island about three hundred years ago. 24 00:01:08,760 --> 00:01:11,680 Speaker 3: Richard had a sparkle in his eye. He looked over 25 00:01:11,760 --> 00:01:15,840 Speaker 3: Alcatraz with the dream of creating an indigenous mecca. 26 00:01:15,959 --> 00:01:18,200 Speaker 2: Richard, can you describe for me again what it is 27 00:01:18,240 --> 00:01:21,039 Speaker 2: you hope to build out here on Alcatraz? Buill the nations. 28 00:01:27,319 --> 00:01:31,440 Speaker 3: From futuro media and PRX. It's Latino Usa. I'm maria 29 00:01:31,680 --> 00:01:35,080 Speaker 3: Hosa today. The story of Richard Oates, a leader of 30 00:01:35,120 --> 00:01:49,040 Speaker 3: the Red Power Movement of the nineteen sixties. In the 31 00:01:49,120 --> 00:01:54,040 Speaker 3: late nineteen sixties, organizations like the Black Panthers, the Brown Berets, 32 00:01:54,160 --> 00:01:57,680 Speaker 3: and the Young Lords were starting a national conversation about 33 00:01:57,720 --> 00:02:02,800 Speaker 3: equal rights and protections. At the same time, an indigenous 34 00:02:02,840 --> 00:02:06,440 Speaker 3: rights movement, the Red Power Movement, was also gathering steam. 35 00:02:07,080 --> 00:02:10,560 Speaker 3: Richard Oaks, a charismatic citizen of the Mohawk Nation, was 36 00:02:10,600 --> 00:02:15,160 Speaker 3: one of its founders, and he advocated resistance through reclaiming 37 00:02:15,320 --> 00:02:19,880 Speaker 3: land from the white man. Alcatraz would become a symbol 38 00:02:19,880 --> 00:02:24,239 Speaker 3: of Native resistance for Indigenous people of all tribes, and 39 00:02:24,720 --> 00:02:28,160 Speaker 3: the Red Power Movement would lay down the foundation for 40 00:02:28,320 --> 00:02:39,480 Speaker 3: future Native movements like Standing Rock. And so today we're 41 00:02:39,520 --> 00:02:42,799 Speaker 3: telling the story of the life of Richard Oaks, from 42 00:02:42,919 --> 00:02:45,360 Speaker 3: how he got involved in the Red Power movement and 43 00:02:45,400 --> 00:02:48,840 Speaker 3: the occupation of Alcatraz to his untimely death when he 44 00:02:48,880 --> 00:02:50,880 Speaker 3: was shot in the heart at the young age of 45 00:02:50,960 --> 00:02:56,040 Speaker 3: only thirty. Producers Janice Jamoca and Antoya Sadhido tell us 46 00:02:56,240 --> 00:02:58,240 Speaker 3: his story from the beginning. 47 00:03:00,240 --> 00:03:03,560 Speaker 4: Brooklyn in the early nineteen fifties, back when the Dodgers 48 00:03:03,560 --> 00:03:06,720 Speaker 4: were stild the Brooklyn Dodgers there lived a small family, 49 00:03:06,919 --> 00:03:10,040 Speaker 4: two brothers and their single mom. The eldest brother was 50 00:03:10,120 --> 00:03:16,600 Speaker 4: named Richard Oakes. Richard and his brother had a typical childhood. 51 00:03:16,760 --> 00:03:19,600 Speaker 4: They played stickball in the streets, walked their dog, and 52 00:03:19,720 --> 00:03:22,679 Speaker 4: watched the Perry Como show at home, Silver and Go, 53 00:03:23,400 --> 00:03:24,520 Speaker 4: Silver and Gone. 54 00:03:25,200 --> 00:03:27,320 Speaker 1: Everyone searched by silver and. 55 00:03:28,000 --> 00:03:30,760 Speaker 4: But their slice of Brooklyn was unique. 56 00:03:30,800 --> 00:03:33,680 Speaker 5: The Oaks family lived in a thriving indigenous community of 57 00:03:33,760 --> 00:03:37,200 Speaker 5: roughly seven hundred Mohawk people, and many of these Mohawk 58 00:03:37,200 --> 00:03:41,400 Speaker 5: people were iron workers. In the nineteen thirties, skyscrapers like 59 00:03:41,440 --> 00:03:44,240 Speaker 5: the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building were filling 60 00:03:44,240 --> 00:03:47,400 Speaker 5: New York City's skyline, and it was often Mohawk iron 61 00:03:47,400 --> 00:03:51,080 Speaker 5: workers that assembled the steel skeletons beam by beam. The 62 00:03:51,120 --> 00:03:53,840 Speaker 5: majority of these Mohawk iron workers settled in the Gowanis 63 00:03:53,840 --> 00:03:55,480 Speaker 5: neighborhood in Brooklyn. 64 00:03:55,520 --> 00:03:58,560 Speaker 4: Gona Wage and Aquesasne Mohawks moved to the city from 65 00:03:58,600 --> 00:04:02,720 Speaker 4: the reservations in Canada Northern New York, seeking opportunity by 66 00:04:02,720 --> 00:04:06,800 Speaker 4: the often faced discrimination applying for work. Since iron working 67 00:04:06,840 --> 00:04:08,880 Speaker 4: was a job that not many wanted to do, it 68 00:04:08,960 --> 00:04:10,840 Speaker 4: required being one hundred feet in the air without a 69 00:04:10,880 --> 00:04:15,360 Speaker 4: safety harness, many Mohawks filled these jobs. There was even 70 00:04:15,400 --> 00:04:18,480 Speaker 4: a bar in the neighborhood called the Wigwam. It's closed now, 71 00:04:18,640 --> 00:04:20,320 Speaker 4: but there used to be a sign posted over the 72 00:04:20,320 --> 00:04:23,400 Speaker 4: door that read the greatest iron workers in the world 73 00:04:23,680 --> 00:04:24,920 Speaker 4: passed through these doors. 74 00:04:26,400 --> 00:04:28,719 Speaker 5: In the summers, Richard's mother would send him and his 75 00:04:28,760 --> 00:04:32,520 Speaker 5: brother to Aquasosny, the reservation where Richard was born. The 76 00:04:32,560 --> 00:04:36,200 Speaker 5: boys were still very exposed to Mohawk traditions like lacrosse, 77 00:04:36,440 --> 00:04:38,839 Speaker 5: which has been whitewashed by white guys in college, but 78 00:04:39,000 --> 00:04:42,440 Speaker 5: is also a cultural tradition of many tribes, including the 79 00:04:42,440 --> 00:04:44,200 Speaker 5: Mohawk and Onondaga nations. 80 00:04:44,560 --> 00:04:48,040 Speaker 6: Richard would wear an onandaga lacrosse jacket when the streets 81 00:04:48,040 --> 00:04:50,160 Speaker 6: of Brooklyn and some of the kids in the other 82 00:04:50,160 --> 00:04:52,360 Speaker 6: neighborhoods would kind of pick on them a little bit. 83 00:04:52,440 --> 00:04:55,760 Speaker 5: That's Kent Blansett, professor of Native American Studies at the 84 00:04:55,839 --> 00:04:59,280 Speaker 5: University of Nebraska at Omaha. He's also the author of 85 00:04:59,400 --> 00:05:02,400 Speaker 5: A Journey to Freedom, a biography of Richard Oaks, and 86 00:05:02,480 --> 00:05:06,240 Speaker 5: he's Native too. 87 00:05:07,200 --> 00:05:09,760 Speaker 4: Richard grew into a strong young man, over two hundred 88 00:05:09,800 --> 00:05:12,560 Speaker 4: pounds and over six feet tall. He started hanging out 89 00:05:12,560 --> 00:05:15,479 Speaker 4: with neighborhood Native gangs and got into fights, fights that 90 00:05:15,520 --> 00:05:17,920 Speaker 4: he would win. At sixteen years old, he dropped out 91 00:05:17,960 --> 00:05:20,839 Speaker 4: of high school and joined the legacy of Mohawk iron workers, 92 00:05:21,360 --> 00:05:24,960 Speaker 4: but he kept getting in trouble. When Richard was about twenty, 93 00:05:25,000 --> 00:05:27,520 Speaker 4: he was charged with assault and robbery and served some 94 00:05:27,640 --> 00:05:28,360 Speaker 4: time in prison. 95 00:05:28,640 --> 00:05:31,320 Speaker 6: I think he was very aware that that path of 96 00:05:31,440 --> 00:05:33,520 Speaker 6: staying in the gangs that he was in in Brooklyn 97 00:05:33,920 --> 00:05:36,039 Speaker 6: was not going to be a very good path to 98 00:05:36,080 --> 00:05:36,359 Speaker 6: be on. 99 00:05:36,720 --> 00:05:39,359 Speaker 4: Within a year, Richard's charges were reduced and he was 100 00:05:39,400 --> 00:05:42,840 Speaker 4: out on parole, and then he started looking for something else. 101 00:05:44,600 --> 00:05:47,320 Speaker 5: It was nineteen sixty three and the civil rights movement 102 00:05:47,480 --> 00:05:56,520 Speaker 5: was in full year, Richard started to travel for his 103 00:05:56,640 --> 00:06:00,280 Speaker 5: job as an iron worker. One of his projects him 104 00:06:00,279 --> 00:06:02,919 Speaker 5: to Rhode Island, where he fell in love with a 105 00:06:02,960 --> 00:06:05,880 Speaker 5: local Italian American woman and married her. 106 00:06:06,160 --> 00:06:09,599 Speaker 6: The story was that Richard was not welcomed by that 107 00:06:09,839 --> 00:06:13,320 Speaker 6: father into this marriage. 108 00:06:14,960 --> 00:06:17,960 Speaker 5: According to interviews with Richard's family, Richard's father in law 109 00:06:18,080 --> 00:06:20,200 Speaker 5: did not want his daughter to be in a mixed 110 00:06:20,279 --> 00:06:22,800 Speaker 5: race marriage. He said he was going to make sure 111 00:06:22,839 --> 00:06:25,960 Speaker 5: that Richard had nothing to do with his daughter. Since 112 00:06:26,000 --> 00:06:28,280 Speaker 5: the father was a high ranking cop and Richard had 113 00:06:28,279 --> 00:06:31,800 Speaker 5: a criminal background. Richard felt threatened and didn't see any 114 00:06:31,880 --> 00:06:33,760 Speaker 5: other choice but to leave. 115 00:06:37,600 --> 00:06:41,159 Speaker 6: Richard at that point, I think had lost everything and 116 00:06:41,200 --> 00:06:43,800 Speaker 6: he had to kind of rethink his life in another way. 117 00:06:44,400 --> 00:06:47,160 Speaker 4: He quit his job that same year. He said goodbye 118 00:06:47,240 --> 00:06:49,839 Speaker 4: to everyone he knew, and he decided to start over 119 00:06:50,360 --> 00:06:53,479 Speaker 4: by driving his red Ford Mustang across the country to 120 00:06:53,520 --> 00:06:56,880 Speaker 4: San Francisco. Richard dropped out of the public school system 121 00:06:56,880 --> 00:06:59,719 Speaker 4: when he was sixteen, but on his journey west, he 122 00:06:59,720 --> 00:07:01,360 Speaker 4: got out different sort of education. 123 00:07:01,920 --> 00:07:04,320 Speaker 6: He was creating his own Indian studies course, but he 124 00:07:04,480 --> 00:07:08,480 Speaker 6: was learning Native history. He began, you know, stopping at 125 00:07:08,480 --> 00:07:11,760 Speaker 6: different reservations along the way, and he began interacting with 126 00:07:11,800 --> 00:07:14,000 Speaker 6: a lot more Native peoples and asking, you know, hey, 127 00:07:14,360 --> 00:07:18,240 Speaker 6: you know, how's termination affecting your people? How's relocation affecting you? 128 00:07:18,240 --> 00:07:19,360 Speaker 6: You know, what's your history? 129 00:07:23,200 --> 00:07:26,760 Speaker 4: Termination was a federal policy introduced in nineteen fifty three 130 00:07:26,880 --> 00:07:30,600 Speaker 4: by Utah Senator Arthur Watkins basically and meant the government 131 00:07:30,640 --> 00:07:34,600 Speaker 4: stopped recognizing over one hundred tribes, essentially terminating them. 132 00:07:35,800 --> 00:07:39,200 Speaker 5: At this point in history, tribes were federally recognized by 133 00:07:39,200 --> 00:07:42,960 Speaker 5: the government, and in accordance with treaties, those tribes received 134 00:07:43,040 --> 00:07:46,720 Speaker 5: federal funding for services like health care and education. But 135 00:07:47,040 --> 00:07:50,280 Speaker 5: with the nineteen fifty three Termination Act, the government decided 136 00:07:50,320 --> 00:07:54,200 Speaker 5: to stop recognizing tribes and pulled their funding. This act 137 00:07:54,280 --> 00:07:57,360 Speaker 5: was a continuation of the US government's long standing push 138 00:07:57,440 --> 00:08:01,400 Speaker 5: to quote americanize the Native people the red man to live. 139 00:08:01,280 --> 00:08:04,120 Speaker 7: His own life and manage his own affairs. It is 140 00:08:04,160 --> 00:08:07,280 Speaker 7: obvious there always must be influence by the majority of 141 00:08:07,320 --> 00:08:10,400 Speaker 7: inhabitants in the United States to change the habits and 142 00:08:10,440 --> 00:08:14,520 Speaker 7: customs of the minority. Such influences intended to be nothing 143 00:08:14,560 --> 00:08:17,920 Speaker 7: other than helpful to raise the Indian standard of living, 144 00:08:18,320 --> 00:08:20,160 Speaker 7: to make him happier and more comfortable. 145 00:08:20,760 --> 00:08:21,320 Speaker 4: This time. 146 00:08:21,480 --> 00:08:24,400 Speaker 5: It was justified by rising McCarthyism and a fear that 147 00:08:24,440 --> 00:08:28,040 Speaker 5: communism would spread in reservations, so the government took away 148 00:08:28,040 --> 00:08:31,360 Speaker 5: their basic social services and their special tax status, which 149 00:08:31,440 --> 00:08:33,160 Speaker 5: drove some tribes to go bankrupt. 150 00:08:33,720 --> 00:08:37,160 Speaker 4: The result, schools on reservations were no longer funded, so 151 00:08:37,280 --> 00:08:40,400 Speaker 4: Native children couldn't get an education near home, and the 152 00:08:40,480 --> 00:08:43,720 Speaker 4: Act left many Natives homeless because they weren't able to 153 00:08:43,760 --> 00:08:46,760 Speaker 4: pay the new property taxes. And there was another program 154 00:08:46,760 --> 00:08:50,280 Speaker 4: at the same time called relocation, which also paid people 155 00:08:50,320 --> 00:08:53,080 Speaker 4: to go to big cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, and 156 00:08:53,160 --> 00:08:56,160 Speaker 4: San Francisco. They gave them a one way ticket, the 157 00:08:56,200 --> 00:08:59,440 Speaker 4: promise of housing, a stipend, and some kind of job training. 158 00:09:00,240 --> 00:09:05,120 Speaker 4: Both these policies, Termination and relocation pushed Indigenous people to 159 00:09:05,200 --> 00:09:12,400 Speaker 4: leave their reservations and moved to the cities. Back in 160 00:09:12,520 --> 00:09:15,680 Speaker 4: nineteen sixty eight, Richard was driving across the country and 161 00:09:15,720 --> 00:09:20,560 Speaker 4: seeing firsthand how these policies had affected Native people. When 162 00:09:20,559 --> 00:09:23,760 Speaker 4: he arrived in San Francisco, he discovered it actually had 163 00:09:23,760 --> 00:09:29,520 Speaker 4: a vibrant, urgeoning indigenous community. Richard quickly fell into life there, 164 00:09:29,760 --> 00:09:32,840 Speaker 4: met and married a woman named Anne Marufo. She was 165 00:09:32,840 --> 00:09:35,559 Speaker 4: a single mom with six kids from a previous marriage. 166 00:09:35,800 --> 00:09:38,040 Speaker 4: She was also Native from the Kashaya Pomo nation. 167 00:09:38,800 --> 00:09:42,680 Speaker 6: These kids became his life and they became an integral 168 00:09:42,679 --> 00:09:45,400 Speaker 6: part of another Indian city, as I term it, which 169 00:09:45,480 --> 00:09:48,280 Speaker 6: is founded out of the Mission District of San Francisco. 170 00:09:54,679 --> 00:09:57,200 Speaker 5: So in the nineteen sixties there were an estimated ten 171 00:09:57,320 --> 00:10:00,920 Speaker 5: thousand Indigenous people from different tribes living in in San Francisco. 172 00:10:01,480 --> 00:10:04,240 Speaker 5: One of those people was a UC Berkeley student named 173 00:10:04,360 --> 00:10:05,480 Speaker 5: Lenita Warjack. 174 00:10:05,960 --> 00:10:11,120 Speaker 8: That was that next generation that they were desperately trying 175 00:10:11,160 --> 00:10:14,160 Speaker 8: to get us into the cities so that we would 176 00:10:14,200 --> 00:10:18,200 Speaker 8: melt into the melting pot and become assimilated. 177 00:10:18,880 --> 00:10:21,880 Speaker 5: Leneda had left the Shoshone Bannock Fort Hall Reservation in 178 00:10:21,920 --> 00:10:24,720 Speaker 5: Idaho in her twenties, but the job training she was 179 00:10:24,760 --> 00:10:28,240 Speaker 5: offered felt very limited, like going to cosmetology school to 180 00:10:28,240 --> 00:10:30,600 Speaker 5: become a beautician, and that's not what she wanted. 181 00:10:30,920 --> 00:10:34,560 Speaker 8: I just understood that after high school you go to college. 182 00:10:35,080 --> 00:10:39,200 Speaker 8: So that was always my intention. And when I got 183 00:10:39,240 --> 00:10:43,439 Speaker 8: out here, the university making the loudest noise was at 184 00:10:43,600 --> 00:10:47,080 Speaker 8: UC Berkeley, and I said, I want to go over there. 185 00:10:47,559 --> 00:10:51,080 Speaker 5: Lenida was the first Native student to attend UC Berkeley. 186 00:10:51,520 --> 00:10:54,080 Speaker 5: There in the hotbed for groups like the Panthers and 187 00:10:54,120 --> 00:10:57,480 Speaker 5: the Brown Berets, she became a big time activist in 188 00:10:57,520 --> 00:10:59,280 Speaker 5: the growing Red Power movement. 189 00:11:02,760 --> 00:11:06,240 Speaker 4: Bred Power was an inner tribal movement all about self determination, 190 00:11:06,840 --> 00:11:10,080 Speaker 4: the right for Native communities to govern themselves, and the 191 00:11:10,120 --> 00:11:14,320 Speaker 4: movement fought for that right by reclaiming land, restoring broken treaties, 192 00:11:14,640 --> 00:11:16,160 Speaker 4: and preserving Native history. 193 00:11:20,559 --> 00:11:23,080 Speaker 8: You know, I met so many people at that time. 194 00:11:23,400 --> 00:11:27,560 Speaker 8: Everything was just exciting. But you know, I just I 195 00:11:27,600 --> 00:11:30,679 Speaker 8: can't remember when I first met Richard, but you know, 196 00:11:30,760 --> 00:11:35,880 Speaker 8: I just knew him. It was like I've always known him. 197 00:11:36,000 --> 00:11:39,640 Speaker 4: She remembers Richard from social gatherings and local powows. At 198 00:11:39,640 --> 00:11:42,000 Speaker 4: the time, twenty six year old Richard Oakes was working 199 00:11:42,040 --> 00:11:45,680 Speaker 4: as a bartender, but also as a community organizer. The 200 00:11:45,720 --> 00:11:47,880 Speaker 4: war where he worked at had turned into a watering 201 00:11:47,880 --> 00:11:52,200 Speaker 4: hole for activists and student politics. Eventually, he was recruited 202 00:11:52,240 --> 00:11:55,280 Speaker 4: to run the newly formed Native American Studies Department at 203 00:11:55,320 --> 00:11:56,439 Speaker 4: San Francisco State. 204 00:11:56,920 --> 00:11:59,679 Speaker 5: Eloi Martinez, a citizen of the Southern Ute Nation and 205 00:12:00,200 --> 00:12:02,840 Speaker 5: of the Oaks family, remembers meeting Richard at a Vietnam 206 00:12:02,840 --> 00:12:03,440 Speaker 5: War rally. 207 00:12:04,000 --> 00:12:04,880 Speaker 4: He was real frendly. 208 00:12:05,040 --> 00:12:07,640 Speaker 9: Yeah, he's friendly, but he was determined, you know, and 209 00:12:08,360 --> 00:12:10,760 Speaker 9: he had wanted to talk about things that needed to 210 00:12:10,760 --> 00:12:12,800 Speaker 9: be done. And he asked me, he said, when all 211 00:12:12,840 --> 00:12:15,320 Speaker 9: the chicano is going to realize that they're Indians? And 212 00:12:15,360 --> 00:12:17,520 Speaker 9: I says, but at the same time, the Indians realize 213 00:12:17,559 --> 00:12:20,400 Speaker 9: that we are. So that's how we hit it off. 214 00:12:20,679 --> 00:12:22,760 Speaker 5: Either remembers that Richard was the kind of guy who 215 00:12:22,840 --> 00:12:25,920 Speaker 5: got a lot of attention. He was charismatic and tall, 216 00:12:26,040 --> 00:12:28,120 Speaker 5: over six feet with floey black hair. 217 00:12:28,320 --> 00:12:30,040 Speaker 9: Well, I can't describe him, but I can tell you 218 00:12:30,160 --> 00:12:32,880 Speaker 9: what my wife said. She said he was a movie 219 00:12:32,920 --> 00:12:33,760 Speaker 9: started good looking. 220 00:12:37,400 --> 00:12:40,040 Speaker 5: One of the specific goals of the Red Power movement 221 00:12:40,240 --> 00:12:44,440 Speaker 5: was to reclaim land. The students, including Richard and Lineda, 222 00:12:44,600 --> 00:12:46,920 Speaker 5: started to do some research to figure out how they 223 00:12:46,920 --> 00:12:47,440 Speaker 5: could do that. 224 00:12:48,400 --> 00:12:53,520 Speaker 10: I'm cutting my own way through my own day, and 225 00:12:53,679 --> 00:12:56,720 Speaker 10: all I dare say, use it smile. 226 00:12:57,679 --> 00:13:01,280 Speaker 5: They developed a plan to take over Alcatraz. 227 00:13:01,800 --> 00:13:04,760 Speaker 4: Dean Shavers, a citizen of the Lumby Nation and a 228 00:13:04,840 --> 00:13:07,640 Speaker 4: junior E. C. Berkeley, remembers the first time he heard 229 00:13:07,679 --> 00:13:08,400 Speaker 4: about this plan. 230 00:13:08,800 --> 00:13:11,439 Speaker 11: I met Richard when he came to UC Berkeley, and 231 00:13:11,520 --> 00:13:14,600 Speaker 11: he asked us to go help him take over Alcatraz Island. 232 00:13:14,760 --> 00:13:17,600 Speaker 11: It was very casually mentioned. This was at an end 233 00:13:17,640 --> 00:13:20,960 Speaker 11: of the year party at one of the students's apartments, and. 234 00:13:21,200 --> 00:13:22,680 Speaker 4: I looked at him and said, you're crazy. 235 00:13:22,679 --> 00:13:23,679 Speaker 11: I don't want that prison. 236 00:13:24,280 --> 00:13:27,400 Speaker 4: Alcatraz Island is a tourist attraction today, but in nineteen 237 00:13:27,400 --> 00:13:30,320 Speaker 4: sixty nine, it was a small, abandoned island surrounded by 238 00:13:30,320 --> 00:13:33,880 Speaker 4: turbulent water just north of San Francisco Bay. The only 239 00:13:33,880 --> 00:13:37,040 Speaker 4: way to get there was by boat. As a federal prison, 240 00:13:37,200 --> 00:13:40,360 Speaker 4: it once held some of the country's most notorious criminals, 241 00:13:40,520 --> 00:13:43,240 Speaker 4: like al Capone and George Machine Gun Kelly, but it 242 00:13:43,280 --> 00:13:45,840 Speaker 4: closed in nineteen sixty three because it was too expensive 243 00:13:45,840 --> 00:13:48,839 Speaker 4: to keep running, and it had been sitting empty for 244 00:13:48,920 --> 00:13:49,720 Speaker 4: six years. 245 00:13:49,960 --> 00:13:53,680 Speaker 8: And Richard called me and he says, do you want 246 00:13:53,679 --> 00:13:57,199 Speaker 8: to go out on a boat ride around Alcatraz? And 247 00:13:57,360 --> 00:13:59,959 Speaker 8: so I said sure. 248 00:14:00,000 --> 00:14:03,319 Speaker 4: There's why this plan to take over Alcatraz actually made sense. 249 00:14:03,920 --> 00:14:06,600 Speaker 4: According to a treaty from the eighteen hundreds, the US 250 00:14:06,720 --> 00:14:10,080 Speaker 4: government is responsible for returning all abandoned and out of 251 00:14:10,200 --> 00:14:13,760 Speaker 4: use federal lands to Native people. This treaty, like so 252 00:14:13,920 --> 00:14:16,480 Speaker 4: many others made with Native people in the past, had 253 00:14:16,520 --> 00:14:19,840 Speaker 4: been broken by the US government, but the students argued 254 00:14:20,200 --> 00:14:22,320 Speaker 4: that the treaty still applied and they could use it 255 00:14:22,400 --> 00:14:26,040 Speaker 4: rightfully to reclaim their land. And since Alcatraz was now 256 00:14:26,080 --> 00:14:29,400 Speaker 4: abandoned and it was federal land, they felt the island 257 00:14:29,440 --> 00:14:33,080 Speaker 4: should be returned to the native community. But word was 258 00:14:33,120 --> 00:14:36,200 Speaker 4: going around that Alcatraz was going to be sold and 259 00:14:36,280 --> 00:14:37,400 Speaker 4: turned into a casino. 260 00:14:37,920 --> 00:14:40,680 Speaker 8: When we looked at that, it was like, oh, they're 261 00:14:40,720 --> 00:14:43,880 Speaker 8: breaking another treaty, you know, right in front of our 262 00:14:44,040 --> 00:14:46,800 Speaker 8: face in this day and age, and that was just like, 263 00:14:48,320 --> 00:14:49,240 Speaker 8: let's go take it. 264 00:14:51,720 --> 00:14:54,440 Speaker 5: Inspired by the same treaty, a group of Sioux activists 265 00:14:54,800 --> 00:14:57,720 Speaker 5: had tried to take over the island in nineteen sixty four, 266 00:14:58,120 --> 00:15:01,440 Speaker 5: five years earlier, but that occupation had only lasted a 267 00:15:01,480 --> 00:15:05,680 Speaker 5: couple of hours. This time, Richard and the Native activists 268 00:15:05,680 --> 00:15:09,000 Speaker 5: were going to try bigger and riskier. They were going 269 00:15:09,040 --> 00:15:11,840 Speaker 5: to move onto the island permanently. 270 00:15:21,440 --> 00:15:25,320 Speaker 3: Coming up on Latino USA. The plan is set in motion. 271 00:15:26,240 --> 00:16:12,960 Speaker 3: Stay with us, not the virus, and we're back when 272 00:16:13,000 --> 00:16:16,240 Speaker 3: we left off. The Red Power movement was going full 273 00:16:16,320 --> 00:16:19,840 Speaker 3: force in the nineteen sixties in San Francisco, and they 274 00:16:19,840 --> 00:16:23,520 Speaker 3: were about to make a power play occupying the abandoned 275 00:16:23,600 --> 00:16:29,000 Speaker 3: island of Alcatraz. Producer Jennie Yamoca and Antonia Serejidro pick 276 00:16:29,080 --> 00:16:30,880 Speaker 3: up this story. 277 00:16:31,360 --> 00:16:33,800 Speaker 4: The students would make a total of three attempts to 278 00:16:33,840 --> 00:16:37,680 Speaker 4: occupy Alcatraz Island. The first time was on November ninth, 279 00:16:37,760 --> 00:16:40,480 Speaker 4: nineteen sixty nine, and it was set up essentially to 280 00:16:40,520 --> 00:16:44,480 Speaker 4: be a publicity stunt. Local media was there to capture 281 00:16:44,560 --> 00:16:47,240 Speaker 4: the students pow wow dancing and singing on the pier. 282 00:16:57,720 --> 00:17:00,320 Speaker 4: The cameras were rolling and Richard was wearing a black 283 00:17:00,360 --> 00:17:03,640 Speaker 4: cardigan and a turquoise beaded headband wrapped around his head. 284 00:17:04,520 --> 00:17:08,040 Speaker 4: Then he started reading from a collectively written document, the 285 00:17:08,119 --> 00:17:12,000 Speaker 4: Alcatraz Proclamation, the same one we heard at the beginning 286 00:17:12,000 --> 00:17:12,520 Speaker 4: of the story. 287 00:17:12,760 --> 00:17:15,239 Speaker 2: We feel that the so called Alcatraz Island is more 288 00:17:15,280 --> 00:17:18,320 Speaker 2: than suitable for an Indian reservation as determined by the 289 00:17:18,320 --> 00:17:21,600 Speaker 2: white man's own standards. By this remained that this place 290 00:17:21,640 --> 00:17:26,679 Speaker 2: resembles most Indian reservations in that one it is isolated 291 00:17:26,680 --> 00:17:31,159 Speaker 2: from modern facilities and without adequate means of transportation. Two 292 00:17:31,320 --> 00:17:34,359 Speaker 2: it has no fresh running water. Three it has in 293 00:17:34,359 --> 00:17:36,000 Speaker 2: adequate sanitation facilities. 294 00:17:36,400 --> 00:17:38,360 Speaker 12: Four there are no oil. 295 00:17:38,880 --> 00:17:40,320 Speaker 4: For getting over to Alcatraz. 296 00:17:40,359 --> 00:17:42,520 Speaker 5: The activists had gotten hold of a boat called the 297 00:17:42,560 --> 00:17:45,040 Speaker 5: Monte Cristo. It was a boat that was used for 298 00:17:45,080 --> 00:17:48,359 Speaker 5: re enactments, and the activists chose it ironically because it 299 00:17:48,400 --> 00:17:50,760 Speaker 5: looked like the kind of ship that Columbus would have sailed. 300 00:17:51,480 --> 00:17:54,720 Speaker 5: After the proclamation, the group of activists, some dressed in 301 00:17:54,720 --> 00:17:58,159 Speaker 5: full regalia, boarded and the captain of the ship fired 302 00:17:58,160 --> 00:17:59,159 Speaker 5: off a blank cannon. 303 00:17:59,560 --> 00:18:01,639 Speaker 6: It was enough for Richard Oaks. 304 00:18:02,080 --> 00:18:04,879 Speaker 5: That's Kent, the biographer we heard from earlier. As the 305 00:18:04,880 --> 00:18:08,120 Speaker 5: boat circled Alcatraz, Richard and a few others jumped off 306 00:18:08,160 --> 00:18:10,439 Speaker 5: and swam two hundred and fifty yards to the island. 307 00:18:11,880 --> 00:18:12,399 Speaker 1: Where is it? 308 00:18:12,720 --> 00:18:15,280 Speaker 5: In this clip you can hear the reporter ask where 309 00:18:15,359 --> 00:18:16,800 Speaker 5: is he? Referring to Richard. 310 00:18:17,440 --> 00:18:19,960 Speaker 13: Pick you up. 311 00:18:20,119 --> 00:18:22,120 Speaker 4: The coast guard picked them up right away and brought 312 00:18:22,160 --> 00:18:25,280 Speaker 4: them back to San Francisco. But that night the activists 313 00:18:25,280 --> 00:18:28,880 Speaker 4: were already plotting how to get back For their second attempt, 314 00:18:29,040 --> 00:18:31,600 Speaker 4: they got another boat to take them to Alcatraz secretly 315 00:18:32,119 --> 00:18:34,720 Speaker 4: in the middle of the night. Here's Leneda again. 316 00:18:35,160 --> 00:18:40,880 Speaker 8: The coast guard and helicopters and people storming all over 317 00:18:40,920 --> 00:18:43,240 Speaker 8: the island looking for us. And we were just hiding 318 00:18:43,280 --> 00:18:48,639 Speaker 8: out in our little secret locations, giggling around at least 319 00:18:49,119 --> 00:18:52,119 Speaker 8: I was, you know, it was because it was exciting 320 00:18:52,119 --> 00:18:55,240 Speaker 8: and it was thrilling, and people were looking for us 321 00:18:55,280 --> 00:18:56,800 Speaker 8: and they couldn't find us. 322 00:18:57,080 --> 00:18:59,280 Speaker 4: The activist stay on the island until the next morning. 323 00:18:59,560 --> 00:19:02,800 Speaker 4: A local reporter found Richard and some occupiers hiding out 324 00:19:02,800 --> 00:19:05,920 Speaker 4: in the main cell block. Richard told the press, I. 325 00:19:05,800 --> 00:19:08,159 Speaker 2: Think it's about time this government starts recognizing that we 326 00:19:08,640 --> 00:19:10,560 Speaker 2: young people like could take over our own destiny. 327 00:19:10,720 --> 00:19:13,119 Speaker 4: The second small takeover was a hit with local media. 328 00:19:13,600 --> 00:19:15,560 Speaker 4: The activists had lasted overnight. 329 00:19:15,920 --> 00:19:18,320 Speaker 2: The Indian occupation was a short lived one and a 330 00:19:18,359 --> 00:19:20,919 Speaker 2: peaceful one, but they say they'll continue to press their 331 00:19:20,960 --> 00:19:23,000 Speaker 2: claim for the island and the center they could build 332 00:19:23,040 --> 00:19:24,399 Speaker 2: here by legal means. 333 00:19:24,760 --> 00:19:27,800 Speaker 5: Dean, the Berkeley student we heard from earlier, remembers the 334 00:19:27,920 --> 00:19:29,480 Speaker 5: moment he heard about the takeover. 335 00:19:30,040 --> 00:19:32,800 Speaker 11: Well, I went to the Native American student office at 336 00:19:33,040 --> 00:19:36,159 Speaker 11: eight o'clock that Monday morning and their Pope place was 337 00:19:36,200 --> 00:19:39,160 Speaker 11: going crazy, and I said, what's going on? And one 338 00:19:39,160 --> 00:19:41,199 Speaker 11: of the girls he says, Well, Richard and Lend and 339 00:19:41,240 --> 00:19:44,040 Speaker 11: him swam over to Alcatraz and occupied it last night. 340 00:19:44,080 --> 00:19:44,880 Speaker 11: And said, oh my god. 341 00:19:45,320 --> 00:19:48,440 Speaker 5: The activists were thrilled with all the publicity from these 342 00:19:48,480 --> 00:19:51,680 Speaker 5: two trips the island, but they still wanted to take 343 00:19:51,680 --> 00:19:55,800 Speaker 5: Alcatraz over for real. So for the third and final attempt, 344 00:19:55,880 --> 00:19:59,000 Speaker 5: the activists prepared for two weeks. They wanted this one 345 00:19:59,119 --> 00:20:02,399 Speaker 5: to be long term, and in the first few hours 346 00:20:02,400 --> 00:20:06,480 Speaker 5: of November twentieth, nineteen sixty nine, about eighty Native people, 347 00:20:06,680 --> 00:20:10,720 Speaker 5: including students but also families with children, got onto boats 348 00:20:10,720 --> 00:20:11,720 Speaker 5: bound for the island. 349 00:20:12,080 --> 00:20:14,560 Speaker 11: We got our sleeping bags out, got our pots and pans, 350 00:20:14,640 --> 00:20:17,119 Speaker 11: get ready to go, get on into the bunks, and 351 00:20:17,160 --> 00:20:17,600 Speaker 11: go over. 352 00:20:18,960 --> 00:20:21,880 Speaker 5: At dawn with tents and food, the boats of activists 353 00:20:21,920 --> 00:20:25,280 Speaker 5: would dock on Alcatraz, and as the occupiers set foot 354 00:20:25,280 --> 00:20:29,080 Speaker 5: on the island, the occupation of Alcatraz officially began. 355 00:20:36,280 --> 00:20:39,560 Speaker 4: The next morning, press began to gather, and of course 356 00:20:40,040 --> 00:20:41,320 Speaker 4: everybody's thought why. 357 00:20:42,240 --> 00:20:44,960 Speaker 11: The reporters really said, why, why you want to president? Well, 358 00:20:45,000 --> 00:20:46,200 Speaker 11: we're going to make it a university. 359 00:20:46,240 --> 00:20:50,000 Speaker 4: That's Richard's idea. The activists didn't just want to move in. 360 00:20:50,440 --> 00:20:53,679 Speaker 4: They wanted to create an Indigenous mecca. They wanted to 361 00:20:53,680 --> 00:20:56,879 Speaker 4: build a Native studies program with a traveling university, a 362 00:20:56,960 --> 00:21:00,840 Speaker 4: Native spiritual center, a Native museum, and they even wanted 363 00:21:00,840 --> 00:21:04,399 Speaker 4: a restaurant fully run and operated by Native people. And 364 00:21:04,480 --> 00:21:08,479 Speaker 4: this time the occupation grabbed the nation's attention, including the 365 00:21:08,520 --> 00:21:10,160 Speaker 4: White House. Here's Kent. 366 00:21:10,520 --> 00:21:13,760 Speaker 6: Nixon during this time had been proclaiming himself as the 367 00:21:13,800 --> 00:21:15,360 Speaker 6: new kind of Indian president. 368 00:21:15,800 --> 00:21:19,000 Speaker 4: Many indigenous activists at the time, including Lenada and Dean, 369 00:21:19,520 --> 00:21:22,080 Speaker 4: have actually said that Nixon was one of the best 370 00:21:22,119 --> 00:21:25,600 Speaker 4: presidents to the indigenous community. President Nixon's football coach in 371 00:21:25,640 --> 00:21:28,359 Speaker 4: college while as Newman, was Native, and he was a 372 00:21:28,359 --> 00:21:31,400 Speaker 4: man that Nixon said he admired only second to his father. 373 00:21:32,080 --> 00:21:35,040 Speaker 4: According to Kent, Nixon was very concerned about the well 374 00:21:35,040 --> 00:21:37,320 Speaker 4: being of Native students when the occupation began. 375 00:21:37,760 --> 00:21:40,200 Speaker 6: The last thing he could do or wanted to have happen, 376 00:21:40,320 --> 00:21:43,240 Speaker 6: is for the police or federal marshals or Coastguard to 377 00:21:43,359 --> 00:21:46,320 Speaker 6: raise the island, have any Native people's or families get hurt, 378 00:21:46,400 --> 00:21:48,720 Speaker 6: because it wasn't just students that were there. There were 379 00:21:48,760 --> 00:21:50,679 Speaker 6: elders that were there, there were families that were there, 380 00:21:50,720 --> 00:21:53,040 Speaker 6: There was children that were there on the island, and. 381 00:21:53,000 --> 00:21:55,679 Speaker 4: The federal government didn't seem to have a plan. This 382 00:21:55,840 --> 00:21:59,399 Speaker 4: is te Hennon from the Government Services Administration which oversaw 383 00:21:59,400 --> 00:22:00,320 Speaker 4: akatraz Iland. 384 00:22:00,600 --> 00:22:02,280 Speaker 14: From what you say, then are you prepared to let 385 00:22:02,280 --> 00:22:04,560 Speaker 14: the Indians remain there for an indefinite period of No, 386 00:22:04,640 --> 00:22:05,040 Speaker 14: I am not. 387 00:22:06,640 --> 00:22:08,720 Speaker 1: Then you must have a deadline. I have not set 388 00:22:08,760 --> 00:22:13,360 Speaker 1: a deadline. Well, then they can stay there indefinitely, that's 389 00:22:13,400 --> 00:22:14,040 Speaker 1: what they tell me. 390 00:22:18,560 --> 00:22:20,840 Speaker 5: So the activists began to set up their operations of 391 00:22:20,920 --> 00:22:24,400 Speaker 5: everyday life on this abandoned island. The prison had only 392 00:22:24,440 --> 00:22:28,200 Speaker 5: three working toilets and barely any clean water. For food, 393 00:22:28,280 --> 00:22:30,800 Speaker 5: they mostly lived off of donations. 394 00:22:30,760 --> 00:22:35,720 Speaker 11: Bread cakes, sometimes cakes, baloney and a lot of bread 395 00:22:35,760 --> 00:22:38,400 Speaker 11: and a lot of stuff like that, hot dogs. 396 00:22:38,880 --> 00:22:41,920 Speaker 5: Boats would come and go with boxes of canned foods, clothes, 397 00:22:42,000 --> 00:22:44,120 Speaker 5: whatever simple things they needed to survive. 398 00:22:44,359 --> 00:22:47,399 Speaker 14: Should have the Fisherman's wharf area when the San Francisco 399 00:22:47,480 --> 00:22:51,080 Speaker 14: Bay has become sort of a ferry service. One boat 400 00:22:51,080 --> 00:22:54,680 Speaker 14: of Indians comes in from Alcatraz, another one goes out. 401 00:22:54,920 --> 00:22:58,760 Speaker 5: And it was freezing. Remember it was mid November. 402 00:22:59,080 --> 00:23:02,720 Speaker 11: I mean we're talking about twenty degrees above thirty above, 403 00:23:02,800 --> 00:23:05,879 Speaker 11: you know at night, and no heating. There's no heating. 404 00:23:06,400 --> 00:23:10,760 Speaker 8: We came from reservations where things were deplorable as it is, 405 00:23:11,000 --> 00:23:14,680 Speaker 8: so being out there was was okay. 406 00:23:15,640 --> 00:23:18,119 Speaker 5: They also to figure out where people were going to sleep. 407 00:23:18,480 --> 00:23:21,040 Speaker 5: Many lived in empty cells of the huge prison that 408 00:23:21,119 --> 00:23:24,560 Speaker 5: once held over fifteen hundred prisoners, but there was one 409 00:23:24,600 --> 00:23:27,320 Speaker 5: cell in particular that people actually fought for. 410 00:23:27,800 --> 00:23:29,760 Speaker 11: The high spot for the people on the island was 411 00:23:29,800 --> 00:23:33,600 Speaker 11: to sleep in the same cell as al Capone, and 412 00:23:33,720 --> 00:23:36,000 Speaker 11: people did any fight over I got to sleep at 413 00:23:36,000 --> 00:23:36,600 Speaker 11: a Capone soe. 414 00:23:37,960 --> 00:23:40,800 Speaker 5: But Lenita says that while many were sleeping in former 415 00:23:40,880 --> 00:23:43,439 Speaker 5: jail cells, there were also certain perks to living on 416 00:23:43,480 --> 00:23:43,960 Speaker 5: the island. 417 00:23:44,440 --> 00:23:47,880 Speaker 8: I had a really nice room where I had a window. 418 00:23:48,040 --> 00:23:50,680 Speaker 8: One window I could see the Golden Gate and out 419 00:23:50,720 --> 00:23:54,199 Speaker 8: the other window I could see the Bay Bridge, So 420 00:23:54,560 --> 00:23:59,720 Speaker 8: you know, I thought, Wow, this is really nice. 421 00:24:00,040 --> 00:24:04,399 Speaker 4: A week after the occupation began, Thanksgiving approached. Support for 422 00:24:04,480 --> 00:24:08,680 Speaker 4: the occupation was strong. Restaurants in San Francisco donated turkeys, 423 00:24:08,760 --> 00:24:12,760 Speaker 4: and monetary donations flooded the mailroom at the mainland headquarters. 424 00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:15,760 Speaker 4: Native people from across the country, both young and old, 425 00:24:16,080 --> 00:24:20,440 Speaker 4: began making the pilgrimage to Alcatraz, and on Thanksgiving Day, 426 00:24:20,760 --> 00:24:23,520 Speaker 4: more than three hundred Native people came to the island. 427 00:24:26,440 --> 00:24:28,920 Speaker 4: By the end of December, the activists had started Radio 428 00:24:28,920 --> 00:24:32,919 Speaker 4: Free Alcatraz and were broadcasting live and direct from the island. 429 00:24:34,760 --> 00:24:37,159 Speaker 11: Over good evening. 430 00:24:37,200 --> 00:24:41,160 Speaker 15: This was John Trudell from Radio Free Alcatraz and welcoming 431 00:24:41,160 --> 00:24:44,240 Speaker 15: you to Indian Land Alcatraz on behalf of the Indians 432 00:24:44,240 --> 00:24:44,960 Speaker 15: of All Tribes. 433 00:24:45,520 --> 00:24:49,160 Speaker 4: The host, a Santa Dakota named John Trudell, used borrowed 434 00:24:49,160 --> 00:24:52,240 Speaker 4: and donated radio equipment and talked about life on the island. 435 00:24:52,760 --> 00:24:54,879 Speaker 4: It was a way for others to hear all across 436 00:24:54,880 --> 00:24:57,399 Speaker 4: the country what was going on with their movement. 437 00:24:57,520 --> 00:25:00,880 Speaker 5: And people were raising money for the occupiers. Musicians put 438 00:25:00,920 --> 00:25:03,800 Speaker 5: on rock and folk benefit shows, including Buffy Saint Marie, 439 00:25:03,840 --> 00:25:06,520 Speaker 5: a Peapot Cree folk musician Henny Thanks. 440 00:25:06,560 --> 00:25:10,080 Speaker 16: We'll put an anti tour this way. 441 00:25:10,800 --> 00:25:14,000 Speaker 5: Celebrities started coming out to visit the island, including Anthony 442 00:25:14,040 --> 00:25:17,320 Speaker 5: Quinn and Ethel Kennedy. Jane Fonda, one of the biggest 443 00:25:17,359 --> 00:25:20,240 Speaker 5: starts to visit the island, even invited Leneda What the 444 00:25:20,240 --> 00:25:23,000 Speaker 5: time was Leneda means to speak on the MERV Griffin 445 00:25:23,040 --> 00:25:23,960 Speaker 5: and Dick Cavitt Show. 446 00:25:24,080 --> 00:25:25,520 Speaker 4: Do an introduce your Indian friend? 447 00:25:25,920 --> 00:25:37,280 Speaker 16: Yes, Yes, I've a girl an Indian called Leneeda Meansnida yes. 448 00:25:37,800 --> 00:25:40,480 Speaker 5: The occupation was getting all of this attention, the late 449 00:25:40,560 --> 00:25:43,120 Speaker 5: night shows, the music shows, and at the same time, 450 00:25:43,320 --> 00:25:46,840 Speaker 5: politically things were moving along. A bill was presented to 451 00:25:46,880 --> 00:25:49,920 Speaker 5: the House of Representatives in December of nineteen sixty nine 452 00:25:49,960 --> 00:25:53,320 Speaker 5: to quote, give Alcatraz back to the Indians. It would 453 00:25:53,320 --> 00:25:55,880 Speaker 5: give the occupiers full governance of the island. 454 00:25:56,160 --> 00:25:59,280 Speaker 1: It has worked his way through Washington's bureaucratic. 455 00:25:58,680 --> 00:26:01,280 Speaker 4: Mill for months, but the bill failed. 456 00:26:01,400 --> 00:26:03,960 Speaker 1: Last week the government said no, it would not give 457 00:26:04,000 --> 00:26:06,040 Speaker 1: them the island, but it would make it a national 458 00:26:06,160 --> 00:26:11,840 Speaker 1: park on Alcatraz. The Indians gave their reply, this stand 459 00:26:12,320 --> 00:26:12,720 Speaker 1: all of it. 460 00:26:13,680 --> 00:26:17,160 Speaker 6: This is a starting place for all American Indians. Around around. 461 00:26:19,560 --> 00:26:22,439 Speaker 4: Tensions were starting to flare up. Richard was getting a 462 00:26:22,440 --> 00:26:24,840 Speaker 4: reputation for being a hot head and would often let 463 00:26:24,880 --> 00:26:28,480 Speaker 4: these conflicts escalate into physical fights. A conference that was 464 00:26:28,520 --> 00:26:31,760 Speaker 4: supposed to attract thousands to Alcatraz two days before Christmas 465 00:26:31,800 --> 00:26:35,399 Speaker 4: had low attendance. News from the occupation started to wane 466 00:26:35,520 --> 00:26:38,560 Speaker 4: as other issues and scandals took over the headlines, like 467 00:26:38,600 --> 00:26:39,480 Speaker 4: the Manson murders. 468 00:26:39,600 --> 00:26:42,080 Speaker 14: Police said they were a pseudo religious cult. 469 00:26:42,520 --> 00:26:45,159 Speaker 17: People who worked on the ranch said they were heavy 470 00:26:45,280 --> 00:26:45,880 Speaker 17: users of. 471 00:26:45,880 --> 00:26:49,600 Speaker 5: Drugs and six weeks into the occupation, many occupiers who 472 00:26:49,640 --> 00:26:52,520 Speaker 5: were students started to leave the island to resume their 473 00:26:52,560 --> 00:26:56,320 Speaker 5: classes as the adults held meetings with politicians and planned 474 00:26:56,320 --> 00:26:59,600 Speaker 5: their next steps. The children, remember, whole families came onto 475 00:26:59,600 --> 00:27:01,720 Speaker 5: the island and were often left on their own. 476 00:27:02,200 --> 00:27:02,880 Speaker 4: Here's Lenita. 477 00:27:03,320 --> 00:27:07,680 Speaker 8: The kids were kind of their own little organization and group. 478 00:27:07,800 --> 00:27:11,040 Speaker 8: But we did have the Big Rock School there for 479 00:27:11,080 --> 00:27:15,480 Speaker 8: a while where they went to school, but after our 480 00:27:15,520 --> 00:27:20,280 Speaker 8: teachers left, then they just ran around the island and 481 00:27:21,280 --> 00:27:24,040 Speaker 8: it was pretty scary trying to think, oh, where's your kid, 482 00:27:24,280 --> 00:27:27,680 Speaker 8: you know. It was just exciting for them. They were 483 00:27:27,720 --> 00:27:31,960 Speaker 8: having a great time, and of course it was unfortunate 484 00:27:32,040 --> 00:27:34,560 Speaker 8: what happened to Richard's daughter. 485 00:27:41,240 --> 00:27:45,200 Speaker 5: Some of the children were running around unchaperoned, including Richard's 486 00:27:45,240 --> 00:27:47,359 Speaker 5: daughter Yvonne. 487 00:27:47,680 --> 00:27:50,800 Speaker 8: They had run up the steps to the very top 488 00:27:50,920 --> 00:27:54,840 Speaker 8: of the guards quarters, and when they got up there, 489 00:27:55,240 --> 00:27:57,359 Speaker 8: they used to have this thing where they thought they 490 00:27:57,400 --> 00:27:59,920 Speaker 8: were really big shots if they spit over the rail 491 00:28:01,320 --> 00:28:04,520 Speaker 8: at the top, and so they would get up there 492 00:28:04,560 --> 00:28:07,720 Speaker 8: and then spit over the rail. And she went to 493 00:28:07,800 --> 00:28:11,400 Speaker 8: do that and she leaned too far over and that's 494 00:28:11,440 --> 00:28:12,160 Speaker 8: when she fell. 495 00:28:17,160 --> 00:28:19,520 Speaker 5: Richard's son Leonard Oaks was a young boy living on 496 00:28:19,560 --> 00:28:20,920 Speaker 5: the island when it happened. 497 00:28:22,320 --> 00:28:23,280 Speaker 9: I remember. 498 00:28:24,800 --> 00:28:27,000 Speaker 18: My oldest sister she had She had fallen and she 499 00:28:28,000 --> 00:28:30,720 Speaker 18: hit her head on the corner of a brick slab. 500 00:28:31,200 --> 00:28:34,840 Speaker 18: It had split her head from one temple to the other. 501 00:28:36,840 --> 00:28:40,520 Speaker 5: Yvonne suffered a fractured skull and brain injuries. They had 502 00:28:40,560 --> 00:28:42,360 Speaker 5: to take her off the island because there was no 503 00:28:42,440 --> 00:28:45,960 Speaker 5: hospital or doctor that could attend to her, and after 504 00:28:46,000 --> 00:28:49,600 Speaker 5: five days she passed away at a hospital in San Francisco. 505 00:28:51,040 --> 00:28:56,760 Speaker 17: Who comes to pay our final respects to Yvonne Rose Oaks. 506 00:28:56,960 --> 00:29:01,840 Speaker 17: She is the daughter of Richard and Anna o' She 507 00:29:02,000 --> 00:29:06,640 Speaker 17: died for the Indians of our prize Alphatraz Island. 508 00:29:12,800 --> 00:29:16,320 Speaker 4: Richard's children remember how painful this loss was for their mother. 509 00:29:16,880 --> 00:29:20,200 Speaker 8: She lost a daughter there. 510 00:29:22,840 --> 00:29:24,560 Speaker 9: She came out. 511 00:29:25,920 --> 00:29:27,320 Speaker 8: And found her daughter. 512 00:29:28,120 --> 00:29:32,080 Speaker 4: This is fun. At the time, Anne, Richard's wife, was pregnant. 513 00:29:31,760 --> 00:29:34,040 Speaker 8: With her I was in her stomach. 514 00:29:35,480 --> 00:29:38,680 Speaker 4: Fawn was born shortly after the accident, and even though 515 00:29:38,720 --> 00:29:41,720 Speaker 4: they called her Vaughn her whole life, her legal name 516 00:29:41,760 --> 00:29:42,760 Speaker 4: is Yvonne. 517 00:29:42,800 --> 00:29:51,320 Speaker 8: And I'm named after I am named after her. 518 00:29:57,120 --> 00:30:00,280 Speaker 4: After the accident, Richard and his family left the island 519 00:30:00,920 --> 00:30:02,000 Speaker 4: and they didn't return. 520 00:30:11,160 --> 00:30:14,840 Speaker 3: Coming up on Latino, USA, Richard Oakes tries to find 521 00:30:14,960 --> 00:30:19,040 Speaker 3: meaning after the death of his daughter and the fate 522 00:30:19,360 --> 00:30:32,880 Speaker 3: of the Alcatraz occupation. Stay with us, not Bayes, Welcome back. 523 00:30:33,640 --> 00:30:37,400 Speaker 3: In the midst of the occupation of Alcatraz, Native activist 524 00:30:37,560 --> 00:30:42,120 Speaker 3: Richard Oakes suffered a great personal tragedy and he decided 525 00:30:42,120 --> 00:30:45,440 Speaker 3: to leave the island. Now he had to find a 526 00:30:45,480 --> 00:30:50,120 Speaker 3: new way forward. Producers genese Yamoca and Antonia sere Hide 527 00:30:50,440 --> 00:30:51,320 Speaker 3: pick up the story. 528 00:30:52,280 --> 00:30:55,240 Speaker 5: As Richard was grappling with the terrible death of his daughter, 529 00:30:55,480 --> 00:30:58,360 Speaker 5: the Red Power movement on Alcatraz and around the country 530 00:30:58,840 --> 00:30:59,960 Speaker 5: was actually growing quick. 531 00:31:00,360 --> 00:31:03,680 Speaker 6: There was movements that were popping up all across the country, 532 00:31:04,400 --> 00:31:07,480 Speaker 6: and of course the press was having a field day 533 00:31:07,560 --> 00:31:10,080 Speaker 6: in the sense of covering what is this new Native 534 00:31:10,200 --> 00:31:13,040 Speaker 6: movement and trying to figure out what is red power? 535 00:31:15,040 --> 00:31:19,720 Speaker 5: Indigenous occupations like Alcatraz were happening across the country from 536 00:31:19,800 --> 00:31:22,480 Speaker 5: Ellis Island to New York to Pyramid Lake and Nevada. 537 00:31:23,120 --> 00:31:26,320 Speaker 5: Only months after Ivan's passing, Richard was already planning on 538 00:31:26,360 --> 00:31:30,320 Speaker 5: getting involved in another major protest. Dean Richard's friend came 539 00:31:30,360 --> 00:31:31,680 Speaker 5: along Richard and. 540 00:31:31,720 --> 00:31:33,440 Speaker 11: I took off in like March and what the Bit 541 00:31:33,560 --> 00:31:37,600 Speaker 11: River and stayed for six months. So when Richard says we. 542 00:31:37,680 --> 00:31:39,840 Speaker 4: Got to go up there and help those. 543 00:31:39,720 --> 00:31:41,440 Speaker 11: Guys try to get some land back, is that okay? 544 00:31:41,480 --> 00:31:43,160 Speaker 4: I'm in Well. 545 00:31:43,160 --> 00:31:47,240 Speaker 5: The occupation of Alcatraz was still ongoing. Richard left for Reading, California. 546 00:31:47,680 --> 00:31:49,520 Speaker 5: The plan in Reading was to help the Pit River 547 00:31:49,640 --> 00:31:54,080 Speaker 5: Nation reclaim traditional lands from the federal government. Native activists 548 00:31:54,080 --> 00:31:56,400 Speaker 5: decided they were going to trespass on the land and 549 00:31:56,480 --> 00:31:59,880 Speaker 5: purposely get arrested in order to bring attention to their claim. 550 00:32:00,280 --> 00:32:02,680 Speaker 12: The impression one comes away with here is one of 551 00:32:02,720 --> 00:32:05,440 Speaker 12: other disbelief that a small band of Indians can really 552 00:32:05,480 --> 00:32:08,520 Speaker 12: expect the federal government to sign all this land away. 553 00:32:08,840 --> 00:32:11,720 Speaker 12: And perhaps it will never happen, but one thing seems 554 00:32:11,720 --> 00:32:14,520 Speaker 12: certainly clear. The Pitt River Indians are not about to 555 00:32:14,520 --> 00:32:14,920 Speaker 12: give up. 556 00:32:15,440 --> 00:32:17,160 Speaker 4: One night, while they were in the midst of the 557 00:32:17,200 --> 00:32:21,280 Speaker 4: Pitt River occupation, Richard and fellow activists went out in 558 00:32:21,320 --> 00:32:25,800 Speaker 4: San Francisco to a bar. That night, Richard got into 559 00:32:25,840 --> 00:32:28,560 Speaker 4: a bar fight and he ended up getting hit in 560 00:32:28,600 --> 00:32:33,080 Speaker 4: the head with a pole que. Richard would lay unconscious 561 00:32:33,440 --> 00:32:41,479 Speaker 4: and without medical attention for ten hours that night. It 562 00:32:41,520 --> 00:32:44,240 Speaker 4: was not until early the next morning that Anne realized 563 00:32:44,440 --> 00:32:47,880 Speaker 4: something was wrong. She rushed them to the hospital, where 564 00:32:47,880 --> 00:32:51,480 Speaker 4: they were performed brain surgery, and for thirteen days he 565 00:32:51,600 --> 00:32:55,960 Speaker 4: was in a coma. Richard's condition made headlines and local news, 566 00:32:56,240 --> 00:32:59,360 Speaker 4: especially when in a last ditch effort to improve his health, 567 00:32:59,640 --> 00:33:02,080 Speaker 4: to indigenous medicine men came to the side of his 568 00:33:02,120 --> 00:33:04,640 Speaker 4: hospital bed to see if they can help him heal. 569 00:33:05,120 --> 00:33:10,360 Speaker 15: Where we administered certain herbs and together with the prayers 570 00:33:10,440 --> 00:33:14,120 Speaker 15: to the Creator, to the Great Spirit for the recovery 571 00:33:14,160 --> 00:33:17,640 Speaker 15: of Richard Oaks. 572 00:33:19,320 --> 00:33:22,760 Speaker 5: Richard was bedridden for all of July. The entire left 573 00:33:22,760 --> 00:33:25,320 Speaker 5: side of his body was paralyzed and his face was 574 00:33:25,360 --> 00:33:29,120 Speaker 5: still puffy from all the bruises. It had been eight 575 00:33:29,200 --> 00:33:32,760 Speaker 5: months since he left Alcatraz. The occupation he helped start 576 00:33:32,840 --> 00:33:35,040 Speaker 5: was still happening on the island, but it was losing 577 00:33:35,120 --> 00:33:36,080 Speaker 5: support and attention. 578 00:33:36,640 --> 00:33:39,120 Speaker 16: Things have fallen apart in the year they've been here. 579 00:33:39,920 --> 00:33:42,560 Speaker 12: The building seemed to be burning down one by one, 580 00:33:43,120 --> 00:33:44,560 Speaker 12: the garbage just piling up. 581 00:33:45,280 --> 00:33:46,600 Speaker 1: The lighthouse is broken. 582 00:33:47,240 --> 00:33:49,520 Speaker 5: Then, while Richard was in the hospital, he learned that 583 00:33:49,560 --> 00:33:54,960 Speaker 5: President Nixon had released an unprecedented statement regarding Indigenous affairs today. 584 00:33:55,080 --> 00:33:58,600 Speaker 1: President Nixon said they were the most deprived minority group 585 00:33:58,640 --> 00:33:58,920 Speaker 1: in this. 586 00:33:58,960 --> 00:34:01,680 Speaker 5: Country, and then he called for a new era of 587 00:34:01,720 --> 00:34:06,560 Speaker 5: Indigenous affairs all around self determination. He reinstated federal recognition 588 00:34:06,640 --> 00:34:09,760 Speaker 5: of individual tribes, and he even gave some land back 589 00:34:09,880 --> 00:34:11,240 Speaker 5: to the Taos Pueblo tribe. 590 00:34:11,280 --> 00:34:16,120 Speaker 19: States for seven hundred years, the Taos Pueblo Indians worshiped 591 00:34:16,160 --> 00:34:19,640 Speaker 19: in this place, and we restore this place of worship 592 00:34:20,440 --> 00:34:22,280 Speaker 19: to them for all the years to come. 593 00:34:22,920 --> 00:34:25,640 Speaker 5: This was a very hopeful moment for the occupiers still 594 00:34:25,640 --> 00:34:29,160 Speaker 5: on Alcatraz. For Linita, it was staggering to hear the 595 00:34:29,200 --> 00:34:31,680 Speaker 5: president recognize the harm done to her community. 596 00:34:32,239 --> 00:34:38,560 Speaker 8: Nixon was champion all that, and Natives around the nation 597 00:34:39,080 --> 00:34:44,200 Speaker 8: just really perked up, you know, because we were assimilating 598 00:34:44,320 --> 00:34:49,960 Speaker 8: into the mainstream of American society, so to speak. And 599 00:34:50,040 --> 00:34:54,640 Speaker 8: when that happened, it revived our culture again. 600 00:34:55,640 --> 00:34:58,560 Speaker 4: Richard, however, was wary that this was only lip service. 601 00:34:59,560 --> 00:35:02,880 Speaker 4: Shortly after Nixon's speech, Richard was released from the hospital, 602 00:35:03,280 --> 00:35:06,759 Speaker 4: but he had to use a wheelchair. Eloy Martinez, a 603 00:35:06,760 --> 00:35:09,359 Speaker 4: good friend of Richard's that we heard from earlier, saw 604 00:35:09,440 --> 00:35:12,280 Speaker 4: Richard speak out of Vietnam rally after he was released. 605 00:35:12,640 --> 00:35:14,680 Speaker 9: I had seen him a little bit after he left 606 00:35:14,719 --> 00:35:17,520 Speaker 9: the hospital, and I went to see him and again 607 00:35:17,560 --> 00:35:20,799 Speaker 9: another Vietnam rally, and they brought him out in a wheelchair, 608 00:35:21,520 --> 00:35:23,120 Speaker 9: you know, and you could hardly hear her speak. 609 00:35:23,560 --> 00:35:23,719 Speaker 13: Man. 610 00:35:23,800 --> 00:35:27,120 Speaker 9: I really just I don't know. It was really, really 611 00:35:27,120 --> 00:35:29,080 Speaker 9: bad because he was such a vibrant person. 612 00:35:30,080 --> 00:35:34,080 Speaker 4: Richard eventually regained the ability to walk and participated in protests, 613 00:35:34,239 --> 00:35:36,480 Speaker 4: but things were not going well for the family. He 614 00:35:36,520 --> 00:35:39,799 Speaker 4: struggled to find work because of his physical condition, but 615 00:35:39,880 --> 00:35:42,480 Speaker 4: he continued over the next few months, organizing with a 616 00:35:42,520 --> 00:35:47,319 Speaker 4: Pitt River Nation and activists were still occupying Alcatraz until 617 00:35:47,560 --> 00:35:48,600 Speaker 4: the tide turned. 618 00:35:48,800 --> 00:35:51,680 Speaker 20: What had started as a symbolic invasion in November of 619 00:35:51,760 --> 00:35:55,000 Speaker 20: nineteen sixty nine, and later turned into a bitter struggle 620 00:35:55,040 --> 00:35:57,440 Speaker 20: for the small band of Indians who vowed to hold 621 00:35:57,480 --> 00:36:00,600 Speaker 20: Alcatraz forever, was ended here today. 622 00:36:00,680 --> 00:36:02,879 Speaker 5: After a year and a half of the occupation, there 623 00:36:02,880 --> 00:36:06,320 Speaker 5: were only fifteen occupiers left on the island. The government 624 00:36:06,360 --> 00:36:08,960 Speaker 5: said that a few occupiers had stolen and sold copper 625 00:36:09,000 --> 00:36:11,600 Speaker 5: wiring from the buildings on Alcatraz to get more money. 626 00:36:11,680 --> 00:36:16,360 Speaker 17: Gamed our attention this morning, consisting of some copper cable 627 00:36:16,520 --> 00:36:20,000 Speaker 17: which was sold on the mainland according to a complaint. 628 00:36:19,560 --> 00:36:23,560 Speaker 5: Which was and using this as a justification, US Marshalls 629 00:36:23,600 --> 00:36:26,839 Speaker 5: and the Coastguard went in and removed the remaining occupiers 630 00:36:26,840 --> 00:36:31,120 Speaker 5: from Alcatraz. The press interviewed Richard right away about Alcatraz, 631 00:36:31,200 --> 00:36:34,080 Speaker 5: to which he said what would become his most famous quote, 632 00:36:34,600 --> 00:36:44,480 Speaker 5: Alcatraz is not an island, it's an idea. 633 00:36:42,080 --> 00:36:45,760 Speaker 6: The island itself. It's a movement, and that this movement 634 00:36:45,880 --> 00:36:52,680 Speaker 6: will slowly begin to kind of take over America. 635 00:36:54,160 --> 00:36:57,320 Speaker 4: The occupation of Alcatraz was much more than just reclaiming 636 00:36:57,360 --> 00:36:59,920 Speaker 4: that particular piece of land. It was about a week 637 00:37:00,080 --> 00:37:03,160 Speaker 4: keaning the American and even global public to the issues 638 00:37:03,200 --> 00:37:06,640 Speaker 4: that Indigenous people were facing, including the stripping away of 639 00:37:06,680 --> 00:37:09,920 Speaker 4: their land and culture, and they hoped to galvanize a 640 00:37:09,960 --> 00:37:17,480 Speaker 4: new generation of Indigenous people. For the Oaks family, even 641 00:37:17,520 --> 00:37:20,040 Speaker 4: though they were not on the island when the occupation ended, 642 00:37:20,239 --> 00:37:23,279 Speaker 4: it was still a difficult time. Richard started working on 643 00:37:23,320 --> 00:37:26,480 Speaker 4: a greenhouse farm, the family was still struggling with money, 644 00:37:26,840 --> 00:37:29,960 Speaker 4: and his injuries left him walking with a limb. By now, 645 00:37:30,040 --> 00:37:33,120 Speaker 4: the family had moved onto the Kashia Reservation, but when 646 00:37:33,200 --> 00:37:37,080 Speaker 4: Leonard Richardson remembers that time. He doesn't remember his father 647 00:37:37,120 --> 00:37:42,400 Speaker 4: as a beaten man. One memory in particular stands out. 648 00:37:41,600 --> 00:37:43,520 Speaker 18: And I remember we were standing in the middle of 649 00:37:43,560 --> 00:37:46,719 Speaker 18: the road and he was holding my hand. He goes, 650 00:37:46,760 --> 00:37:49,080 Speaker 18: you want to race? And I looked up at him 651 00:37:49,080 --> 00:37:51,160 Speaker 18: and I go no, And he goes, why not, And 652 00:37:51,160 --> 00:37:53,400 Speaker 18: he goes, cause you're hurt. I told him there's no 653 00:37:53,480 --> 00:37:57,200 Speaker 18: let's race. So we raised and we raced down to 654 00:37:57,200 --> 00:37:59,680 Speaker 18: the school and then we raced back. Yeah he beat me. 655 00:38:01,360 --> 00:38:01,960 Speaker 9: He beat me on. 656 00:38:02,320 --> 00:38:05,040 Speaker 4: You know, I was my little leggs are moving as 657 00:38:05,080 --> 00:38:05,799 Speaker 4: fast as they can. 658 00:38:05,840 --> 00:38:08,480 Speaker 18: But yeah, he beat me. And I remember that. 659 00:38:09,400 --> 00:38:11,840 Speaker 4: Richard spent a lot of time writing. He was working 660 00:38:11,840 --> 00:38:14,800 Speaker 4: on a manifesto. He had always had a vision of 661 00:38:14,880 --> 00:38:18,640 Speaker 4: himself traveling the country, going to colleges and universities to 662 00:38:18,680 --> 00:38:21,439 Speaker 4: help preserve native history. Here's Eloy again. 663 00:38:21,719 --> 00:38:23,319 Speaker 9: He had bought a school bus and he's getting ready 664 00:38:23,360 --> 00:38:26,000 Speaker 9: to take him and his family, like, you know, traveling, 665 00:38:26,920 --> 00:38:28,719 Speaker 9: talking to Indian people all over and tell what was 666 00:38:28,760 --> 00:38:32,240 Speaker 9: going on. He never made it to the school bus. 667 00:38:34,080 --> 00:38:37,279 Speaker 5: This is where Richard's story comes to an abrupt end. 668 00:38:38,080 --> 00:38:41,799 Speaker 5: The way it happened is both upsetting and elusive. Here 669 00:38:41,840 --> 00:38:46,080 Speaker 5: are the things we know for sure. Richard's family started 670 00:38:46,080 --> 00:38:49,120 Speaker 5: to frequent the nearby YMCA. They had horses that the 671 00:38:49,160 --> 00:38:51,440 Speaker 5: kids like to ride on, and it was a community 672 00:38:51,480 --> 00:38:53,080 Speaker 5: center that many families visited. 673 00:38:53,920 --> 00:38:55,480 Speaker 4: Here's Kent, Richard's biographer. 674 00:38:55,520 --> 00:38:58,680 Speaker 6: Once more, there was an employee that started working there 675 00:38:59,000 --> 00:39:03,040 Speaker 6: not too soon after Richard and Annie had moved back 676 00:39:03,080 --> 00:39:03,759 Speaker 6: to Kashia. 677 00:39:04,040 --> 00:39:05,240 Speaker 5: His name was Michael Morgan. 678 00:39:05,480 --> 00:39:09,120 Speaker 6: He was a former military police officer who had been 679 00:39:09,480 --> 00:39:14,920 Speaker 6: honorably discharged, and so he essentially was the director of 680 00:39:14,920 --> 00:39:15,880 Speaker 6: this y camp. 681 00:39:16,280 --> 00:39:18,360 Speaker 5: Michael Morgan was said to have been open in his 682 00:39:18,400 --> 00:39:21,200 Speaker 5: sustain of Native people. Apparently he once said it was 683 00:39:21,280 --> 00:39:24,320 Speaker 5: quote open season on Indians and that Richard Oaks was 684 00:39:24,360 --> 00:39:26,640 Speaker 5: a troublemaker and that the country would be better off 685 00:39:26,680 --> 00:39:30,000 Speaker 5: without him. Michael was also afraid of Richard. It was 686 00:39:30,040 --> 00:39:32,680 Speaker 5: known that Michael and Richard had had heated arguments about 687 00:39:32,680 --> 00:39:34,160 Speaker 5: Indigenous land right issues. 688 00:39:34,480 --> 00:39:37,640 Speaker 6: Morgan would kind of go after Richard. He would go 689 00:39:37,719 --> 00:39:40,760 Speaker 6: back to his house to go grab a gun, thinking 690 00:39:40,800 --> 00:39:43,600 Speaker 6: that Richard was going to attack him in some capacity. 691 00:39:44,280 --> 00:39:46,480 Speaker 6: Even though Richard still was suffering from some of the 692 00:39:46,520 --> 00:39:49,760 Speaker 6: debilitating effects of his beating from years before. 693 00:39:51,600 --> 00:39:54,560 Speaker 4: One day, Michael Morgan chased down two Native young men 694 00:39:54,960 --> 00:39:58,000 Speaker 4: who he suspected were trying to steal the YMCA's horses. 695 00:39:58,880 --> 00:40:01,560 Speaker 4: Michael went after them with a rifle. One of the 696 00:40:01,560 --> 00:40:04,280 Speaker 4: boys escaped and the other was held at a gunpoint 697 00:40:04,360 --> 00:40:07,400 Speaker 4: until a sheriff came to arrest him. Richard went to 698 00:40:07,440 --> 00:40:09,799 Speaker 4: Michael's house to find out what happened to the arrested boy. 699 00:40:10,239 --> 00:40:13,720 Speaker 4: Richard was unarmed. This is where the sequence of events 700 00:40:13,760 --> 00:40:17,080 Speaker 4: is contested. At the court case that followed, Michael Morgan 701 00:40:17,120 --> 00:40:19,839 Speaker 4: would take the stand and claim that Richard lunged at 702 00:40:19,920 --> 00:40:22,279 Speaker 4: him and he shot him for fear of losing his 703 00:40:22,320 --> 00:40:26,520 Speaker 4: own life. Richard's lawyer argued that given his injuries, Richard 704 00:40:26,560 --> 00:40:29,560 Speaker 4: could not have lunged at Michael like he described. The 705 00:40:29,600 --> 00:40:33,680 Speaker 4: bullet Michael shot went straight through Richard's chest. Richard was 706 00:40:33,719 --> 00:40:43,040 Speaker 4: thirty years old. Richard's children were at home when it happened. 707 00:40:43,440 --> 00:40:46,239 Speaker 18: When it happened, we've seen it on the TV. My 708 00:40:46,400 --> 00:40:48,920 Speaker 18: mom went down there, but we watched it on TV. 709 00:40:49,960 --> 00:40:51,920 Speaker 18: I don't know how it happened so fast. 710 00:40:57,360 --> 00:41:00,640 Speaker 5: At the trial, Morgan was charged with manslaughter, even though 711 00:41:00,680 --> 00:41:04,279 Speaker 5: Richard's family believed the charge should have been murder. After 712 00:41:04,320 --> 00:41:07,880 Speaker 5: the jury deliberated for three days, Michael Morgan was acquitted. 713 00:41:07,920 --> 00:41:12,399 Speaker 5: On March sixteenth, nineteen seventy three. Eloy Martinez was called 714 00:41:12,480 --> 00:41:15,480 Speaker 5: up to help the family plan for Richard's funeral. 715 00:41:15,640 --> 00:41:18,440 Speaker 9: And it just it just turned into kind of a 716 00:41:18,440 --> 00:41:21,640 Speaker 9: big mess. The whole thing, everything was all bad. 717 00:41:22,120 --> 00:41:24,280 Speaker 5: They had to scramble to prepare for his burial. 718 00:41:24,920 --> 00:41:27,600 Speaker 9: We actually bought him a brown leaded jacket. I would 719 00:41:27,640 --> 00:41:32,080 Speaker 9: run a brown leaded jacket and put him in the mortuary. 720 00:41:32,120 --> 00:41:34,520 Speaker 9: And they didn't do the embalming because they didn't have 721 00:41:34,560 --> 00:41:37,279 Speaker 9: any money, so they didn't embalm him. And then they 722 00:41:37,280 --> 00:41:39,920 Speaker 9: wouldn't release the body to us, you know, because nobody 723 00:41:40,000 --> 00:41:44,759 Speaker 9: had any money. And some white people went into the 724 00:41:45,680 --> 00:41:47,720 Speaker 9: mortuary and started complaining about the smell. 725 00:41:48,719 --> 00:41:52,080 Speaker 5: Once the funeral finally did come together, hundreds of people 726 00:41:52,320 --> 00:41:57,319 Speaker 5: came to pay their respects. 727 00:41:58,640 --> 00:42:02,200 Speaker 4: That fall, six hundred people, the largest group of Native 728 00:42:02,200 --> 00:42:05,600 Speaker 4: people ever to gather in Washington, d C. Came together 729 00:42:05,640 --> 00:42:07,880 Speaker 4: for a protest called the Trail of Broken Treaties. 730 00:42:08,080 --> 00:42:12,360 Speaker 20: Yesterday, a caravan of cars began converging on Washington bearing 731 00:42:12,480 --> 00:42:15,960 Speaker 20: leaders who represent a coalition of three quarters of our countries. 732 00:42:16,080 --> 00:42:20,440 Speaker 4: Three hundred American Indian tribes. Native protesters wanted to present 733 00:42:20,480 --> 00:42:23,719 Speaker 4: the Nixon administration with a twenty point plan to establish 734 00:42:23,800 --> 00:42:24,640 Speaker 4: native sovereignty. 735 00:42:24,880 --> 00:42:28,120 Speaker 1: A month ago, five hundred angry Indians took over the 736 00:42:28,120 --> 00:42:31,560 Speaker 1: Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington, stayed there for a week, 737 00:42:31,600 --> 00:42:33,319 Speaker 1: and ransacked the place, but. 738 00:42:33,320 --> 00:42:36,600 Speaker 4: After a confrontation between protesters and the police, the Nixon 739 00:42:36,640 --> 00:42:41,960 Speaker 4: administration refused to meet with them. 740 00:42:42,239 --> 00:42:45,840 Speaker 5: Today, Richard Oaks is remembered by his children. His wife, Anne, 741 00:42:45,880 --> 00:42:49,600 Speaker 5: passed in twenty ten, but for many years, Richard's family 742 00:42:49,680 --> 00:42:53,080 Speaker 5: didn't talk a lot about him. Leonard, who's only five 743 00:42:53,120 --> 00:42:55,920 Speaker 5: when his father died, didn't know why. Maybe he was 744 00:42:55,960 --> 00:42:58,920 Speaker 5: too painful to talk about. But when he turned twelve, 745 00:42:58,960 --> 00:43:00,520 Speaker 5: he became curious about his father. 746 00:43:00,880 --> 00:43:02,880 Speaker 18: As a young boy, I had the opportunity to go 747 00:43:02,960 --> 00:43:05,080 Speaker 18: through and read all of these paper clippings. 748 00:43:05,440 --> 00:43:08,000 Speaker 5: His mama had collected all the newspaper clippings about his 749 00:43:08,080 --> 00:43:08,960 Speaker 5: father in a box. 750 00:43:09,440 --> 00:43:10,960 Speaker 18: There were times when I would go in there and 751 00:43:11,000 --> 00:43:12,839 Speaker 18: just pull his stuff out and just sit there and 752 00:43:12,880 --> 00:43:16,240 Speaker 18: just read for like a whole day, just read whatever. 753 00:43:16,280 --> 00:43:21,160 Speaker 18: I was so curious. I was just so I wanted 754 00:43:21,200 --> 00:43:23,640 Speaker 18: to know. I wanted to know what the heck this 755 00:43:23,880 --> 00:43:24,320 Speaker 18: was about. 756 00:43:25,320 --> 00:43:29,080 Speaker 5: Leonard learned not just about his father, but about Indigenous history. 757 00:43:29,520 --> 00:43:31,520 Speaker 18: I didn't know that they were forbidden to wear their 758 00:43:31,520 --> 00:43:33,920 Speaker 18: hair long or to speak their own language. I didn't 759 00:43:33,920 --> 00:43:37,960 Speaker 18: know these things. I became consciously aware of who I 760 00:43:38,120 --> 00:43:43,520 Speaker 18: was as a person because of him. 761 00:43:45,520 --> 00:43:48,360 Speaker 4: We think of indigenous history as the first chapter in 762 00:43:48,400 --> 00:43:51,279 Speaker 4: our history books. There's always an oil painting. What's a 763 00:43:51,360 --> 00:43:54,960 Speaker 4: European white man in fancy bloomers handing a red cloth 764 00:43:55,000 --> 00:43:57,440 Speaker 4: and some beads to an Indigenous man with a stern face. 765 00:43:58,480 --> 00:44:02,640 Speaker 4: But Native history didn't stop. It was only fifty years 766 00:44:02,680 --> 00:44:06,479 Speaker 4: ago that Richard Oaks proclaimed Alcatraz Island a Native nation, 767 00:44:07,320 --> 00:44:10,960 Speaker 4: and fights over land and resources continue today. Just look 768 00:44:10,960 --> 00:44:11,719 Speaker 4: at Standing Rock. 769 00:44:12,760 --> 00:44:16,400 Speaker 5: Richard Oaks stood up for Native people at every turn, 770 00:44:16,680 --> 00:44:20,319 Speaker 5: and ultimately it cost him his life. But while his 771 00:44:20,360 --> 00:44:24,200 Speaker 5: indigenous mecca on Alcatraz failed, Richard and his fellow occupiers 772 00:44:24,280 --> 00:44:27,480 Speaker 5: inspired a movement in which members of all tribes saw 773 00:44:27,520 --> 00:44:31,440 Speaker 5: their fate as connected to each other. As Richard said, 774 00:44:31,760 --> 00:44:34,720 Speaker 5: Alcatraz is not an island, It's an idea. 775 00:44:35,400 --> 00:44:38,640 Speaker 18: You get the feeling when I read these things. The 776 00:44:38,800 --> 00:44:43,440 Speaker 18: story is not over. This thing is not even completed. 777 00:45:02,560 --> 00:45:06,560 Speaker 4: It's been fifty years since the occupation and since then. 778 00:45:06,840 --> 00:45:10,680 Speaker 3: On Indigenous People's Day and on Thanksgiving, hundreds of people 779 00:45:10,760 --> 00:45:14,799 Speaker 3: gather on Alcatraz for a sunrise ceremony, a celebration of 780 00:45:14,800 --> 00:45:19,399 Speaker 3: Indigenous history with prayers and traditional dancing that also pays 781 00:45:19,520 --> 00:45:24,640 Speaker 3: tribute to the Alcatraz occupiers. One of them was Richard Oaks. 782 00:45:25,719 --> 00:45:27,879 Speaker 4: Can you remember the time. 783 00:45:30,760 --> 00:45:36,080 Speaker 10: That you have held your head high and hold are 784 00:45:36,200 --> 00:45:42,560 Speaker 10: your friends of your Indian claim? Proud good lady, hand, 785 00:45:42,680 --> 00:45:48,720 Speaker 10: proud good man, your great great grandfather from Indian blood sprang, 786 00:45:49,520 --> 00:45:52,480 Speaker 10: and you feel in your heart for these. 787 00:45:52,280 --> 00:45:57,520 Speaker 21: Ones as it stains come about, unful sun. 788 00:45:58,920 --> 00:46:07,120 Speaker 13: To still taking our lines a treaty forever, George Washington 789 00:46:07,400 --> 00:46:13,000 Speaker 13: sign he didn't do, lady, he did your man and 790 00:46:13,120 --> 00:46:15,560 Speaker 13: the parties being broken by. 791 00:46:15,600 --> 00:46:16,880 Speaker 8: Him for damn. 792 00:46:17,560 --> 00:46:22,399 Speaker 21: And what will you do for these one? Oh it's 793 00:46:22,560 --> 00:46:27,560 Speaker 21: all in the past, you can't say. But it's still 794 00:46:27,600 --> 00:46:29,600 Speaker 21: going on here today. 795 00:46:36,400 --> 00:46:40,040 Speaker 3: This episode originally aired in November of twenty eighteen and 796 00:46:40,160 --> 00:46:44,200 Speaker 3: was produced by Antonio Serehido and genese Yamoca and edited 797 00:46:44,239 --> 00:46:48,600 Speaker 3: by Sophia Palissaka. Latina Usa is produced by Miel Macis, 798 00:46:48,880 --> 00:46:53,680 Speaker 3: Julieta Martine, Alises Carce, Jim Montalbo and Alejandras Alassa, with 799 00:46:53,800 --> 00:46:56,960 Speaker 3: help this week from roul Perees were edited by Andrea 800 00:46:57,000 --> 00:47:00,480 Speaker 3: Lopez Crusado with help from Marta Martinez. Back checking this 801 00:47:00,560 --> 00:47:04,400 Speaker 3: week by Lilah Turnev and Poulli Denett Claw. Special thanks 802 00:47:04,440 --> 00:47:08,520 Speaker 3: to the Oaks family Mignan, Helly, Ryan Pettigrup, Will Chase 803 00:47:08,880 --> 00:47:12,360 Speaker 3: and Kate Blansett, author of A Journey to Freedom, a 804 00:47:12,400 --> 00:47:15,840 Speaker 3: biography of Richard Oates. We have music in this episode 805 00:47:15,880 --> 00:47:19,000 Speaker 3: from Buffy Saint Marie a Pia pot pre folk musician 806 00:47:19,200 --> 00:47:22,960 Speaker 3: and activist and from a tribe called Red a Canadian 807 00:47:23,080 --> 00:47:27,400 Speaker 3: First Nations DJ Proof. Our engineers are Stephanie Lebaud, Julia 808 00:47:27,480 --> 00:47:31,400 Speaker 3: Caruso and Liah Shaw without from alisiaa Eto. Our digital 809 00:47:31,480 --> 00:47:34,160 Speaker 3: editor is Luis Luna. Our New York Men's Foundation Ning 810 00:47:34,239 --> 00:47:37,760 Speaker 3: Nite fellow is Julia Rochan. Our interns ar Jimeen al Serro, 811 00:47:37,880 --> 00:47:41,560 Speaker 3: Emil Giros and Gabriel La Bayez. And this week we 812 00:47:41,640 --> 00:47:45,040 Speaker 3: say goodbye to our senior editor, Luis Treis. Thank you 813 00:47:45,080 --> 00:47:46,920 Speaker 3: so much, Lise for all of your hard work all 814 00:47:46,960 --> 00:47:49,720 Speaker 3: the way from San Juan to New York City and beyond, 815 00:47:50,080 --> 00:47:54,799 Speaker 3: kite Vaya Muivian and Du Proximo Projecto Gresies. Our theme 816 00:47:54,880 --> 00:47:57,840 Speaker 3: music was composed by Zee Robinos. If you like the 817 00:47:57,920 --> 00:48:01,319 Speaker 3: music you heard on this episode, stop Latinousa dot org 818 00:48:01,520 --> 00:48:04,439 Speaker 3: and check out our weekly Spotify playlist. I'm your host 819 00:48:04,520 --> 00:48:08,160 Speaker 3: and executive producer Marie Njosa. Join us again next time, 820 00:48:08,560 --> 00:48:10,440 Speaker 3: and in the meantime, look for us on all of 821 00:48:10,440 --> 00:48:13,160 Speaker 3: your social media iOS. Bio Joe. 822 00:48:15,120 --> 00:48:18,319 Speaker 22: Latino USA is made possible in part by the John D. 823 00:48:18,560 --> 00:48:23,680 Speaker 22: And Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Ford Foundation, working 824 00:48:23,719 --> 00:48:29,239 Speaker 22: with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide, and W. K. 825 00:48:29,560 --> 00:48:34,280 Speaker 22: Kellogg Foundation, a partner with communities where children Come First.