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How did Native American women shape the leadership and direction of the American Indian Movement despite often being marginalized within its male-dominated structure?

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AIM was founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1968, mainly focused on urban areas to gain attention and address poverty, discrimination, and police brutality against American Indians. Problems consisted of a lack of recognition of Natives in education, treaty rights, preservation of Native culture, and high rates of unemployment.

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Gene Sharp - pg. 3, 5, 7-8, 11, 13, 15, 26-29

Judy Bari - pg. 229-231

MLK - pg. Intro, 10-15, 20-25

Ghandi - pg. 13, 119, 149, 157,

Saul Alinsky/Alinskyte - pg. 32-37, 51

Strategic nonviolence - pg.

Momentum-driven organizing - pg. 40-44, 49, 122, 134, 162

Mass mobilization- pg. 45, 162

disruption, sacrifice, and escalation - pg. 45, 145-148, 152, 156

provoke, secure, sustain - pg.

Trigger event- pg. 181

Psychic Break - pg. 189

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Overall, this website provides an array of sources that are directly run by AIM and give first-hand information. It is a good source to gain perspective on what information they give. It provides good contextual information/history on the movement and ways to help them as well. It is a good source to come back to when I truly want to understand the Native perspective, people who actively fight for rights, or just become well-versed on the topic.

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“- American Indian Movement - AIM -.” AIM, www.aimovement.org/. Accessed 11 May 2025. 

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official website of the American Indian Movement and its Grand Governing Council

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Perspective 1(U.S. Marshals): The website showed it as a brutal battle and made the Indians appear as savages. Talked about the frustrations and the "grueling" conditions they were in. Announced the Marshals as heroes and gave no credit as to why the Natives reacted as extreme as they did. I found this short article very interesting because, depending on the perspective, one is very ignorant and does not know what they are fighting for. Compared to the Natives who have always willed for a better, cleaner, healthier life for them and to preserve their culture and tradition, make sure their language is not forgotton.

Website: https://www.usmarshals.gov/who-we-are/history/historical-reading-room/incident-wounded-knee

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P1: Seltman, Timothy. “Historical Reading Room - Incident at Wounded Knee.” U.S. Marshals Service, 7 Mar. 2023, www.usmarshals.gov/who-we-are/history/historical-reading-room/incident-wounded-knee. 

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The incident began in February 1973, and represented the longest civil disorder in the history of the Marshals Service.

The town of Wounded Knee, South Dakota was seized on February 27, 1973, by followers of the American Indian Movement (AIM), who staged a 71-day occupation of the area. In response to the incident, Marshals Service volunteers stepped forward from all ranks of service to assist in a resolution. U.S. Marshals, Chief Deputies, Deputies, and support personnel alike were ready to make the sacrifices required to join the historic operation.

Deputy U.S. Marshals at the aftermath of the 71 day occupation by the AIM Movement

At its conclusion, U.S. Marshal Lloyd Grimm (District of Nebraska) would lie seriously wounded, as would an FBI agent. Two Indians would also unfortunately be killed. Exposure to personal danger, extreme weather conditions, prolonged hours of duty, and absence from home were just a few of the many frustrations people of the Marshals Service faced at Wounded Knee.

On May 8, 1973, the confrontation at Wounded Knee ended after ten weeks of para-military action and negotiations. On this date, the occupiers of Wounded Knee surrendered their arms and the U. S. Marshals Service took control of the town.

When the Wounded Knee operation was initiated it came within the purview of the Special Operations Group (SOG), which had been formed only two years before. Special Operations Group is a highly trained, highly motivated group of volunteers who can provide a self-sustained mobile quick reaction force capable of a federal response to a civil disturbance or riot situation where military intervention is inappropriate. Since Wounded Knee, Special Operations Group has responded to numerous calls of the Attorney General and the Federal Court.

For two and a half months in early 1973, hundreds of stories were filed by the networks, wire services, and print media bringing the Wounded Knee situation to the American public. For the U.S. Marshals Service there was definitely a sharpening of skills and experience in command, control, administration, logistics and operations, and it is in these areas that the Service gained its greatest benefits. Ingenuity, self sacrifice and heroic actions were commonplace during those days in 1973.

Typical of these were the actions of Inspector Wayne McMurtray, Southern District of Mississippi, who was one of two Deputy Commanders of the Special Operations Group and participated in many Special Operations Group operations. However, at the time of this Wounded Knee operation he had only participated in a few previous Special Operations Group missions. From the beginning of the Wounded Knee operation, McMurtray was assigned as the Specialty Unit Commander with the responsibility of suppressing any heavy fire on the Marshals roadblocks that surrounded the armed American Indian Movement (AIM) dissidents occupying the unhappy hamlet.

During the first day of this operation at the roadblocks, there were six FBI agents being attacked and pinned down. McMurtray and Deputy Jim Propotnick (later became Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal, District of Hawaii) were ordered to repel the attack with an armored personnel carrier. McMurtray and Propotnick arrived at the roadblock just as a group of the dissidents were about to overrun it. However, with Propotnick driving and McMurtray on top of the armored personnel carrier firing, they were able to successfully repel the attack.

During another instance on a cold, windy afternoon in late February, one of the Marshals Service roadblocks was pinned down by heavy gun fire from within the hamlet. McMurtray moved up into a forward position and attempted to suppress the fire from an exposed hillside position. When the dissidents realized they were receiving accurate fire from McMurtray's position, they shifted their fire and pinned Wayne down. He then radioed the Command Post for more ammunition and fire support and shortly thereafter was surprised to see Associate Director William Hall supporting him on his left with effective fire from an anti-sniper weapon. With the additional assistance of Jesse Grider from the Headquarters staff, who was handling the ammunition, they soon gained fire superiority.

Another time McMurtray headed to a U.S. Marshals Service roadblock that was pinned down by sniper fire of undetermined position. Wayne moved to an exposed position to draw fire and determine the sniper's location, which was quickly accomplished. During this exchange of fire, shell fragments were thrown into Wayne's face, causing heavy bleeding. Wayne's heroic actions exposed the sniper's position and after radioing for a helicopter, the snipers were flushed with gas grenade 'launchers and automatic rifle fire.

McMurtray also remembers the cold, long, and dark nights at Wounded Knee when the dissidents used an automobile with dual spotlights (nicknamed by our people as "Spotlight") to harass U. S. Marshals' roadblocks. After receiving permission from the Special Operations Group Commander to put a stop to this harassment, McMurtray moved out by night to a forward position near a road which was frequented by "Spotlight". By ingenious action he was able to disable the spotlights, and the automobile was immediately abandoned by the dissidents.

Wayne's actions were typical of the heroism and imagination shown by U.S. Marshals Service personnel at Wounded Knee time and time again.

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Historical Reading Room - Incident at Wounded Knee | U.S. Marshals Service

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The incident began in February 1973, and represented the longest civil disorder in the history of the Marshals Service. The town of Wounded Knee, South Dakota

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What was the movement about? "Called the Trail of Broken Treaties, the demonstration brought caravans of Native American activists from the West Coast to Washington, D.C. to demand redress for years of failed and destructive federal Indian policies."

This article highlights the importance of treaties and diplomacy in the AIM movement. AIM knew the only way to systemically dismantle the mass discrimination they faced daily was to focus on sovereignty. This directly relates to my research question and shows the importance of yet another trigger event(2/3).

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American Indian activists occupy the Bureau of Indian Affairs building during the Trail of Broken Treaties demonstration.
Photo by Paul Schmick. Courtesy of the DC Public Library Washington Start Collection.

Introduction

Inspired by the Civil Rights Movement at home and the Third World Movements abroad, newly empowered and organized Native Americans embarked on a new campaign for Native American Rights in 1972. Called the Trail of Broken Treaties, the demonstration brought caravans of Native American activists from the West Coast to Washington, D.C. to demand redress for years of failed and destructive federal Indian policies. Although the campaign was ultimately overshadowed by the activists' week-long occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) building and the negative press that resulted, the activists themselves remained steadfast in their objectives. These objectives were outlined in a Twenty-Point Position Paper that established an agenda for the Native American rights struggle in the years to come.

By 1972, years of Native American activism had brought about the end of the disastrous policy of termination. Responding to demands from Native American rights organizations like the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), in 1968 President Lyndon B. Johnson called for Indian "self-determination"-a new federal stance that would end termination and promote equal access to economic opportunity for Native Americans. These reforms continued under Johnson's successor, President Richard Nixon, who made a number of policy changes and commitments that would officially end termination. But 200 years of federal Indian policy had stripped Native American communities of most of their land, resources, and ability to act as independent nations. Rebuilding those communities required not only the end of termination, but also a reversal of the most destructive policies and recognition of the Native American rights guaranteed to the various tribes by treaties with the federal government.

Coalitions and Confrontations

The Trail of Broken Treaties was the product of years of grassroots organizing among Native American activists. Organizations like the National Indian Youth Council (NIYC), which had played a key role in the Poor People's Campaign, and the Survival of American Indians Association (SAIA) drew upon the direct action tactics of the Civil Rights Movement to advocate for Indian rights. In 1964 SAIA, led by Hank Adams, began organizing "fish-ins" after the state of Washington refused to recognize the treaty-protected right of Pacific Northwest tribes to fish in ancestral waters. The state of Washington had imposed restrictions on the amount and type of fishing that could take place in its waters. But Pacific Northwest tribes, for whom fishing was a vital economic activity, argued that these restrictions were a violation of their treaty rights.

Consciously modeled on the sit-ins in the American South, the fish-ins triggered a wave of resistance across the Northwest and the nation. In acts of civil disobedience across Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, Native people began fishing and hunting to assert their own treaty-protected rights. Conflicts over Indian land rights, tribal sovereignty, and self-determination unfolded across the country, inspiring a new generation of American Indian activists who adopted confrontational tactics first brought to the attention of the American public through the Civil Rights Movement: sit-ins, occupations, and direct action. As Standing Rock Sioux activist and historian Vine Deloria, Jr. explained, "The increased militancy of Indians began to spread across the country as people heard about the fishing-rights issue. Indians began to examine the conditions under which they lived, and they soon seethed with discontent and a new determination to correct the injustices." But this was more than an extension of the Civil Rights Movement. The era of "Red Power" had begun.

The formation of the American Indian Movement (AIM) in July 1968 and the nineteen-month occupation of Alcatraz by a group of American Indian activists calling itself the Indians of All Tribes beginning in November 1969 hailed the arrival of Red Power. Dennis Banks and Clyde Bellecourt organized the American Indian Movement in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1968, with the immediate goal of addressing the various socio-economic issues faced by urban Indians: housing, education, employment, and police violence. But they quickly became interested in federal Indian policy as they recognized that policy as the root of Indian issues. The takeover of Alcatraz the following year mobilized Native Americans across the country, and influenced the direction of AIM's work. Increasingly, AIM and other Native activists focused on mobilizing Native Americans across the country to protest federal Indian policy through a series of direct-action demonstrations called "confrontation politics."

The new movement for Native American rights gave Indians more power in their dealings with the federal government. For most of American history, tribal governments tended to deal with the government on a one-to-one basis. Now, acting in solidarity with other tribes, Indians gained strength in numbers. The new direct-action tactics, moreover, brought Native American issues to the center of American politics. As Clyde Bellecourt explained years later, "Native people saw that confrontation politics was the only way we could get things done. We had to take control, occupy, and fight-whatever it took to bring our grievances to the forefront." No longer would Native issues be pushed to the margins.

On the Trail

Galvanized by the Alcatraz occupation and the growing movement across the nation, the American Indian Movement mobilized to bring confrontation politics to the nation's capital. Hank Adams, together with Dennis Banks and Russell Means of AIM, assembled eight Native organizations, including AIM, the Indians of All Tribes, the National Indian Youth Council, and others to bring their grievances directly to the government in the Trail of Broken Treaties.

The plan called for a cross-country caravans of thousands of Native Americans bound for D.C. The caravan was meant to generate publicity that would draw Americans' attention to the government's failure to uphold its treaty obligations. At the journey's end, the demonstrators planned to bring their demands directly to government officials in the BIA and the White House. Timed to arrive in Washington the week of the 1972 presidential election, the intention was to place American Indian issues at the center of political debate and obtain a commitment from both candidates to honor Indigenous sovereignty.

On October 6, 1972, three caravans departed from Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles. A fourth caravan later departed from Oklahoma, symbolically retracing the Trail of Tears. Along the way, the caravans passed through several Indian Reservations, where they held ceremonial demonstrations, workshops, and listening sessions, taking note of the specific grievances faced by the different communities they visited. As the caravans wound their way eastward and listened to the struggles faced by Native communities, participants gained a broad perspective on the extent of discontent in Indian country that would guide the movement in the coming years.

Before their arrival in Washington, D.C., the original three caravans met in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where they drafted a document that laid out their specific objectives to the federal government. Known as the Twenty-Points Position Paper, it distilled their analysis of Native American issues into a list of twenty demands, and proposed a new framework for the relationship between Indian tribes and the federal government. Among other things, it called for a restoration of the treaty-making process, the legal recognition of existing treaties, the return of 110 million acres of land to indigenous communities, the repeal of the termination laws and restoration of terminated tribes, and the protection of religious freedom. It also called for attention to crises in health, housing, and education in both rural and urban Indian communities.

The overriding objective of the Twenty Points was the recognition of Native American Sovereignty and the restoration and enforcement of Indigenous rights, as guaranteed by treaties. This powerful document not only served as a guide in the Native American rights movement to come, but also was later presented to the United Nations and formed the basis of the 2007 UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. But in the fall of 1972, the objectives laid out in the Twenty Points plan were overshadowed by the events that unfolded after the caravan's arrival in Washington.

The Occupation of the BIA

The ambitions of the Trail's organizers began unraveling almost immediately upon the caravan's arrival in Washington, D.C. on November 2, 1972. The organizers had planned meetings with several government officials and hoped to deliver the Twenty Points proposal directly to President Nixon. But upon their arrival, they learned that Nixon was out of town. Scheduled meetings with officials at the Department of Interior, the Department of Labor, and the Department of Commerce were canceled without notice. Adding insult to injury, the National Park Service denied AIM's request to hold a ceremony at Arlington Ridge Park, where Pima Indian Ira Hayes is memorialized in the United States Marine Corps War Memorial. Among the demonstrators were many who had fought for the United States in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam.

Though the participants could only suspect it at the time, later investigations would reveal that individuals within the BIA had been actively working against the movement. Typically, when Indian delegations came to Washington, the BIA assisted them with logistical matters such as locating housing and scheduling meetings with officials. But shortly after the caravans departed in October, the Assistant Secretary of the Interior prohibited the BIA from extending any assistance to the caravan. Frustrated at every turn, tensions continued to build when organizers discovered their accommodations in the basement of a rat-infested church to be woefully insufficient. The demonstrators went to the BIA, seeking assistance in obtaining better lodging. When the BIA denied them assistance, tensions boiled over, initiating a week-long occupation of the BIA building.

On November 2, roughly 500 Native American demonstrators initiated a sit-in at the Bureau of Indian Affairs building. With more demonstrators continuing to arrive from around the country, that number quickly grew to more than 1,000. Department of Interior officials had asked the D.C. police to evict the squatters at 5:00 p.m., and when they arrived to evict the demonstrators, they touched off a violent skirmish at the building's entrance. The demonstrators acted quickly to barricade the doors with furniture. After negotiations with a White House aide failed, the demonstrators unfurled a banner that read "NATIVE AMERICAN EMBASSY." The occupation had begun.

Over the following week, the demonstrators continued to barricade themselves within the BIA, prepared to defend the building with Molotov cocktails and weapons fashioned out of furniture. In the midst of the occupation, demonstrators went through hundreds of boxes of BIA documents, which participants say proved the mismanagement and outright theft of money and other resources from Native Americans that were supposed to have been held in trust by the government.

Despite the damning evidence gathered by the demonstrators, the occupation backfired, at least in the immediate aftermath. The press fixated on damages to the BIA building, showing images of broken furniture and spray-painted walls. The press largely overlooked the Twenty Points, which articulated the demonstrators' reason for being there. To bring a peaceful end to the siege, the Nixon administration made a deal with the caravan leadership that provided the participants immunity from prosecution and roughly $66,500 in travel expenses to return the demonstrators to their homes. The administration also established a task force to consider the Twenty Points, but the task force eventually rejected the demands.

"One Hell of a Smoke Signal"

Although the Trail of Broken Treaties did not accomplish all that its organizers had hoped, it would be a mistake to call the demonstration a failure. Though Nixon's task force initially rejected the demands set forth in the Twenty Points, many of these objectives were later incorporated into American Indian policy in the coming years, setting a new course for self-determination and tribal recognition, a reversal of the disastrous policies of the past.

The Trail of Broken Treaties also marked a new beginning for Native peoples for whom Washington, D.C. was their ancestral homeland. Prior to the Trail's arrival in November of 1972, an advance party went to the capital to set up an AIM office and prepare for the caravans' arrival. It was then that Billy Tayac, a Piscataway salesman, first encountered the American Indian Movement. The Piscataway peoples had long since ceased to live as a people, as European and American colonization in the 17th and 18th century had disrupted and dispersed tribal organizations. But many Piscataway families had persisted in the region, bearing their traditions through the generations. Among these was Billy Tayac's father, Turkey Tayac. Inspired by the movement unfolding at his doorstep, the younger Tayac soon became involved in the AIM Resurrection Project, which organized the remnant communities of peoples and local tribes along the East Coast. In 1974, Billy Tayac was instrumental in the Piscataway Resurrection.

For AIM organizer Dennis Banks, the Trail of Broken Treaties and the takeover of the Bureau of Indian Affairs had been a victory. It established new solidarity among tribes across the country, bringing Native Americans together in numbers more powerful than ever. "For the first time ever," he wrote, "members of some two hundred tribes had acted together for a common cause. I was proud to have been a part of this. If nothing else, we had sent up one hell of a smoke signal."

Alysa Landry, "Lyndon B. Johnson: Indians are 'Forgotten Americans," Indian Country Today, 13 September 2018, accessed 20 March 2022. https://indiancountrytoday.com/archive/lyndon-b-johnson-indians-are-forgotten-americans

Landry, "Richard M. Nixon, 'Self-Determination Without Termination," Indian Country Today, 13, September 2018, accessed 20 March 2022. https://indiancountrytoday.com/archive/richard-m-nixon-self-determination-without-termination

Nick Estes, Our History is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance (New York: Verso, 2019), 183; Kent Blansett, A Journey to Freedom: Richard Oakes, Alcatraz, and the Red Power Movement (New Haven: Yale University Press), 250.

Hendricks, The Unquiet Grave, 38; Deloria, Behind the Trail of Broken Treaties, 47.

Hendricks, The Unquiet Grave, 38-39; Bellecourt, The Thunder Before the Storm, 119-120.

Gabrielle Tayac, "Spirits in the River: A Report on the Piscataway People," Smithsonian Libraries and Archives, 1999, 56-57.

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The Trail of Broken Treaties, 1972 (U.S. National Park Service)

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Inspired by the Civil Rights Movement at home and the Third World Movements abroad, newly empowered and organized Native Americans embarked on a new campaign for Native American Rights in 1972. Called the Trail of Broken Treaties, the demonstration brought caravans of Native American activists from the West Coast to Washington, D.C.

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Approximately 100+ American Indians occupied Alcatraz Island for 19 months to symbolically reclaim Native land that was stolen. The occupation was led by Richard Oakes, a group of Indian students, and a group of urban Indians from the Bay Area, as well as American Indian students from UCLA.

This is one of three major trigger events that happened in AIM. It brought attention and caused disruption that made the government upset. Before, I had no idea Alcatraz was originally occupied by Natives but I should have known because they were here first before it became colonized.

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Johnson, Dr. Troy. “We Hold the Rock.” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, 8 Apr. 2025, www.nps.gov/alca/learn/historyculture/we-hold-the-rock.htm. 

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photo copyrighted by ilka hartmann

The Alcatraz Indian Occupation
by Dr. Troy Johnson, Cal State Long Beach
European discovery and exploration of the San Francisco Bay Area and its islands began in 1542 and culminated with the mapping of the bay in 1775. Early visitors to the Bay Area were preceded 10,000 to 20,000 years earlier, however, by the native people indigenous to the area. Prior to the coming of the Spanish and Portuguese explorers, over 10,000 indigenous people, later to be called the Ohlone (a Miwok Indian word meaning "western people"), lived in the coastal area between Point Sur and the San Francisco Bay.

Early use of Alcatraz Island by the indigenous people is difficult to reconstruct, as most tribal and village history was recorded and passed down generation-to-generation as an oral history of the people. A large portion of this oral history has been lost as a result of the huge reduction of the California Indian population following European contact and exploration. Based on oral history it appears that Alcatraz was used as a place of isolation or ostracization for tribal members who had violated a tribal law or taboo, as a camping spot, an area for gathering foods, especially bird eggs and sea-life, and that Alcatraz was utilized also as a hiding place for many Indians attempting to escape from the California Mission system.

Once Alcatraz Island became a prison, both military prisoners and civilians were incarcerated on the island. Among these were many American Indians. The largest single group of Indian prisoners sentenced to confinement on Alcatraz occurred in January 1895 when the U.S. government arrested, tried and shipped nineteen Moqui Hopi to Alcatraz Island. Indian people continued to be confined as prisoners in the disciplinary barracks on the island through the remainder of the 1800s and the early 1900s.

photo copyrighted by ilka hartmann

November 9, 1969
On this day, Indian people once again came to Alcatraz Island when Richard Oakes, Akwesasne Mohawk, and a group of Indian supporters set out in a chartered boat, the Monte Cristo, to symbolically claim the island for the Indian people. On November 20, 1969, this symbolic occupation turned into a full scale occupation which lasted until June 11, 1971.

In actuality, there were three separate occupations of Alcatraz Island, one on March 9, 1964, one on November 9, 1969, and the occupation which lasted nineteen months which began on the 20th of November, 1969.

The 1964 occupation lasted for only four hours and was carried out by five Sicangu Lakota, led by Richard McKenzie and wife, Belva Cottier. This short occupation is significant because the demands for the use of the island for a cultural center and an Indian university would resurface almost word for word in the larger, much longer occupation of 1969.

The November 9, 1969 occupation was planned by Richard Oakes, a group of Indian students, and a group of urban Indians from the Bay Area. Since many different tribes were represented, the name "Indians of All Tribes" was adopted for the group. They claimed the island in the name of Indians of all tribes and left the island to return later that same evening. In meetings following the November 9th occupation, Oakes and his fellow American Indian students realized that a prolonged occupation was possible. Oakes visited the American Indian Studies Center at UCLA where he recruited Indian students for what would become the longest prolonged occupation of a federal facility by Indian people to this very day. Eighty Indian students from UCLA were among the approximately 100 Indian people who occupied Alcatraz Island.

It is important to remember that the occupation force was made up initially of young urban Indian college students. And the most inspirational person was Richard Oakes. Oakes is described by most of those as handsome, charismatic, a talented orator, and a natural leader. Oakes was the most knowledgeable about the landings and the most often sought out and identified as the leader, the Chief, the mayor of Alcatraz.

The back and forth with the Government
Once the occupiers had established themselves on the island, organization began immediately. An elected council was put into place and everyone on the island had a job; security, sanitation, day-care, school, housing, cooking, laundry, and all decisions were made by unanimous consent of the people.

The federal government initially insisted that the Indian people leave the island, placed an ineffective barricade around the island, and eventually agreed to demands by the Indian council that formal negotiations be held. From the Indians side, the negotiations were fixed. They wanted the deed to the island, they wanted to establish an Indian university, a cultural center, and a museum. The government negotiators insisted that the occupiers could have none of these and insisted that they leave the island.

By early 1970 the Indian organization began to fall into disarray. Two groups rose in opposition to Richard Oakes and as the Indian students began returning to school in January 1970, they were replaced by Indian people from the urban areas and from reservations who have not been involved in the initial occupation. Additionally, many non-Indians now began taking up residency on the island, many from the San Francisco hippie and drug culture. The final blow to the organized leadership occurred on January 5, 1970, when Oakes's 13 year old stepdaughter fell three floors down a stairwell to her death. Following Yvonne's death, Oakes left the island and the two competing groups maneuvered back and forth for leadership on the island.

The federal government responded to the occupation by adopting a position of non-interference. The FBI was directed to remain clear of the island. The Coast Guard was directed not to interfere, and the Government Services Administration (GSA) was instructed not to remove the Indians from the island. While it appeared to those on the island that negotiations were actually taking place, in fact, the federal government was playing a waiting game, hoping that support for the occupation would subside and those on the island would elect to end the occupation. At one point, secret negotiations were held where the occupiers were offered a portion of Fort Miley, in San Francisco, as an alternative site to Alcatraz Island. By this time, mid-1970, however, those on the island had become so entrenched that nothing less than full title to the island, the establishing of a university and cultural center, would suffice.

In the meantime, the government shut off all electrical power, and removed the water barge which had provided fresh water to the occupiers. Three days following the removal of the water barge, a fire broke out on the island. Several historic buildings were destroyed. The government blamed the Indians, the Indians blamed undercover government infiltrators trying to turn non-Indian support against them.

The new population on the island became a problem as time passed. The daily reports from the government caretaker on the island as well as testimony from the remaining original occupiers complain of the open use of drugs, fighting over authority, and general disarray of the leadership. An egalitarian form of government was supposed to prevail, yet no leadership was visible with which the government could negotiate.

The occupation continued on into 1971 with various new problems emerging for the Indian occupiers. In an attempt to raise money to buy food, they allegedly began stripping copper wiring and copper tubing from the buildings and selling it as scrap metal. Three of the occupiers were arrested, tried and found guilt of selling some 600lbs of copper. In early 1971, the press, which had been largely sympathetic to this point turned against them and began publishing stories of alleged beatings and assaults; one case of assault was prosecuted. Soon, little support could be found.

photo copyrighted by ilka hartmann

Eventually, all things must come to an end...
In January 1971, two oil tankers collided in the entrance to the San Francisco Bay. Though it was acknowledged that the lack of an Alcatraz light or fog horn played no part in the collision, it was enough to push the federal government into action. President Nixon gave the go ahead to develop a removal plan -- to take place when the smallest number of people were on the island and to use as little force as possible.

On June 10, 1971, armed federal marshals, FBI agents, and special forces police swarmed the island and removed five women, four children, and six unarmed Indian men. The occupation was over.

The success or failure of the occupation should not be judged by whether the demands of the occupiers were realized. The underlying goals of the Indians on Alcatraz were to awaken the American public to the reality of the plight of the first Americans and to assert the need for Indian self-determination. As a result of the occupation, either directly or indirectly, the official government policy of termination of Indian tribes was ended and a policy of Indian self-determination became the official US government policy.

During the period the occupiers were on Alcatraz Island, President Nixon returned Blue Lake and 48.000 acres of land to the Taos Indians. Occupied lands near Davis California would become home to a Native American university. The occupation of Bureau of Indian Affairs offices in Washington, D.C. would lead to the hiring of Native American's to work in the federal agency that had such a great effect on their lives.

Alcatraz may have been lost, but the occupation gave birth to a political movement which continues to today.

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We Hold the Rock - Alcatraz Island (U.S. National Park Service)

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The Alcatraz Indian Occupation by Dr. Troy Johnson, Cal State Long Beach European discovery and exploration of the San Francisco Bay Area and its islands began in 1542 and culminated with the mapping of the bay in 1775. Early visitors to the Bay Area were preceded 10,000 to 20,000 years earlier, however, by the native people indigenous to the area.

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PDF: This article explores the key but underrecognized role of Indigenous women during the 1973 Wounded Knee occupation and within the broader Red Power movement. It emphasizes how women navigated a "double oppression" of colonial and patriarchal systems. While Indigenous men dominated the public face of the American Indian Movement (AIM), women were a pivotal part in logistics, leadership, and armed defense. This will highlight the importance of women in AIM and how they were major contributors to the success of the movement and continue to be fighters. Many are unaware that it was thanks to women that a lot of their structured organizing was successful.

Notable Quotes

On double oppression:

“Indigenous women in the American Indian Movement (AIM) frequently claimed that they were in a state of ‘double oppression’ or ‘double colonization’...through colonial domination and racial inequality, and...through male privilege and female subordination.”

On women’s pivotal presence:

“Indigenous women’s grassroots activism was fundamental for sustaining and keeping the occupation alive, yet women’s contributions were largely eclipsed by the actions of their media-savvy, male comrades-in-arms.”

Ellen Moves Camp motivating action:

“You AIM people, what are you going to do? You are supposed to be warriors... If you men can’t do it, then we women will.”

Mary Crow Dog on patriarchy in AIM:

“The AIM leaders are particularly sexist... They have learned the white man’s way of talking down to women and regarding their position as inferior.”

Regina Brave on reclaiming warrior roles:

“Wounded Knee showed the general public that there were Indian women who were warriors... we took our places back.”

Phyllis Young on identity:

“I am a Lakota patriot first... We fought so we could have choices... Because they need an identity. They need a language. They need a culture to survive.”

Madonna Thunder Hawk on media portrayal:

“The angry Indian man was better than angry Indian women. . . . The men were show-time.”

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Voigt, Matthias Andre. “Warrior Women: Indigenous Women, Gender Relations, and Sexual Politics within the American Indian Movement and at Wounded Knee.” American Indian Culture and Research Journal, 6 Nov. 2023, escholarship.org/uc/item/33s225n9. 

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Book: Lakota Woman is a memoir by Mary Crow Dog that shows her life as a Sicangu Lakota woman growing up on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota and her struggles with poverty, systemic racism, and gender-based oppression. She was also very involved in AIM. This book will bring an important perspective, especially from a female pov. AIM sparked WARN because native women were often targeted. She talked about her experiences in the boarding schools where she was forced to assimilate, as well as her grandfather's experiences surviving the 1890 Indian Massacre. She brings a fresh but real perspective as she talks about her life.

Quotes:

🔹 1. “The Indian women have to be twice as strong as the men. That is the only way we can survive as a people.”

This quote encapsulates the burden and resilience of Native women, especially during periods of deep cultural loss and political resistance. Women are portrayed as cultural carriers and protectors of the people.

🔹 2. “In the old days, the women were the backbone of the nation.”

Mary Crow Dog often reflects on the traditional power of Lakota women before colonization and forced assimilation — they were leaders, decision-makers, healers, and spiritual guides.

🔹 3. “The men were at the center of attention, but it was the women who held things together.”

This reflects the quiet but essential leadership women provided within movements like the American Indian Movement (AIM) and the Wounded Knee occupation. Though often not in the spotlight, women did much of the organizing, feeding, caregiving, and spiritual support.

🔹 4. “It was the women who went out to find food. The men gave the speeches, but the women made it possible.”

This emphasizes the behind-the-scenes power and labor of women during activist movements. Mary critiques the gender imbalance in recognition, even within liberation movements.

🔹 5. “Some of the medicine women were more powerful than the men. But their role was silenced for a long time.”

A reflection on how colonization and Christianization suppressed the spiritual authority of Indigenous women, especially in ceremonial and healing roles.

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Crow Dog, Mary, and Richard Erdoes. Lakota Woman Mary Crow Dog, Richard Erdoes. Grove Press, 1990. 

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-Brought up 20 points that showed the lack of basic care to Indians, they appeared invisible, showed Treaties broken by the government, and much more. Poverty of reservations was known to be worse than your average poverty, and racism was so bad to the point that you should never say that you were Indian at a job interview or you would get immediately shut down. American Indians are a part of American history, and it is not mentioned enough.

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“Trail of Broken Treaties 20-Point Position Paper.” AN INDIAN MANIFESTO RESTITUTION, REPARATIONS, RESTORATION OF LANDS FOR A RECONSTRUCTION OF AN INDIAN FUTURE IN AMERICA, Oct. 1972, www.usu.edu/mountainwest/files/bennion-workshop/trail-of-broken-treaties-20-point-position-paper-1972.pdf. 

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We Shall Remain Documentary: Episode 5 - Source

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We Shall Remain Documentary: Episode 5 - Source

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Perspective 2(Natives): This documentary showed a lot of historical context, racial injustice, first-hand experience, and insight into Wounded Knee through the Natives' eyes. The documentary shines light on the 1890s massacre, the lack of access to clean water or food, reservation poverty being worse than poverty overall, the assimilation of Native children, and other oppressive measures America has inflicted on Native people. It shows how Dick Grayson who was the elected Oglala Lakota chairman at the time of wounded knee and was half-Native half-White. He called the traditional Lakota people savages and tried to subdue their uprising in whatever way possible, even if that meant violence and intimidation. Grayson was very assimilated and wanted to do it the "white man's way"

Documentary: https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B0D39S9HRY/ref=atv_sr_fle_c_srda4994_1_1_1?sr=1-1&pageTypeIdSource=ASIN&pageTypeId=B0D397WTKN&qid=1747031681119

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Indian Relocation Act of 1956 -Important Law

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Indian Relocation Act of 1956 -Important Law

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"a United States law intended to create a 'a program of vocational training' for Native Americans in the United States. Critics characterize the law as an attempt to encourage Native Americans to leave Indian reservations and their traditional lands, to assimilate into the general population in urban areas, and to weaken community and tribal ties"

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"more than 60,000 Native Americans[4] from at least 18 tribes[5] were forced to move west of the Mississippi River where they were allocated new lands"

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U.S. Indian boarding school policy - Important Background

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U.S. Indian boarding school policy - Important Background

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"more than 526 government-funded, and often church-run, Indian Boarding schools across the U.S. in the 19th and 20th centuries. Indian children were forcibly abducted by government agents, sent to schools hundreds of miles away, and beaten, starved, or otherwise abused when they spoke their Native languages"

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“US Indian Boarding School History.” The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, boardingschoolhealing.org/education/us-indian-boarding-school-history/. Accessed 12 May 2025. 

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Last Native American massacre

Dawes Allotment act of 1887

The slaughter of some 300 Lakota men, women and children by U.S. Army troops in the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre

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Klein, Christopher. “What Happened at the Wounded Knee Massacre?” History.Com, A&E Television Networks, 10 May 2025, www.history.com/articles/wounded-knee-massacre-facts. 