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Roots of the Native American Urban Experience: Relocation Policy in the 1950s

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Roots of the Native American Urban Experience: Relocation Policy in the 1950s

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The Bureau of Indian affairs began actively encouraging Native American Migration to cities shortly after the war. The program was known as relocation and was induced at least 30 thousand Indians to move in the 1950’s and three times the number in the 1960s and 1970s.
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Roots of the Native American Urban Experience: Relocation Policy in the 1950s on JSTOR

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Larry W. Burt, Roots of the Native American Urban Experience: Relocation Policy in the 1950s, American Indian Quarterly, Vol. 10, No. 2 (Spring, 1986), pp. 85-99

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Native American (indigenous peoples of Canada and United States)

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Native American (indigenous peoples of Canada and United States)

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The relocation program was designed to transform the rural native population into an assimilated urban workforce. There were offices established in a variety of cities like  Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, and St. Louis by the bureau of labor statistics. The program promised to provide a variety of services in order to transition to city life. The services included,  transportation from the reservation, financial assistance, help in finding housing and employment. The distribution and quality of these services were often uneven. An estimate of 750,000 Indians relocated to cities, not all of them did so under the official program and not all of them remained in urban areas permanently. It is clear that urban relocation helped encourage the pan-Indian identity and activism that arose in the latter half of the 20th century.
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Welcome to Britannica Academic, an accurate, current, and comprehensive resource for college-level learners, researchers, and faculty.

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Indigenous Peoples Day comes amid a reckoning over colonialism and calls for return of Native land

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Indigenous Peoples Day comes amid a reckoning over colonialism and calls for return of Native land

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The Article Indigenous Peoples Day comes amid a reckoning over colonialism and calls for return of Native land says that the relocation act of 1956 worked to assimilate Native Americans by encouraging them to move to major cities. This policy backfired and instead of assimilating, Natives in urban spaces joined forces in 1968 to create the American Indian Movement which sought to protect tribal lands, stop police brutality and hold the U.S. government accountable to treaty agreements with tribal nations.
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Indigenous Peoples Day comes amid a reckoning over colonialism and calls for return of Native land

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Renaming a national holiday to celebrate Native culture is one thing, but many Indigenous peoples are looking for greater recognition of the land grab that deprived them of ancestral homes.

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Indigenous Peoples' Day 'not just a day, it's a way of life'

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Indigenous Peoples' Day 'not just a day, it's a way of life'

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Majel-Dixon: A lot of our young people who were too old to go to the boarding schools were in relocation programs where they were taken out of their Indian world and planted in places like San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco where they were placed in trade schools. They were taught machinery or metalwork; whatever it was, they were taught a skill. That group is in the hundreds of thousands and they were in these relocation programs throughout America, where they were disconnected from their tribes.
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For the Relocation Act, the titles are the names of the articles, which is where the information is from. Every post summarizes what the articles talked about on the Relocation act since there was no one article that focused specifically on it. You can click on the picture or scroll down to the bottom of the page on each post, and you will find the link to the article for faster access. When on the article/website put control F and search for Relocation. You will be able to find every part of the article/website where it talks about the Relocation Act.

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How Alcatraz became a powerful monument for indigenous peoples

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How Alcatraz became a powerful monument for indigenous peoples

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On November 20, 1969, a group of 89 indigenous students and others from all over California formed the IAT, or “Indians of All Tribes”. They decided to take over the abandoned island of Alcatraz, to uncover the horrible treatment Native Americans faced. The occupation lasted 19 months and from a political standpoint forced the president at that time, Richard Nixon to revoke previous devastating federal programs known as “ Termination and Relocation”. Specifically, The Relocation Act of 1956. Even though the occupation didn’t last long, it started a movement known as the “ Red Power Protests” that lasted around nine years and helped bring national awareness to the treatment of Native Americans.
Another good source:
https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1152&context=historical-perspectives

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Alcatraz Island in San Francisco in March. (Eric Risberg/AP)

On this day 50 years ago, 89 indigenous students and community leaders from throughout the state of California organized as the Indians of All Tribes (IAT) and took over Alcatraz Island. The occupation lasted 19 months and prompted President Richard M. Nixon to repeal destructive federal policies known as "Termination and Relocation."

The Alcatraz occupation fueled a new political awakening popularly known as "Red Power." This pivotal demonstration led to the passage of more than 26 pieces of self-determination legislation and Supreme Court decisions that enhanced the sovereign powers of native nations.

Today, as we celebrate the sacrifice of all indigenous rights movement veterans who risked everything to provide Indian country with greater freedoms, we are reminded that a true democracy is an experiment; it must constantly be tested and reinvented to preserve its most sacred values - truth, liberty, equality and justice. Throughout American history, the power of protest has preserved freedom, and the takeover of Alcatraz Island represents one of the largest and most significant demonstrations for indigenous rights in the 20th century, trying to ensure that these values apply to all.

The Alcatraz takeover began with student-led strikes advocating for the creation of Ethnic Studies departments at San Francisco State College (SFSC) and the University of California at Berkeley. After hundreds of arrests and bloody confrontations with police, the student strikers won, leading to the creation of the first Ethnic Studies programs in the country. In 1969, SFSC hired Akwesasne Mohawk citizen Richard Oakes, and at Berkeley, Fort Hall Shoshone/Bannock citizen LaNada Means also helped establish Native American Studies. Native students from both campuses connected and formed a new organization - Indians of All Tribes.

In October of the group's first semester in existence, the San Francisco Indian Center, which supported over 40,000 native peoples throughout the Bay Area, was destroyed by fire. The Indian center served as a major hub for job placement, powwows, youth programming, housing, health and wellness assistance, and dozens of other services.

It was a devastating loss for San Francisco residents. Inspired by the strikes, the loss of the Indian Center and Belva Cottier - a SFSC community adviser and Lakota citizen - Oakes and Means organized a takeover of Alcatraz Island that brought students and the indigenous community together to protest what they believed to be unjust federal policies toward native peoples.

The island was an ideal location. For six years it had been sitting vacant since the federal government declared it "surplus property." As a sacred place for the coastal Ohlone indigenous peoples, the crumbling prison could be a powerful symbol to highlight the failures of federal Indian policy, and the ultimate landmark to educate the public about indigenous rights.

On Nov. 9, 1969, IAT took action. They held a news conference with reporters at Fisherman's Wharf to document their official claim over Alcatraz Island by way of the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868. In a speech to the media, Oakes captured world headlines by stating IAT's intention to purchase the island for $24 in red trade cloth and beads - mimicking the precedent set by Europeans' purchase of Manhattan Island 300 years earlier for the same price.

Oakes read the IAT Proclamation, positioning Alcatraz as representative of federal failures to honor treaty rights and indigenous sovereignty. It chronicled how many reservation communities lacked electricity or access to fresh water, sanitation, industry and jobs, fertile lands, and education and health care. Abandoned by the federal government like native nations, Alcatraz was isolated from the rest of America and had been touted for being inescapable.

IAT activists boarded the "Monte Cristo," a Canadian replica ship. Knowing the boat would not land on Alcatraz because the captain feared his boat being impounded, Oakes and four others dove off the boat and swam more than 250 yards through icy waters to the island. Authorities quickly removed the small occupation, but their actions inspired IAT activists to formulate plans to return.

After a second attempt later that evening also failed, IAT returned Nov. 20, 1969, with a coalition of 89 activists, many inspired by Oakes's news conference.

The resulting takeover captured worldwide media attention, and IAT's message went global, placing Red Power, the broader movement that IAT was a part of, on an international stage. News stories highlighted injustices in Indian country and challenged the destructive federal policies of termination and relocation. In 1953, Congress began to terminate the federal trust status of more than 109 native nations, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), as early as 1948, had sponsored the removal of 100,000 native peoples from reservations to U.S. cities. Termination ended the federal government's treaty obligations with certain tribes and its recognition of their sovereignty, opening up their lands to privatization and exploitation. The goal of each policy was forced assimilation and the erosion of indigenous rights.

Red Power activists resisted these policies, as they orchestrated efforts to reclaim stolen land and defend native nationalism through nonviolent civil disobedience. Red Power also inspired cultural pride and harnessed the power of the mass media to urge positive political, social, cultural and economic change throughout Indian country. The IAT activists were committed to nonviolence. Instead of weapons, they carried their children, populating Alcatraz Island with families.

The occupation lasted 19 months. After claiming Alcatraz by right of discovery, IAT demanded title over the island and government resources to construct an Indian center, ecological center, museum and university on the island. They developed a national newsletter, Radio Free Alcatraz, Big Rock School, a health clinic, a security force and a governing council. They restored plumbing and updated several of the island's facilities, installed generators, incorporated IAT as a state organization, managed food, shelter and safety for hundreds of residents, and hosted more than 10,000 indigenous visitors.

They also worked with lawyers and state politicians to secure the land title to Alcatraz. The secretary of the Department of Interior, which houses the Bureau of Indian Affairs, claimed to lack authority to change the island's legal title. Instead, the federal government sent the General Services Administration (GSA) for negotiations.

Nixon ordered local authorities to stand down from forcing IAT's removal. But as the occupation stretched over weeks and then months, the government ordered the electrical power and phone lines cut and halted fresh water shipments. By this time, public support, media attention and financial assistance diminished. "Clearwater," IAT's main transportation vessel, sank, and fires ravaged the island, destroying the lighthouse and warden's house.

On June 11, 1971, the occupation officially ended when an armed force of U.S. Marshals, accompanied by FBI agents, raided the island. One year later, the federal government decided to turn Alcatraz into a national park.

Ultimately, however, the takeover was a success.

Before his killing in 1972, Richard Oakes declared that Alcatraz represented more than an island: that it was an idea. This idea, as well as IAT's activism, was never confined exclusively to Alcatraz. Between 1970 and 1971, the organization sponsored the Fort Lawton takeover in Seattle and land reclamation efforts throughout Northern California, from the creation of D-Q University to occupations with the Pit River Nation.

These efforts ignited significant political change, inspiring hundreds of indigenous takeovers across the country, including at Chicago's Wrigley Field and New York's Ellis Island. An indigenous cultural renaissance emerged through popular literature, art, film and music. On Alcatraz, IAT built an autonomous indigenous community free of government control, a powerful symbol that carried the goals, dreams and objectives of the Red Power movement to a broader audience.

The spirit of the Alcatraz occupation lives on in the next generation of indigenous activism, from the Idle No More movement to the Water Protectors at Standing Rock and Native Hawaiian protectors of Mauna Kea mountain. Today, over 1.4 million people visit Alcatraz Island annually, and each visitor learns more about the occupation and indigenous rights through NPS efforts to interpret, promote and preserve the occupation's history.

Alcatraz remains a powerful monument for indigenous peoples and all Americans, a sacred place that honors the ongoing struggle to preserve indigenous liberty and rights. As an idea, it lies at the heart of modern Indian identity.

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Perspective | How Alcatraz became a powerful monument for indigenous peoples

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On this day 50 years ago, 89 indigenous students and community leaders from throughout the state of California organized as the Indians of All Tribes (IAT) and took over Alcatraz Island. The occupation lasted 19 months and prompted President Richard M. Nixon to repeal destructive federal policies known as "Termination and Relocation."

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A 1970 Law Led to the Mass Sterilization of Native American Women. That History Still Matters

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A 1970 Law Led to the Mass Sterilization of Native American Women. That History Still Matters

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Native American women around the time of the occupation were in some cases subjected to sterilization due to the passage of the Family Planning Services and Population Research Act of 1970. Over 25% of Native American women were sterilized under pressure and in some cases without them even knowing. This lets you know how what the women at that time had to go through. To this day, Native American women are ten times more likely to be murdered than the rest of the population and face violence in both reservations and cities.
Another good source:
https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/09/us/native-american-murdered-missing-women/index.html

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A 1970 Law Led to the Mass Sterilization of Native American Women. That History Still Matters

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Over a six-year period in the 1970s, physicians sterilized perhaps 25% of Native American women of childbearing age. That history matters.

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A key takeaway I found important is from the first source I used that helped me understand the political and social impact caused by the occupation. Kent Blansett from The Washington Post “ How Alcatraz Became A Powerful Monument For The Indigenous peoples, “ The Alcatraz occupation fueled a new political awakening popularly known as “Red Power.” This pivotal demonstration led to the passage of more than 26 pieces of self-determination legislation and Supreme Court decisions that enhanced the sovereign powers of native nations.”

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Another Key takeaway I found important comes from the source I used when finding out how Native American women were treated during that time, specifically the Act which led to a big percentage of them being sterilized. Brianna Theobald from Time Magazine “ A 1970 Law Led to the Mass Sterilization of Native American Women. That History Still Matters, “ Over the six-year period that had followed the passage of the Family Planning Services and Population Research Act of 1970, physicians sterilized perhaps 25% of Native American women of childbearing age, and there is evidence suggesting that the numbers were actually even higher. Some of these procedures were performed under pressure or duress, or without the women’s knowledge or understanding. The law subsidized sterilizations for patients who received their health care through the Indian Health Service and for Medicaid patients, and black and Latina women were also targets of coercive sterilization in these years”. This information helps us better understand the historical event and the hardship women faced late 60’s and 70’s.

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In this article occupation of Alcatraz was successfully started with a group of 89 college students and goes on about other things like the importance about the art that was left behind.

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"A TRIBE IS AN ISLAND:" PLACEMAKING, PROTEST, AND THE ALCATRAZ OCCUPATION.

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For the article that I picked. I used a small summary about what was in the begging of the article.
For A Tribe is an Island its around a 14-page article and has information about the event and talks about its importance. You may have to login into to Ebsco host to view it or log in .
For my second source, I got it from a government website. You can click on the sources by clicking on links.

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In the article it talks about how Alcatraz was once used by the Native Americans a long time ago before it became a prison it was used as hunting ground to collect food and used as a hiding place from the missionary. It also give us multiple time when Native american occupied Alcatraz. But it also tells us how the failure of capturing Alcatraz paved way for Native american to start political movements.

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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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Everything in Blue talks about the Relocation Act, Every thing in green talks about the Occupation of Alcatraz and everything in yellow is about Native American women. 

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Everything in Blue talks about the Relocation Act, Every thing in green talks about the Occupation of Alcatraz and everything in yellow is about Native American women. 

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Burt, Larry W. “Roots of the Native American Urban Experience: Relocation Policy in the 1950s.” JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1183982?Search=yes&amp;resultItemClick=true&amp;searchText=Indian+relocation+act&amp;searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3DIndian%2Brelocation%2Bact%26acc%3Doff%26wc%3Don%26fc%3Doff%26group%3Dnone%26refreqid%3Dsearch%253A6e16ba55605c5d3f569066ddd2083e23&amp;ab_segments=0%2FSYC-6080%2Findeg-test&amp;refreqid=fastly-default%3A960096f79e6a9fb98dc30850d20d81b5&amp;seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents.

DEADERICK, LISA. Indigenous Peoples' Day 'Not Just a Day, It's a Way of Life', San Diego Union-Tribune, The (CA), infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=AWNB&amp;t=&amp;sort=YMD_date%3AD&amp;fld-base-0=alltext&amp;maxresults=20&amp;val-base-0=Indian+relocation&amp;docref=news%2F185978B46FF40040.

Gomez , Abel R. “Indigenous Peoples Day Comes amid a Reckoning over Colonialism and Calls for Return of Native Land.” The Conversation, The Conversation , 6 Oct. 2021, theconversation.com/indigenous-peoples-day-comes-amid-a-reckoning-over-colonialism-and-calls-for-return-of-native-land-147734.

Native American, Britannica Academic, academic.eb.com/levels/collegiate/article/Native-American/117303.