Video: '20th November 1969: Native Americans begin their occupation of Alcatraz Island'

(Thursday, November 20, 1969, at approximately 5:00 a.m. PST; during the Occupation of Alcatraz) — The first of five boatloads of American Indians of various Native American tribes arrived and took up residence this morning on Alcatraz Island, claiming the island located in California’s San Francisco Bay from the U.S. government based on a 19th century land treaty.

Since the Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary had been closed on March 21, 1963, and the island had been declared surplus federal property in 1964, a number of Red Power activists felt the island qualified for a reclamation by Native people.

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