Video: 'Native American Occupation of Alcatraz Captured in Rare Footage | KQED Arts'

(Friday, June 11, 1971, afternoon PDT; during the Occupation of Alcatraz) — A government force of 35 marshals recaptured Alcatraz Island without resistance today, removing 15 Native American holdouts remaining from an occupation that begun 19 months ago on Nov. 20, 1969.

The marshals leaped to the island from three Coast Guard boats, took possession and transported the six men, four women and five children to a San Francisco hotel. The government force met no resistance.

Video: 'Alcatraz 1934-1977 Part 6 of 6' (June 11, 1971, at 0:43)

The protest group Indians of All Tribes (IOAT) had claimed that, under the Treaty of Fort Laramie between the U.S. and the Lakota tribe, all retired, abandoned, or out-of-use federal land was to be returned to Native Americans who once occupied it.

As Alcatraz 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 that the island qualified for a reclamation by Indians.