AIM-WEST Salutes the Alcatraz Island Warriors of 1969-1971!
A Tribute to the 40th Anniversary
By AIM West
Photo: Bill Means, Lenny Foster and Mike Flores on Alcatraz 2008/Photo Brenda Norrell
PROCLAMATION:
“To the Great White Father and All His People, WE THE NATIVE AMERICANS, reclaim the land known as Alcatraz Island in the name of all American Indians by right of discovery. We wish to be fair and honorable in our dealings with the Caucasian inhabitants of this land, and hereby offer the following treaty: We will purchase said Alcatraz Island for twenty-four dollars ($24) in glass beads and red cloth, a precedent set by the white man’s purchase of a similar island about 300 years ago. We know that $24 in trade goods for these 16 acres is more than was paid when Manhattan Island was sold, but we know that land values have risen over the years. Our off of $ 1.24 per acre is greater than the 47 cents per acre the white men are now paying the California Indians for their land….Signed, Indians of All Tribes, November 1969, San Francisco, California.” With this profound proclamation and the gallant actions necessitated by the young brave’s so began a movement of Indigenous activism that awoke America, and sent a thunder-clap around the world that has now culminated in the historic adoption by the United Nations General Assembly on September 13, 2007 of the “Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples”.
Please make a date to be with us Wednesday, November 4th to honor and commemorate those warriors who sacrificed and gave of their time and placed themselves in social turmoil to help re-claim the destiny for all Indians of the Americas.
Place: La Pena Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Berkeley, http://www.lapena.org/calendar
Time: 6:30 to 9:30 pm
Film: “Alcatraz Is Not An Island” (starts at 7 pm!)
M.C.’s Jimbo Simmons (AIM), and Mary Jean Robertson (S.F. KPOO radio personality)
And with Special Guest Speakers, with music by Goodshield, Drummers and Singers welcome, and Traditional Dancers!
Cover Charge $ 8.00 slide-scale, no one turned away. A food can drive is also requested for Oakland Inter-Tribal Friendship House. A raffle prize, and a blanket donation is requested.
On this occasion of the 40th Anniversary of the Occupation of Alcatraz Island, a special benefit by American Indian Movement-WEST (AIM-WEST) invites you to join us and acknowledge all those heroic warriors representing “Indians of All Tribes” who sought to liberate The Rock, (first landing Nov. 14th) that began November 20, 1969 until being led off the island June 11, 1971. Their mission and purpose; to enlighten the American people of the injustice done to the American Indian by stealing their land by phony treaties.
During the 19 months of the occupation 20,000 people visited Alcatraz Island, meanwhile a medical clinic was set up, the structure of day-to-day life needed formulation, children needed schooling, a leadership structure needed to be created to tend the affairs of Alcatraz community; the Black Panthers offered help; Credence Clearwater Revival donated $15,000; a child was born (July 20, 1970), the 12 year-old daughter of Richard Oakes, the foremost leader of the Alcatraz occupation, fell over a railing and died on January 8, 1970; and the light house and several buildings burned to the ground.
Against this backdrop the leadership at Alcatraz began negotiations with government officials setting the stage for confrontations with dishonest politicians, onerous developers and bureaucrats. Come and share your experiences, thoughts and vision of what this occasion has meant to you, the youth, and community.
Free Leonard Peltier! Freedom for All Political Prisoners! Protect Sacred Sites! Honor the Treaties! Acknowledge and review the 18 Unratified Treaties made with the California’s American Indians! And demand the US government sign the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples! (only three countries have not signed: USA, Canada, and New Zealand!)
*Mark your calendars now for the AIM West Coast Third Annual Gathering November 23-27, 2009. *M.C. Mr. Bill Means, National AIM Grand Council, and Board Member of International Indian Treaty Council, a United Nations NGO in consultative status.
Donations are appreciated. Check AIM-WEST website for more information. All My Relations!
Wheelchair accessible
http://www.aimwest.info/
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