JIM RUSSELL: About 100 policemen from the San Francisco suburban town of Richmond stormed an abandoned Nike missile site there this morning. The missile site had been occupied by the Indians who earlier were evicted from Alcatraz. The Indians were unarmed and did not resist the officers. A dozen of them were arrested for trespassing, but they were immediately released. Reporter Jeff Kamen spoke to the Alcatraz Indians and the members of the All Tribes organization who had occupied the missile site at the time of the police storming.
JEFF KAMEN: John Trudell is official spokesman for the Alcatraz Indian movement.
JOHN TRUDELL: Local authorities, they came in this morning, I guess real early this morning, and everything went pretty well. We cooperated up and to the point of where they read us the statement saying that we were trespassing and that if we didn’t leave, we would be arrested. And at that time there were 15 of us, I believe, that said if they wanted to take us off, they would have to arrest us. And some people just – and so, like, the only way we resisted them was there were people that just went stiff or sat down, you know, or wouldn’t take their arms and put them behind their back – people just hanging on to themselves.
And at this time, then the Berkeley Police Department, they started using some of this police brutality. And they worked over I think three or four of the guys, and I think there was three women. There were three women that I saw that were roughly treated, very much so. They were just treated worse than someone would treat a man.
Colleen Eveningthunder was injured by them. And the way they did it was, like, they just ganged up on these women. There was – you know, at one time, there was six policemen on one girl. And I think on Colleen, there was about four when I looked. And then they put me in the wagon. And I don’t – didn’t see that much of it happen after that – with what happened to the women. But Colleen can tell you more about that.
KAMEN: You were injured, I see. You have a bandage on your wrist. Can you tell us about it?
COLLEEN EVENINGTHUNDER: When they asked everyone to leave, I said that I wouldn’t voluntarily go to their wagon, so I sat down. One of the officers in charge said, this woman’s under arrest. So several officers carried and dragged me to the paddy wagon. And it was during this that I was bruised and scraped up my arm hurts.
KAMEN: Mr. Trudell, what happens to the Alcatraz Indian movement now?
The movement is growing stronger. We’re not going to quit. This is just making us more determined because we are trying to talk to people, especially the federal government, about our rights and the rights of free people, if we’re going to be free. And they’re avoiding the issue. They avoid it by military-type confrontations against us, and so we’re not going to quit. We’re just going to keep right on tugging away.
I don’t know where or when or how we’ll pop up again, but we’ll be there. Indians of All Tribes is here, and it’s here to stay. And we’re going to keep right on doing whatever we feel is necessary until we get this government to start listening. And if we can’t make the government listen, we’re going to make the public listen. But somebody is going to start listening, and we’re not quitting till then.
KAMEN: Would it be safe for us to predict at this point, Mr. Trudell, that there will be attempts at seizing other deactivated federal bases in California and throughout the country?
It’s very much possible it’ll take that form or we may try another form. I’m not sure what’s going to happen right now. I know that there’s a lot of Indians in this country, and there’s a lot of unused federal land, and there’s a lot of housing around here that Indians could use. So just – you know, I can’t speak for all the Indians in this country because I don’t know what they’re going to do. But there’ll be other steps taken, whether we are directly involved or it’s another organization.
KAMEN: Will you continue your nonviolent tactics?
Yes. We don’t have any plans to change our methods right now. We were getting further this way. This is doing more for our people because we’re doing it nonviolently, and the government is overreacting, you know, with their military tactics. And this just strengthens it right now with our own people because our people see we’re just trying to talk. We’re trying to stage a protest or demonstration about the wrongs being done against us. You know, and we’re just doing it purely to be heard, and our people recognize this. When they see the government come in and attack us unarmed, it only helps us.
KAMEN: And so the Alcatraz Indians are homeless once again. Meanwhile, the United States Coast Guard has declared a 100-yard ring of water security around the island of Alcatraz. The Coast Guard has issued a notice which says any vessel entering that 100-yard ring will be confiscated. And the United States Army has moved a core of military police into the deactivated Nike base to make sure the Indians don’t come back. This is Jeff Kamen in San Francisco. ~
SOURCE: All Things Considered