JOHN TRUDELL: Good evening. This is John Trudell welcoming you to Indian Land Radio, Indian Land Alcatraz Island on behalf of the Indians of All Tribes. Tonight we have with us Marilyn Miracle. She’s a 21 year old Mohawk. And Mr. Earl Livermore, the coordinator of the Alcatraz movement. And we’ll be touching lightly on a visit from Mr. Robert Robertson. He’s the executive director of the National Council on Indian Opportunities. He met with us on the island yesterday and this morning, and we will have a further meeting with him Thursday morning, I believe.
Well, first of all a little bit has happened since we were on Tuesday evening and I’d like to kind of bring this all up to date. Number one is that some of the papers in this area have released a story that we have been having a leadership problem on the island, and I would like to clear this up. Verify our side of the story. It’s the Indian way that we don’t have one central leader. We have a council on the island that is elected by the people. The people make all the basic policy decisions. The Council acts on behalf of the people. If there’s a major decision that has to be made, the council will take this information to the people in a general meeting, and everyone has an opportunity to express their opinion and to be heard. Then the majority votes on it and the council acts on this. And, as far as any power struggles internally on the island, I haven’t really seen any. We may have had a few disagreements here and there, but then when you’ve got one-hundred and fifty people living together, you’re lucky to get away with a few disagreements.
Also, Richard’s [Oakes] daughter, Yvonne passed away Wednesday morning. Richard is returning to his studies at San Francisco State.
EARL LIVERMORE: He will be working with the Native Studies program at San Francisco State. And if needed, he will come out and assist us. But right now, that program is very important to continue to recruit more students out there and increase their program out at state. I’d like to say within just a month we have been getting our council and our whole governing body structured. Underneath the council is the coordinator. And, I will have to eventually have two assistants. We’re working to line up a board of trustees of all Indian people. These are people that will be coming from different parts of the country that are perhaps in the education field. And also we have a national ad-hoc committee. These are to get non-Indian support. And we also have our various committees, which breaks down into health security, education, research, ways and means, food supply and transportation. And then we have administration. So we have a number of programs that are going on, on the island. Such as our clinic and our radio station and our school system. So I think we’ve accomplished a great deal within just a month. Even getting our bylaws and our Constitution developed.
So I think we’re a little more united than people give us credit for. And this is why I did want to clear up this deal about a leadership problem on the island, and internal struggle. There are no struggles on the island. There is one big one, but it’s not against each other. This is against the government and our right to get the island.
And also, a bit of news from last week is that we are incorporating.
Yes, we are incorporating and the papers will be sent on to Sacramento shortly. And this will be incorporation in the state of California. Hopefully will be a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization shortly.
Right. It’s the Indians of All Tribes incorporated. A nonprofit corporation that will be incorporated on or about January 13th, 1970, in Sacramento, California. And we have an elected general membership for a 90 day term in office. This would be a seven-member board of directors, or our council. The council at the present time is Mr. L. Miller, Stella Leach, Dennis Turner, Judy Scraper, Richard Oakes, David Leach and Raymond Spang. Our Constitution and bylaws were approved January the 8th, 1970 by the general membership. So this has all been taken care of on the island as far as us getting incorporated. Our resident population stands at 150. 105 adults. 45 children. There are 24 in grades one through seven, and 19 preschoolers. Our weekend population varies. It fluctuates according to the weather. Our highest was a population of 700 on Thanksgiving Day. We have Indians from Alaska, Canada, the United States and South America. The tribal visitors on the island to date stands at 12,000. Our first invasion was November the 14th, 1969. There were 13 people in on this invasion. All college students from the Bay area. And then the second invasion took place November the 20th, 1969 with 89 men, women and children. And that’s about how it stands up to now. And as I mentioned a little earlier yesterday and today, we met with Mr. Hannon and from the General Services Administration and Mr. Robertson from Washington, DC. Mr. Hannon issued a statement today to the Indians on Alcatraz, and I would like to read that statement right now.
“It’s as regional administrator of General Services Administration I want to again reiterate that numerous and very dangerous areas exist on this island making it extremely hazardous for human habitation. There are so many dangerous areas that it is impossible to enumerate and post warnings at such locations. It is not economically possible to restore these areas to a safe condition. You and your Indian predecessors on the island have been warned repeatedly of such dangers by me. Such warnings commenced on November 20th, 1969, when you initially appeared on the island, and I have taken every opportunity since then, both on personal visits here and in press statements to keep all of you appraised of the dangers. It is impossible to convey this message to you individually because of the continuing personal turnover of personnel. In spite of the numerous warnings, several serious accidents have occurred. I must therefore again advise you that you are present here as trespassers. I further advise you that the government assumes no responsibility for your safety while you remain on this island.”
To get into his statement about several serious accidents. There has been a small mistake in this. They mistook there was an automobile accident, I believe, in Washington, where two people were killed on their way to Alcatraz. But the they mistook it for being a boating accident around the island. This is what I got. When?
Well, they were on their way, bringing in supplies to the Indian Center in San Francisco. And the accident place, well, in Northern California.
But it did not happen on the island. This is good. Also yesterday, when we spoke with Mr. Robertson, he said that his primary concern was for the health and safety of the people on the island. And he wanted to know what we had proposed. So we gave Mr. Robertson a letter today to take back to Washington with him. And it reads…
Dear sir, this is in reference to your request about some needs for the health and safety of Indian occupiers on Alcatraz Island. Our clinic needs would be standard clinic supplies, emergency hospital equipment, portable laboratories, bathing and laundry facilities, portable heater sterilizers, Coleman stoves and lanterns. Telephones are needed in case of health emergencies on the island, emergency utility repairs on the island, or families on the mainland should be able to contact Alcatrazians in case of emergency situations. [That’s a new word for me]. And transportation. Federal docking privileges on the mainland. A boat capable of carrying 40 people and supplies, two pickup trucks, emergency helicopter service and adequate docking facilities. We need maintenance men to repair or install plumbing, wiring, heating, stairway treads, install fencing in dangerous areas and saltwater pumps for toilets. And other needs are surplus food commodities, garbage and sewage disposal equipment, janitor and maintenance supplies and tools, office equipment and machines. A large generator capable of supplying electricity for the island. A portable kitchen suitable for feeding 200 people. Firefighting equipment, and recreation and athletic equipment. The above needs were discussed on January 11th, 1970, and approved by the general membership and the following council members present were Stella Leech, L. Miller, Ray Spang, Judy Scraper, and David Leech. We consider these needs important, but not as important as our dreams of an Indian cultural center on Alcatraz. Yours sincerely, Earl Livermore, coordinator of Indians of All Tribes, incorporated.
So we have shown the government that we’re willing to cooperate and willing to work with them. Although Mr. Robertson did state that he had no authority to give us a definite commitment either way, but we have started talks with them. It’s a small start, but it’s a start.
And this is encouraging. And we’ll see. We have presented him with the needs and they have their opportunity. They said that their administration would be flexible to our needs and now we have presented them with a small amount right here. And let’s see if they will come through and meet some of these needs at this time.
They’re bucking a big problem, and that is that they’ve got to do more than say the words or even more than put it down on paper, because we’ve had all the pretty words and we’ve had all the flowery rhetoric written on paper for us. And the government still seems to go on its way and do what it wants. So now I think they’re going to have to back up what they say with action.
Well, they had a task force here in the city of San Francisco last year. That was a National Council and Indian Opportunity. They gathered a lot of information which they have back in Washington. And I’m sure they have it compiled by now and perhaps even have some type of proposals prepared. It’s been over a year now and they’re still not coming forth with some of their promises. So we’re getting impatient. We’re not sitting back waiting for things to happen. We’re doing a lot of things on our own. But we need help. And certainly we have had a lot of assistance and moral support from the people in general. And certainly this is encouraging.
We need the moral support of the people. I mean, that’s about the biggest power we have. That’s the only power we have is the people that are interested. Politicians, I think they’re kind of indifferent. Unless it’s time to get elected. Reelected. We don’t have enough money to influence anyone. So what we definitely need is the support of the people, and a letter. Anyone that’ll write a letter to their congressmen. People in political office seem to sit up and pay attention to a letter. There was a gentleman telling me when I was in southern California that you can send petitions and they won’t pay as much attention to a petition as to a letter. Letters really worry them. So if there’s anyone out there, just write a letter. Get that letter in there and it’s a start.
Well, it’s time for us to sign off already. I’d like to thank you Marilyn and Bill for being on the show. You’d didn’t say much Marilyn, but it was an experience. I’d like to wish everyone a good evening. And we’re going to hang in here, and it’ll be interesting to see what does happen now that the government has made a move to send someone to talk with us. And we’ll keep you posted as everything develops. And so the program tonight was brought to you through the courtesy of the Pacifica Network. And this is John Trudell on behalf of the Indians of all Tribes wishing you a pleasant good evening. ~
SOURCE: https://www.pacificaradioarchives.org/recording/bb2314