Johnny YesNo: This is Johnny YesNo, the host of a radio program here in Canada. First let me begin by asking you a few questions. What is the population of Alcatraz?
John Trudell: I would say roughly around seventy-five people at this time. We lost quite a few of the younger people who had to go back to school at the beginning of the quarter or the new semester, and especially some of the young men who are of draft age and their draft status is kind of uncertain, so they had to go back to school.
What are some of the Tribes that are represented at Alcatraz?
We have Eskimos from Alaska. We had an Aztec from Mexico. We’ve had Seminoles. We have people from Florida, New York, the midwestern states, and I believe we have two men here from Canada.
I would be interested in finding out just how you people are surviving out there. For instance, how are you getting your food supplies, heating, lighting, and this sort of thing?
OK, with the heating, we don’t have any central heating at all. Our best bet is to find a warm building, if possible. Some of the buildings have fireplaces in them, so this would take care of the heating needs. We have a clinic that has a heater that we can use, an electric heater. It has to be used very sparingly because we do not have much electricity. A few of the buildings have electricity and the rest of them don’t have any. And as far as food, we received quite a bit of food-stuffs as donations, like canned goods. So we use these and we have to buy all of our fresh foods daily because we don’t have any refrigeration. Also, we have to buy the fresh meat and bread and milk and things like that.
How about the general public, the white sympathizers. Have you had much support from them?
Yes, the more they find out about what we are doing here, the more support we are getting from them. Right at this time we don’t have any enemies or people who are against us. The reaction from the white people that I have had is that they are eager to find out, find the answers to a lot of questions. But on the whole they agree with us.
I understand why you took over Alcatraz, one of the things you wanted to do was turn it into a cultural center. How was that thought of?
The cultural center would include a museum of Native American history. It would have an ecology center, a spiritual center, a free Indian university that would stress both academic training and vocational training. It would be up to the individual student. At this university we would allow Indian students to come and attend this school, regardless of age or prior education, because many of our people have not received proper education. We hope that once we get the question settled with the U.S. government about giving us the island, then we hope to go through private grants and even ask the government for money to develop the island, when they give us the island. ~
SOURCE: https://www.pacificaradioarchives.org/recording/bb545709-10