Well, I guess there has been what you would call quite a bit of action going on concerning Alcatraz, a lot of activity somewhere. On the island itself, we are in good shape, we have quite a few people, morale is high, everyone is happy, so I guess we really couldn’t ask for much more than that. Well, we could, but we’ve got a working system going here and we are content with that. As far as the other side, now, we have been getting a lot of attacks, verbal attacks by Thomas Hannon, the GSA regional director, here in San Francisco. He is trying to paint a really ugly picture of us so that he can justify something that is going to happen to us, something that is not going to be too good for us I guess. I don’t know. We will see what happens.
We had an incident last week about an arrow being fired at one of the ferry boats that go by here, by the island, by one of the ferry boats. And we noticed that it got quite a bit of play in the paper. Mr. Hannon from GSA made a big to-do about it, and how dangerous it was. We would like to remark on that also. We admit firing the arrow and if we had to do it again, we would do it again. The arrow was fired because these people wouldn’t listen to us, and we had to have it happen some way. Every time these harbor boats come by the island, they come in close to the island, they come in twenty to thirty yards off. And these are big boats, and these boats leave these tremendous wakes behind them, which send the waves rippling out from behind the boat, and when our boat is in, tying up, these captains, these harbor boat captains, have no consideration at all. They just come in as close as they can possibly get, because they are loaded to the gills with tourists who want to see the Indians on Alcatraz. So these boats come in as close as they can. And when our boat is tied in close to the dock, this is dangerous, because we are loading and unloading people from our boat. If someone falls because of this wake that is left behind, if someone falls between our boat and the dock, that is it, you see, because these waves cause our boat to smash up against the side of the dock. It is damaging to our boat, and it is very hazardous to our people. We asked the people from the boat companies to stop it. We asked the Coast Guard to have it stopped. And then we said that we wanted it stopped, and nothing was ever done about it. So, we bought one forty-two cent arrow, shot it in the middle of the night, and that stopped it, and that is all there is to that, to the whole thing. I mean we are not out to start any, I mean we didn’t mean to start a general alarm or anything. But we are not fooling around. There has been a lot of talk about how dangerous it was to fire that arrow at that boat. Well, we fired that arrow in the middle of the night, when the boat wasn’t loaded. We could have done it in the middle of the day when the boat was crowded, which would have increased the chances of somebody getting hurt. We did it in the middle of the night. We accomplished what we set out to do, and that’s all there is to that. But anyway we haven’t changed our position on anything. We still want the deed to the island. And if the government wants to restore power to the lighthouse and the foghorns, then we want them to return our water. We will take care of the electrical part of it all, but that’s the way it’s got to be. We’re not going to allow anything to go on until we get our water supply back. We’re willing to work with the government because, last week, we told the government that we wanted the power returned to us and our water returned to us. Well today we’ve made our own arrangements for power and to help ease our power shortage, so now we’ve extended what we call a hand, and if they slap it, then we won’t extend it again, that’s all there is to it. . . . We’ve got, this is a July issue of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner and we don’t usually get into things like this, but this is something here, we know that we have listeners in Los Angeles, and we would kind of like to clarify this up a bit. It’s the headlines. It made the headlines. The headline is “Alcatraz Indians, The Shattering of a Dream” by Robert Schwartz. Schwartz said that “when I visited last Thanksgiving day, there were 700 happy men, women, and children on the island. There was feasting, merriment, and high hopes. This week I counted twenty persons, there is no electricity, no gas, little shelter. The proud Indian leader lies near death in a San Francisco hospital. His twelve year old daughter died in a fall several months ago. There are no more high hopes. Nine months ago there were high hopes and great plans. Incorporation papers were drawn up in January and filed in Sacramento. A newspaper was printed and distributed, a radio program carried the news of the Indians of Alcatraz daily to its listeners. A school was established on the island for the many children there, and a clinic was open seven days a week. Tragedy came in the form of a great fire that wiped out the warden’s mansion, and with it the best shelter. It has come in different form. Tragedy came in the form of death, when the thirteen-year-old daughter of the leader, Richard Oakes, the occupying Indian, was killed in a fall. There are several versions, she was sliding down a banister when she fell, she fell down some steps in the old guard’s quarters, she fell from the second story of a balcony in the main cell block, she fell sliding down a banister in the old guard’s quarters. Tragedy came when some of the water sent from the mainland was contaminated. Practically everyone on the island fell ill. And lastly, tragedy fell when Richard Oakes was beaten nearly to death and hospitalized in San Francisco. He was their president and firm leader. Despite the persons remaining here now, the island seemed deserted and lifeless, despite the fact that John and Lu Trudell will have their baby here, sometime around July 2oth, there seems to be a lack of objective. Perhaps LaNada Boyer expressed the thoughts of the group in a conversation held over breakfast while waiting for a boat to take us out. The original landing force, most of them have gone out to continue the work around the country. There are eleven areas now being occupied by Indians; Rattlesnake Island, Pit River area, Lassen Park, Fort Lawson, and the Washington state fish-ins. Indians there are being arrested for fishing, but under treaty there, Indians could fish there as long as grass grows and water flows. The fires on the island were started by self-appointed vigilante types and rich boats firing at us. We have nothing to negotiate, we plan on sending letters to countries all over the world to approach the United Nations for help. I don’t know what the man was looking for when he came out here really. He came out here with both eyes closed and ran into a wall. But we have a reply, and this is a letter that was written by my wife, and a copy has been mailed to Mr. Schwartz and any of the Mr. Schwartzes that might be out there and are looking at us through his type of eyes.
Mr. Schwartz,
It was only this evening that I read your article that was printed in the July 19th issue of the Herald Examiner. No, Mr. Schwartz, our dream is not shattered. Perhaps if you lived here you could see this. But then, the heart of a man is not visible. It might help to say that our newsletter, paper, is still printed and distributed, or that our school is resuming in three weeks, after a well-deserved summer vacation, or that Indian land radio is still broadcasting on Thursday evenings at 6:1 on KPFA and KPFK in Los Angeles, or that the clinic is still here, with visiting medical and dental personnel, or that Indians of All Tribes is still incorporated. You stated that tragedy has come to Alcatraz. Yes, the warden’s mansion burned and so did two other structures with it. But that was on the upper level where no one resided, and Mr. Schwartz, that was not a tragedy. If tragedy came, when supposedly contaminated water was brought here from the mainland, neither my family or myself felt this tragedy. Neither myself or friends felt this tragedy. The death of the young girl in January was tragic, as is the hospitalization of Richard Oakes and the events leading to the hospitalization. The Indian has had a tragic past Mr. Schwartz, needless to say, a tragic present. But we are here on Alcatraz, and Rattlesnake Island, and Pit River, to prevent a tragic future. This is our objective and if you could search our minds and hearts, that objective is there, even if it is not visible to you. There is definitely no one leader or president here, Mr. Schwartz, nor has there ever been. We have a seven-man council, but none are so-called leaders or chiefs. The leaders are the whole body, the whole population on Alcatraz, for without them there would be no Alcatraz, and there would be no hope. It would be good if you could understand that a diminishing of the population does not mean desperation, nor a lessening of activity, the vanishing of hope. It could be good if you could realize that we have not lost our chance, but are starting to regain it. It would be good if you could see our dreams, but you see only what you wish to see. Incidentally, Mr. Schwartz, the young Indian rumored to have committed suicide did not and is alive and well, and the day after your article was printed, I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy here on Alcatraz. That, Mr. Schwartz, is hope.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Lu Trudell.
As for us, I will call Mr. Schwartz a liar in the fact that there are more than twenty people here and more than twenty people in July. There were more than that at that time, and there have always been more than twenty people here. Maybe there aren’t 70 people here anymore, but we’re not trying to confine our people, we’re not trying to lock them up and say, look, you’ve got to live on this island, you’ve got to be this way because everything depends on it. They’re Indians, they’re people, they are free, and there are other things in the country to do, and other places that they’ve got to go and work, and as long as they are involved, and they are becoming involved in these areas, it’s—Alcatraz is here and it’s open to Indian people who want to live here and we’ll do what we can with it, and we are doing it. But it’s not the hope, the hope being gone. That’s not it, that’s not where it’s at. And we’re going to hang in there. ~
SOURCE: Johnson, Troy R, The Occupation of Alcatraz Island, 1996.