Number one, everything on the island is in pretty good shape. Everyone out here is in good spirits, good mood, high morale, the baby is fine. Quite a few things are in the news today, I guess. The number one thing was in yesterday’s newspaper, I believe, or on the news yesterday, about the government, Congress, has authorized the Coast Guard, or someone, to restore power to the lighthouse because of the pressure put on them by the unions, the waterfront unions in San Francisco, the maritime union. And that is really pretty strange, you know. All of these unions in San Francisco can put pressure on the government to restore power. But Indian people can’t put enough pressure on the government to give Indian people title to the island.
Pretty strange, kind of makes one wonder with all of the support we have. And also, one other thing on that, Congress decided that it was too dangerous for the boats out here, but maybe they didn’t care what we were saying on May 31st, when we said that this is our island, and they forgot to ask us about restoring power to the island. And the whole thing on this is, that the Coast Guard has told us that they are going to re-hook up the electricity out here, but that we can’t have any of it. Then I’m afraid that they are not going to put any electricity back out here. We are not going to allow them to put electricity back to the lighthouse and the foghorn, if we the people can’t have any of it. It is our island, so we will make them a trade. We’ll let them rent, or lease, the lighthouse area and the foghorn, if they restore electrical power to us and bring the water barge back. Otherwise, we are just going to have to hassle this out and see what happens, but that is only what is right. We are out here, we’re people, and we’ve got a say-so. That’s the way we see it. ~
SOURCE: Johnson, Troy R, The Occupation of Alcatraz Island, 1996.