Nike Site - Extremely Eloquent, Therefore Extremely Dangerous

Alcatraz Indians: Demonstration for Land | June 17, 1971

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.

Richmond to Bill Army Over Indians | June 16, 1971

“The harder they are on us, the more determined we will become. We will stay forever, or until somebody throws us off.” ~

U.S. Puzzles Over What to do About New Indian Sit-In | June 15, 1971

“We’re not the stoic red man any more who can be counted on to sit and turn the other cheek.” ~

New ‘home’ for Indians | June 15, 1971

“This is good land. This would be a nice place to put a little cultural center and a free Indian University.”

“This is totally senseless. They have good housing here, good land. Yet there are Indians in this country who have no place to live.”

“I don’t see us peacefully walking away from here. We’re not afraid. When you get down to it, what can they do to us that they haven’t already done in the past.” ~

Band of Indians Seizes Old Nike Missile Site | June 15, 1971

“We haven’t got the other piece of land now, and we needed a place to live, a place to go.” ~

SOURCE: San Bernardino Sun p. 4

Ranks of Indian Invaders Grow at Old Missile Base | June 15, 1971

“This is good land. This would be a nice place to put a little cultural center and a free Indian university.” – re: East Bay Missile Base occupation

“This is totally senseless. They have good housing here. Good land. Yet there are Indians in this country who have no place to live.” re: East Bay Missile Base occupation

“They broke their agreement with us. We decided that if the government did take back Alcatraz from us we weren’t going to go quietly. We’re not quitters.”

“I don’t see us peacefully walking away from here. We’re not afraid. When you get down to it, what can they do to us that they haven’t already done in the past?” ~

SOURCE: The Press Democrat.

American Indians Occupy Nike Missile Site In San Pablo | June 14, 1971

JOHN TRUDELL: Kinda had to find us a new place to live so we figured this would be as good a spot as any. It’s a military base. Belongs to the Federal Government they say. They’re not using it. We could use it. We need it, so we’re here. To put it mildly, we’re pretty upset about the way the government handled the Alcatraz situation.

Ousted from Alcatraz and Nike Site, Indians Vow to Keep Plugging | Early Summer, (June) 1971

“But we’re not going to quit. We’ve been moved twice and we’re tired, but we are going to keep on plugging because we want someone to listen to us.”

“We’re talking about our right to live, our right to be people and this is how they respond. It shows that their attitude toward us has not changed.”

“We’re not statistics and not that passive Indian who keeps turning the other cheek. We’re not going to be the forgotten Americans any longer, either. We’re going to be Indian-Americans and we’re going to let the whole world know that we’re going to be people.”

“They’ve responded with shows of force. They’re trying to intimidate us, but we’re not going to be intimidated. They’ve always dealt with us with a show of force. We don’t want to get hurt but we’re not afraid of that. We’ll be back. America hasn’t heard the last of its Indians and that’s definite until some active, positive steps have been taken to relieve the conditions we’re talking about.”

“We claimed the island as our own, just as they claimed this country.” ~

SOURCE: Akwesasne Notes, Vol. 3 No. 5. P.7