Danver Steven L. (Edited). Revolts, Protests, Demonstrations, and Rebellions in American History: An Encyclopedia (ENG)
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The Mobe was a loose coalition of groups opposed to the U.S. military presence
in Vietnam. During the summer of 1966, the Inter-University Committee for
Debate on Foreign Policy, who organized the first campus teach-ins on Vietnam
in 1965, called for a national conference of antiwar groups to meet in Cleveland,
Ohio, on November 10 and 11. At this meeting, the November 8th Mobilization
Committee was created to focus attention on the fall elections and encourage sup-
port for antiwar cand idates. A. J. Muste was the founding chairman, coining the
Mobe’s motto, “What are we waiting for?”
After the 1966 fall election, the November 8th Mobilization Committee
morphed into the Spring Mobili zation Committee to End t he War in Vietnam,
undertaking a variety of actions to protestthewaraswellasaddressingother
social causes such as racial injustice. Accordingly, the Mobe supported draft resis-
tance and black liberation, sent a delegation to meet with President Lyndon
Johnson, and organized protest rallies, which culminated in the April 15, 1967,
massive demonstrations in New York City and San Francisco . In New York City,
400,000 protester s gathered at Central Park and, urged on by sp eeches from
Martin Luther King Jr. and Benjamin Spock, marched to the United Nations.
Following the success of these spring rallies, the organization changed its name
to the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam. On Octo-
ber 21, 1967, the Mobe gathered 150,000 demonst rators in Washing ton, D.C., to
“confront the War makers.” The crowd marched on the Pentagon, where they were
met by a heavy police and military presence and numerous arrests followed. Activ-
ist Abbie Hoffman attempted to provide some levity with his efforts to end the war
by levitating the Pentagon.
Frustrated by the war’s persistence, the Mobe moved from “dissent to resis-
tance” in 1968, appealing for large-scale demonstrations at the 1968 Democratic
National Convention. Following the confrontation between police and protesters
in Chicago, Mobe leaders David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, and Rennie Davis were
indicted for inciting a riot. During the 1969 Chicago Seven trial, these Mobe lead-
ers were convicted of crossing state lines to foment a riot, but these convictions
were overturned on appeal.
After the violence in the streets of Chicago, the Mobe’s influenc e seemed to
wane. Finding none of the major presidential candidates satisfactory on the war,
the Mobe proclaimed a boycott of the 1968 election. Following the narrow
victory of Richa rd Nix on, the Mobe organized a protest of his inauguration ,
which attracted only 10,000 demonstrators. In the summer of 1969, elements of
the Mo be reorganized as the new Mobilizat ion to End the War in Vietnam. The
following year, this group split into the National Peace Action Coalition and
the People’s Coalition for Peace and Justice. Although the Mobe’s impact
declined after the August days of the 1968 Democratic Convention, the
1028 Chicago Riots (1968)
organization drew attention and su pport to the causes of black liberation and
ending the Vietnam War.
—Ron Briley
Further Reading
DeBenedetti, Charles. An American Ordeal: The Antiwar Mo vemen t of the Vietnam Era.
Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1971.
Jeffreys-Jones, Rhodri. Peace Now: American Society and the Ending of the Vietnam War.
New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1999.
Wells, Tom. The War Within: America’s Battle over Vietnam. Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1994.
Zaroulis, Nancy, and Gerald Sullivan. Who Spoke Up? American Protest against the War
in Vietnam, 1963–1975. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1984.
Chicago Riots (1968) 1029
Alcatraz Island Occupatio n
(1969–1971)
The most visible Indian protest action of the late 1960s took place when a group of
Indians from many tribes occupied the infamous former federal prison on Alcatraz
Island in San Francisco Bay, remaining on the island for almost 19 months.
The inauguration of Richard Nixon in 1969 was greeted with some concern by
Indians, who had long-standing concerns about the Republican Party, as they had
whole heart edly supported the disastrous p olicy of “termination”—the idea that
even after the long history of broken treaties and promises, the federal government
owed nothing more to American I ndian tribes, and that they should simply leave
their own distinct cultures behind and assimilate into white American society.
The implementation of termination had resulted in the federal government unilat-
erally severing the treaty rights of several tribes. Many, however, were pleasantly
surprised that there appeared to be a genuine concern in the Nixon administration
in correcting the wrongs suffered by Indian people, and good feelings for much of
the year after the new administration took office.
However, all was not well (nor had it ever been) in Indian Country. Reservations
were in many ways the last bastions of American Indian cultures, but they were
also places of extreme poverty and des titution. The median family income for
American Indians was approximately $1,500 per year, less than a quarter of the
national average. American Indian life expectancy was a full 21 years shorter than
the national average. By late 1969, the pressures to protest began to grow again, as
young Indians watched the antiwar activities continue to escalate and saw the
other social movements gain general support and credibility with the public.
Indian issues did not garner the public attention that African American issues
had, and native leaders began to strategize ways to gain the media spotlight that
had so effectively been used by other groups.
In Octo ber, the S an Francisco Indian Center burned down, and suddenly the
Indians of the Ba y Area were left without a place to meet. A group of Indians
had been planning to capture Alcatraz Island, the abandoned former federal
prison, since February, and now with the burning of the Indian center, the time
seemed ripe. Nineteen I ndian students f rom San Francisco State University and
the University of Calif orni a, Berkeley, la nded on Alcatraz and spent an anxious
1031
night hiding from gua rds before being taken off the island. The incident received
much local press, and called many loca l Indians to action. On November 19,
almost 300 Indians, mostly college students, landed on Alcatraz, capturing one
of the most famous islands in America and demanding that the government
give them title to it. Federal authorities offered no resistance, and the caretaker
on the island told them that the old warden’s house would be the most comfortable
place for them to establish their headquarters. That night, a powwow was held to
celebrate their successful landing and takeover of the island. Over the course of
the next 18 months, some 5,600 American Indians and their allies would take part
in the occupation, some for the entire duration, others for only a day.
Although the movement stated that it was egalitarian and leaderless, the media
bestowed the title of “leader of the occupation” on Richard Oakes, a Mohawk from
the St. Regis Reservation in New York, who was a student at San Francisco State
University. Oakes certainly was a central figure in the occupation as he did much
of the p lanning of the takeover and was instrumental in writing the petition that
stated what the occupiers wanted, but he was by no means the only voice in the
occupation. He did, however, act as a spokesperson for the protesters in their com-
munication with the media and federal government representatives.
The federal government, for their part, did react by setting up a Coast Guard
blockade to try to cut off the island from receiving either more occupiers or any
supplies. Negotiators gave the occupiers 24 hours to leave, but the die had been
cast. The protesters responded with a list of demands that the federal government
1032 Alcatraz Island Occupation (1969–1971)
A group of Native Americans, members
of Indians of All Tribes, occupy the former
prison at Alcatraz Island in San Francisco
Bay, California, on November 25, 1969.
The occupation of the island drew public
attention to the plight of Native Americans
and resulted in significant changes in the
federal government's policies, including
improvements in education and health
care. (AP/Wide World Photos)
give the Indian people the title to Alcatraz and build and operate an Indian cultural
center and university on the island. The occupiers did their part to start the process,
setting up a school where Indian music, dancing, and arts and crafts were taught.
Though federal officials declined all of the occupiers’ demands, President Richard
M. Nixon was hesitant to take action to re move the protesters, fearing a violent
end to the occupation. So the occupation was allowed to continue and Indian
people were allowed to come and go and deliver supplies.
As their goal was to focus the national media spotlight on Indian issues, the
occupiers undertook activities designed to keep the occupation in the news. One
occupier, a veteran and college dropout from San Bernardino, California, n amed
John Trudell, began to broadcast daily updates that were picked up by radio
stations in both the Bay Area and Los Angeles. A newsletter was produced and
distributed across the nation. Celebrities who cared about American Indian issues,
such as Marlon Brando, Jane Fonda, Jonathan Winters, and the musical group
Creedence Clearwater Revival visited the island.
However, by late December, the demographics of the occupation began to
change. Many of the original occupiers, who were college students, left the island
to r eturn to sc hool for t he beginning of the semester. The people who r eplaced
them were older in general a nd less idealistic than t he youth of the 19 60s. Some
of the occupiers were growing resentful of the primary role that Richard Oakes
played in the media covering the occupation. To top it all off, tragedy struck when
Oakes’s 13-year-old stepdaughter accidentally fell three stori es to her death in
early January. Oakes and his family left Alcatraz shortly thereafter, and his leader-
ship was missed. By May 1970, the federal government cut all electrical power
and water to the island to force an end to the standoff.
The media , w hich had been instrumental in helping to create positive pub lic
images of the occupiers, began to change their tone as the year wore on. In June,
a fire destroyed the warden’s quarters, and occupiers and the government blamed
each other. The next month, armed occupiers met a C oast Guard crew sent to
restore the island’s lighthouse and foghorn, and an arrow struck a harbor tour boat,
leading many to the opinion that the occupation was becoming increasingly
violent. Though the occupation would continue for nearly another year, the num-
bers of Indians o n Alcatraz dw indled. By June 11, 1971, when a force of federal
marshals,FBIagents,andCoastGuardsail ors arrived to remove the occupiers,
only 15 remained (five of whom were children), and were in no position to resist.
Although the Nixon administration did not directly give in to any of the occupi-
ers’ demands, the Alcatraz occupation was important, as it brought public atten-
tion to Indian issues and spurred many other such actions by Indians across the
country. Many groups demanded the return of tribal lands. Groups held sit-ins a t
BIA offices in Littleton, Colorado; Chicago; and C leveland. In 1970, a group of
Alcatraz Island Occupation (1969–1971) 1033
Indians from different tribes reclaimed Mount Rushmore, which is located in the
Black Hills, one of the holiest places to the Sioux tribes. When inte rviewed long
after the occupation, Bradley H. Patterson Jr., a senior aide to Nixon, directly cor-
related many of the changes i n American Indian policy to Alcatraz, such as the
return of Blue Lake to the Taos Pueblo Indians, the return of Mount Adams to
the Yakama nation, the passage of the Indian Self-Determination and Education
Act, and the final ending of the federal policy of Termination.
—Steven L. Danver
See also all entries under Pueblo Revolt (1680); Pima Revolt (1751); Pontiac’s Rebellion
(1763); Flight of the Nez Perce
´
(1877); Wounded Knee I (1890); Trail of Broken Treaties
(1972);Wounded Knee II (1973).
Further Reading
Blue Cloud, Peter. Alcatraz Is Not an Island. Berkeley, CA: Wingbow Press, 1972.
Johnson, Troy R. The Occupation of Alcatraz Island: Indian Self-Determination and the
Rise of Indian Activism. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1996.
Kotlowski, Dean J. “Alcatraz, Wounded Knee, and Beyond: Th e Nixon and Ford Admin-
istration’s Respond to Native American Protest.” Pacific Historical Review 72, no.2
(2003): 201–227.
1034 Alcatraz Island Occupation (1969–1971)
Indians of All Tribes
After the burning down of the San Francisco Indian Cente r in Oc tober 1969,
American Indians in the Bay Area were left without a central place to meet and
maintain native identity. Like most American cities, the San Francisco Bay Area
had an extremely diverse native population, drawn from peoples and reservations
across the country, many of whom had relocated to America’s urban centers as a
result of the federal government’s relocation progra m during the 1950s. Heari ng
about the protests of the National Indian Youth Council against treaty violations
in the area of native fishing rights in the Pacific Northwest and the activities of
the nas cent Americ an Indian Movement in Minneapolis, Indians in the Bay Area
decided to take action on another treaty-related matter: the land that had been
taken from native people since the first arrival of Europeans in the Americas.
Some in the Bay Area Native American community had been talking about tak-
ing Alcatraz Island as a symbol of the land taken from native peoples since early in
the year. A disparate group made up of Indians from across the nation, the moniker
Indians of All Tribes seemed to fit both the makeup of the group and the large aims
of their protest. As Alcatraz occupier Peter Blue Cloud (Mohawk) put it:
Indians of all tribes, who were we? From reservations and urban settlements,
government boarding schools, street gangs or giant cities, plains, and desert,
horse people, sheep herders, fishermen of the coastal rivers, hunters of the
frozen north, we had come. Never before had the dream of Indian unity been
put into reality in such a sudden way as at Alcatraz. (Johnson 1996, 117)
On November 9, 1969, 75 members of the group landed on Alcatraz, most of them
leaving quickly, with 14 of them spending an anxious night eluding guards before
being removed. However, 11 days later, Indians of All Tribes would return in force.
Led by Richard Oakes, 79 members of the group laid claim to the island and began a
20-month occupation that would galvanize the Red Power movement nationwide.
Once they arrived on the Island, Indians of All Tribes issued their “Proclama-
tion to the Great White Father,” in which they detailed their goal of purchasing
Alcatraz “for twenty-four dollars in glass beads and red cloth, a precede nt set
down by the white man’s purchase of a similar island about 300 years ago.” They
then detailed 10 ways in which Alcatraz was a suitable reservation, by the standard
practiced by the federal government, in that:
1. It is isolated from modern facilities and without adequate means of transportation.
2. It has no fresh running water.
1035
3. It has no adequate sanitation facilities.
4. There are no oil or mineral rights.
5. There is no industry and so unemployment is very great.
6. There is no health care facility.
7. The soil is rocky and non-productive, and the land does not support game.
8. There are no educational facilities.
9. The population has always exceeded the land base.
10. The population has always b een held prisoners and kept dependent upon
others (Johnson 1996, 54).
The cohesiveness of the group was init ially very strong; however, when many of
the col lege-aged activists began to leave the island to return to school, they were
replaced by urban poor Indian people, and the unity of the group suffered. This
point became clear when American Indian scholar Vine Deloria Jr. (Sioux) went
to Alcatraz in the spring of 1970 to hold a national urban Indian conference, in
an effort to tie the occupation to some of the larger themes facing American
Indians nationwide. The meeting w as immediately disrupted by a violent argu-
ment between two of the occupiers (it turned out they were husband and wife) that
was indicative of the mood on the island, as different factions had split Indians of
All Tribes into those support ing and those opposing Oakes (Johnson, Nagel, and
Champagne 1997, 48–49). Although the unity of the group was disintegrating,
the occupation continued, as the point of the occupation was more important than
the existence of any single group.
—Steven L. Danver
Further Reading
Indians of All Tribes with Peter Blue Cloud, ed. Alcatraz Is Not an Island. Berkeley, CA:
Wingbow Press, 1972.
Johnson, Troy R. The Occupation of Alcatraz Island: Indian Self-Determination and the
Rise of Indian Activism. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 1996.
Johnson, Troy R., Joane Nagel, and Duane Champagne, eds. American Indian Activism:
Alcatraz to the Longest Walk. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 1997.
Oakes, Richard (1942–1972)
Born on the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation in New York in 1942, Richard Oakes
was forced to leave his home at the age of 16 due to the construction of the
St. Lawrence Seaway. Becoming a high steel worker, an occupation traditionally
1036 Alcatraz Island Occupation (1969–1971)
filled by Mohawks, Oakes arrived in San Francisco during the early 1960s. Marry-
ing a woman of the Pomo nation and enrolling in the American Indian Studies pro-
gram at San Francisco State University, Oakes was in the right place at the right
time to become an integral part of the nascent Red Power movement.
By the late 1960s, the San Francisco Bay Area had become the epicenter for
political activism, and the San Francisco Indian Center was not only a community
center and a place for newly arrived Indian people to find community, but a place
where plans were being laid for action to bring American Indian issues to the pub-
lic’s attention. Adam Fortunate Ea gle and others were planning a protest against
federal Indian policy, including the takeover of Indian lands and suppression of
Indian cultures. However, On October 10, 1969, the San Francisco Indian Center
burned down. People’s discontent began to boil over. At a Hallowee n part y later
that month, Fortunate Eagle and Oakes met, and the seeds of the Alcatraz occupa-
tion were sown.
Oakes rallied students from San Francisco Stat e, t he University of California,
Berkeley, and even the University of California, Los Angeles, which had a very
active Amer ican Indian Studies Center. After their first abortive attempt at taking
the island on November 9, a determined group of Indian college students and
activists arrived on Alcatraz at about 2:00 in the morning on November 20. They
would occupy the island for nearly 20 months.
Although the protesters decided to avoid any hierarchies, O akes was qui ckly
declared the “chief” of Alcatraz by the media, due to his good looks, charisma,
and oratorical gifts. It was Oakes who famously declared what would become
the slogan for the occupation: “We Hold the Rock!” Although not tech nically in
charge, Oakes played a large part in organizing the protesters for a long
occupation.
However, Oakes was not to stay on Alcatraz for the entire occupation. On Janu-
ary 3, 1970, only two and a half months in to the occupation, Oakes’ 13-year-old
stepdaughter fell three stories to he r death inside the former wa rden’s residence
that had become the headquarters of the occupation. Oakes and his family left
Alcatraz for good a few days later, and power struggles between the protesters
intensified without his uniting voice.
Oakes himself was only to live another two years, as he was shot and killed in
Santa Clara County, California by Michael Morgan, a YMCA camp manager on
September 20, 1972. Morgan was acquitted for the killing, claiming that he shot
in self-defense when Oakes attacked him, but many of Oakes’s friends have main-
tained that the shooting was politically motivated by Morgan’s opposition to
Oakes’s positions on Indian rights issues.
—Steven L. Danver
Alcatraz Island Occupation (1969–1971) 1037