Richard Oakes, Who Occupied Alcatraz For Native Rights, Gets A Birthday Honor
The late activist and Google doodle honoree stormed the island with dozens of other activists in 1969, citing a century-old treaty in claiming it for Native Americans. He would have been 75 on Monday.
In November 1969, Richard Oakes and dozens of his fellow Native American activists came ashore at Alcatraz. The little island in San Francisco Bay had lain dormant since 1963, when its infamous federal prison had been shut down, and the group Oakes led set out to claim the land as its own.
The Indians of All Tribes had a century-old legal between the U.S. and the Sioux and Lakota, which they said returned defunct federal lands to native people. They announced that, by the terms of this treaty, Alcatraz could be legally claimed as theirs.
