Of All Tribes: American Indians and Alcatraz

In Of All Tribes, Abenaki children’s book icon Joseph Bruchac tells the stirring history of the 1969 occupation of Alcatraz by Native Americans, which established a precedent for Indian activism.

“Alcatraz is not an island. It’s an idea.” — activist Richard Oakes (Akwesasne Mohawk)

On the night of November 20, 1969—the end of one of the most tumultuous decades in American history—eighty-nine young Native American activists crossed the San Francisco Bay under cover of darkness, calling themselves the “Indians of All Tribes.” Their objective? To claim the former prison island of Alcatraz, basing their actions on an 1868 treaty that said abandoned federal land could be returned to Indigenous peoples.

Taking a stand on an island reclaimed as “Indian Land,” these peaceful protestors brought worldwide attention to the issues facing present-day Native Americans, as well as the centuries of unjust federal Indian policy. From award-winning Abenaki author Joseph Bruchac, Of All Tribes is the riveting story of the occupation that ignited the modern American Indian Movement and inspired activists everywhere.