Pacific Free Press was launched in March 2007 by Dutch-Canadian Richard
Kastelein of V.O.F. Expathos, in the Netherlands along with Chris Cook- CFUV radio journalist and Editor in Chief of Pacific Free Press. Cook is based in , Victoria, British Columbia.
The site is a sister to Atlantic Free Press and Brick Ogden an American Expatriate in Amsterdam has been a key supporter of this project.
The mission of Pacific Free Press is simple: to dig out nuggets of truth from
the slag-heap of lies, ignorance and witless diversion that has buried
public discourse today. Pacific Free Press provides a new venue for
disseminating hard news and insightful, fact-based analysis of the
harsh realities too often ignored or distorted by the mainstream press.
A different kind of occupation - American Indians and Alcatraz Island
Until the notorious federal penitentiary was closed in 1963, Alcatraz Island
was a place most folks tried to leave.On November 20, 1969, the island's
image underwent a rather drastic makeover. That was the day thousands of
American Indians refused to leave thus beginning an occupation that would
last until June 11, 1971.
The 1973 armed occupation of Wounded Knee along with the siege at the Pine
Ridge Reservation one year later (which led directly to the incarceration of
the still imprisoned Leonard Peltier) are etched deeper in the public
consciousness in terms of recent Indian history, but is was the Alcatraz
Island occupation that ushered in a brave new era of Native American
activism.
"The occupiers," writes Ben Winton in the Fall 1999 issue of Native Peoples
magazine, "were an unlikely mix of Indian college activists, families with
children fresh off reservations and urban dwellers disenchanted with what
they called the U.S. government's economic, social and political neglect."
"We hold The Rock," proclaimed Richard Oakes, a Mohawk from New York. Oakes
became the occupiers' spokesman...and his words became their motto."The
occupation of Alcatraz was about human rights," said Winton. "It was an
effort to restore the dignity of the more than 554 American Indian nations
in the United States."
Over the course of the occupation, over 5600 American Indians took part-some
for a day, some for the entire 18 months. Twenty-three year-old John
Trudell, a Santee Sioux from San Bernardino, California heard about the
occupation, packed a sleeping bag, and headed to Frisco. "He became the
voice of Radio Free Alcatraz, a pirate station that broadcast from the
island with the help of local stations" explains Winton. "When he hit the
airwaves, the response was often overwhelming. Boxes of food and money
poured in from everywhere-from rock groups such as The Grateful Dead and
Creedence Clearwater Revival (who staged a concert on a boat off Alcatraz
and then donated the boat), Jane Fonda, Marlon Brando, city politicians, and
everyday folks." For the first time in modern American history, the plight
of Native Americans was making headlines.
The fledgling American Indian Movement (AIM) visited the occupiers and soon
began a series of their own occupations across America.Shortly after that
time, AIM would become a powerful multi-tribal protest organization... just
one of the many important outcomes of the long Alcatraz takeover.
"Despite its chaos and factionalism, the event resulted in major benefits
for American Indians," Winton states. "Years later, Brad Patterson, a top
aide to President Richard Nixon, cited at least ten major policy and law
shifts."
Some of those policy shifts include:
--Passage of the Indian Self Determination and Education Act
--Revision of the Johnson O'Malley Act to better educate Indians
--Passage of the Indian Financing Act and the Indian Health Act
--Creation of an Assistant Interior Secretary post for Indian Affairs
Even today, Alcatraz Island remains a vital part of Native American culture
as every November since 1975, on what is called "Un-Thanksgiving Day,"
Indians gather on the island to honor the occupation and those who continue
to fight today.
WOW , I is so good to read and know about Alcatraz Island and what happened there and the out come , I am sure there is much more to know about it , Thanks for this article. Wado! Thank You in Cherokee,
Writings 
Until the notorious federal penitentiary was closed in 1963, Alcatraz Island
was a place most folks tried to leave.On November 20, 1969, the island's
image underwent a rather drastic makeover. That was the day thousands of
American Indians refused to leave thus beginning an occupation that would
last until June 11, 1971.
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and what happened there and the out come , I am sure there is much more to know about it , Thanks for this article. Wado! Thank You in Cherokee,