US officials visit Alcatraz amid Trump's plan to reopen island prison

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39. ..After its closure, the island took on a second life as a site of Indigenous resistance. In 1969, a group of Native Ame

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/06/alcatraz-tourists-trump-prison-reaction

...........After its closure, the island took on a second life as a site of Indigenous resistance. In 1969, a group of Native American activists occupied Alcatraz, declaring it sovereign Indigenous land in an act of protest against broken treaties and systemic neglect. The 19-month occupation galvanized the modern Indigenous rights movement, whose legacy endures today.

“I think it should remain what it is, a national monument,” said Jacqueline Kemokai, a retired nurse from Tampa, Florida, who was moved by that history. “They’ve taken so much of the past away already and there needs to be something left behind to keep our memories going.”

Visitors view the cellblock during a visit Alcatraz the day after Trump’s declaration.
Visitors view the cellblock during a visit to Alcatraz the day after Trump’s declaration. Photograph: Fred Greaves/Reuters

It’s a history that’s alive and well for Morning Star Gali, a member of the Ajumawi band of Pit River Tribe. For the past 16 years, Gali has been organizing the largest sunrise ceremony in the US on Alcatraz on behalf of the International Indian Treaty Council. The events, hosted in November on Indigenous People’s Day and Thanksgiving, attract thousands of people, including members of more than 300 tribes from across the US.

Turning Alcatraz back into a prison would end the sunrise ceremonies, said Gali, who has been attending them since she was a child and got her name, Morning Star, there. For her, Alcatraz is a sacred site of Indigenous resistance and resilience. “Reopening Alcatraz as a prison would not just be an act of historical erasure – it would be a declaration that this country is doubling down on its most violent legacies,” she said by phone. “That’s where the first California Indian leaders were imprisoned, and that’s a history that’s still not widely shared.”