Photos: Indigenous Peoples’ Day Sunrise Gathering commemorated Alcatraz reclamation

For 19 months in 1969-1971, a group of students and activists called Indians of All Tribes occupied Alcatraz Island (Yelamu and Ohlone ancestral territory) to protest to protest racist federal relocation policies, and to demand the land for an Indigenous cultural center. The annual Sunrise Gathering on Indigenous Peoples’ Day, organized by the International Indian Treaty Council, commemorates that communal action, as thousands of people sail to the island at dawn for a ceremonial bonfire, dances, and speeches—all broadcast, as is tradition, on KPFA Radio. This year, tribal members protested Governor Newsom’s vetoes of tribal bills.