Yimiao Wang
WL ARTS C145
Dr Alex Ungprateeb Flynn
Final Assessment
Through an examination of ten images from throughout the history of Alcatraz, from the first Native American who was incarcerated and executed in Alcatraz in 1873 to the reunion of Native occupiers on anniversary of the Native American Occupation, this exhibition aims to demonstrate survivor- centered agency as a radical approach for responding to “historical trauma events.” As the Native American Rights Fund argues in “Trigger Points: Current State of Research on History, Impacts, and Healing Related to the United States' Indian Industrial/Boarding School Policy,” the binary and linear understanding of trauma and healing “is itself steeped in arbitrary Eurocentric notions of ill-health and recovery” and “ignores the potentially lifelong process and struggle that some boarding school survivors experience” (2). The exhibition will also include the audio recording of Radio Free Alcatraz, a radio program hosted by Native activist John Trudell during the occupation. By showing the occupation's transformation of Alcatraz from a site of violence, incarceration, and oppression into a symbolic space of empowerment, community, and solidarity, the virtual exhibit explores the “future-making” strategy of Radio Free Alcatraz that emphasizes the agency and sovereignty of the contemporary Indian community and challenges the dominant non- Native scholars’ view of Indigenous people as “relics of the past” (Christen & Anderson, 90). All images and captions are attached at the end of this proposal.
Now, decades after the Occupation ended, Alcatraz Island became part of the National Park Service. The government’s attempt to turn Alcatraz into a tourist destination no doubt destroys the transformative and decolonization efforts made by Native occupiers. I went to Alcatraz several years before the pandemic, and the tour I attended did not mention the Native occupation at all. There was a small museum on the island playing a film about the occupation, but visitors rarely went in and sat there to watch the entire film. I read through an article written by Cassandra L. Secrease-Dickson, who completed her Indiana University doctoral project on Alcatraz. She described facing the same kind of challenge as a tourist and a researcher: “Why is it such a popular tourist destination? Why do so many travel guides to San Francisco mention the rock as a must-see attraction? Is it because of the prison? Al Capone? What does that say about us if we are drawn to such places, and more importantly, what does it say that events such as the Native American Occupation can't come close to competing with the Federal Penitentiary years? Are there other stories overshadowed by the twenty-nine years as America's worst prison?"
The first section of the exhibition will include photos of Native American individuals who were incarcerated for their pursuit of liberty, such as Tome Bowers, who was arrested during the Paiute War, and the nineteen Hopi leaders who were sent to Alcatraz for refusing to comply with mandatory boarding school programs for their children. The archival materials of Native activists early in history add more context to the exhibition to help the audience better understand the Occupation as part of the historic, ongoing struggle of Native Americans. However, addressing carceral violence specifically against Indigenous communities also raises the risk of reinforcing the violence by depicting Native activists as prisoners with no agency. As feminist researcher Hershini Bhana Young analyzes in her Keyword Essay, the presumption of being capable of making choices is a constricted perspective of defining agency. “Agency, understood as an individual's capacity for calculative acts, is embedded in the liberal conceptualization of the subject as one who is able to volitionally enter into social contracts.” Therefore, individuals who “fail” to fit into the category of capable, rational bodies to make choices are “not quite human and necessarily unfree.” This problematic notion of agency always collaborates with colonial curatorial and archival practices that victimize and erase Indigenous communities. Alcatraz as a symbolic space of incarceration contributes to depriving Indigenous people’s agency in that sense: they became prisoners who had neither choice nor freedom. To avoid repeating the narrative of incarceration and the tourist cliché created by the National Park Service, the exhibition will not be held in any of the cell blocks on Alcatraz. The remains of the Warden’s House will be an ideal location, as it is next to the main landmark of the island, the lighthouse, and it was burned down to a concrete frame with open windows and no roof during the Native Occupation. In one of the photos selected in the exhibit, the nineteen imprisoned Hopi leaders file in two rows in front of the lighthouse, watched by a guard. This photo will be hung on the concrete shell of the Warden’s house, where the audience can see the actual lighthouse through the windows. In this half-outdoor setting, rather than in the cell blocks, the photo will have more space to breathe and “escape,” just as in real life, those nineteen Hopi activists were finally released, and they continued to be involved in disputes with the federal government after returning home. A pencil drawing of the lighthouse will be displayed next to this photo. It was drawn by Elvin Willie, a ninth-grade Native student who was brought to Alcatraz by his mother with his siblings during the Occupation. The juxtaposition of the lighthouse in the 1895 photo, the 1970 pencil drawing by the young Native occupier, and the actual landscape at present will form a powerful conversation that makes transcendent generations of tribal people who came to Alcatraz for their resilience and their dedication to their people.
Fig. 1. Alcatraz Warden!s House, 2014, David Berg, https://fineartamerica.com/featured/wardens-house-alcatraz-david-berg.html.
Fig. 2. Hopi Men in front of Alcatraz Lighthoutse, 1895, Mennonite Library and Archives/Bethel College, North Newton, KS.
Fig. 3. "The Whiteman!s Lighthouse,” Elvin Willie (Paiute), 1970, Alcatraz Indians of All Tribes News.
For the second section, the exhibition will display historical photos taken during the Occupation. One of the major challenges in this section is the sources of the virtual materials. Most materials are taken and held by non-Native journalists and photographers invited to Alcatraz as supporters. For example, as an attempt to decolonize their tourist project on Alcatraz, the National Park Service launched a 50th-anniversary of the Occupation on their official website. They invited Native artists and occupiers such as Kent Blansett and Urbanrezlife to curate a virtual exhibit. However, all three photographers the National Park Service includes in this virtual exhibit (Ilka Hartmann, Stephen Shames, and Brooks Townes) are non-native, and the collection fails to name a lot of Native individuals in their collection. For instance, at the top of the 50th-anniversary webpage, they posted a video titled “Repaint the Dock Sign” with the following caption: “A woman paints the thunderbird on the dock sign during 50th anniversary of the Occupation.” Similarly, the photos in the collection are mostly titled things like “Unknown Occupiers” or “Indian Men/Women/Children.” Very few of the photos mention the tribes the individuals belong to, let alone people’s names. These photos are widely disseminated and used on websites, YouTube videos, and online articles, and they keep circulating with no consent from the community nor recognition of the individuals in the photo. Even the documentary “We Hold The Rock,” filmed by the National Park Service, uses the photos without adding individuals’ names and context, although they have the responsibility and capability to do so because they interviewed a lot of the occupiers and activists who spent days and nights with those unnamed individuals in the photos.
To compensate for this ethical challenge, I found the personal blog of Mr. Elvin Willie, where he reposts a lot of Alcatraz photographs in the National Park Service collection and tries his best to name as many individuals as he can recognize. The photographs in the exhibition will use selections of Mr. Willie's blog posts as captions to avoid the risk of un-naming. His description of those photos also forms an interesting power dynamic between the non-Native photographers and the National Park Service. For instance, he was in a group photo taken by famous photographer Art Kane. This photo was shown in an exhibit held by Criss Library's Osborne Gallery at the University of Nebraska Omaha called Not Your Indians Anymore: Alcatraz Takeover and Red Power Movement, 1969-1971. However, Mr. Willie joked about the photo in his blog because the photographer told the occupiers “not to smile’ because probably “he wanted the ‘noble savage’ look.” Another photo taken by the non-Native photographer Ilka Hartman has Mr. Willie’s mother, Rosalie McKay-Want, in it. He not only named each of the seven Native women in the photo, but also added context to the photo: “My mom, Rosalie McKay, brought me and my 4 siblings to the Island in November 1969. They all made sure people were fed, the living arrangements were made bearable as possible, and helped maintain as much normalcy for the families, children and fellow occupiers.”
Fig.4. Members of the occupation inside Alcatraz prison. Art Kane. In the front row, from left: John Trudell, Annie Oakes, Richard Oakes, Stella Leach, Ray Spang, and Ross Harden, 1970.
#Here we are for all posterity...a group photo of the Indian occupiers. I'm in the last row peeking over everyone (right center). The photographer from LOOK magazine told us not to smile. I guess he wanted the ‘noble savage’ look…lol.”
— Elvin Willie
Fig.5. Re-union of the Occupiers, Ilka Hartmann. From left to right, Sue Tiger, Shirley (Garcia) Guevera, Sandra Aguilar, Eldy Bratt, Justine Moppin, Rosalie McKay, and Cecelia Peppilion.
Besides photos taken by professional journalists and photographers, the exhibition will also display photos taken by Mr. Willie to invite voices from the community and offer an occupier’s personal look into the Occupation. To better contextualize these virtual materials, the exhibit also includes the audio recording of Radio Free Alcatraz because many of the individuals in the photos were also invited to the radio program or had similar experiences to the interviewee. Through the radio program, Trudell was able to reach students, activists, and supporters of the occupation. For example, Trudell always highlights occupiers’ sacrifices to be on Alcatraz. Many individuals chose to postpone their own education to participate in the Occupation. Jonny Bear Cub decided to turn down a scholarship to Brigham Young University to fully pursue an education revolving around Native American culture and history. Bernell Blindman had completed two quarters at Berkley, where he studied social welfare to advocate for his reservation and improve the material conditions for his community, but he also chose to postpone his education to join the protest. In one of his blog posts, Mr. Willie reposts a news photograph of two occupiers working in the kitchen in the cell block, which again failed to name the individuals in the photo. He recognizes the two women are Susie Tosie and his mother, Rosalie McKay-Want, and adds: “My mom was a student at UC Berkley at the time, and I was a student at Alameda High School.” In another episode, Trudell invited Grace Thorphe to talk about her experience as a public relations correspondent for the occupation. To take on this position, she had to leave her life in Arizona, and she states in the interview: “I don’t feel that I’m really giving up too much. I feel that I’m probably gaining many things here almost every minute.” Mr. Willie also posted a photo of Thorphe that he took outside the Alcatraz Mainland office, the donation receiving center for the occupiers.
Fig.6. Susie Tsosie and Rosalie Mckay-Want, Troy Johnson, You Are On Indian Land, 1969-1971, UCLA American Indian Studies Center
Trudell: How long have you been at Berkley? Blindman: For two quarters now.
Trudell: What are you majoring in? Blindman: Social Welfare.
Trudell: Why Social Welfare?
Blindman: I would like to help Indians as much as possible.
—— Radio Free Alcatraz, 1969-12-28 and 1969-12-29, 2’16’’
Trudell: You were offered a scholarship to Brigham Young University, correct? BearCub: Yes, I have.
Trudell: Are you going to take it? BearCub: No, I don!t think I will. Trudell: Can you tell me why?
BearCub: I think I!d rather to go to school at here that will offer more learning of Indian Culture.
— Radio Free Alcatraz, 1969-12-30, 5’35’'
"Grace Thorpe, daughter of Jim Thorpe, and Marilyn Miracle outside the Alcatraz Mainland office that served as the donation receiving center for the Alcatraz occupiers. I forget the guy's name, note the start of the Bay Bridge in the background. I took this in the spring of 1970.” — Elvin Willie
Trudell: You!re giving up what you have in Arizona.
Thorpe: I don!t really feel that I!m giving up too much. I think I probably gain many things along the way.
— Radio Free Alcatraz, 1969-12-30, 5’35’'
Different from Mr. Willie’s blog post, which is a reflection on past activism, Radio Free Alcatraz records individuals’ ideas at the very moment of the occupation. This audio recording from the past holds the occupiers’ thoughts in their present, while the blog post in today’s present reflects on the past, which actually represents the future of the occupation. The radio program and Mr. Willie’s blog weave the vision of the present community of Native Americans into the narrative of the past and the future, breaking the linearity of the Western perception of archive and history. In the exhibition, a headset will be provided in front of every photograph of the Occupation, playing the corresponding clip from Radio Free Alcatraz. The audience can also choose to scan the QR code on the label to play the audio on their phone. Through photos, Mr. Willie’s description, and the radio program, the exhibition can provide the audience a non-institutional understanding of the Native Occupation of Alcatraz, compleleting the institutional narrative that the National Park Service conducted in their virtual exhibit and museum on Alcatraz Island.
In conclusion, this exhibition aims to provide a decolonial lens to look at the Native Occupation of Alcatraz as a radical response to events of historical trauma. To be consistent with the decolonial purpose of the exhibition, the description of each piece of visual material will be mainly composed of quotes from Mr. Willie’s blog posts and audio clips from Radio Free Alcatraz. I am specifically conscious of the textual component of this exhibition, because it largely orients the audience’s perception of the visual materials. Additionally, the effort of the Occupation to transform the symbolic meaning of Alcatraz was destroyed after the National Park Service took over the island. In order to be distinct from their tourist clichés that the federal agency tries to establish of Alcatraz as a place of dark mystique of colonial violence, a notorious prison that no one has successfully escaped from, the exhibition will be held in the remaining concrete frame of the Warden’s House to emphasize the Indigenous agency of the occupiers and their incarcerated ancestors, as well as highlight the existence of contemporary Native communities.
Back Row (left to right): unidentified; Polingyawma; Heevi'ima; Masatiwa; unidentified. Middle Row: Q tsventiwa; Piphongva; unidentified; Lomahongewma; unidentified; Lomayestiwa; Yukiwma. Front Row: Tuvehoyiwma; unidentified; Patupha; Q tsyawma; unidentified
Fig. 5. The Prison Laundry Building, Elvin Willie (Paiute)
#Here's where me and my brother along with our friend Ralph used old laundry carts and dollies to build go-carts that we'd race down the steep slopes of the Island. We had a ton of fun.”
Elvin Willie
Fig.6. Grace Thorpe and Marilyn Miracle, Elvin Willie (Paiute), 1970.
"Grace Thorpe, daughter of Jim Thorpe, and Marilyn Miracle outside the Alcatraz Mainland office that served as the donation receiving center for the Alcatraz occupiers. I forget the guy's name, note the start of the Bay Bridge in the background. I took this in the spring of 1970.”
Elvin Willie
Trudell: You!re giving up what you have in Arizona.
Thorpe: I don!t really feel that I!m giving up too much. I think I probably gain many things along the way.
— Radio Free Alcatraz, 1969-12-30, 5’35”
Fig.7. Picture Taken in the Apartment, Elvin Willie, (Paiute), 1969.
"Here's a picture of Linda Aranydo, Eldy Bratt, and Marilyn Miracle with Varushka, Georgia, Margaret (in the background) and my cousin Eileen (back facing camera). I believe that!s Nadya Bratt behind Linda, but I'm not sure. Linda was one of the original occupiers that first landed on the Island in November 1969; she's currently a doctor at the Native American Health Center in Sacramento.”
— Elvin Willie
Linda Aranaydo: "We have two sections. The academic part is the things we learn in any public school, and then we have the arts and crafts section. We have people who are willing to teach woodcraft, beadwork, and leather […] But we do need all kinds of material for the craft section right now. We do need more volunteer teachers, but that is
an internal thing here on the island. We want people to work with the children because we want them to have individual attention. Each of the children. I don!t like to make the situation formal. I like to just talk to one child and work for 30 or 40 minutes on math or reading.”
— Radio Free Alcatraz, 1969-12-31 and 1970-01-05, 21!07!!
(Linda Aranavdo is a Native educator who work on the school establish shment project on Alcatraz, which is part of the proclamation of Indians of all Tribes. This project included building a spiritual center, a museum, and a cultural training space. In this episode of Radio Free Alcatraz, Aranaydo and another Native activist were invited to talk about their effort to teach Native children Native ways and to gain accreditation from the officials in San Francisco to assure that Native students would receive credits for their time at the school on Alcatraz.)
Fig.8. Susie Tsosie and Rosalie Mckay-Want, Troy Johnson, You Are On Indian Land, 1969-1971, UCLA American Indian Studies Center
Trudell: How long have you been at Berkley? Blindman: For two quarters now.
Trudell: What are you majoring in? Blindman: Social Welfare.
Trudell: Why Social Welfare?
Blindman: I would like to help Indians as much as possible.
Trudell: You were offered a scholarship to Brigham Young University, correct? BearCub: Yes, I have.
Trudell: Are you going to take it? BearCub: No, I don!t think I will. Trudell: Can you tell me why?
— Radio Free Alcatraz, 1969-12-31, 1’30”
BearCub: I think I!d rather to go to school at here that will offer more learning of Indian Culture.
—Radio Free Alcatraz, 1969-12-28 and 1969-12-29, 2’16”
Fig.9. Members of the occupation inside Alcatraz prison. Art Kane. In the front row, from left: John Trudell, Annie Oakes, Richard Oakes, Stella Leach, Ray Spang, and Ross Harden, 1970.
"Here we are for all posterity...a group photo of the Indian occupiers. I'm in the last row peeking over everyone (right center). The photographer from LOOK magazine told us not to smile. I guess he wanted the ‘noble savage’ look…lol.”
— Elvin Willie
Fig.10. Re-union of the Occupiers, Ilka Hartmann. From left to right, Sue Tiger, Shirley (Garcia) Guevera, Sandra Aguilar, Eldy Bratt, Justine Moppin, Rosalie McKay, and Cecelia Peppilion.
"Some of the women that kept the day-to-day operations on the Rock going during the Indian Occupation from
1969-1970…They all made sure people were fed, the living arrangements were made bearable as possible, and helped
maintain as much normalcy for the families, children and fellow occupiers. There were many others too.”
— Elvin Willie