Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
The occupation of Alcatraz started 38 years ago today
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.
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The UN sez Somalia is the worst humanitarian crisis in Africa
Some historical context, re: Somalia
Btw, a cyclone has killed more than 3000 in Bangladesh
Meanwhile, storm damage is still being felt in New Orleans
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(Image by RMJ)
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