Alcatraz Is Not An Island
selected for screening at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival
January 19, 24, 27, 2001 - Park City, Utah
"Alcatraz Is Not An
Island"
Winner, Best Documentary Feature Award
24th Annual American Indian Film Festival
Millie Ketcheshawno and James Fortier
Executive Producer: Millie Ketcheshawno (Mvskoke)
Producer: Jon Plutte
Director: James M. Fortier (Métis-Ojibway)
Associate Producer/Historical Consultant: Dr. Troy Johnson
Editor: Mike Yearling
"Alcatraz Is Not An
Island"
2001 Taos Talking Pictures Festival Land Grant Award Finalist
Nationwide broadcast on
PBS in November of 2002
Check your local PBS listings
Also airing on the Aboriginal people's Televsion Network (APTN), nationwide in Canada in 2003.
Director James Fortier and Producer Jon
Plutte, with support from the Independent Television Service, KQED Public
Televsion, the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Mission Indians, and the
Bay Area Video Coalition have completed the re-edit of the original 70-minute
version of "Alcatraz Is Not An Island," paving the way for a slot
in the PBS National Programming Schedule in November, 2002. For more information
about how to sponsor a preview screening of the new 56 minute version of
this award-winning documentary on your reservation, in your community, Tribal
school, Tribal college or University AIS Department, contact Jim at 650-738-9105.
Recent community outreach screenings have taken place at the American Indian
Studies Professors Conference at ASU, Brown University Native Students Convocation
Week, the Wisconsin Indian Education Association Conference, Oneida Nation/Syracuse,
and more. Or contact the National Outreach Department at ITVS at 415-356-8383
or e-mail jim_sommers@itvs.org. Click
here for complete
press release.
Also go to www.pbs.org/alcatrazisnotanisland
for more information.
To purchase Alcatraz Is Not An Island go to http://ucmedia.berkeley.edu/new/newframe.html
The following information is not meant to be a comprehensive interpretation of the events leading up to, during, and after the 1969-71 Indian occupation of Alcatraz Island. Rather, it is meant as an introduction for those who do not know about the occupation, and it is a reflection of my direct involvement with the feature length documentary "Alcatraz Is Not An Island," and the short exhibit video"We Hold the Rock." Many more people in addition to those listed on this web page were involved with the occupation, some for a short time, and some for the duration. In addition to those people appearing on this web page, hundreds of others have been interviewed by Professor Troy Johnson, who has written several books about the occupation and is an Associate Producer of "Alcaytraz Is Not An Island." Furthermore, additional interviews have been filmed with many more people including: Dr. LaNada Boyer, Al Miller, Ed Willie, Adam Nordwal (Fortunate Eagle), Professor Ed Castillio, Shirley Guevara, Joe Morris, Belva Cottier, Tim Findley, Joe Meyers, and many more. For more information about the occupation check out these books: "Alcatraz is not an Island" by Peter Blue Cloud, "We Hold the Rock," and "The Occupation of Alctraz Island" by Professor Troy Johnson, and "Like a Hurricane" by Paul Chat Smith and Robert Warrior.
"Alcatraz Is Not An
Island"
The American Indian Occupation of Alcatraz Island
Turtle Island Production's James Fortier, in asscociation with Diamond Island Productions, recently was the Director, Co-Writer, and D.P. for the feature length film/video documentary "Alcatraz Is Not An Island," about the American Indian reclaiming and occupation of Alcatraz Island in 1969-71. Working with Producer Jon Plutte and Bay Area Indian activist and filmmaker Millie Ketcheshawno (Executive Producer), Turtle Island Productions' James Fortier recently provided production equipment and crews for several location shoots in the Bay Area, Boulder, CO, and Oklahoma. In addition, "We Hold the Rock" a short exhibit video about the Alcatraz occupation, was completed in July 1997 as the centerpiece for a new permanent exhibit on the island commemorating this historic event. Diamond Island Productions, taking it's name from the Pit River Tribe's oral narrative relating to the creaton of Alcatraz Island, was formed by Jon Plutte, Millie Ketcheshawno, James Fortier, and Dr. Troy R. Johnson, to exapand on the the short video and produce a feature length documentary, resulting in "Alcatraz Is Not An Island." A special preview screening was held at the 24th Annual American Indian Film Festival in November, 1999, and the documentary was then awarded Best Documentary Feature the following night. We are now eagerly awaiting word from the Sundance Film Festival for acceptence in their upcoming Independent Film Festival in January, 2000. Looking beyond Sundance, we are scheduling additional screenings for the Bay Area Indian community, and we plan to enter the film in the San Francisco International Film Festival, as well as additional Native American film festivals such as Red Earth, Two Rivers, Vancouver, Denver, Chicago, Montreal, and Toronto.This documentary is available for special screenings at Native American conferences, special events, and functions. We are also seeking sponorship to bring this story of Indian empowerment to reservation areas across the country. If you or your organization is interested in this, please contact Millie Ketcheshawno at 510-615-0603 or James Fortier at 650-738-9105. Updates regarding screenings will be posted on this web page as they become available. Go to www.diamond-island.com for more information about this powerful documentary film.
Background
Photo by Michelle Vignes
The Indian occupation of Alcatraz Island from 1969 to
1971 was perhaps the most significant event in the history of US-American
Indian relations in the post reservation era. What started out as a publicity
stunt to attract attention to the issues and concerns of the Bay Area Indian
community, particularly the problems stemming from the government's disastrous
Relocation Policy of 1950, soon escalated into a "Pan-Indian"
movement with repercussions across the country and into Canada. Nearly thirty
years later, many of those involved with the occupation, as well as Indian
and Non-Indian leaders and scholars now credit the Occupation as the catalyst
for change; a starting point for major events, protests, occupations and
legislation that would effect the lives of American Indians for years to
come. Beyond the story of the occupation's effect on government policy and
treatment of American Indians lies the more profound story of the "Indian
Renaissance" which took place among Indians themselves. For the Indian
people, Alcatraz represented a new sense of pride, culture, and hope. The
personal lives of many Indian people were dramatically changed as a result
of the occupation. Nearly thirty years later, the effects of these changes
are evident now more than ever.
Filming began on Thanksgiving, 1996 at sunrise on Alcatraz Island as 3000 Indian people and their supporters gathered for the 21st annual "Un-Thanksgiving Day" memorial/protest. The "Un-Thanksgiving" was sponsored by the American Indian Movement and The International Indian Treaty Council. Twenty-One years ago Bay Area Indian activists Bill Wapepah and Vernon Ketcheshwano organized the first "Un-Thanksgiving Day" on Alcatraz. Their intention was to honor the men and women who participated in the occupation of Alcatraz, as well as to keep the spirit of the occupation alive. Furthermore, the "Un-Thanksgiving" was a day to honor our elders and our ancestors who struggled against the European invasion of the Americas; as well as to press ahead with the struggle for justice for Indian people today. It is also a time to remind the dominant white society that the first Thanksgiving Day summoned by William Bradford in Plymouth Colony in 1689 was actually to celebrate the safe return of the Colony's men after successfully raiding and killing a nearby "Indian" village.
Today, Indian leaders use the "Un-Thanksgiving" event to remind
all of us that there still are Indian warriors fighting against the powers
and oppression of the white government; warriors like Leonard Peltier and
Eugene Bear Lincoln. Finally, the "Un-Thanksgiving" is a time
to tell the world that Indian people give thanks to our Creator everyday!
Grace Thorpe and James Fortier Photo by Jon Plutte
In January, 1997 Turtle Island Productions
traveled to Oklahoma for interviews with Grace Thorpe (daughter of Sac and
Fox sports legend Jim Thorpe), her daughter Dagmar Thorpe, Don Patterson
(former Director of the San Francisco Indian Center), and Wilma Mankiller
(former Principle Chief of the Cherokee Nation), as well as Millie Ketcheshawno.
Grace Thorpe and her daughter Dagmar spent several months on the island
during the occupation. Grace was involved with public relations; acting
as a liaison with the many celebrities who visited the island in a show
of support for the occupiers; including Jane Fonda, Marlon Brando, Dick
Gregory and Anthony Quinn. For Dagmar, the occupation experience marked
a time of personal growth and change as an Indian person connecting with
her heritage and culture in a new and profound way. Today, both Grace and
Dagmar are still fully committed to Indian issues. Grace has been at the
forefront of the "Nuclear-Free " movement on reservations across
the country. Dagmar is currently working with several Indigenous organizations,
including the 7th Generation Fund.
Don Patterson Photo by Jon Plutte
Don Patterson was on the Board of the American Indian
Center of San Francisco just prior to the occupation of Alcatraz Island.
Shortly before the island was taken, the Indian Center was destroyed in
an accidental fire. Don replaced the outgoing Indian Center Director and
began the process of finding a new location for the Indian Center. While
working with other prominent Bay Area Indian leaders, the idea of taking
Alcatraz as a way of focusing media attention onto the needs of Bay Area
Indians, and the specific need of a new Indian Center, soon emerged. Don
Patterson was directly involved with these meetings as other Indian organization
leaders, activists and student leaders from SFSU and Berkeley joined in
the discussions regarding Alcatraz. As it turned out, some of these groups
and individuals, particularly the students from SFSU, had already been forming
a plan to take the island.
Wilma Mankiller and James Fortier Photo by Jon Plutte
Wilma Mankiller was a student at San Francisco
State University when the occupation of Alcatraz Island took place. Her
family had moved to the Bay Area years before as part of the Relocation
Program. In her biography, Wilma states that her life drastically changed
after moving from the Cherokee Nation Reservation to San Francisco. Like
many Relocation participants, her family soon found themselves living in
the Mission District, cut off from promised BIA support and far removed
from their Native culture. As a teenager Wilma was rebellious towards her
parents and indifferent towards school and other social activities. It was
the Indian Center in the Mission District and one volunteer there in particular
who began to steer Wilma towards SFSU. Then came the occupation of Alcatraz.
Her sister and brother both immediately went to the island and took up residence
there. For Wilma, the occupation was an event that changed her life as an
Indian Woman. After receiving a degree she eventually returned to the Cherokee
Nation in Oklahoma. She entered Tribal Politics and after serving as Assistant
PrincipalChief she was elected as the first Woman to be Principal Chief
of the Cherokee Nation.
Millie Ketcheshawno Photo by James Fortier
Executive Producer Millie Ketcheshawno was also interviewed to recount
her experiences moving to the Bay Area as a participant in the Relocation
Program of the 1950s as well as her involvement in the occupation of Alcatraz
Island. As the Secretary of BANAC (Bay Area Native American Council) Millie
participated in meetings and discussions regrading Alcatraz prior to and
during the occupation. Her late husband, Vernon Ketcheshawno, was one of
the originators of the "Un-Thanksgiving Day" memorial/protest
on Alcatraz over 21 years ago. Millie went on to continue her education
where she attended Berkeley's Film Program. Today, she is still very much
involved with Bay Area Indian affairs as well as a filmmaker. She recently
worked with Peter Bratt on his ground-breaking film "Follow Me Home."
John Trudell speaks to the press during the occupation, and during our interview.
Photos by Michelle Vignes and Jon Plutte
An Interview with John Trudell
John Trudell, who came to the island shortly after the occupation
began, soon emerged as media spokesman for the occupiers of Alcatraz. He
also was known as "the voice of Alcatraz" due to his regular radio
program "Radio Free Alcatraz," which was broadcast from Berkeley
and Los Angeles. John eventually was directly involved with the negotiations
between the occupiers, known as Indians of All Tribes, Inc. and the federal
government. After Alcatraz, John Trudell joined the American Indian Movement
and became their first National Field Director. John worked with AIM throughout
the turbulent 1970s, during such notable events as the Trail of Broken Treaties,
the occupation of the BIA building in Washington, D.C., the occupation of
Wounded Knee and the FBI assault on the Jumping Bull compound at Pine Ridge.
Today, John Trudell's passionate voice for The People can be heard through
his poetry and music. John agreed to be interviewed for this documentary
and the interview was shot in the Bay Area in the Spring of 1997.
Vine Deloria Jr. Phot
o by James Fortier
Vine Deloria Jr. is recognized as one of today's leading Native American
spokesmen. He has been executive director of the National Congress of American
Indians and a member of the National Office for Rights of the Indigent.
He is a practicing lawyer and is currently a professor at the University
of Colorado, Boulder, at the Center for Native American Studies. He is the
author of the seminal Indian Rights manifesto "Custer Died for Your
Sins," as well as "The Trail of Broken Treaties," "God
is Red," and "Red Earth, White Lies." In his foreword for
Adam Fortunate Eagle's book "Alcatraz! Alcatraz!" Deloria writes,
" Like the latter occupation of Wounded knee, the whole story of Alcatraz
is composed of many memories of people who were involved. Taken together,
they represent a mosiac of the times-- more importantly, our youth and coming
of age in a post-industrial society--although we didn't understand it at
the time. Alcatraz could not happen today because American society has lost
its sense of outrage and its perennial optimism that things can be fixed
and made better. We should all mourn the loss of our innocence in that sense."
Robert Warrio
r Photo by
James Fortier
Robert Warrior, Osage co-author of "Like a Hurricane: The Indian Movement From Alcatraz to Wounded Knee" was recently interviewed for this documentary. Warrior is an English Professor at Stanford University. "Like a Hurricane" is an historical account of the "Red Power" Indian activism movement of the late 1960s and 1970s. The Alcatraz occupation is an integral part of that movement according to Warrior and co-author Paul Chat Smith.
Darryl "Babe" Wilson Photo by James Fortier
Darryl "Babe" Wilson is a writer, storyteller and professor.
A member of the Pit River Tribe (Achoma'Wi/Atsuge'Wi) in Northern California,
Darryl recently earned his doctorate degree and is now teaching Native American
studies courses at Cal State Hayward. For this documentary, Darryl retold
the story of "Diamond Island," his people's oral story of how
Alcatraz Island contained a "truth" that shined like a diamond,
and how this "truth" or jewel was once recovered but then lost
by the people of Pit River. Darryl also spoke on camera of the history of
the island from a Northern California Native American perspective, as well
as the incidents of Northern California Indians, and Indians from as far
away as the Hopi reservation being "shipped" to Alcatraz as prisoners
when the island was a military prison at the turn of the century.
Denise Quitiquit Photo by James Fortier
Denise Quitiquit was one of many Bay Area Native American Women who came to Alcatraz quickly after hearing news of the occupation. Reflecting the cultural gender roles of many Native Tribes, Indian woman took part in the occupation as organizers, workers, leaders, and vocal supporters. Many people credit the "women of Alcatraz" as the backbone of the occupation. Denise relates her experience growing up in a predominantly white setting in Northern California where she experienced firsthand the negative effects of anti-Indian racism. As a young college student, she quickly joined in the occupation, moving to the island and devoting months of her life to the cause. Today, Denise is still active in Native Amerian rights struggles and community affairs and activism.
James Fortier and M
illie
Ketcheshawno at the American Indian Film Festival screening of "We
Hold the Rock."
The exhibit video, "We Hold the Rock" recently screened at the 22nd annual American Indian Film Festival in San Francisco. This short video, Produced by Jon Plutte and Millie Ketcheshawno and photographed by James Fortier, is the centerpiece for the new permanent exhibit on Alcatraz Island commemorating the 1969 Indian retaking and occupation of Alcatraz. Most Recently, "We Hold the Rock" was nominated for best documentary short at the 1998 Dreamspeakers Aboriginal Film Festival in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and received a Bronze Apple award at the National Educational Media Network awards in Oakland, CA.
Producer Jon Plutte with Wilma Mankiller & her husband Charlie Soap
Jon Plutte is a multi-media producer and exhibit
designer currently working for the Golden Gate Parks Association. The Parks
Association is a non-profit organization that works with the Golden Gate
National Recreation Area. It was set up decades ago to run bookstores and
help the Park perform educational functions, including educational exhibits
and multi-media displays. Jon's previous work for the Association can be
seen at Ft. Point, The Marin Headlands, Alcatraz, and at the nearby San
Francisco Maritime Park. Jon recently completed a permanent exhibit for
Alcatraz Island that will focus on the Indians Of All Tribes occupation
that occured there in 1969-1971. This exhibit will be part of the Parks
Service's tourist attraction on Alcatraz Island and opened in July of 1997.
Jon Plutte, James Fortier, Millie Ketcheshawno and Professor Troy Johnson
recently established a separate production company, "Diamond Island
Productions," to expand the short exhibit video into a 60-90 minute
documentary. The name "Diamond Island" comes from a legend of
Alcatraz Island originating with the Pitt River People just north of San
Francisco Bay. In the legend, the "Diamond" is a "truth"
that can only be obtained on Alcatraz. This "truth" was retrieved
by the twin Mouse Brothers and restored to the Pitt River People.
AIM Co-Found
er Dennis Banks Photo by James M. Fortier
Turtle Island Productions also recently shot an interview with Dennis Banks of the American Indian Movement. Mr. Banks openly discussed the history and formation of AIM; the "Un-Thanksgiving" memorial/protest; as well as the occupation of Alcatraz and AIM's brief involvement and moral support of the occupation. Mr. Banks also provided valuable insight regarding the legacy of the occupation; particularly how it related to AIM and events that took place in the years shortly after the occupation ended in 1971 as well as how the occupation was a springboard for Indian activism and pride. It is commonly misunderstood that the retaking of Alcatraz and the following occupation was an AIM organized event. As Mr. Banks states in this interview, that was not the case. AIM, at the time was very much still involved with local issues in the Minneapolis Indian community, and did not move out onto the national scene until after the retaking and occupation of Alcatraz by students and leaders from the Bay Area Indian community.
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