An Obsession Going Wrong: An Indigenous Response To The Alcatraz Obsession
In this article, I discuss the complicated current discourse about Alcatraz and the neglect of Native history and relevance to this location.
The obsession of the current administration with the term “Alcatraz” is devoid of the relevant and complete history and knowledge of the term, era, and location. using this term as a symbol of oppression, the current administration is demonstrating its inability and unwillingness to cooperate, recognize, and support contemporary Native Peoples. Taking this term out of context, repeating it as a representation of dominance, and self-praising this usage for voter support is a disgrace on all levels. The mishandling of the term Alcatraz is a clear erasure of Native history, cultures, self-determination, and sovereignty.
Even with this bastardization of tribal contemporary history, there is a way to move forward in collaboration. This movement, however, requires input from all actors with credible knowledge and justice of the composite history of Alcatraz Island. The dialogue thus far has been one-directional. To progress as a civil nation of nations, all voices must be included.
First There’s This
Noem stated, “‘Alligator Alcatraz’ to serve as model for detention centers nationwide” (The Hill, August 4).
Contextualize how this detention center is working against human rights. To start, the conditions are less than humane. The Hill notes these as,
“Built in just a matter of days, the facility uses soft-side tents with chain-link fences to create cells that separate units of bunks. Detainees have complained of maggot-filled food, flooding floors, insects everywhere, and poorly functioning air conditioning” (The Hill, August 4).
Contrasting this with the acceptance of such conditions by the GOP,
“GOP voices have boasted of the difficulty of the terrain, with scorching temperatures and swampland that is home to alligators and snakes. Noem told CBS that similar sites are under consideration in Arizona, Nebraska and Louisiana” (The Hill, August 4).
The location is another concern. Centered on tribal traditional lands of the Miccosukee and Seminole nations, the area is not deserted, as Secretary Noem states.
“Alligator Alcatraz, built near the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in a 30 square mile area otherwise surrounded by the Everglades, has come under fire for poor conditions” (The Hill, August 4).
The inexpensive structure conditions and a fast turnover of detainees allow for a capacity of up to 100,000 detainees.
“The facilities are cheaper than those available through private contractors and the hope is to have migrants in the facilities — and quickly deported — within days, ‘facilitating quick turnarounds.’ They’re all strategically designed to make sure that people are in beds for less days,” Noem said. “It can be much more efficient once they get their hearings, due process, paperwork” (The Hill, August 4).
Basing the progress of these detention centers on a one-year contract, rather than the 15-year private company contracts historically signed, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is reaping the fiscal benefits of the Big Beautiful Bill, which is pushing this format forward. If the areas proposed, Arizona, Nebraska, and Louisiana, the question to ask is, “Will these detention centers be on other tribal lands?” Marginal reporting on the accuracy of these lands and the relationship to the incumbent tribes is disturbing and, I argue, helps fuel the misunderstanding of these lands.
For most Americans, Native Peoples are a relic of the Wild West; a person who is either fully assimilated, no longer living, or living on a reservation well outside of interference of modern society. All of these could be no further from the truth. Yet, without credible, accurate, and sustainable reporting to the large American society about the inclusion of this detention center on tribal lands, the potential growth of other detention centers will remain challenged by immigration activists, not tribal agents and tribal members. The expansion of Alligator Alcatraz presents multiple concerns rather than a single solution.
Then There’s This
“Reopen Alcatraz? Indigenous people say it’s more than madness — it’s historical erasure” (The Guardian, August 2).
Alcatraz Island lost its federal status as a maximum security penitentiary in 1963. The island was to become the site of the longest single Native occupation, ranging 19 months from November 1969 to June 1971. The island was occupied by multiple tribal nations and the American Indian Movement. The occupation of Alcatraz Island remains a signifier of the start of the American Indian civil rights movement, the Red Power Movement. This history is still largely unknown to the large American public.
“[They want to use it as a] place to commit inhumane violence against people who are here trying to escape violence, […] It’s very retraumatizing. It wasn’t that long ago that we were violently displaced and put in camps. We see this as a repeat of that history” (April McGill (Yuki and Wappo), qtd in the Guardian, August 2).
The lack of knowledge about the Red Power Movement, the importance of Alcatraz Island, and accurate Native history in general are all points in favor of the current administration to frame an argument for reopening Alcatraz as an immigrant detention facility. This lack of information is supported by the American pop culture psychology, where the American Indian remains a figure of history, absent from any contemporary context. This starting point gives leverage to the administration in gathering support for this issue.
Contrary to the point are the living Native communities in the Bay Area, where Alcatraz Island is situated. Knowing this history, supporting the cause and the outcomes from the Alcatraz occupation is central to Native People in the Bay Area. An inter-tribal collective that first “took over” the island, Native activists are following this heritage. Better equipped with attorneys, legal knowledge, and far-ranging supporters, Natives in the immediate area are prepared to do what is necessary to protect the island, which is protecting the history and integrity of Native self-determination and sovereignty (April McGill, qtd in the Guardian, August 2).
“It holds a really personal, deep place…[i]t symbolizes so much of our history” (April McGill, qtd in the Guardian, August 2).
“[T]he notion of using the site to pursue the president’s anti-immigrant agenda hearkens back to the state’s history of violence against Indigenous groups — and that any actions the administration takes will be met with pushback from the community” (The Guardian, August 2).
The voice comes from support for the integrity of tribal history. This is outside the fulfillment of the contracts and agreements. The obligation of the federal government to tribal nations was put into action in the early 19th century. The issue of Alcatraz Island remains mysterious to most and a dream to others.
“[I]f the administration moves forward with reopening the island as a prison, the community is prepared to fight back…We’ll see communities gather again…We have attorneys, [we have] movement-building organizations in California who will organize and work in lockstep” (Virginia Hedrick (Yurok), executive director of the California Consortium for Urban Indian Health, qtd in the Guardian, August 2).
“The federal government is proposing rebuilding, resurrecting a prison, estimated to cost hundreds of millions of dollars, while continuing to overlook the Ohlone people,”…“That is complete Indigenous erasure right there” (qtd in The Political Wire, August 4).
The renovation cost has been estimated at $2billion. Tribal agencies in the immediate area have been working for decades on the physical plane, while children were growing, the community would go to battle for securing self-determination and tribal sovereignty.
“It was in response to the occupation that President Richard Nixon shifted the federal policy on Native treaties from 'termination' to one of 'self-determination' for Native peoples” (The Guardian, August 4).
A misallocation of funds away from tribal agencies, but an allocation of funds to an already engrossed federal agency is another issue. Compiled together, America’s pop cultural stereotype of the American Indian, a proposed reopening of a facility with the intent to cause harm and punishment in inhumane conditions, knowingly removal of funding from Native people to federal agencies, and a continued use of the term “Alcatraz” to secure a biased narrative against immigrants while erasing Native history are the total of how unjust is this movement to reopen Alcatraz as a detention center is to Native People.
Is There A Solution?
Taking advantage of the opportunity that this issue presents, it would be useful for American media and educational centers to provide credible, accurate, and informative content on the history of Alcatraz. Sidestepping simplistic journalism, providing the depth and full history of Alcatraz, which includes the tribal occupation, is necessary. As of the present, those visiting Alcatraz as part of the National Parks Service are only marginally introduced to the history of Alcatraz Island, despite the mandate from the State of California to include the occupation as part of the display.
Updating and making the history of Alcatraz Island known is a vital first step. Further, lawmakers are challenged to contextualize this history with the current tribal experiences of the Native nations that recognize the site of Alligator Alcatraz as their homeland and traditional territory. Lawmakers who avoid this information or do not make it a viable foundation of their argument are turning a blind eye to tribal self-determination and sovereignty, thus providing an additional erasure level to this matter. This point should not have to be stated as a primary point of articulation for lawmakers who are in opposition to the inhumane conditions of Alligator Alcatraz. The stated atrocities in this region have been an ongoing issue, with variation, for the local tribes, Miccosukee and Seminole nations, without credible addressing. This is the opportunity for federal agencies and lawmakers to correct ongoing historic wrongs for these tribes. In doing so, the federal government will be complying with the instituted rights of self-determination, support, and acknowledgment of tribal sovereignty. This is not a paradigm shift in policy; it’s a mandated, Congressional bipartisan-supported confirmation with historic precedence.
Contrary to popular opinion, there are avenues to intersect and correct the wrongs seen in Alligator Alcatraz. The neglect of these opportunities is a visible response from the current administration that the West was won, and the Indian is dead. Coupled with an inhumane and highly questionable immigrant legislation, presented in recent violent outbursts, and unethical practices, the government is qualifying Native tribes in this same vernacular, which is against the nation-to-nation status. If there is any resolution to this matter, it must begin with an accurate historical representation of the meaning of Alcatraz, including the occupation by tribes of all nations. Alcatraz is a metaphor of solidarity, unification, self-determination, and contemporary sovereignty for urban and reservation Native Peoples. The “Rock” is not only a visible definition of physical oppression, it’s the location of Red Power and Native civil rights. Transposing this term, “Alcatraz,” on a land assumed to be marginal and unused in the Everglades underscores the ignorance of the current administration on Native issues. The ongoing misuse and erasure of this matter for Native People further demonstrates how little the current administration is concerned with tribal entities. This is the only ongoing staple coming from the current administration: the inability to see humans as humans and tribes as living entities with civil rights, equity, justice, and sovereignty.
Alan Lechusza