The Occupation of Alcatraz is yet another example of the United States failing to adhere to treaties with Native Nations. The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 stated that any abandoned federal land could be returned to the Lakota. Once the federal prison on the island was abandoned, the government refused to listen to the occupiers and grant them ownership of the land. The government initially offered to build a park on the island but the occupiers refused since they wanted the entire land. Right now Alcatraz is nothing but a tourist spot, mainly to visit the prison. They get around 1.5 million tourists a year, which I am assuming brings in a lot of money. In 1972, a year after the occupation ended, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area was established, which included Alcatraz Island.1 This makes it a part of the national park system, meaning it went back to being federally owned land. I am also not sure if this is the park plan that the government offered to the occupiers. They said that their planned park would be for Native use.2 They were either serious or they were distorting the initial plan to make Alcatraz Island into a park, regardless of who could use it. The latter seems more likely as only a year after the prison closed, in 1964, San Fransico wanted to turn the island into a recreational park.3 Because of this tourism and plan for a park, the island again became a resource for the United States, which I think is part of the reason they did not want to return it. This echoes how other Native land was taken, stolen, or exploited for resources throughout the history of the United States.
My parents visited the island a while back and my mom remembered that they did mention the occupation and that the land originally belonged to Native Americans. I am not sure how detailed this was, but I did not really expect the tours to even mention it. It’s still upsetting that this island couldn’t belong to Native communities as a place for Native studies and education. Instead, it seems that Native history and Native communities are just presented as a side note.