On this day forty years ago, a small group of Native American college students boarded a boat bound for Alcatraz. Why? To protest the miss treatment of the Native population and the relocation, and dispersal of many reservations across the country. But it was also because, the site was sitting in ruins, nothing was being done with it, and the students believed the site could be turned into a Native American learning institution or a place for their spiritual worship. What happened next was truly amazing, for 19 months the group stayed on the island, aided only by small outside contributions.
"It's easy to pass off the Alcatraz event as largely symbolic, but the truth is the spirit and dream of Alcatraz never died, it simply found its way to other fights,"