this was tagged “indian reservation.” INDIAN RESERVATION. i’m taking this as a sign that some basic education is in order:
reservations were created to corral Natives onto ever-shrinking allocations of land, which may or may not have been based on respective ancestral lands. they are a symbol of the ongoing colonization of Native peoples. the process by which Natives were removed from their lands and pushed onto reservations was extremely violent—millions and millions of people died, and Native peoples live with the intergenerational trauma and legacies of the reservation system to this day.
this photo was not taken on a reservation. this photo was taken on Alcatraz Island, a small island in the Bay (between San Francisco and Oakland). the island was originally used by the US government as a detention center for Native prisoners of war (taken from places as far off as Arizona), and later was used as a detention center for men who had committed crimes during their service for the US military. Following this, the island was used as host to the infamous Alcatraz penitentiary, until it was shut down in 1963.
according to federal law (Treaty of Fort Laramie), government-owned lands that are not being used or are otherwise abandoned become the legal property of Natives from which it was originally “acquired.” citing this law, Indians of All Nations seized the island in 1969—this photo is from the subsequent Indian occupation of the island. an iconic moment in US, Native American, & Civil Rights histories, the occupation would last 19 months. Natives from all areas of the Americas gathered to live on the island, and built communities and homes there. following the occupation, the US government returned lands to the Taos, Yakama, Navajo, and Washoe tribes (returned thanks to demands made at Alcatraz, re: Treaty of Fort Laramie). Nixon also rescinded the Indian termination policy during the occupation, and instated the current self-determination policy.
this photo is representative of one of the most treasured moments in contemporary Native anti-colonial struggle. it’s a true testament to the US colonial education system that the person who posted this was unaware of this event.
(Source: skylikesthis, via rosadefuego)
