Richard Oakes, Alcatraz, and the American Indian Movement

Time: Nov. 27, 2018, 4 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.

Location: 228B Schine

Kent Blansett (University of Nebraska at Omaha)

Blansett is a leading authority on the life of the Akwesasne Mohawk activist Richard Oakes (1942-1972).  Oakes was a leader in what would become the American Indian Movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s.  In November of 1969 Oakes led the occupation of the abandoned federal prison site on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay.  The island was a symbol of the state of Native America at the time, dispossessed of their land, marginalized in contemporary society, they had been metaphorically pushed off the continent of North America.  The occupation of Alcatraz drew international attention to the plight of Native Americans and  marked the beginning of a decade of activism throughout Indian Country. Oakes was assassinated in 1972, but his legacy lives on in the political activism on Native peoples today from Standing Rock to Mauna Kea.

This presentation tells an important story with roots in a Haudenosaunee community that would have international implications. Blansett’s lecture corresponds with the opening of an exhibition that he has curated about Oakes and the American Indian Movement at the Ska•noñh Center.

Additional supporters:

• Native American and Indigenous Studies
• Religion

Scott Manning Stevens, Native American and Indigenous Studies