On March 9, 1964 five Lakota Sioux landed on Alcatraz Island, briefly claiming it as “Indian Land.” A more protracted occupation of the island by the “Indians of All Tribes” lasted 19 months, from November 20, 1969, to June 11, 1971, and at its peak, involved more than 400 Native Americans. The protest was significant as it galvanized the Native American “Red Power” tribal and treaty rights movement, drawing national and international attention to Native American struggle for sovereignty and self-determination.

In this virtual lecture presented as part of The Cultural Landscape Foundation’s Landslide In Action series, discover how the watershed nineteen month occupation inspired a national movement and how the event is commemorated on site today. (The program is associated with TCLF’s report and digital exhibition Landslide: Demonstration Grounds about public protest sites that shaped American attitudes and ideals.) Participants include Tina Bishop, a founding partner of award-winning Denver landscape architecture firm Mundus Bishop; Michael Boland, former Chief Park Officer of the Presidio Trust from 2018 until 2024; Matthew Connelly, Lead Park Ranger with the National Park Service on Alcatraz Island; Jonathan Jarvis, Executive Director of UC Berkeley’s Institute for Parks, People, and Diversity; Cheryl Haines, Principal at the Haines Gallery in San Francisco and founding executive director and chief curator at FOR-SITE; and Kris “Urbanrezlife” Longoria, enrolled citizen of the Caddo Nation.