From Publishers Weekly
When Native American activists took over Alcatraz Island in 1969, they drew unprecedented attention to the poverty and widespread disaffection on contemporary Indian reservations, as well as to the historic injustices perpetrated by the American government. Fortunate Eagle, a member of the Ojibwa Nation, organized the nearly two-year occupation, and gives a stirring account of the Alcatraz affair in this memoir. For much of the 1960s, Fortunate Eagle, then called Adam Nordwall, was pursuing the suburban dream: he owned his own termite extermination business and competed for bowling trophies in the Bay Area, where he lived with his wife and children. At the time, the Indian population of many American cities was exploding; in the early 1950s, the U.S. government had launched a program to lure Indians off of reservations with the promise of technical training and jobs, so that the U.S. could then buy up resource-rich Indian land. The inadvertent result of the policy was that many Indians, lonely and uprooted in unfamiliar cities, began to socialize and then organize politically. Fortunate Eagle describes his political awakening in the San Francisco Indian social clubs and gives a play-by-play of the occupation, from sneaking past the Coast Guard to the political fallout, which culminated with Nixon condemning the oppression of Indians and restoring millions of acres to various tribes. Fortunate Eagle's witty and impassioned recollections will be appreciated by anyone interested in American history or the political upheavals of the 1960s. (Apr.)Forecast: Native American political and social history is coming to the fore now more than any time since the 1960s, as academic and memoir work accumulates. While the debate has not reached Canadian proportions, look for some attention to this book along with Larry Nesper's The Walleye War: The Struggle for Ojibwe Spearfishing and Treaty Rights, coming in May (Univ. of Nebraska, $60 256p ISBN 0-8032-3344-2).
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
On November 9, 1969, 14 American Indians landed on Alcatraz Island, site of the infamous (and now deserted) prison. Their objective: to claim the island--based on an 1868 treaty that awarded the rights of "surplus federal property" to the Sioux--and to raise awareness of the rights of American Indians. Soon nearly 100 Indians joined the original 14, and Alcatraz became "a tribe of its own." This fascinating chronicle of the occupation, which lasted nearly 20 months, offers a perceptive analysis of an event that made headlines at the time but is relatively little known today. As the authors point out, the protestors were not fanatics; rather, they were American citizens making a statement through nonviolent means. The text covers some of the nuts and bolts--How do illegal occupiers of a government-owned island maintain supply lines to the mainland?--but mostly it spotlights the men, women, and children who saw in the Alcatraz invasion a chance to speak out to the world. A valuable resource for anyone interested in Native American history.
David PittCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
