The Occupation of Alcatraz

[David Flin]

Discuss this article from Jeff Provine here.

 

[Alex Richards]

There's definitely a more grounded feel to this one- the consequences feel very realistically 'small'- a concrete victory for the movement but one that in the grand scheme of things is likely in the category of 'odd tourist curio about San Francisco' rather than world shattering. Which is a nice change- it's quite fun to see something that acknowledges that you can do small scale little stuff and still make an interesting story out of it.

 

[Thande]

Definitely an interesting what-if moment I hadn't come across before and a good subject for an article/essay.

 

[FriendlyGhost]

I'll admit that I didn't expect to find this very interesting (largely because I only know of Alcatraz as a prison and thought the occupation would be by prisoners), but I was wrong. As Alex wrote above, it's good to read an AH which doesn't try to change the whole world. I can imagine that the vast majority of grievances for the 'Indians' would still exist in this world, but the university could have led to lots of small changes for the better; I'm imagining it as something like a Native American version of the Open University.

 

[Charles EP M.]

That's a fun one, especially the legal precedent for reworking other surplus government buildings.

(I had heard of the occupation before but - ever on brand - in the Monster Earth omnibus where a kaiju helps them win)

 

[RyanF]

I was unaware of this event until my visit to Alcatraz last year (pleasure, not business) and found the painted signage from the occupation still visible throughout. This included at the landing point and on the water tower declaring that the island is Indian land and promoting peace and freedom.