Word: alcatraz
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Sixteen months ago, a small band of Indians occupied the abandoned prison island of Alcatraz in the middle of San Francisco Bay. The act was meant to focus attention on the central tragedy of Indian history, the usurpation of their lands, and for a time it did just that. Then public attention began to dwindle-and so did the number of Indian squatters. TIME Correspondent William Mormon visited the remnant. His report...
...Indians who maintain the occupation of Alcatraz, life is almost as grim as that endured by the island's previous inmates. Many claim to enjoy the occupation, but they are admittedly deprived of even the minimal prisoner privileges: free food, fresh water, heat and light. Ten months ago, the Government cut off electricity and stopped running the island's water-supply barge. During one three-week period last fall the inhabitants lived exclusively on canned beans and water rationed at survival level. A boat was donated to the Indians by Creedence Clearwater Revival, a rock group...
...invasion force became a thoroughly disorganized society. Perhaps even more debilitating was the threat, real or imagined, of a Government bust. A sort of Castroesque paranoia set in; the "Alcatraz Security Force,"complete with special jackets and a "training" room off limits to outsiders, for a time was rude and overweening even to sympathizers sincerely trying to help. Though supposedly prohibited, drugs and alcohol became staples of island life. Petty jealousies simmered and bloody brawls exploded. One Indian artist tried to set up a studio only to be burned out by several of his estranged comrades...
...even now they are making unheeded demands on this society. Why not concern ourselves with their reality? Why not a documentary on the appalling conditions found on government reservations? Or better yet, a film about the growing numbers of young Indian militants, like those that have taken over Alcatraz? Why must we settle for Candice Bergen and Peter Strauss...
Would that the film makers had Chief George's ingenuousness or Hoffman's technique. For Calder Willingham (End as a Man) has provided a scenario that begins with robust rawhide humor, turns to profundity−and then collapses into petulant editorial. In the era of occupied Alcatraz, surely it is no news that the white man spoke with forked tongue, that the first Americans were maltreated as the last savages. The Battle of Little Bighorn, which should be the film's climax, is its weakest point. General Custer is pure Pig on the Prairie, babbling insanely...