ALCATRAZ

I don't know how many of you have been to Alcatraz - but those of you who have can attest to the eerieness of the desolate, crumbling former prison known for its fairly brutal treatment of its prisoners. I can tell you that the creepiness factor increases tenfold when you are standing on it at 6:00 in the morning.
But I felt creeped out for just a moment - it was hard to feel anything but overwhelmed and mesmerized when you are surrounded by upwards of 600 people who are drumming, singing, hugging and laughing. A megaphone, held mostly by Dennis Banks would sound pretty regularly, trying to get things going and stay on schedule - the first thing was to get a fire going. ("Hey...let's get that fire going!") Suddenly a couple of guys were talking to park rangers about getting wood - I overheard the rangers talking to one another over their mics ("did somebody remember to get the wood?") - You know - the fact that we were even there was pretty cool - I don't know hardly ANY of the history between AIM and Alcatraz except for that back in the 70's several members swam up to the island and occupied it for about 19 months. So..somewhere along the way some negotiations must have taken place for ceremonies to occur with such cooperation (which is frustrating when you consider that Alcatraz Island was a ceremonial place for probably thousands of years - that they should even have to negotiate their way to ceremony is offensive).

In fact, I've learned that until 1976 - most Native American traditional ceremonies were illegal. Deeply sacred traditional dances such as the Sundance were outlawed. The American Indian Movement fought to get their traditional ceremonies out of the hands of the government. Imagine if someone came into church one Sunday and said - "you can no longer perform the sacrament. You can no longer light the menorrah" -- that's what was done to the hundreds of nations here.
The Sundance and other ceremonies are back in practice today - but I don't know how many more still need legal guidance.
To me, learning this makes the singing and drumming that I'm listening to so much more powerful; and I am so grateful to be a part of all this. That's all on that. Except to say that this is the kind of stuff I was never taught in grade school.