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Thousands gather at `The Rock' to honor Native occupation
The circle of veterans that took over Alcatraz island 30 years ago numbered about 62.
That was in the morning.
By the end of the day, there probably were many more.
Thousands of people of all ages gathered on The Rock this past Saturday to honor the Native American occupiers that held Alcatraz from Nov. 20, 1969, to June 11, 1971.
But many of the veterans of the takeover were there to renew friendships and remind everyone that the struggle for Native American rights, religious freedom and the honoring of treaties by the federal government continues.
Most of the occupiers were grey haired and seasoned veterans of other Native American "campaigns."
Lenny Foster, who is director of the Navajo Nation Prison Project in Window Rock, said he hitchhiked to Alcatraz from Ft. Collins, Colo., where he was a college student.
Foster spent two weeks on the island during his Christmas break when he was a junior. "I was on 20-years-old, a young college student. I was on a spiritual journey - looking to find myself," he said.
Alcatraz became his "catalyst" for his involvement in the American Indian Movement and other Native American "campaigns" from 1969 to 1978, Foster remembered.
The campaigns that Foster spoke of were the 1972 Trail of Broken Treaties, which lead to the takeover of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington, D.C.; the 1978 Longest Walk and the 1973 occupation of Wounded Knee, Foster said.
He said his work for religious freedom for Native Americans, including American's political prisoner, Leonard Peltier, incarcerated in federal and state prisons is an "extension" of the vision of Alcatraz.
Foster conceded that there are people - Native American and non Native American - that will remember the negative side of the Alcatraz occupation.
But for him...