Alcatraz is Spanish for Pelican

Forty five years ago on June 11, 1971, the U.S. Government forcibly removed the last holdouts to the Native American Occupation of Alcatraz that lasted 19 months.

This Alcatraz Island postcard shows the weathered and deteriorating laundry facility used when Alcatraz was a Federal Penitentiary. It was sent in for a pictorial postmark dated on August 8, 2015 at Alcatraz Island Station in San Francisco, CA that commemorated the 81st anniversary of the opening of the infamous penitentiary in August, 1934.

A unique Alcatraz Alumni reunion was held at Alcatraz  between former prison guards and former "residents" on Sunday August 9, 2015.

Fur Traders Descending the Missouri

Outgoing postcard US-3139095 to Russia shows one of the most famous paintings by George Caleb Bingham, a 19th century American artist. Depicting American life in the frontier lands along the Missouri River using the Luminist style, the painting was originally entitled French-Trader, Half-breed Son. It reflected the reality of fur traders' common marriages with Native American women. However, the name was changed to Fur Traders Descending the Missouri to avoid potentially controversial when it was first exhibited. Painted around 1845, this art piece is now owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

The stamped card was one of the EXTRAordinary Art Card series issued by USPS at the Saint Louis Art Museum in St. Louis, Missouri on May 4, 1990. It has a 15-cent postage pre-printed with a reproduction of the 1845 painting and sells for 50 cents at the time.

The liberty cap or Phrygian cap worn by the older man was the symbol of freedom and liberty commonly used in the 19th century. The animal in the boat was actually a bear cub, not a cat.

Discovering North America

522 years ago, Christopher Columbus reached the Americas on October 12, 1492. The landing has been celebrated as Columbus Day in the United States as a Federal Holiday since 1934. It has been fixed to the second Monday in October since 1970 as a result of the Uniform Monday Holiday Act.

However, Columbus Day has met with a long history of opposition. As a blog article in the Washington Post pointed out, Columbus did not really discover North America, because he never set foot in North America but on various Caribbean islands. More importantly, his brutal ruling at the Caribbean islands where he landed resulted in atrocities against native peoples on the islands. It was a prelude to the indigenous population collapse during the European colonization of the American continents that followed Columbus' "discovery". 

Therefore today people are celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day in Berkeley, California; Native American Day in  South Dakota; a combined Columbus Day and American Indian Heritage Day in Alabama; and Discovery Day in Hawaii and the Bahamas.

Postcard US-2849020 to Philippines shows a map of Native Tribes of North America. 

International Women's Day

According to Wikepedia, "International Women's Day (IWD), also called International Working Women's Day, is marked on March 8 every year. In different regions the focus of the celebrations ranges from general celebration of respect, appreciation and love towards women to a celebration for women's economic, political, and social achievements."

We are presenting postcard US-1923857 to Ukraine in commemorating International Women's Day by celebrating Native American women. The postcard features an Anasazi Indian woman, who belong to one of the Ancient Pueblo peoples centered on the present-day Four Corners area bordering southern Utah, northeastern Arizona, northern New Mexico, and southwestern Colorado. As shown on the background of the postcard, they lived in elevated pit houses, pueblos, and cliff dwellings where they could lift entry ladders during enemy attacks.

A Crow Lodge with Decorations

Postcard US-2424315 is going out to Germany today, showing Native American lodges photographed in 1907-1908 by Norman A. Forsyth. A lodge, or a large tipi, was formed of support poles covered with an average of 12 to 14 buffalo hides. By the 1870s, canvas had replaced the hides for tipi-making among some Plains Indian tribes.

According to Wikipedia, "the Plains Indians are the Indigenous peoples who live on the plains and rolling hills of the Great Plains of North America. Their equestrian culture and resistance to domination by Canada and the United States have made the Plains Indians an archetype in literature art for American Indians everywhere."

Occupation of Alcatraz

Alcatraz: facts and figures

I received the postcard "Alcatraz: facts and figures" as a thank-you-card. Like most people, I associate the Alcatraz with its federal prison years from 1934 to 1963 when some of the nation’s most notorious criminals were held in the island. Therefore, when I read "November 20, 1969 - June 11, 1971: Native Americans occupy Alcatraz", I became curious about what happened forty two years ago before the U.S. Government forcibly removed the last holdouts to the Native American Occupation of Alcatraz on June 11, 1971 that lasted 19 months.

Citing the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868) between the U.S. and the Sioux, Indians of All Tribes (IAT) claimed the island after the Alcatraz prison was closed in 1963 and the U.S. government declared the island as surplus federal property, since the treaty returned all retired, abandoned and out-of use federal lands to the Native Americans. 

After two brief occupations on March 9, 1964 and on November 9, 1969 by different groups, American Indians again landed on Alcatraz on November 20, 1969 and issued the Alcatraz Proclamation. The stated purpose of the occupation was to re-gain Indian control over the island to building a Native American Studies Center, an American Indian Spiritual Center, an Ecology Center, and an American Indian Museum. The occupiers cited treatment under the Indian Termination policy as the reason for occupation, and accused the U.S. government of breaking numerous Indian treaties. Daily radio program broadcast started from the island in December, 1969; newsletters were published starting January 1970.

However, the occupation started to collapse after a series of incidents of an accidental death, a fire, presence of drug addicted people, presence of non-American Indian people, departure of student participants, and leadership in-fights. Meanwhile, the government had cut off all electrical power and telephone service. Public sympathy and support had eroded. On June 11, 1971, a large force of federal marshals, GSA Special Forces, Coast Guard and FBI agents removed the last 15 people - six men, four women and five children - from Alcatraz with no resistance.

In spite of the controversies, the Occupation of Alcatraz brought international spotlight on the plight of Native Americans and sparked off a wave of more than 200 civil disobedience among Native Americans. It was the dawn of the modern day Native American activism and it was the first inter-tribe event to connect young Native American activists from dozens of tribes.