Why did American Indians occupy Alcatraz Island in 1969? to protest the lack of educational opportunities for American Indians to end poverty on American Indian reservations to raise awareness about unfair treatment of American Indians to convince the government to protect American Indian lands

To raise awareness about the unfair treatment of American Indians.

The American Indians occupied the Alcatraz Islands as a protest against the unfair treatment of American Indians in their access to civil liberties and opportunities to education and jobs. The Federal Government had promised them job opportunities if they would settle in urban centres. However, none of these opportunities were fulfilled, as a result of which, they occupied the Alcatraz Islands, an abandoned federal prison in the San Francisco Bay, to raise awareness about the unfair treatment meted out by the Federal Government.

Further Explanation-

A group of American Indian rebels occupied the abandoned Federal Prison of the Alcatraz Islands and held it for a period of 19 months, to have it redeveloped as a centre for education and training for school. Five Sioux landed on the Islands allowing the Indians to appropriate surplus federal land. The capture of the Islands became a rallying cry of the American Indians, in their fight for access to equal opportunities to education and employment opportunities. The American Indians sailed to San Francisco under the cover of darkness, and occupied the prison quarters as a symbolic act of defiance, and printed graffiti and messages all over the prison walls. The underdeveloped conditions of the Island did not seem to bother the American Indians, for the Federal Government also did not give them any amenities or opportunities.  The Nixon Government decided to leave them alone, as long as their protests remained peaceful. Life in the Islands, however began to improve, as the American Indians raised their efforts in self-determination, and the diplomatic efforts of the Federal Government went unrecognized by them. However, the long duration of the island occupation proved to be fatal, and they were forced to give up. However, the efforts of American Indian leaders did not go unrewarded and the Nixon Government returned millions of acres of ancestral lands and promised them equal opportunities.

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Answer Details-

Grade- High School.

Chapter- The Revolution of the American Indians.

Subject- History.

Keywords-

Equal opportunities of education, job opportunities, occupation of Alcatraz Islands, the act of defiance, graffiti, educational centres, self-determination, return of ancestral land.