Richard Oakes, Native American Activist
Richard Oakes, the famous Mohawk Native American activist, is world renown for leading the unused Alcatraz prison occupation in the San Francisco Bay at the end of the 1960s. Richard is well-credited with bringing change to the narrative around the rights of indigenous peoples. See also this 1969 video with Richard Oakes delivering his famous Alcatraz Proclamation during the occupation of Alcatraz:
Richard was born on May 22, 1942, and he died in September 1972, so he would have been 76 years old today if he hadn’t been killed and still alive. In Richard’s honor, a Google Doodle was created.
Richard Oakes was a Mohawk tribe member, a tribe that originated from the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada regions. Richard grew up in upstate New York but moved to the San Francisco area where he enrolled at San Francisco State University.
Oakes was not so pleased with the classes offered at SF State and when he got involved in the local Native American communities, he helped with founding (together with an anthropology professor) the first U.S. Native American Studies departments.
The revolutionary, vibrant atmosphere at the end of the 1960s, in combination with his social and academic connections, led Richard Oakes to start one of the most feared and respected radical direct action movements ever set up by activists from Native American origin.