<\/p>\n
Native Americans hold their annual Indigenous Peoples Day Sunrise Gathering on Alcatraz Island on Monday.<\/p>\n
Sarah McGrew\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
Scenes from the Indigenous Peoples Day Sunrise Gathering on Alcatraz Island on Monday.<\/p>\n
Sarah McGrew \/ S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
Dancers wearing traditional dress jumped in place to keep warm as the light gathered over Alcatraz Island Monday at the Indigenous Peoples Day Sunrise Gathering.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The annual gathering of prayer, singing, community outreach and dancing took place despite the government shutdown closing many national parks and in protest of President Donald Trump\u2019s intent to turn Alcatraz, where the gathering has taken place ever since Native Americans occupied the island from 1969 to 1971, back into a prison<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis island we are standing on is sacred space,\u201d said Grandmother Mary Lyons, an Ojibwe elder, before singing a traditional song with her granddaughter.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Ericson Amaya of Oakland, who has attended the event since he was a child, shook his head at the idea of restoring Alcatraz to a federal prison.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis is an abandoned facility,\u201d said Amaya, who works with a youth group called 67 Sue\u00f1os.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cGive it back to the people, to the caretakers of this land. Don\u2019t use it to cause harm.\u201d<\/p>\n The gathering happened this year with the support of the National Park Service, said Morning Star Gali, tribal and community liaison at International Indian Treaty Council, which hosts the event.\u00a0<\/p>\n A dancer performs during the Indigenous Peoples Day Sunrise Gathering on Alcatraz Island on Monday.<\/p>\n Sarah McGrew \/ S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n During a government shutdown in 2013 under Barack Obama\u2019s presidency, the event was canceled<\/a> because Alcatraz Island was closed completely and ferries were not running. This time, Alcatraz has mostly been open since the shutdown began on Oct. 1.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n People lined up before 4 am at the Embarcadero for ferries to the island and then quietly followed youth carrying flags in the dark up to the parade grounds, where a bonfire was burning.\u00a0<\/p>\n The gathering brought together Native Americans from all over California as well as Hawaii and other parts of the country. Aimee Tallbull, who is part of the Northern Cheyenne tribe in Montana, traveled to the gathering for the first time from her home in Vancouver, Wash. Her home is right near Portland, Ore., and she is worried about the Trump administration\u2019s threats to send the National Guard there.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s amazing to see so many people with different types of backgrounds coming together for this. I\u2019m in awe,\u201d she said, tearing up. \u201cIt makes me feel better about this world.\u201d<\/p>\n The horizon started turning orange close to 7 a.m. Toward the end of the event, people in the crowd linked arms and moved in a circle around All Nations dancers in the center.\u00a0<\/p>\n A bonfire burns as Native Americans come together on Alcatraz Island for the Indigenous Peoples Day Sunrise Gathering.<\/p>\n Tara Duggan \/ S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n The International Indian Treaty Council hosts the event every year on Indigenous Peoples Day and Thanksgiving Day. It commemorates the Native American occupation of Alcatraz from 1969 to 1971, which helped spark the modern Indigenous rights movement,\u00a0Gali said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a symbol of survival and resistance,\u201d Gali said. \u201cTo now transform Alcatraz back into a prison would be an assault on that legacy and a desecration of what it represents.\u201d<\/p>\n The International Indian Treaty Council also noted in a news release that over 20 Native American men were brought as prisoners to the island in the late 1800s and some were either killed or died there\u00a0\u2014 another reason it opposes turning it back into a federal prison.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Moises Salazar, 13, and Paulina Salazar,15, of the Northern Paiute and Western Shoshone Tribes, were among the dancers for Monday\u2019s gathering on Alcatraz Island.<\/p>\n Sarah McGrew \/ S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n The gathering came after President Donald Trump issued a proclamation last week that Oct. 13 would be called Columbus Day only, reversing course<\/a> from his predecessor, Joe Biden, the first president to recognize both Indigenous Peoples Day<\/a> and Columbus Day as names for the second October of the month. (San Francisco changed the name to Indigenous Peoples Day in 2018.)\u00a0<\/p>\n As part of a movement to remove institutional support of diversity, equity and inclusion in the federal government, the Trump administration issued a directive<\/a> in May to remove signs at national parks that might \u201cdisparage Americans past or living\u201d or contain \u201cpartisan ideology.\u201d That led to Muir Woods removing<\/a> notes added to an exhibit that honored the history of Indigenous tribes and women\u2019s groups that helped preserve the park.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cWe are here to honor truth in history,\u201d said Radley Davis, a board member of the International Indian Treaty Council, speaking at the gathering. \u201cWe won\u2019t allow those truths to be erased no matter how hard they are.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Native Americans hold their annual Indigenous Peoples Day Sunrise Gathering on Alcatraz Island on Monday. Sarah McGrew\/S.F. 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