Lesson Plan: The Occupation of Alcatraz Island

Subjects:

U.S. History (including AP U.S. History)

Grade Level:

9-12

Lesson Duration:

• Two 50-minute class periods
• Day 1: Steps 1-7; Day 2: Step 8

Essential Questions:

• How have treaties between the United States and Indigenous tribes and federal legislation affected relations between federal and tribal governments?
• What events and circumstances led activists to occupy Alcatraz island in 1969?
• What were the short- and long-term consequences of the Occupation of Alcatraz?
• How was the occupation representative of past and present-day conflicts between tribes and the federal government?

Lesson Objectives:

Students will:

• Explain the Constitutional obligations and importance of treaties between the federal government and American Indian Tribes.
• Explain the short and long term consequences of the occupation of Alcatraz.
• Create thesis claims in response to essay writing prompts.
• Analyze primary documents and evaluate their use as evidence to support claims.

Materials:

• Retro Report video “The 1969 Occupation of Alcatraz Was a Catalyst for Indigenous Activism” (Transcript)
• Maps – Alcatraz Island | U.S. National Park Service
• Student Activity handout
• Overview of the Supremacy Clause (Article VI, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution) | Congress.gov
• House Concurrent Resolution 108 (Termination Legislation) | GovInfo
• Proclamation to the Great White Father and All His People | University of Massachusetts Lowell Library
• The Indian Education Act of 1972: Answers to your Questions | U.S. Department of Education

Procedure:

1. Depending on students’ familiarity with Alcatraz Island and its location in San Francisco Bay, it may be helpful for teachers to quickly review the island’s previous status as home to a Federal prison considered to be nearly inescapable. Displaying a map will help students situate the occupation geographically.
2. Maps – Alcatraz Island | U.S. National Park Service
3. Distribute the Student Activity handout and instruct the students to complete a Think-Pair-Share to activate prior knowledge.
4. As students share their findings from the Think-Pair-Share, the instructor should highlight that according to the U.S. Constitution, the “Supreme Law of the Land” is the U.S. Constitution, the Laws of the United States made “in pursuance thereof;” and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States. Therefore, treaties signed with American Indian tribes create a constitutional obligation of the federal government to honor and follow through with treaty terms and agreements.
5. Read House Concurrent Resolution 108 aloud to the class as students follow along.
6. Instruct students to respond to the corresponding questions on the Student Activity handout.
7. Have students share one or two of their responses.
8. Explain that House Concurrent Resolution 108 was “…a departure from federal Indian policy in the 1930s and early 1940s, during which time the U.S. government… emphasized tribal self-government” and the beginning of “Termination Policy” which ended federal recognition of many tribal governments and the federal aid and services that came with that recognition. It ended federal trust status and protections for affected reservations as well. Treaties signed between the US Government and many American Indian Nations were simply ignored and deemed no longer necessary. During Termination over 60 tribes were denied their right to self-government, saw over 3 million acres of reservation land taken away from them, no longer received treaty guaranteed annuities and payments, and saw many tribal members relocated to urban areas. (Bureau of Indian Affairs Records: Termination | National Archives)
9. Next, inform students that in 1961, “…700 Indians from sixty-four tribes met in Chicago to attack termination and formulate an Indian political agenda and a shared declaration of principles” (Declaration of Indian Purpose | UH-Digital History). Read the Declaration of Indian Purpose aloud to the class and have students follow along.
10. Instruct students to respond to the questions following the Declaration.
11. Have students share one or two of their responses if time allows and briefly discuss as a class.
12. Students will watch the Retro Report video “The 1969 Occupation of Alcatraz Was a Catalyst for Indigenous Activism” (Transcript)
13. Have students answer the corresponding questions on the Student Activity handout as they view the video.
14. Have students share responses, as necessary.
15. After the video, have students list three events inspired by the occupation, according to the video, and write a brief description of each. Students will then list the similarities and differences between the Occupation of Alcatraz and the 2016 protests of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to the building of the Dakota Access Pipeline.
16. For additional information and context about the Dakota Access Pipeline protests, consult the following sources:
    1. Key Moments in the Dakota Access Pipeline Fight | NPR
    2. Treaties Still Matter: The Dakota Access Pipeline | Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian
    3. Standing Rock: A Case Study in Civil Disobedience | American Bar Association
    4. In Their Own Words: The “Water Protectors” of Standing Rock | NPR
17. Inform students that they will analyze an excerpt from a primary source document provided on the Student Activity handout, “Proclamation to the Great White Father and All His People.” Read the excerpt aloud to the class and have students follow along.
18. Instruct students to respond to the two questions provided.
19. Have students share responses, if time allows.
20. Next, read aloud the excerpt from “The Indian Education Act of 1972: Answers to your Questions,” provided on the Student Activity handout. Instruct students to follow along, then respond to the two questions that follow.
21. Have students share one or two of their responses, if time allows.
22. The culminating activity asks students to identify causes and consequences of the occupation of Alcatraz and develop a thesis or central claim in response to the following prompt:
23. Analyze the causes of the occupation of Alcatraz Island and its impact on tribal activism and federal Indian policy.
24. After developing their thesis, students will utilize the primary sources they examined earlier in the activity and demonstrate how those sources support their claim.
25. Since the documents come from a variety of sources including time periods, authors, purposes, etc., have students engage in source textualization.
    1. A common method of this analysis, particularly for Advanced Placement history courses, is H.I.P.P. analysis (Historical Context, Intended Audience, Purpose, Point of View). Consult the following resources for more information:
    2. APUSH Writing | Guthrie Public Schools
    3. Analyzing Primary Source Documents – HIPP Analysis
    4. How to Analyze a Primary Source | Carleton College
    5. Document Analysis | National Archives

Extension Activity:

1. Finish It!: Have students use their thesis as well as the analysis of their documents as evidence and write a DBQ essay that addresses the prompt provided in the lesson.
2. You Take the Lead: Have students create a short video or podcast that explores another significant event in the Red Power movement like Trail of Broken Treaties, the Occupation of Wounded Knee or the Longest Walk.
3. Recognizing and Reconciling: The video discusses the use of canoes to recognize the 50th anniversary of the occupation of Alcatraz and the connection between the island and Indigenous communities in the region. Have students research Indigenous communities within their own area, and the conflicts and challenges they have experienced in their relationship with the United States. Have students design and promote a public recognition activity that would honor the surrounding Indigenous communities, be based in traditional Indigenous practices of the area, and highlight challenges and championships experienced by such communities.

About the Author:

Matthew Jackson (Seminole Nation of Oklahoma) is a Social Studies teacher for Norman Public Schools. He holds an M.A. in Educational Leadership from East Central University and a B.A. in Social Studies Education with a minor in Native American Studies from the University of Oklahoma. He has written for the OSDE Social Studies Curriculum framework, iScore5 app, and was recently awarded the National Indian Education Association Classroom Teacher of the Year. He teaches Introduction to Ethnic Studies at Norman High School and Norman North High School.

Standards

College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies

• D2.Civ.3.6-8. Examine the origins, purposes, and impact of constitutions, laws, treaties, and international agreements.
• D2.Civ.1.9-12. Distinguish the powers and responsibilities of local, state, tribal, national, and international civic and political institutions.
• D2.Civ.3.9-12. Analyze the impact of constitutions, laws, treaties, and international agreements on the maintenance of national and international order.
• D2.Civ.5.9-12. Evaluate citizens’ and institutions’ effectiveness in addressing social and political problems at the local, state, tribal, national, and/or international level.
• D2.His.1.9-12. Evaluate how historical events and developments were shaped by unique circumstances of time and place as well as broader historical contexts.
• D2.His.2.9-12. Analyze change and continuity in historical eras.
• D2.His.5.9-12. Analyze how historical contexts shaped and continue to shape people’s perspectives.
• D2.His.7.9-12. Explain how the perspectives of people in the present shape interpretations of the past
• D2.His.10.9-12. Detect possible limitations in various kinds of historical evidence and differing secondary interpretations.
• D2.His.13.9-12. Critique the appropriateness of the historical sources used in a secondary interpretation.
• D2.His.14.9-12. Analyze multiple and complex causes and effects of events in the past.
• D2.His.16.9-12. Integrate evidence from multiple relevant historical sources and interpretations into a reasoned argument about the past.
• D3.2.9-12. Evaluate the credibility of a source by examining how experts value the source. 
• D3.4.6-8. Develop claims and counterclaims while pointing out the strengths and limitations of both.

Common Core Literacy Standards

• CCSS.HSS-LITERACY.RH.6-12: Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, attending to such features as the date and origin of the information.
• CCSS.HSS-LITERACY.RH.6-12: Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, connecting insights gained from specific details to an understanding of the text as a whole.. Evaluate various explanations for actions or events and determine which explanation best accords with textual evidence, acknowledging where the text leaves matters uncertain.
• CCSS.HSS-LITERACY.RH.6-12: Analyze in detail a series of events described in a text; determine whether earlier events caused later ones or simply preceded them. 
• CCSS.HSS-LITERACY.RH.6-12: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including analyzing how an author uses and refines the meaning of a key term over the course of a text (e.g., how Madison defines faction in Federalist No. 10).
• CCSS.HSS-LITERACY.RH.6-12: Assess the extent to which the reasoning and evidence in a text support the author’s claims
• CCSS.HSS-LITERACY.RH.6-12: Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, as well as in words) in order to address a question or solve a problem.
• CCSS.HSS-LITERACY.RH.6-12: Integrate information from diverse sources, both primary and secondary, into a coherent understanding of an idea or event, noting discrepancies among sources.
• CCSS.HSS-LITERACY.WHST.6-12: Introduce precise claim(s), distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and create an organization that establishes clear relationships among the claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and evidence.
• CCSS.HSS-LITERACY.WHST.6-12: Use words, phrases, and clauses to link the major sections of the text, create cohesion, and clarify the relationships between claim(s) and reasons, between reasons and evidence, and between claim(s) and counterclaims.

AP U.S. History

• Historical Thinking Skills
  Skill 2: Sourcing and Situation
  2.A: Identify a source’s point of view, purpose, historical situation, and/or audience.
  2.B: Explain the point of view, purpose, historical situation, and/ or audience of a source.
  Skill 3: Claims and Evidence in Sources
  3.B: Identify the evidence used in a source to support an argument.
  3.D: Explain how claims or evidence support, modify, or refute a source’s argument.
  Skill 4: Contextualization
  4.B: Explain how a specific historical development or process is situated within a broader historical context.
  Skill 5: Making Connections
  5.B: Explain how a historical development or process relates to another historical development or process.
  Skill 6: Argumentation
  6.A: Make a historically defensible claim.
  6.B: Support an argument using specific and relevant evidence. § Describe specific examples of historically relevant evidence. § Explain how specific examples of historically relevant evidence support an argument.
  
• Unit 2, Objective E:
  Explain how and why interactions between various European nations and American Indians changed over time.
• Unit 3: KC-3.3.I.A:
  Various American Indian groups repeatedly evaluated and adjusted their alliances with Europeans, other tribes, and the United States, seeking to limit migration of white settlers and maintain control of tribal lands and natural resources. British alliances with American Indians contributed to tensions between the United States and Britain.
• Unit 8: KC-8.2.II.B:
  Latino, American Indian, and Asian American movements continued to demand social and economic equality and a redress of past injustices.