The annual event, organized by the International Indian Treaty Council and American Indian Contemporary Arts, honors the perseverance of Indigenous peoples’ in spite of displacement, forced assimilation, an epidemic of missing and murdered women and other adversities.
Morning Star Gali, organizer and project director of Restoring Justice for Indigenous Peoples, said that Monday was “no longer a colonizers holiday,”
The second Monday of October has long been recognized as Columbus Day. Last Friday, President Joe Biden officially proclaimed it as Indigenous Peoples’ Day. San Francisco officials made the change in 2018.
The ceremony included performances from Aztec and other Indigenous Nations dancers, cultural presenters and a group prayer to honor the earth and its scarce resources. A mixture of sage, sea salt and firewood could be smelled through the air as the group greeted the sunrise.
Attendees who gathered on Alcatraz Island this morning for the Indigenous Peoples' Day Sunrise Gathering to commemorate the occupation of Alcatraz by the Indians of All Tribes.
Ryce Stoughtenborough / The ChronicleBefore Alcatraz was known as prison and later as a tourist attraction, the island belonged to Bay Area Natives, also known as Ohlone. On Nov. 9 1969, Richard Oakes, Akwesasne Mohawk and a group of Native supporters set out in a chartered boat to symbolically reclaim the island for the Native people and occupied the island for the next two years.
Gali, a member of the Ajumawi band of the Pit River Tribe, has attended the ceremony with her family since she was a child, and has since passed on that tradition to her own children. She received her name during a sunrise gathering held by Bill Wahpepah, a late leader of the IITC and founder of the gathering.
Musician Lyla June performs on Alcatraz Island for the Indigenous Peoples' Day Sunrise Gathering to commemorate the occupation of Alcatraz by the Indians of All Tribes.
Ryce Stoughtenborough / The Chronicle“We’re here to counter the erasure of indigenous peoples. Columbus was lost, he didn’t discover us at all. We were always here … our creation stories have us here since time immemorial,” she said.
“This ceremony means that we are still here as Native people gathering from different tribes and keeping alive our cultures as well as our resistance to the forces that want to disappear us,” said Javier Stell-Fresquez, a longtime San Francisco resident and Indigenous person who has attended the ceremony for the last eight years.
“(Columbus) doesn’t deserve a day … we deserve an entire future.”
Ryce Stoughtenborough is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: ryce.stoughtenborough@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rstoughts
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Hundreds gather before dawn to celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day on Alcatraz Island - San Francisco Chronicle
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