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Keith Blue Heron Johnson

Keith Blue Heron Johnson

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Notoweega Nation Artist Featured at Alcatraz

Notoweega Member Alicia McDaniel (Center) Debuts Artwork at Alcatraz on Opening Day

            Notoweega Nation member and artist Alicia McDaniel, a first year grad student at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco will have her diptych (painting) artwork featured at the former prison until October 2017.

Her work is made of stretched buckskins, painted with a beautiful red color to commemorate the Graffiti painted by the original protestors at the prison in the late 60s early 70s.

            LaNada War Jack and Eloy Martinez are two influential Native American activists who led and participated in the Alcatraz occupation.  --Alicia McDaniel, a proud member of the Notoweega Tribe

            This diptych shows them as they were in 1969 to memorialize their strength, resilience, and presence on the island. Both portraits were painted to mirror the rich, red brush strokes of the occupation graffiti.

            For those to young or unfamiliar with the occupation here is a brief excerpt from Wikipedia detailing some of the events that took place.

           The Occupation of Alcatraz was an occupation of Alcatraz Island by 89 American Indians who called themselves Indians of All Tribes (IOAT).[1] According to the IOAT, under the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868) between the U.S. and the Lakota, all retired, abandoned or out-of-use federal land was returned to the Native people from whom it was taken. Since Alcatraz penitentiary had been closed on March 21, 1963, and the island had been declared surplus federal property in 1964, a number of Red Power activists felt the island qualified for a reclamation. 

           The Alcatraz Occupation lasted for fourteen months, from November 20, 1969, to June 11, 1971, and was forcibly ended by the U.S. government. The Occupation of Alcatraz had a direct effect on federal Indian policy and, with its visible results, established a precedent for Indian activism.

 

 

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