Richard oakes biography

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 s. Richard is well-credited with bringing change to the narrative around the rights of indigenous peoples. See also this video with Richard Oakes delivering his famous Alcatraz Proclamation during the occupation of Alcatraz:

Richard was born on May 22, , and he died in September , 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 s, 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.

In , Richard was leading a group of Native Americans and other students to the Alcatraz prison, located right in the middle of the San Francisco Bay. When the activists&#; boats were stopped, Oakes swam all the way to the island where the unused prison was located.

The Native American activists then made Alcatraz a sanctuary for all Native Americans and the island became the focal point for protests to stop the American policy of Indian termination which dated back to the early s and includes measures targeted at the integration of Native Americans into mainstream US society. Richard Oakes, together with his fellow protes

Richard Oakes was a leading Native American activist, best known for leading the ‘Occupation of Alcatraz’.

A Google Doodle has marked what would have been his 75th birthday.

Oakes was born in New York on May 22, He was a member of the Mohawk tribe, which originated in the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada.

He spent much of his childhood fishing and planting crops, but this way of life was destroyed by the construction of the St Lawrence Seaway, a vast system of locks, canals and channels. Oakes found work as a docker and a steelworker.

In he married and had a son, but he divorced shortly after and moved to San Francisco, enrolling at San Francisco University.

Dissatisfied with the curriculum, Oakes played an integral role in developing the first Native American studies department in the nation. He developed the curriculum and encouraged other Native American people to enrol at the university.

READ MORE: A Native-American nation divided

Oakes became a champion of social justice for Native Americans, and in he led a series of protests, including leading a group of more than 80 people to occupy the disued Alcatraz Island for almost 19 months.

We invite the United States to acknowledge the justice of our claim

by Richard Oakes

According to the protesters, abandoned or out-of-use federal land could be returned to the Native people under the Treaty of Fort Laramie.

Since Alcatraz penitentiary was closed, and the island had been declared a surplus federal property, many activists felt the island qualified for reclamation.

The protesters aimed to set up a community, complete with a university, museum and cultural centre, but they also wanted the government to acknowledge the rights to Native Americans to claim the out-of-use federal land as their own.

“We invite the United States to acknowledge the justice of our claim. The choice now lies with the leader

Richard Oakes was an Akwesasne Mohawk national and Native American activist instrumental to both the Occupation of Alcatraz as well as the Red Power Movement as a whole. Born in , Oakes was a steelworker before enrolling in San Francisco State University where he helped to develop the nation’s first Native American Studies program.

During his years at San Francisco State, Oakes became involved with other Native American students in creating the plan to occupy Alcatraz Island. After a brief first attempt on November 9th, , Oakes and his fellow activists returned to the island on November 20th and successfully occupied Alcatraz for 19 months.

Oakes, who lived on the island with his family during the occupation, was within the inner circle of the leadership of the occupation and was instrumental in addressing the media and government officials throughout the occupation. Videos can be found of Oakes’ address to the media in which he proclaims the then abandoned Alcatraz island as Indian property by right of discovery, citing the Treaty of Fort Laramie which states abandoned federal land would be returned to Native Americans.

Mohawk American Indian activist (–)

For other people with the same name, see Richard Oakes (disambiguation).

Richard Oakes (May 22, – September 20, ) was a Mohawk American Indian activist and academic. He spurred American Indian studies in university curricula and is credited for helping to change US federal government termination policies of American Indian peoples and culture. Oakes led a nineteen-month occupation of Alcatraz Island with LaNada Means, approximately 50 California State University students, and 37 others. The Occupation of Alcatraz is credited for opening a rediscovered unity among all American Indian tribes.

Early life

Richard Oakes was born on May 22, , in St. Regis Mohawk Reservation, a location known in Mohawk as Akwesasne, the US portion of a reservation that spills into Canada across the St. Lawrence River. Like many of his ancestors, Oakes spent most of his childhood fishing and planting beans. He then began working at a local dock area on the St. Lawrence Seaway, but was laid off at the age of sixteen, after which he worked as a high steelworker, a job that entailed a great deal of traveling.

Marriage and education

While working on the Claiborne Pell Newport Bridge, Oakes met and married an Italian/English woman from Bristol, Rhode Island. They had one son, Bryan Oakes, who was born in June Pressured out of his marriage by his father-in-law, Richard left the two, divorcing his wife, and travel