Alcatraz History: The Story of the Indian Inmates
Craig Glassner, 1998
Ranger, the National Park Service on Alcatraz Island
Golden Gate National Recreation Area
More than a million people visit Alcatraz each year, but few know that
for almost eighty years the island was the site of the first fortress
and military prison on the west coast. Declared a military reservation
in 1850, troops were permanently stationed on Alcatraz by 1859 to man
over 100 cannons. From the very beginning the U.S. Army incarcerated some
of their own in a dungeon near the dock; like every military post Alcatraz
had a need to sometimes detain or punish soldiers. Less by design than
by default Alcatraz soon expanded to four cellblocks and would be confining
prisoners from around the West. While the fortifications would be obsolete
by the turn of the century, the Army disciplinary barracks continued until
1933.
Most prisoners held on Alcatraz were U.S. military personnel. Notable
exceptions included Southern sympathizers/supporters during the Civil
War, conscientious objectors during WWI, and a number of Native Americans,
beginning in 1873. On June 5 of that year the first Indian prisoner arrived.
Paiute Tom was on a transfer from Camp McDermit in Nebraska for reasons
now unknown. Also unknown is the reason why a guard shot and killed him
2 days later. Some authors have speculated that he was shot while attempting
to escape.
Later the same year Barncho and Sloluck (Modoc) were sent to the Rock.
At Fort Klamath Oregon, along with 4 other Modocs, they had been sentenced
to be hanged by the neck until they be dead for murder and assault with
intention to kill in violation of the laws of war. Unknown to either Barncho
or Sloluck at the time, President Ulysses S.Grant had commuted their (but
not the other 4) sentences to life imprisonment on Alcatraz. On the last
day of September a Colonel Wheaton at the District of the Lakes, Fort
Klamath, wrote "Six graves for the burial of the condemned are dug
near and in front of the Guardhouse just outside the parade ground fence."
A scaffold was built to hang 6 men at a time. Colonel Wheaton had been
ordered to let the two know of their commuted sentence just moments before
the scheduled hanging. Only after meeting with their families, and after
being escorted to the gallows, were Barncho and Sloluck made aware of
the presidential order when they were returned to the stockade before
the other 4 were simultaneously hung. All 4 of their heads were removed
and shipped to the Army Medical Museum. Little of Barncho and Sloluck’s
stay on the island made the Army records. On May 28, 1875 Barncho died
of scrofula, and was buried at Fort McDowell on nearby Angel Island. Around
1946 the cemetery on Angel Island was moved to the Golden Gate National
Cemetery in Colma California, Section E, Lot 357. Sloluck was on Alcatraz
until February 1878 (the longest stay of any of the Indian prisoners on
Alcatraz) when he was sent to Fort Leavenworth and then on to join the
remaining Modoc people now exiled in Indian Territory.
Sarah Winnemucca (Paiute) was an activist for Indian rights, speaker
and author. Her brother Natchez spent two weeks on Alcatraz in early 1874.
Two other Paiutes were next, Richard Dick from July 1881 to May 1882,
and Pete who spent April 1882 in the lower prison. Two "Indian scouts"
arrived on an unknown date for their participation in a mutiny in Arizona
Territory, and were released in June 1884. Brig. Gen. George Cook’s campaign
against the Chiricachua Apaches led to the arrest of a young chief, Kaetena,
in July 1884. After his release in March 1886 Cook wrote "His stay
on Alcatraz has worked a complete reformation in his character." In
1889 Skolaskin tried to escape from Fort Huachuca, landing him on the
island from November 1889 to July 1892. In 1887 five mutineers (also Indian
scouts) from San Carlos were sent to Alcatraz, no record of their release
has been discovered.
Hopi at Alcatraz Island pictured with original lighthouse. Mennonite Library and Archives, Bethel College, North Newton, Kansas
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The largest group of Indian prisoners to be confined on Alcatraz were nineteen Hopi
"hostiles." Their crimes may have been the most unique in the 140-year history of incarceration
on the Rock, they wouldn’t farm as the government instructed them to, and they opposed forced
education in government boarding schools. Both "offenses" were part of widespread resistance
to U.S. policies designed to erase Hopi language and religion. Contact with the outside world
was rare at first, and generally repugnant (theft, murder and enslavement were some results of
contact with outsiders) before the uneasy establishment of the "Moqui Indian Agency" in 1870.
Newspaper accounts talk about Hopi resistance to forced "education"
(children were routinely beaten if they spoke Hopi or made any attempt
to practice their religion), and of their refusal to farm the individual
allotments of land established by a series of Indian agents (the
commander-in-chief of the U.S. Army once wrote home that "There
has been no branch of the government so corrupt and disgraceful
to the Republic as that which has had the management of our Indian
affairs."). Government programs to impose culture and beliefs
on the people of Hopi had gone on for years with little success.
Allotment was designed to erase Hopi culture by moving the people
off the mesas and onto individual allotments of land, weakening
family and clan relations and traditional social structure.
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This policy was strongly resisted by both
"hostiles" and "friendlies" (terms used by Indian agents to incorrectly describe two groups
thought to be marked by a growing rift over contact with the "white and bearded men" mentioned
in prophecy). The best attempts to enforce allotment, including bribery and military force,
were met by successful passive resistance. In response to a petition to discontinue the
allotment policy, Acting Indian Agent 1st Lieutenant S.H. Plummer wrote Washington that
"Owing to the shifting nature of their planting grounds, it would be almost impossible to
maintain any allotment to individuals . . . the best interests of the tribe would be promoted
by granting the petition (to end allotment)." Despite his recommendation, nineteen
"ringleaders" were arrested by troops on November 25, 1894.
Traveling by foot, horse, train and boat, Heevi'ima, Polingyawma,
Masatiwa, Qötsventiwa, Piphongva, Lomahongewma, Lomayestiwa, Yukiwma,
Tuvehoyiwma, Patupha, Qötsyawma, Sikyakeptiwa, Talagayniwa, Talasyawma,
Nasingayniwa, Lomayawma, Tawalestiwa, Aqawsi, and Qöiwiso would
arrive in San Francisco over a month later. On Alcatraz they were
to be "held in confinement, at hard labor, until . . . they shall
show . . . they fully realize the error of their evil ways . . .
until they shall evince, in an unmistakable manner, a desire to
cease interference with the plans of the government for the civilization
and education of its indian wards." They would be held on the
Rock from January 3 to August 7, 1895.
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#53:Mennonite Library and Archives, Bethel College, North Newton, Kansas
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Lower Prison was their new "home". A post surgeon wrote about the
prison in 1890 as "totally unequal to fulfill its legitimate purpose."
Sanitation was deplorable, there was insufficient ventilation, and
the building was considered a fire trap. A San Francisco newspaper,
The Call, stated the Hopis "have been rudely snatched
from the bosom of their families and are prisoners . . . until they
have learned to appreciate the advantage of education. Field
trips to local schools were meant to impress the prisoners "so
that they can see the harmlessness of the multiplication table .
. . They rise early, breakfast, go to work, if the weather is fine,
eat their dinner at noon and then work all afternoon" wrote
a local reporter.
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Rumors of deaths of some of them were dispelled when photos taken by
a San Francisco photographer (Taber) were sent to the Mennonite missionary
H.R. Voth (who had earlier documented the arrest of the nineteen with
an early hand held roll film camera). Wives of two of the prisoners gave
birth to children who died during their incarceration. In August the nineteen
were returned to Hopi after promises to obey all orders were extracted.
But reports back to Washington indicate the people of Hopi continued to
resist the policies of Washington.
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