2006 July/August History
http://www.nativepeoples.com/article/articles/232/1/2006-JulyAugust-History/Page1.html
By Site Editor
Published on 12/10/2006
Early Indian Prisoners of “The Rock”
Few people are aware that Alcatraz Island, famous for its criminal prisoners, actually began as a military prison. Among its early inhabitants were scores of Indians, including a group of Hopis interned in 1895.
Site Editor
Early Indian Prisoners of “The Rock”Few people are aware that Alcatraz Island, famous for its criminal prisoners, actually began as a military prison. Among its early inhabitants were scores of Indians, including a group of Hopis interned in 1895.
2006 July/August History
Early Indian Prisoners of “The Rock”
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Printed label on back of photo, source unknown. back row, left to right: unidentified, Polingyouma (Polingyaoma), Hahvema (Hebima), Masatewa (Masatiwa), Quoyahoinema; 2nd row: Kochventewa (Kochiventiwa), Beephongwa (Piephungwa), Poolegoiva, Lomahongyoma, Lomanankwosa, Kochadah (Lomayoshtiwa), Yukioma; front row: Tubewohyoma, Yoda, Patupha, Kochyouma (Kochyaoma), Soukhongva, Sekaneptewa (Sikaheptiwa), Karshongnewa.
I had lived in San Francisco for more than 20 years before I finally took the Alcatraz tour. The sight of the island had become so familiar that I took it for granted, with my impressions of it derived mostly from Hollywood mythology, films like The Birdman of Alcatraz, Escape From Alcatraz and The Rock. In those movies, it is invariably called The Rock, which is, to be sure, suitable. Looking at Alcatraz, one sees a complex of drab institutional buildings, a water tower and a lighthouse perched on what seems like solid rock, with only a few inconspicuous, wind-beaten trees.
The dock at Alcatraz, ca. 1900. The island’s use as a military prison predates its use as a federal penitentiary, beginning in December 1859 when the first permanent army garrison was installed. The population grew during the Civil War with the addition of army deserters, the crew of a Confederate privateer and civilians accused of treason.
Alcatraz is now the habitat of world travelers, a million of whom visit it every year. It has been the home of, successively, pelicans (Alcatraz is an anglicized version of the Spanish word for pelican—alcatrace), prisoners and Indians. The wind and sea keep talking to the island, the cellblocks rust, birds drift over the place where the Birdman did his work, and red-and-white tour boats putter along its shoreline.
The average person’s impression of Alcatraz was that it was a federal prison, but that part of its history began relatively recently—in 1934. Before then it was a military fort, and that part of its history yields some of its most fascinating and little-known stories.
First Indian Prisoner 1873
Just as American Indians were the last inhabitants of the island during the American Indian Movement (AIM) occupation of 1969–71 (see Fall 1999 issue), they were also among the earliest prisoners in the military stockade. A fort was established on Alcatraz in 1850, and from the very beginning the Army incarcerated a few prisoners in a dungeon near the dock. This soon expanded to four cellblocks, and on June 5, 1873, the first Indian prisoner, Paiute Tom, was transferred from Fort McDermit in Nevada. There is no record of what his crime was, or why he was shot and killed by a guard two days later.
Later that same year, two Modocs, Barncho and Sloluck, were sent from Fort Klamath in Oregon to Alcatraz. They had been convicted of murder and assault and sentenced to be hanged with four other Modocs. At Fort Klamath, the six graves had already been dug. For some reason lost to history, President Ulysses Grant commuted the sentences of Barncho and Sloluck to life imprisonment on Alcatraz, although the other four Modocs were hanged. Barncho ended up dying of scrofula (tuberculosis) in 1875, while Sloluck was on The Rock until 1878 when he was transferred to Fort Leavenworth in Kansas and then released to join the remaining Modoc people exiled in Indian Territory (Oklahoma).
More Indians were sent to Alcatraz during the 1870s and 1880s, but records are incomplete regarding their arrival and departure dates. This included at least three Paiutes, two of whom were Indian scouts involved in a mutiny in Arizona Territory. General George Crook’s campaign against the Chiricahua Apache in Arizona also resulted in the arrest in July 1884 of a young chief named Kaetena and his imprisonment at Alcatraz. He was released in March 1886, at which time Crook wrote, “His stay on Alcatraz has worked a complete reformation of his character.” In 1887, five more “mutineers” were sent from the San Carlos, Arizona reservation to Alcatraz.
Hopi Group Interned 1895
The Jan. 4, 1895 issue of the San Francisco Call newspaper ran a story with the headline “A Batch of Apaches.” The story reported the confinement of a group of “crafty redskins” who refused to live according to the “civilized ways of the white men.” It began by saying, “Nineteen murderous-looking Apache Indians were landed at Alcatraz Island yesterday morning.”
The 19 Indians referred to were actually Hopi, not Apache, and their crimes were considerably less spectacular than murder: refusing to send their children to distant boarding schools and to do the style of farming prescribed for them by federal officials.
Another article in the Call a few weeks later stated, “Uncle Sam has summarily arrested 19 Moqui Indians (the term used at the time for the Hopi)…but he has not done it unkindly. The life of the burnt-umber natives is one of ease, comparatively speaking. They have not hardship, aside from the fact that they have been rudely snatched from the bosom of their families and are prisoners, and prisoners they shall stay until they have learned to appreciate the advantages of education.”
The order confining the Hopis—named Heevi’ima, Polingyawma, Masatiwa, Qotsventiwa, Piphongva, Lomahongewma, Lomayestiwa, Yukiwma, Tuvehoyiwma, Patupha, Qotsyawma, Talagayniwa, Nasingayniwa, Lomayawma, Tawalestiwa, Aqawsi, Qoiwiso, Sikyakeptiwa and Talasyawma—to Alcatraz stated that they were to be “held in confinement, at hard labor, until…they shall show…they fully realize the error of their evil ways…and 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.” Conspiracy to commit truancy and refusal to cultivate vegetables are surely the least serious offenses that ever landed anyone on Alcatraz.
There are conflicting reports about what life was like on The Rock for the Hopi. One writer describes their quarters as “tiny wooden cells…worlds removed from the western deserts and plains.” Another account, written in 1902, said that the “old cell blocks were rotten and sanitary conditions very dangerous to health.”
Daily Life Monotonous
On the other hand, a Call article said that the prisoners spent their days sawing large logs into shorter lengths, occasionally interrupted by trips into San Francisco where they were taken to public schools “so that they can see the harmlessness of the multiplication table in its daily application.” Their accommodations were said to be the same as those of white prisoners and their food “like that of any second-class hotel.”
This article also stated, “It is difficult to find work for them at times. They rise early, go to work, if the weather is fine, eat their dinner at noon and then work all afternoon. This is followed by tea or a wholesome equivalent, and then bed. Their taskmaster is a good-natured, well-educated young man with a sympathetic understanding of their condition that makes it easy for him to deal with them and keeps them in even humor.”
The Hopis were kept on Alcatraz until Aug. 7, 1895. I could find no record of the circumstances of their release.
I wonder how many of the Indians occupying Alcatraz in the late 1960s knew about the Indian prisoners who preceded them by nearly a century. The modern occupation failed, unfortunately, due to many reasons, but if things had happened differently, Alcatraz might today again be Indian territory.
Before the Spanish came to California in the 18th century, there were about 300,000 Indians in the Bay Area, and oral history indicates that they used Alcatraz as a place to isolate or ostracize tribal members who had violated a tribal law or taboo—in effect, a prison.
Imagine some lonely Indian in the 17th century exiled on Alcatraz, looking longingly across the bay at the land where no buildings then stood, little dreaming what the future held for that land, the island and his people. And it leaves us wondering—a hundred years from now, who might find themselves serving time on this isolated rock?
Larry Tritten of San Francisco has written for Harper’s, Vanity Fair, Playboy, Travel & Leisure, The New Yorker, National Geographic Traveler, Field & Stream, Art & Antiques, Reader’s Digest and other leading magazines and newspapers.
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Printed label on back of photo, source unknown. back row, left to right: unidentified, Polingyouma (Polingyaoma), Hahvema (Hebima), Masatewa (Masatiwa), Quoyahoinema; 2nd row: Kochventewa (Kochiventiwa), Beephongwa (Piephungwa), Poolegoiva, Lomahongyoma, Lomanankwosa, Kochadah (Lomayoshtiwa), Yukioma; front row: Tubewohyoma, Yoda, Patupha, Kochyouma (Kochyaoma), Soukhongva, Sekaneptewa (Sikaheptiwa), Karshongnewa.
I had lived in San Francisco for more than 20 years before I finally took the Alcatraz tour. The sight of the island had become so familiar that I took it for granted, with my impressions of it derived mostly from Hollywood mythology, films like The Birdman of Alcatraz, Escape From Alcatraz and The Rock. In those movies, it is invariably called The Rock, which is, to be sure, suitable. Looking at Alcatraz, one sees a complex of drab institutional buildings, a water tower and a lighthouse perched on what seems like solid rock, with only a few inconspicuous, wind-beaten trees.
The dock at Alcatraz, ca. 1900. The island’s use as a military prison predates its use as a federal penitentiary, beginning in December 1859 when the first permanent army garrison was installed. The population grew during the Civil War with the addition of army deserters, the crew of a Confederate privateer and civilians accused of treason.
Alcatraz is now the habitat of world travelers, a million of whom visit it every year. It has been the home of, successively, pelicans (Alcatraz is an anglicized version of the Spanish word for pelican—alcatrace), prisoners and Indians. The wind and sea keep talking to the island, the cellblocks rust, birds drift over the place where the Birdman did his work, and red-and-white tour boats putter along its shoreline.
The average person’s impression of Alcatraz was that it was a federal prison, but that part of its history began relatively recently—in 1934. Before then it was a military fort, and that part of its history yields some of its most fascinating and little-known stories.
First Indian Prisoner 1873
Just as American Indians were the last inhabitants of the island during the American Indian Movement (AIM) occupation of 1969–71 (see Fall 1999 issue), they were also among the earliest prisoners in the military stockade. A fort was established on Alcatraz in 1850, and from the very beginning the Army incarcerated a few prisoners in a dungeon near the dock. This soon expanded to four cellblocks, and on June 5, 1873, the first Indian prisoner, Paiute Tom, was transferred from Fort McDermit in Nevada. There is no record of what his crime was, or why he was shot and killed by a guard two days later.
Later that same year, two Modocs, Barncho and Sloluck, were sent from Fort Klamath in Oregon to Alcatraz. They had been convicted of murder and assault and sentenced to be hanged with four other Modocs. At Fort Klamath, the six graves had already been dug. For some reason lost to history, President Ulysses Grant commuted the sentences of Barncho and Sloluck to life imprisonment on Alcatraz, although the other four Modocs were hanged. Barncho ended up dying of scrofula (tuberculosis) in 1875, while Sloluck was on The Rock until 1878 when he was transferred to Fort Leavenworth in Kansas and then released to join the remaining Modoc people exiled in Indian Territory (Oklahoma).
More Indians were sent to Alcatraz during the 1870s and 1880s, but records are incomplete regarding their arrival and departure dates. This included at least three Paiutes, two of whom were Indian scouts involved in a mutiny in Arizona Territory. General George Crook’s campaign against the Chiricahua Apache in Arizona also resulted in the arrest in July 1884 of a young chief named Kaetena and his imprisonment at Alcatraz. He was released in March 1886, at which time Crook wrote, “His stay on Alcatraz has worked a complete reformation of his character.” In 1887, five more “mutineers” were sent from the San Carlos, Arizona reservation to Alcatraz.
Hopi Group Interned 1895
The Jan. 4, 1895 issue of the San Francisco Call newspaper ran a story with the headline “A Batch of Apaches.” The story reported the confinement of a group of “crafty redskins” who refused to live according to the “civilized ways of the white men.” It began by saying, “Nineteen murderous-looking Apache Indians were landed at Alcatraz Island yesterday morning.”
The 19 Indians referred to were actually Hopi, not Apache, and their crimes were considerably less spectacular than murder: refusing to send their children to distant boarding schools and to do the style of farming prescribed for them by federal officials.
Another article in the Call a few weeks later stated, “Uncle Sam has summarily arrested 19 Moqui Indians (the term used at the time for the Hopi)…but he has not done it unkindly. The life of the burnt-umber natives is one of ease, comparatively speaking. They have not hardship, aside from the fact that they have been rudely snatched from the bosom of their families and are prisoners, and prisoners they shall stay until they have learned to appreciate the advantages of education.”
The order confining the Hopis—named Heevi’ima, Polingyawma, Masatiwa, Qotsventiwa, Piphongva, Lomahongewma, Lomayestiwa, Yukiwma, Tuvehoyiwma, Patupha, Qotsyawma, Talagayniwa, Nasingayniwa, Lomayawma, Tawalestiwa, Aqawsi, Qoiwiso, Sikyakeptiwa and Talasyawma—to Alcatraz stated that they were to be “held in confinement, at hard labor, until…they shall show…they fully realize the error of their evil ways…and 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.” Conspiracy to commit truancy and refusal to cultivate vegetables are surely the least serious offenses that ever landed anyone on Alcatraz.
There are conflicting reports about what life was like on The Rock for the Hopi. One writer describes their quarters as “tiny wooden cells…worlds removed from the western deserts and plains.” Another account, written in 1902, said that the “old cell blocks were rotten and sanitary conditions very dangerous to health.”
Daily Life Monotonous
On the other hand, a Call article said that the prisoners spent their days sawing large logs into shorter lengths, occasionally interrupted by trips into San Francisco where they were taken to public schools “so that they can see the harmlessness of the multiplication table in its daily application.” Their accommodations were said to be the same as those of white prisoners and their food “like that of any second-class hotel.”
This article also stated, “It is difficult to find work for them at times. They rise early, go to work, if the weather is fine, eat their dinner at noon and then work all afternoon. This is followed by tea or a wholesome equivalent, and then bed. Their taskmaster is a good-natured, well-educated young man with a sympathetic understanding of their condition that makes it easy for him to deal with them and keeps them in even humor.”
The Hopis were kept on Alcatraz until Aug. 7, 1895. I could find no record of the circumstances of their release.
I wonder how many of the Indians occupying Alcatraz in the late 1960s knew about the Indian prisoners who preceded them by nearly a century. The modern occupation failed, unfortunately, due to many reasons, but if things had happened differently, Alcatraz might today again be Indian territory.
Before the Spanish came to California in the 18th century, there were about 300,000 Indians in the Bay Area, and oral history indicates that they used Alcatraz as a place to isolate or ostracize tribal members who had violated a tribal law or taboo—in effect, a prison.
Imagine some lonely Indian in the 17th century exiled on Alcatraz, looking longingly across the bay at the land where no buildings then stood, little dreaming what the future held for that land, the island and his people. And it leaves us wondering—a hundred years from now, who might find themselves serving time on this isolated rock?
Larry Tritten of San Francisco has written for Harper’s, Vanity Fair, Playboy, Travel & Leisure, The New Yorker, National Geographic Traveler, Field & Stream, Art & Antiques, Reader’s Digest and other leading magazines and newspapers.