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The modern American Indian involvement with the San Francisco island of Alcatraz can be categorized into three phases of takeover. These opportunities for takeover presented themselves while the government had temporarily abandoned the island until its future use could be decided. The infamous prison housed on the island had been closed and devoid of inhabitants since 1963 leaving the island virtually discarded by the federal government.

The first attempt at occupation took place in March of 1964 when a group of Sioux attempted to "overtake" the island in a peaceful demonstration. These demonstrators found justification for their protest under the auspices of the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 which states that and any land abandoned by the federal government can be reclaimed by the Sioux people. The group of five did little more than drum and sing, and after it was determined by governmental officials that the Sioux had no claims that far west, the participants were removed by federal marshals after only four hours of protest.
Five years passed before a group of one hundred Native American college students (primarily from UCLA) boated themselves to Alcatraz Island to begin an
occupation after their request for an American Indian cultural center to be built on the island was denied. After several transportation mishaps, fourteen members of the group were able to land on the island and read the following proclamation:
PROCLAMATION TO THE GREAT WHITE FATHER (NOVEMBER, 1969)We, the Native Americans, re-claim the land known as Alcatraz Island in the name of all American Indians by right of discovery. We wish to be fair and honorable in our dealing with the Caucasian inhabitants if this land, and thereby offer the following treaty:
We will purchase Alcatraz Island for twenty-four dollars in glass beads and red cloth, a precedent set down by the white man's purchase of a similar island about 300 years ago. We know that $24 in trade goods for these 16 acres is more than what was paid when Manhattan was sold, but we know that land values have risen over the years. Our offer of $1.24 per acres is greater than the 47 cents per acre the white man is now paying California Indians for their land. We will give the inhabitants of this land a portion for their own to be held in trust by the American Indian Affairs and by the Bureau of Caucasian Affairs to hold in perpetuity-for as long as the sun shall rise and the rivers go down to the sea. We will further

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