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Radio Free Alcatraz
This radio station formed a key ingredient in the Native American Occupation of Alcatraz Island (November 20, 1969, to June 11, 1971). It broadcast half-hour programs at least 39 times via Pacifica stations KPFA (Berkeley), KPFK (Los Angeles), WBAI (New York), regularly at 7.15 pm PST,to more than 100,000 listeners. Its content consisted of discussions with various members of the occupation, whether Native American or not; and addresses by its prime mover, John Trudell, a Santee Sioux veteran. The station ended its operation when the Federal Government cut off electric power to the island in late May 1971. The FBI regarded Trudell as an especially dangerous voice for Native rights.

Trudell spoke, in a calm mid-Western voice, about key issues in Native life: forcible loss of ancestral lands; matters of spirituality; seriously contaminated water supply on Native reservations; sharp inequalities in infant mortality and life expectancy among Native Americans, as contrasted with the majority White US public. He addressed listeners as a plain-spoken but calm mediator, not in stinging rhetoric. Each program began with Buffy Sainte Marie’s song “Now that the buffalo has gone.”

39 of the broadcasts are located in the Pacifica Radio Archives. A 14-minute 2015 documentary by Juan Pablo Pacheco about the station, with excerpts from Trudell’s addresses, is available on Vimeo (Radio Free Alcatraz). A 78-minute documentary, John Trudell, was directed by Heather Rae. In 1983, Jackson Browne produced an audio-cassette entitled Tribal Voice, with Trudell combining poetry and music.