A journey to freedom : Richard Oakes, Alcatraz, and the Red Power movement

Book

A journey to freedom : Richard Oakes, Alcatraz, and the Red Power movement / Kent Blansett.

Summary:

The first book-length biography of Richard Oakes, a Red Power activist of the 1960s who was a leader in the Alcatraz takeover and the Red Power Indigenous rights movement. A revealing portrait of Richard Oakes, the brilliant, charismatic Native American leader who was instrumental in the takeovers of Alcatraz, Fort Lawton, and Pit River and whose assassination in 1972 galvanized the Trail of Broken Treaties march on Washington, DC. The life of this pivotal Akwesasne Mohawk activist is explored in an important new biography based on extensive archival research and key interviews with activists and family members. Historian Kent Blansett offers a transformative and new perspective on the Red Power movement of the turbulent 1960s and the dynamic figure who helped to organize and champion it, telling the full story of Oakes's life, his fight for Native American self-determination, and his tragic, untimely death. This invaluable history chronicles the mid-twentieth century rise of Intertribalism, Indian Cities, and a national political awakening that continues to shape Indigenous politics and activism to this day.

Record details

ISBN: 0300227817
ISBN: 9780300227819
Physical Description: xiii, 392 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm.
Publisher: New Haven : Yale University Press, [2018]
Copyright: ©2018

Content descriptions

General Note:: Published with assistance from the foundation established in memory of Philip Hamilton McMillan of the Class of 1894, Yale College--Title page verso.
Bibliography, etc. Note:: Includes bibliographical references (pages 351-369) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:: Akwesasne, Kahnawà:ke, and "Little Caughnawaga" -- The emergence of a leader -- Better red than dead -- I'm not your Indian anymore -- Alcatraz is not an island, it's an idea -- You are on Indian land -- Freedom.