Anomie at Alcatraz

Sixteen months ago, a small band of Indians occupied the abandoned prison island of Alcatraz in the middle of San Francisco Bay. The act was meant to focus attention on the central tragedy of Indian history, the usurpation of their lands, and for a time it did just that. Then public attention began to dwindle--and so did the number of Indian squatters. TIME Correspondent William Mormon visited the remnant. His report:

FOR the 25 to 30 Indians who maintain the occupation of Alcatraz, life is almost as grim as that endured by the island's previous inmates. Many claim to enjoy the occupation, but they are admittedly deprived of even the minimal prisoner privileges: free food, fresh water, heat and light. Ten months ago, the Government cut off electricity and stopped running the island's water-supply barge. During one three-week period last fall the inhabitants lived exclusively on canned beans and water rationed at survival level. A boat was donated to the Indians by Creedence Clearwater Revival, a rock group, but it nearly sank three months ago and was only recently returned from repairs in drydock.

While it was laid up, the Indians cadged rides with sympathetic yachtsmen and rented boats with the meager funds donated to them. They have been able to transport a fairly steady supply of fresh water, which is hauled laboriously up the steep, rocky slopes in five-gallon cans. A generator has been installed but, ill-maintained, it breaks down regularly.

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The conditions uncomfortably suggest a typical Indian reservation--isolated, neglected and barren. On cold, windy bay nights the only source of heat is wood planking stripped from the few island structures that have not been destroyed by accidental fires. Most of the toilet plumbing, utilizing sea water, is rusted or jammed and sanitation standards are perilously low. The volunteer nurse has left the island, and the only school has been shut (nearly half of the inhabitants are children under the age of twelve). The island's single truck has broken down.

A graver problem is the pervading sense of anomie, a social disintegration that has created a breach with mainland supporters, including other Indian groups. The invasion euphoria was inevitably dissipated by the exigencies of day-to-day survival. Then tragedy happened a few months after the occupation when the eight-year-old daughter of the group's chief spokesman, Richard Oakes, fell to her death down a three-story stairwell. Already under suspicion because of his handling of donations, Oakes left the island.

The invasion force became a thoroughly disorganized society. Perhaps even more debilitating was the threat, real or imagined, of a Government bust. A sort of Castroesque paranoia set in; the "Alcatraz Security Force,"complete with special jackets and a "training" room off limits to outsiders, for a time was rude and overweening even to sympathizers sincerely trying to help. Though supposedly prohibited, drugs and alcohol became staples of island life. Petty jealousies simmered and bloody brawls exploded. One Indian artist tried to set up a studio only to be burned out by several of his estranged comrades.

Such infighting has caused most of the original invasion leaders to leave Alcatraz. They have been replaced by homeless, apolitical young Indians more concerned with finding a pad where they can "get their heads together" than in sustaining any kind of significant political statement. Says Dennis Hastings, a former member of the island's seven-man council: "The important thing about Alcatraz is spiritual rebirth. We're here to let our minds heal. Here we can escape from the limbo culture that we have lived in for too long. We just want to be left alone."

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Long-dormant negotiations with the Government will likely resume. They probably will not get far since the Indians demand nothing less than full title to the island; Government spokesmen claim that it would be legally difficult to turn the island over to the Indians.

Meanwhile, mainland Indian groups, whom the islanders tend to brand as "brainwashed" by whites, hope to win a 99-year lease from the Government. They are somewhat at a loss as to how to deal with their recalcitrant brothers. The occupants' militant stance is defiantly summed up by Hastings: "The white snakes have eaten everything from the earth. We will never give Alcatraz back to them. And if they try to force us, we will fight to the death to keep our land."

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