search pages within www.boisestate.edu 

____________________

The Office 
of communications and marketing
Boise State University
1910 University Drive
Education Building, #726
Boise Idaho 83725-1030

208-426-1577
(fax)208-426-4001

email newsservices@boisestate.edu

webmaster
bmcdiarm@boisestate.edu

 

November 4, 2003

Boise State Celebrates Native American Awareness Month

---

As part of Native American Awareness Month, the Boise State University Cultural Center will sponsor a screening of the documentary �Alcatraz is Not an Island,� followed by a discussion with activist LaNada Boyer at 4 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 13, in the Special Events Center. This event is free and open to the public.      �Alcatraz is Not an Island� explores the events and politics surrounding the 1969-71 American Indian occupation of Alcatraz Island. The occupation arose as a result of government policies attempting to dissolve reservations and acculturate American Indians. Groups promoting the preservation of culture mobilized throughout the country in response. On Nov. 20, 1969, one such San Francisco Bay Area group began the 19-month occupation of Alcatraz Island, an action that sparked other unified movements from American Indian organizations as well as the �Red Power� movement of the 1970s, and affected how American Indians viewed themselves and how they were viewed and treated by the American government.     Boyer, one of the coordinators in the takeover of Alcatraz Island, commented that the occupation was �able to raise, not only the consciousness of other American people, but our own people as well, to reestablish our identity as Indian people, as a culture, as political entities.� Boyer was the first Native American student at the University of California Berkeley and helped with the establishment of Native American Studies in 1968. She later received a doctorate in political science. -30- Contact Ro Parker Cultural Center Coordinator 208 426-4317 Media Contacts Kathleen Craven communications and marketing 208 426-3275 Angela Jones communications and marketing 208 426-3196 208 426-3275

Last reviewed on Thursday, July 21, 2005