Yuki Resistance Dancers from Covelo, CA at the Indigenous Peoples Day Sunrise Gathering
on Alcatraz Island, October 14, 2024. IITC Photo.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA: On Monday, October 13, 2025, the 46th annual Indigenous Peoples Day Sunrise Gathering, hosted by the International Indian Treaty Council (IITC), will take place from 5:00 AM – 8:00 AM on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco (Yelamu), the ancestral lands of the Ohlone. It will honor the strength, resilience and cultural heritage of Indigenous Peoples in California and around the world as well as will highlight ongoing struggles to protect sacred lands, sacred places and ways of life. The day’s program will also commemorate the original occupation of Alcatraz (1969-1971), which sparked the National and International Indigenous Peoples’ movement for rights and justice. The gathering will affirm the ongoing importance of “Truth in History” and the urgent need to protect Alcatraz as a sacred place of great importance in the history of struggle against colonization in California and worldwide.
The gathering marks 533 years of Indigenous resistance in the Americas. It will include shared prayers, cultural presentations, and updates on urgent issues by Indigenous leaders and human rights defenders. Indigenous Peoples Day was declared officially in San Francisco in 2018. Indigenous Peoples Day is commemorated in various cities and regions of the United States and throughout the Americas as an alternative to “Columbus Day”, which celebrates the beginning of genocide in our homelands.
The 2025 Indigenous Peoples Day gathering will be carried out in the face of many challenges. These include the threat of a US government shutdown and potential limitations on access to Alcatraz, currently a National Park, as well as our profound concerns regarding the current US Administration’s stated intention to transform the island into a revamped federal prison, supposedly for immigrants from other countries.
The IITC is firmly opposed to this proposal, recalling the Indigenous resisters who were imprisoned on Alcatraz in past centuries. The first known Indigenous man imprisoned there was called “Paiute Tom” in military records, which report that he was brought from Camp McDermit, Nevada to Alcatraz on June 5, 1873, and was fatally shot by a guard two days later. Two Modoc Indigenous resisters that stood with Kintpuash (“Captain Jack”) against the colonization of their homelands during the so-called “Modoc War” in Northern California were sent to Alcatraz in October 1873. One of them died there 150 years ago. In addition, 19 Hopi men were also imprisoned on Alcatraz in 1895, charged with “seditious conduct” for resisting the forced removal and assimilation of their children by the US Boarding School system.
Radley Davis, Pit River Tribe cultural leader and IITC’s Board of Directors Vice President affirmed that “the history of this place as a military and then a federal prison and the unjust imprisonment of Indigenous resisters to colonization, should be put behind us for good. The City of San Francisco and the world recognize and honor the historic and continuing importance of the 1969 Alcatraz Occupation, as well as IITC’s biannual sunrise gatherings, which have brought healing and blessings of our cultures to this sacred place. We of all Peoples on this earth do not want to see it returned to a place of misery and repression”.
Although there is a current government shutdown, with the support of the Alcatraz National Parks Service, the event is confirmed to take place as originally planned.
The gathering is open to the public and all community members are invited. Boats will leave from Pier 33 in San Francisco starting at 4:15AM. Limited ferry tickets will be available for sale at the pier 33 box office starting at 4:00 AM. Participants are encouraged to purchase ferry tickets in advance on the City Experiences website: City Experiences. The gathering will be broadcast live on KPFA radio, 94.1 FM and online at kpfa.org.
Contact IITC’s San Francisco Office, (415) 641-4482 or [email protected], cell phone (650) 255-1594, for general information. Please direct media requests to IITC Tribal and Community Liaison Morning Star Gali, [email protected], (916) 996-6580, and the IITC San Francisco Office.
Share this post
IITC’s 2025 Indigenous Peoples Day Sunrise Gathering on Alcatraz Island Confirmed for October 13
Yuki Resistance Dancers from Covelo, CA at the Indigenous Peoples Day Sunrise Gathering
on Alcatraz Island, October 14, 2024. IITC Photo.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA: On Monday, October 13, 2025, the 46th annual Indigenous Peoples Day Sunrise Gathering, hosted by the International Indian Treaty Council (IITC), will take place from 5:00 AM – 8:00 AM on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco (Yelamu), the ancestral lands of the Ohlone. It will honor the strength, resilience and cultural heritage of Indigenous Peoples in California and around the world as well as will highlight ongoing struggles to protect sacred lands, sacred places and ways of life. The day’s program will also commemorate the original occupation of Alcatraz (1969-1971), which sparked the National and International Indigenous Peoples’ movement for rights and justice. The gathering will affirm the ongoing importance of “Truth in History” and the urgent need to protect Alcatraz as a sacred place of great importance in the history of struggle against colonization in California and worldwide.
The gathering marks 533 years of Indigenous resistance in the Americas. It will include shared prayers, cultural presentations, and updates on urgent issues by Indigenous leaders and human rights defenders. Indigenous Peoples Day was declared officially in San Francisco in 2018. Indigenous Peoples Day is commemorated in various cities and regions of the United States and throughout the Americas as an alternative to “Columbus Day”, which celebrates the beginning of genocide in our homelands.
The 2025 Indigenous Peoples Day gathering will be carried out in the face of many challenges. These include the threat of a US government shutdown and potential limitations on access to Alcatraz, currently a National Park, as well as our profound concerns regarding the current US Administration’s stated intention to transform the island into a revamped federal prison, supposedly for immigrants from other countries.
The IITC is firmly opposed to this proposal, recalling the Indigenous resisters who were imprisoned on Alcatraz in past centuries. The first known Indigenous man imprisoned there was called “Paiute Tom” in military records, which report that he was brought from Camp McDermit, Nevada to Alcatraz on June 5, 1873, and was fatally shot by a guard two days later. Two Modoc Indigenous resisters that stood with Kintpuash (“Captain Jack”) against the colonization of their homelands during the so-called “Modoc War” in Northern California were sent to Alcatraz in October 1873. One of them died there 150 years ago. In addition, 19 Hopi men were also imprisoned on Alcatraz in 1895, charged with “seditious conduct” for resisting the forced removal and assimilation of their children by the US Boarding School system.
Radley Davis, Pit River Tribe cultural leader and IITC’s Board of Directors Vice President affirmed that “the history of this place as a military and then a federal prison and the unjust imprisonment of Indigenous resisters to colonization, should be put behind us for good. The City of San Francisco and the world recognize and honor the historic and continuing importance of the 1969 Alcatraz Occupation, as well as IITC’s biannual sunrise gatherings, which have brought healing and blessings of our cultures to this sacred place. We of all Peoples on this earth do not want to see it returned to a place of misery and repression”.
Although there is a current government shutdown, with the support of the Alcatraz National Parks Service, the event is confirmed to take place as originally planned.
The gathering is open to the public and all community members are invited. Boats will leave from Pier 33 in San Francisco starting at 4:15AM. Limited ferry tickets will be available for sale at the pier 33 box office starting at 4:00 AM. Participants are encouraged to purchase ferry tickets in advance on the City Experiences website: City Experiences. The gathering will be broadcast live on KPFA radio, 94.1 FM and online at kpfa.org.
Contact IITC’s San Francisco Office, (415) 641-4482 or [email protected], cell phone (650) 255-1594, for general information. Please direct media requests to IITC Tribal and Community Liaison Morning Star Gali, [email protected], (916) 996-6580, and the IITC San Francisco Office.