We will purchase Alcatraz island for twenty-four dollars in glass beads and red cloth, a precedent set down by the white man's purchase of a similar island about 300 years ago.  We know that $24 in trade goods for these 16 acres is more than what was paid when Manhattan was sold, but we know that land values have risen over the years.  Our offer of $1.24 per acres is greater than the 47 cents per acre the white man is now paying California Indians for their land.

We will give the inhabitants of this land a portion for their own to be held in trust by the American Indian Affairs and by the Bureau of Caucasian Affairs to hold in perpetuity - for as long as the sun shall rise and the rivers go down to the sea.  We will further guide the inhabitants in the proper way of living.  We will offer them our religion, our education, our life-ways, in order to help them achieve our level of civilization and thus raise them and all their white brothers up from their savage and unhappy state.  We offer this treaty in good faith and wish to be fair and honorable in our dealings with all white men.

We feel that this so called Alcatraz island is more than suitable for an Indian Reservation, as determined by the white man's own standards.  By this we mean that this place resembles most Indian Reservations in that:

1. It is isolated from modern facilities and without adequate means of transportation.
2. It has no fresh running water.
3. It has no adequate sanitation facilities.
4. There are no oil or mineral rights.
5. There is no industry and so unemployment is very great.
6. There is no health care facility.
7. The soil is rocky and non-productive and the land does not support game.
8. There are no educational facilities.
9. The population has always exceeded the land base.
10. The population has always been held prisoners and kept dependent upon others.

Further, it would be fitting and symbolic that ships from all over the world, entering the Golden gate, would first see Indian land, and thus be reminded of the true history of this nation.  This tiny island would be a symbol of the great lands once ruled by free and noble Indians.

What use will we make of this land?

Since the San Francisco Indian Center burned down, there is no place for Indians to assemble and carry on tribal life in the white man's city.  Therefore, we plan to develop on this island several Indian institutions.  1. A center for Native American studies. 2 An American Indian Spiritual Center, 3. An Indian Center of Ecology, 4. A great Indian Training School, and 5. An American indian Museum.

In the name of all Indians, therefore, we claim this island for our Indian nations, for these reasons, we feel this claims is just and proper, and that this land should rightfully be granted to us as long as the rivers shall flow and sun shall shine.

Indians of All Tribes