Unthanksgiving Day

The Alcatraz ceremony has been held annually since 1975 to commemorate the protest event of 1969, where the Alcatraz-Red Power Movement (ARPM) occupied the island.

Organizers want it to serve in contrast and counter-celebration to the traditional American Thanksgiving in which the Pilgrims shared a meal with the Wampanoag tribe.

They were visited by members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) who, inspired by the occupation, led other protests, the first on Thanksgiving in 1970 when they painted Plymouth Rock red.

This was part of a heavy period of Indian activism and protest at a time when the civil rights movement in the United States amongst minorities was at a height.

[4] Every year on the date of the United States Thanksgiving holiday in November,[5] several thousand indigenous people and spectators travel to Alcatraz Island.