Part 1 (Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield, Edwin Black) Summary

In 1970, 11-year-old Native Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield moves from Oakland to Alcatraz, an island prison in the San Francisco Bay, with her teenage sister, Jacquie Red Feather, and their mother, who claims to be a “medicine woman.” They are part of the “Indians of All Tribes” occupation of the island. Jacquie is raped by another teenager, Harvey, when they are both drunk.

The occupation becomes chaotic, and the family returns to Oakland. The girls’ mother dies of cancer, leaving Opal and Jacquie in the care of Ronald, who is also supposedly a “medicine man.” When Jacquie reveals she is pregnant, Opal convinces her to have the baby.

It is 2012, and Edwin Black, a young Native man, is living in Oakland with his mother, a white woman named Karen. Edwin has a Master of Arts degree in Native American literature but is Internet-addicted, obese and unemployed. Edwin uses Facebook to find his father, a Native man named Harvey, who was previously unaware of Edwin’s existence. Harvey will be coming to Oakland to emcee the upcoming powwow. Karen encourages Edwin to apply for a paid internship at the local Indian Center as an organizer for the powwow, and Edwin agrees.

Part 1 (Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield, Edwin Black) Analysis

Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield, along with her mother and sister, takes part in the Native American occupation of Alcatraz in 1970. Opal, who is just a child, largely experiences this important historical moment as a series of traumas that will impact the family members’ personal lives from then on. Although for Opal the experience is one of instability and increasing chaos, the occupation is an important moment in the larger historical context of Native Americans’ fight for their rights.

The takeover of Alcatraz by Indians of All Tribes, a Native activist group, took place from November 20, 1969 to June 11, 1971, when the US government succeeded in forcing the occupiers off the island. The activists claimed they had a right to the island, citing the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie between the U.S. government and the Sioux, which gave Native people the right to all surplus or out-of-use federal lands. The activist occupation came after several decades of federal policies designed to forcibly assimilate Native Americans and dissolve the reservations. The occupation brought about a shift in federal Native policy from strategies of termination and relocation toward ones that supported indigenous autonomy and self-determination.