Urban voices

the long version

In the 1950s, Native people from all over the United States moved to the San Francisco Bay Area as part of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Relocation Program. Oakland was a major destination of this program, and once there, Indian people arriving from rural and reservation areas had to adjust to urban living. They did it by creating a cooperative, multi-tribal community--not a geographic community, but rather a network of people linked by shared experiences and understandings. The Intertribal Friendship House in Oakland became a sanctuary during times of upheaval in people's lives and the heart of a vibrant American Indian community. This album of essays, photographs, stories, and art chronicles some of the people and events that have played--and continue to play--a role in the lives of Native families in the Bay Area Indian community over the past seventy years. It offers insight into American Indian activism of the 1960s and '70s--including the occupation of Alcatraz--and shows how the Indian community continues to be created and re-created for future generations. [back cover].