Alcatraz Commemoration: Where the Sacred Fire Burns for Sacred Land

Leonard Peltier to Alcatraz Commemoration: Stand with Palestine to Stop the Killing

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, Nov. 29, 2025

"We want the Palestinian people to know that we stand with them." -- Leonard Peltier

ALCATRAZ ISLAND -- Speaking on Alcatraz Island, Leonard Peltier said it is time to stop the killing of babies in Palestine. Peltier, speaking by way of Zoom to the Commemoration of the Occupation of Alcatraz, said he had hoped to be here, but was denied a pass to attend.

Calling for an end to the killing in Palestine, he said, "This is the same thing they did to us."

Peltier said women, children, babies, and unborn babies are being killed.

"Everyday they are killing them, they are murdering them," said Peltier, who remains under house confinement on Turtle Mountain Chippewa Nation in North Dakota, after 49 years in prison.

With a welcome from Ohlone on Alcatraz Island, and prayers and songs from Pit River and Round Valley, the Round Valley resisters spoke on the struggle to save the old forest Redwoods.

Thirty-five members of the Apache Stronghold traveled from their homeland in Arizona to share their fight to protect sacred Oak Flat from being dug out, gouged out for a massive copper mine.

Apache women described the battle in the courts to protect the land for Apache girls Sunrise Ceremony. "We were able to hold them off for sometime, and we were able to have my daughter's ceremony."

"We've been running, we've been fighting, and they've been trying to take over. They've been shooting at us."

"It's in our blood to keep fighting, to keep going."

Kumeyaay Stan Rodriguez, San Isabel, spoke on the attempts to exterminate his people in their territory. Kumeyaay live in what is known as San Diego County in California, and south of the border in Baja.

"That border was put right through Kumeyaay territory," Rodriguez said.

"We do not recognize these borders, we have our own territories, our own land," Rodriguez said, sharing the rich legacy of the Native people in California.

"We have more languages, cultures and diversity than any other place in the world aside from Papua, New Guinea, hundreds of languages, hundreds of nations."

Kumeyaay survived encroachment on their lands.

"Their policies tried to exterminate our people," he said. The first governor of California put a bounty on their heads.

"We are survivors of a Holocaust, we are still alive."

"When we come together and we sing our songs, that is resistance. When we speak our language, that is resistance. Our power comes from unity. When we come together and support each other, no one can stop us."

With thanks to the Ohlone people for allowing them to come, he shared Warrior Songs, singing the songs of valor, perseverance and battles fought and won.

"We are all Warriors here, and we need to remember that."

Indigenous Justice honored the California Indian Women Warriors.

"On this 56th Anniversary of the Alcatraz Occupation, we honor the California Indian women who protected, nourished, and carried the movement when the world wasn’t watching," Indigenous Justice said.

"Sue Steele, Shirley Guevara, Eldy Bratt, Justine Moppin, Cecilia Pepion, Sandra Aguilar and Rosalie McKay — women who stood on the rock, held the line, raised the children, cooked the food, protected the people, and kept the fires of sovereignty burning. Their leadership made the Red Power Movement possible. Their courage continues to shape our struggle for Indigenous rights, safety, and self-determination today.

Read more at Censored News

Peltier to Alcatraz: Stand with Palestine to Stop the Killing

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