Dancers wearing traditional dress jumped in place to keep warm as the light gathered over Alcatraz Island Monday at the Indigenous Peoples Day Sunrise Gathering.
The annual gathering of prayer, singing, community outreach and dancing took place despite the government shutdown closing many national parks and in protest of President Donald Trump’s intent to to turn Alcatraz, where the gathering has taken place ever since Native Americans occupied the island in 1969 to 1979, back into a prison.
“This island we are standing on is sacred space,” said Grandmother Mary Lyons, an Ojibwe elder, before singing a traditional song with her granddaughter…