Alcatraz Island
Overview
 
Alcatraz Island is an island located in the San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...

, 1.5 miles (2.4 km) offshore from San Francisco, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Often referred to as "The Rock" or simply "Traz", the small island was developed with facilities for a lighthouse
Alcatraz Island Lighthouse
Alcatraz Island Lighthouse is a lighthouse in California,United States, on Alcatraz Island in the San Francisco Bay, California. It is the oldest light station on the U.S...

, a military fortification, a military prison, and a Federal Bureau of Prisons
Federal Bureau of Prisons
The Federal Bureau of Prisons is a federal law enforcement agency subdivision of the United States Department of Justice and is responsible for the administration of the federal prison system. The system also handles prisoners who committed acts considered felonies under the District of Columbia's...

 federal prison until 1963. Beginning in November 1969, the island was occupied for more than 19 months by a group of American Indians
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...

 from San Francisco, who were part of a wave of Indian activism
Activism
Activism consists of intentional efforts to bring about social, political, economic, or environmental change. Activism can take a wide range of forms from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism such as boycotts or preferentially patronizing...

 across the nation, with public protests through the 1970s.
 
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