Chris Carlson’s article Reflections from Occupied Ohlone Territory from the book Ten Years that Shook the City casts light upon the current issue of America namely the life of native inhabitants of America. It was not very easy for me to catch what the author drives at in the beginning of the article. The author provides the current situation of many cities where the native history is underestimated and the real inhabitants of the land and their traditions are forgotten.
Firstly, it was difficult for me to catch the idea of the article as far as the title of the article and its beginning are not connected at all. I have not understood the meaning of the word Ohlone that is in the title and what is their territory. The author provides the information about the occupation of Alcatraz and the Indian Problem without any word about Ohlone. Going on to read the article, I have caught the author’s point. I understand that Ohlone are Native Americans inhabited the central California coast. The author calls the Native American people the Indians in his article and he provides the information about the long way of fighting for their rights. It is a very curious thing that the people who were the first who inhabited these lands have to fight for their rights.
The persistence of these Indians amazes me. These people have been fighting for their rights for a long time and this fight continues in our days. This tribal people gathered together to demand recognition and empowerment from the US government and they did all their best to achieve this aim (p.164-167). There were cases when their efforts were effective and their demonstrations and rebellions ended with the satisfaction of all their demands but there were also cases when the government reacted quite aggressively to the demands of the real governors of the lands. The years between 1973 and 1976 were the most difficult for Indians. 271 people were killed only because they wanted to have the equal rights with the other Americans and have their own religion and way of life (p. 166). It is very interesting for me to find out so many historical facts in this article. It is very curious why the government sometimes met the needs of the protestors and sometimes stopped such rebellions in an aggressive way with many victims (p.164-168).
This article presents the idea of the whole book Ten Years that Shook the City: San Francisco 1968-1978 devoted to the most turbulent years for the native inhabitants of San Francisco. All the articles from this book present different historical events when people had to fight for their rights with the help of demonstrations and rebellions. The article Up Against the Bulkhead is devoted to the demonstrations the main aim of which was to stop sailors from the ship Bulkhead from going to Vietnam. The article Filipino Americans in the Decade of the International Hotel presents the demonstrations of Filipino immigrants. Other articles also present historical movements organized to support the rights of minorities.
The article under discussion is very interesting for our course as far as it presents how the group of people may change the history. The Indians made a lot of efforts to defend their rights and take their lands back. The cities should remember their history and their original inhabitants. Their traditions and religion should be respected. Every American should remember their ancestry and pass their history from one generation to another.