Richard Oakes

“In 1969 Richard Oakes and UC Berkeley student LaNada Means led a group of over 400 Native American men, women and children in a monumental occupation of the abandoned prison site [of Alcatraz]. The group, calling themselves “Indians of All Tribes,” cited an 1868 treaty which granted Native Americans the right to claim unoccupied government land.

Oakes stayed on the island until early 1970 when his 12-year-old stepdaughter tragically fell to her death while playing on structure in the prison. The family retreated to reservation land in Sonoma County, where Oakes' wife Anna Marrufo Oakes was a Kashia Pomo tribe member.

From there Richard Oakes led protests on the North Coast to raise awareness of Native American causes. Around Thanksgiving in 1970 he was arrested for collecting $1 tolls from travelers at the intersection of Skaggs Springs and Tin Barn roads in the Stewart's Point Rancheria.

Although the protesters only raised $8 in the initial blockade ($5 from a youth who did not have change, $1 from a Press Democrat photographer and $1 from the rancher who tipped off the PD), his arrest drew attention toward the historic mistreatment of Native Americans. Oakes claimed the armed “toll booth” was initiated to prevent road crews from expanding easements through the tribal land, although the Sonoma County Road Department disputed the claim.

In May of 1971, Oakes was arrested for participating in the occupation of the former Middletown Army radio receiving station, where he sought to build an economic base for Native Americans with a greenhouse, school and herd of domesticated deer.

On Sept. 20, 1972 Richard Oakes was killed by Michael Oliver Morgan, the manager of a YMCA camp in Sonoma. According to media reports, Oakes and Morgan where in a dispute over hunting on YMCA land and the claim that a 16-year-old tribesman attempted to steal a horse. When Oakes confronted the manager, Morgan shot Oakes in the chest with a 9mm pistol. Morgan, who was charged with involuntary manslaughter, claimed self-defense even though Oakes did not have a gun and did not brandish a weapon. He was acquitted of the charge.”

JANET BALICKI WEBER

FOR THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

November 21, 2019