Members of Student Kouncil of Intertribal Nations, an indigenous association at SF State, gathered at 2 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 10 in celebration of Indigenous Peoples Day. Native students and allies met at Café Rosso with handfuls of “wanted” posters in preparation for a 4 a.m. departure to Alcatraz for the annual Sunrise Ceremony.
The flyers reading “You are on Native land” are reminders that the school, is on Native land. Other signs called for the “arrest” of Juan Bautista De Anza, who led genocide campaigns against Native Americans during the Spanish conquest of the American west, and for that of Junipero Serra, a Spanish missionary responsible for widespread cultural genocide and forced assimilation.
Cash Martinez (left) and Elías Mathus (right) hang signs from SF State’s Malcolm X Plaza on Oct. 10, 2022 before heading to Alcatraz for the annual Sunrise Ceremony. (Joshua Carter / Golden Gate Xpress)
Afterward, the group formed a prayer circle to cleanse and protect the members. With the smoke of burning sage in the air, SKINS leaders thanked those in attendance.
“It is so important that we’re here together today,” said SKINS Education Facilitator, Elías Mathus. “After COVID and all the hardships of not being together, this is what’s important. Us being together, staying resilient. Honoring those who came before.”
SKINS is a decades-old student organization originally founded by legendary Mohawk and Indigenous activist Richard Oakes. Oakes is responsible for the 1969 student-led occupation of Alcatraz.
Recently re-built from the ground up by Native students, SKINS has served as a reminder that Indigenous people are still here, resilient as ever.
“This is to honor those who’ve come before and those who will come after,” Mathus said. “Oh and one more thing, fuck Christopher Columbus. We’re here in spite of him.”
