Ellis Island

Published in 1978, “Ellis Island” explores America’s complicated history of offering a new life to immigrants while threatening the life and ways of Native communities. . The poem was published during a significant decade for the American Indian Movement. In 1970, activists occupied Mount Rushmore in an effort to reclaim the land that had once been promised to The Great Sioux Nation. In that same year, American Indian Movement activists occupied Plymouth Rock, sparking the National Day of Mourning. In 1972, protestors from the Trail of Tears Broken Treaties Caravan occupied the Bureau of Indian Affairs office in Washington, DC. The protestors had a 20-point manifesto calling for historical wrongs to be righted. The American Indian Movement also began opening survival schools, which taught basic survival and living skills. Eventually, in 1973, protestors would occupy Wounded Knee. Marlon Brando famously declined his Best Actor award from the 1973 Academy Awards to draw attention to the standoff at Wounded Knee, with Native American Actress Sacheen Littlefeather declining the award in his stead. In 1978, 30,000 marchers reached Washington, DC as part of the ‘Longest Walk’ in order to draw attention to problems plaguing Native American communities, including lack of jobs, health care, and housing. This activism sought to bring attention to the conditions Native Americans faced in America, to restore land promised to Native communities, and to combat systemic problems of poverty, racism, and discrimination Native communities faced.