War Jack releases 'Native Resistance' book
Dr. LaNada War Jack and her daughter Jessica promoting her book.
By ROSELYNN YAZZIE
Sho-Ban News
FORT HALL — Shoshone-Bannock tribal member Dr. LaNada War Jack has just released her book, “Native Resistance: An Intergenerational Fight for Survival and Life.”
The book is released during the anniversary of the 50th Anniversary of the Native American Occupation of Alcatraz Island, which took place in November 1969 and lasted for 19 months. War Jack was one of the 14 original occupiers of the island.
According to a press release, War Jack was the first Native American student at UC Berkeley and began the first Native American Student Organization and joined the Third World Strike to advocate of the very first ethnic studies department in the nation.
Native Resistance book cover.
The historical movement was led by students from Berkeley for a peaceful protest as they took over the island to protest the federal government’s poor treatment of Native Indigenous people. This ended the Indian Termination Policies, beginning the determination era and facilitated certain subsequent government funded policies for Indian Tribes’ Nationwide while recovering millions of acres of land back.
Her book details the events and issues affecting Native people from forced removal to federal reservations and her life during the 60s at UC Berkeley, the occupation of Alcatraz, the Pyramid Lake Water War in Nevada, and the Standing Rock Resistance.
She is in San Francisco this week to attend Alcatraz Island’s 50th anniversary on November 20 and will also promote her books at various events.
So far, she said she has received top reviews on her book and has sold out of the books she took with her and just picked up another 200 at Berkeley.
The book took her several years to complete because life got in the way, but she had to prioritize it to be out for the 50th anniversary.
“I got one task out of the way but it’s just the beginning again,” she said.
She’s hoping to do a book presentation in Idaho in the future.
