In January of 1895 nineteen Hopi Indians were sent to Alcatraz from northern Arizona. The Hopi tribe had been involved in serious land disputes with the U.S. Government, and had refused to allow their children to attend government schools. Intense pressure had been levied on the Hopi people to “Americanize” by adopting governmental education for their children. However, the Hopi tribes fiercely opposed sending their children to distant schools to learn the trade skills of the white culture. References indicate that the school facilities were mostly inadequate to accommodate large numbers of children, and that potential outbreaks of disease were a concern. The Hopi used the tactic of passive resistance, making commitments to send their children, but never following through. The government grew increasingly frustrated with their defiance, and began using its troops to intimidate the Hopi villages. When the Hopi continued to resist, the government representatives finally imposed force, and arrested “the headmen who are responsible for the children not being sent to school. ” During the course of their imprisonment at Alcatraz the Indians were brought to the mainland to tour San Francisco schools, in hopes that they would become interested in formalized education. They were released in September of 1895, after agreeing not to interfere with the “plans of government for the civilization and education of its Indian wards.”
A group of Hopi Indian prisoners posing in front of the original lighthouse in 1895. These Arizona Indians spent nine months on Alcatraz for refusing to establish a community farming system, and for keeping their children out of governmentally established schools. They are seen here wearing second-hand military uniforms.
Alcatraz in 1891. Note the small outline of a cannon visible on the parade ground.
Alcatraz in 1896.
Military inmates preparing the concrete foundation for new lavatories in the Upper Prison in 1902. Note the small exterior cell vent openings along the building exterior.
The Upper Prison complex and stockade wall entrance in 1902. Within the perimeter there were four prison complexes.
Military inmates during a routine verification count in 1902. The count is being performed on the Upper Prison Stockade grounds, facing one of the prison buildings. Note the sentry patrolling the catwalk that encircled the prison boundaries.
The only known photograph of the interior of the Upper Prison, circa 1902. The Upper Prison complexes could accommodate 307 prisoners in total, with two-tiered cellblocks. Close examination of this damaged photograph reveals several cells containing family pictures, and a stairwell with no safety railings.
In April of 1900, Alcatraz was temporarily used as a makeshift health resort for soldiers returning from the Philippine Islands with tropical contagious diseases. Many of these men had returned with severe dysentery and they were initially sent to the General Hospital at the Presidio. While convalescing, the men were actually organized into military companies and “Convalescent Company Number Two” was sent to Alcatraz.
As the prison population had continued to grow at Alcatraz, a temporary wooden cellhouse had been constructed on the parade ground. The cells in the wooden prison were small enclosures with the appearance of horse stables. There were 113 cells, and the average airspace per man was only 161 cubic feet. The cells had an average size of 8 1/ 4x 6 x 3 1/ 4feet, only a little larger than a standard closet. Even by the standards of that era, the wooden cellhouse was considered inadequate and unsafe for housing a large prison population. A medical report of the era described the following conditions:
Sanitary defects of the prison are especially apparent. The ventilation of the buildings is very faulty. The corridors, kitchen, and mess rooms are disagreeably drafty... The prisoner when locked up for the night is virtually boxed in for so many hours... The means available for solitary confinement are such as have long been discarded in the better class of civilian penal establishments.
In 1902, a lantern fire inside the wooden prison almost turned catastrophic. A quick-thinking guard immediately smothered the fire using water and sand, but the inmates remained horrified of the potential dangers. They knew that if another fire should start, they would be trapped inside a wooden inferno and feared being burned alive.
By 1904, inmate labor had been harnessed to modernize the prison at Alcatraz. The inmate population was moved to the upper prison, which now had the capacity to safely accommodate 307 men and the lower prison was converted to a work area for inmates, housing the laundry and other small workshops. By 1905 the inmate population had grown to over 270 inmates, and convict labor was being used to demolish several of the old building structures and begin new construction. In April of 1906, following the catastrophic San Francisco earthquake which completely destroyed the city’s jail facilities, 176 civilian prisoners were temporarily transferred to the island for safe confinement.
Army prisoners seen working in the Upper Prison against the stockade wall, breaking rock into gravel in 1910.
Another 1910 photograph showing army prisoners breaking rock with small hammers, while kept under close guard by an armed sentry. This view is looking east toward the future site of the powerhouse.
A rare photograph of garrison soldiers congregating at the island dock, taken on August 12, 1904. One of the Upper Prison buildings is partially visible at the top left.
A panoramic photograph showing the massive fires and destruction that followed the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906.
Alcatraz in 1907.
A 1910 photograph of the Alcatraz Morgue. The Morgue was not used during the years in which the island served as a Federal penitentiary.