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Abstract
This paper considers news of the 1969-71 occupation of Alcatraz Island reprinted in Akwesasne Notes, the far-left New York-based Mohawk publication. Previously, media studies of the occupation consider it as a dramatic pseudo-event. However, speech communications studies suggest a consummatory perspective that honors the Native American view of the occupation as a critical event. This study illuminates the struggle for cultural survival and self-determination by Native Americans in the 20th century at its "watershed" moment. For the first time, this bounded case study applies the themes of pan-Indianism that are known to exist to the study of news. The study employs a contentanalytic framework to identify the characteristics of the themes of self-determination, decolonization, transformation, mobilization, healing, survival, recovery and development.