In reading Smith and Bergman’s “You Were on Indian Land: Alcatraz Island as Recalcitrant Memory Space,” I found myself enthralled with the concept of space and memory and the relationship that physical places have to the memory of the past. I found Smith and Bergman’s points to be very interesting in the way that they used the tour itself to highlight specific relationship between the Native American Occupation and Alcatraz and the way that the tour uses the physical space to transform public recollection and perspective on the place.
One of the most interesting aspects of this piece was the manner in which the authors walked the reader through the tour itself and created an experience through their discussion. In using the walkthrough to highlight how Occupation history has been hidden and placed in its own segregated areas, the authors vividly show how the physical experience of Alcatraz shifts public perception towards focusing on the role of the space as a penitentiary. I found it particularly interesting when they used specific locations to discuss the varied history of the island. In particular, I found the discussion of the cell basement to be illuminating towards their points. In noting how the basement, where much of the physical evidence of the Occupation still exists, is blocked off from public view, Smith and Bergman highlight how visitors are shifted towards viewing the space as a correctional facility rather than as the space of civil disobedience and a turning point for Native American civil rights.
While their tour was illuminating, I also felt it allowed the authors to highlight their most important concept relating to the shifting memory of the space. Smith and Bergman highlight that visitors come to understand Alcatraz as a place that has constrained the behaviors and thoughts of both inmates and visitors through the physical locations invitation to the sensation of discipline, control, and surveillance that overwhelms messages about liberation and social dissent. In controlling all aspects of the tour, including audio and activities, the tour itself shifts the visitor’s focus of the place towards correctional memories rather than as a place of protest. I found this to be very profound in showing the rhetorical significance of the tour itself.
While I enjoyed their perspectives, I found myself wrestling with the concept of where Native American civil rights history should be placed on Alcatraz and how it would not conflict with the memory of the place as a correctional facility. I have always seen Alcatraz as a place of punishment and correctional history, and feel that this is what most visitors seek to see when they visit the island. I found myself struggling with how to encompass both histories in the same place with the same level of focus and respect. Only towards the end, where they note the potential opening of the spaces that were inhabited during the Occupation did I understand how they planned to create the dual physical memory space.
In all, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this piece. I enjoy the concept of memory and space and I look forward to discussing this concept more in class.
Jake Anderson 