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Deadly Delicious · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
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  Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
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  Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
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  Speaker 1: of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
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  Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
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  Speaker 1: Alcatraz is a strange, one of a kind piece of
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  Speaker 1: American culture. A large island off the coast of San Francisco.
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  Speaker 1: It's infamous for its decades as a federal prison. The
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  Speaker 1: legend of Alcatraz has spawned dozens of books, films, and
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  Speaker 1: TV shows, usually about prisoners escaping, But in nineteen sixty nine,
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  Speaker 1: a large group of activists did something rather curious there.
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  Speaker 1: They didn't want to escape Alcatraz. They weren't even prisoners. Instead,
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  Speaker 1: they wanted to force their way inside. Richard Oakes was
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  Speaker 1: a member of the Aquazaus name Mohawk tribe and also
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  Speaker 1: a student at San Francisco State University. He formed a
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  Speaker 1: student organization with members of other Native American tribes from
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  Speaker 1: other Southern California universities, calling themselves the Indians of All
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  Speaker 1: Tribes Now Keep in mind that while Native American is
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  Speaker 1: the more accurate term for Indigenous Americans, many tribal members
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  Speaker 1: today still identify with the term Indian as they did
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  Speaker 1: during the events that I'm about to share with you,
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  Speaker 1: so you'll hear me use both terms depending on the context.
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  Speaker 1: The Indians of All Tribes were dismayed at a wide
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  Speaker 1: array of legislation that had been passed across the United
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  Speaker 1: States over the previous few decades. Known collectively as the
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  Speaker 1: Indian Termination Policy, it was an agenda aimed at ending
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  Speaker 1: the sovereignty of many Native American tribes. Simply puts, instead
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  Speaker 1: of having their own land and governments and being subject
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  Speaker 1: to only federal law, the Native Americans were being formed
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  Speaker 1: to disband their tribes and integrate into mainstream American society.
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  Speaker 1: Richard Oakes and his Indians of All Tribes came up
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  Speaker 1: with a plan to fight back. While at the universities
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  Speaker 1: they study the history and treaties between the Native Americans
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  Speaker 1: and the US government. In southern California, they found a
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  Speaker 1: nineteenth century treaty that claimed unused federal land was supposed
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  Speaker 1: to be returned to the Native Americans, and as it happened,
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  Speaker 1: Alcatraz had been sitting empty for a few years, and
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  Speaker 1: the government had yet to decide what to do with it,
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  Speaker 1: and so, in a mission to force the US government
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  Speaker 1: to actually honor a treaty for once, eighty nine members
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  Speaker 1: of the Indians of all tribes chartered a bote from
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  Speaker 1: San Francisco to Alcatraz. Once there, they declared the island
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  Speaker 1: native land, saying that they were buying it from President
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  Speaker 1: Nixon for twenty four dollars, the same price that early
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  Speaker 1: European settlers paid for the island of Manhattan. The people
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  Speaker 1: of San Francisco were immediately supportive of their cause. They
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  Speaker 1: had seen in the news how many tribes were being
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  Speaker 1: forced to give up their lands. Soon, shipments of food, water,
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  Speaker 1: and other supplies were sent to the occupying Native Americans
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  Speaker 1: on Alcatraz. Richard led them in forming their own governments,
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  Speaker 1: where everyone had to vote unanimously on each decision. They
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  Speaker 1: soon assigned themselves to different roles too. There were teachers,
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  Speaker 1: security guards, cooks, janitors, and more. Everyone did their part.
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  Speaker 1: They wanted the deed to the island, and they made
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  Speaker 1: their intentions clear that they wanted to establish a safe
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  Speaker 1: place for Native Americans. But the US government was not
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  Speaker 1: willing to negotiate with them, and they largely left the
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  Speaker 1: Indians of all tribes alone. But as nineteen sixty nine
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  Speaker 1: turned into nineteen seventy, problems started to mount for the occupiers.
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  Speaker 1: Richard Oakes suffered a tragedy when his twelve year old
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  Speaker 1: child fell down a metal staircase on the island and
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  Speaker 1: passed away. Richard then left the island, causing infighting as
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  Speaker 1: to who would replace him as a leader. Non Indian
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  Speaker 1: hippies also arrived on the island around this time and
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  Speaker 1: started to openly use drugs, which undermined the mission of
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  Speaker 1: the occupiers, and as the months rolled on, the US
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  Speaker 1: government became less patient with the occupiers and cut off
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  Speaker 1: power to the island. They also stopped shipments of water
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  Speaker 1: from the mainland, and it was almost too coincidental when
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  Speaker 1: a few days later a fire broke out on Alcatraz.
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  Speaker 1: The occupiers were able to put it out, but only
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  Speaker 1: after several buildings were destroyed. They felt that they had
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  Speaker 1: been the victims of sabotage by the US government. In
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  Speaker 1: January of nineteen seventy one, an unrelated ship collision in
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  Speaker 1: the bay gave the government another excuse to want to
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  Speaker 1: remove the occupiers. It seems they didn't like not having
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  Speaker 1: access to the island during these kinds of emergencies, and
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  Speaker 1: so by June of that year, President Nixon reversed course
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  Speaker 1: on his previous policy and sent troops to retake Alcatraz.
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  Speaker 1: By that point, there were only fifteen occupiers left, and
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  Speaker 1: they were removed without incident. The occupation ended on a
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  Speaker 1: down note, but its efforts were felt nationwide. President Nixon
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  Speaker 1: gave a speech in full support of Native American sovereignty,
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  Speaker 1: and soon many tribes, names and lands were restored. It
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  Speaker 1: was a curious reversal, but by showing that they were
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  Speaker 1: willing to fight for what was right, the Indians of
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  Speaker 1: all tribes had finally forced the US government to honor
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  Speaker 1: its word. If you are, like me, a fan of
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  Speaker 1: Ben and Jerry's ice cream, you might have heard of
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  Speaker 1: the flavor Cherry Garcia. It's named, of course, for Jerry Garcia,
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  Speaker 1: the lead singer and guitarist of legendary jam band The
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  Speaker 1: Grateful Dead. Cherry Garcia is the company's second most popular
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  Speaker 1: flavor that has been a bestseller since it debuted in
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  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty seven. But while it's a smash hit. It's
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  Speaker 1: not the first time that Jerry Garcia's name has been
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  Speaker 1: used to pedal dairy treats. More than fifty years ago,
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  Speaker 1: he lent his star power to a very different kind
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  Speaker 1: of product. It started in August of nineteen seventy two
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  Speaker 1: when Chuck and Sukeise had a huge problem. They were
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  Speaker 1: the owners of Springfield Creamery in Springfield, Oregon. They had
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  Speaker 1: been growing their business for ten years, but had suffered
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  Speaker 1: some financial setbacks, and now they were sidled with so
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  Speaker 1: much debt that the creamery was in threats of closing.
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  Speaker 1: Chuck couldn't let that happen. This was his family's only
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  Speaker 1: source of income and they had two kids to support. Besides,
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  Speaker 1: he knew that the Springfield Creamery could be a success.
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  Speaker 1: Chuck actually grew up in the dairy business. His dad
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  Speaker 1: was the manager at Eugene Dairy Farm in Eugene, Oregon,
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  Speaker 1: and got him a job there all through high school.
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  Speaker 1: In college, he studied dairy science at Oregon State University,
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  Speaker 1: which is also where he met Sue, his future wife.
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  Speaker 1: After college, Chuck and Sue moved back to Eugene to
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  Speaker 1: start their life together, and they soon learned of an
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  Speaker 1: incredible opportunity. There was a small defunct creamery in the
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  Speaker 1: next town over and it was available for lease for
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  Speaker 1: just one hundred and fifty dollars a month. They jumped
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  Speaker 1: on the deal and a few weeks later they opened
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  Speaker 1: the Springfield Creamery. For the next decade, they made a
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  Speaker 1: living hand delivering milk to stores, schools, and residential homes.
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  Speaker 1: But over the years their sales went up and also down,
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  Speaker 1: and Chuck knew that the dairy industry was changing and
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  Speaker 1: if his business was going to survive, it would need
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  Speaker 1: to adapt. And that's when he got an idea. You see,
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  Speaker 1: back in college, he had studied live probiotics known to
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  Speaker 1: support gut health, improved digestion, and bolster immune systems, and
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  Speaker 1: he wanted to try and infuse these probiotics into a delicious,
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  Speaker 1: tangy yogurt and eventually transitioned Springfield Creamery from a milk
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  Speaker 1: supplier to a yogurt company. Chuck didn't know how to
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  Speaker 1: make yogurt, but the creamery's bookkeeper, Nancy did so Chuck
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  Speaker 1: and Nancy got to work and by the spring of
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  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy two, they had created a batch of probiotic
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  Speaker 1: yogurt and sold it at a local co op, and
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  Speaker 1: the customers loved it, and soon the co op called
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  Speaker 1: to order more of Nancy's Yogurt. Chuck laughed and decided
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  Speaker 1: that he liked the name, and so the brand Nancy's
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  Speaker 1: Yogurt was born. Unfortunately, it seemed like the new product
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  Speaker 1: was too little, too late. By this point, Springfield Creamery
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  Speaker 1: was just drowning in debt. They would likely be forced
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  Speaker 1: to close their doors before nancy Yogurt had a chance
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  Speaker 1: to catch on, so they needed cash fast, and Chuck
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  Speaker 1: knew exactly who to call, his brother, Ken Keasey. For
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  Speaker 1: the past ten years, while Chuck and Sue were building
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  Speaker 1: their career, Ken had been in the Bay Area publishing
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  Speaker 1: his best selling novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,
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  Speaker 1: and he'd also been hosting a series of parties called
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  Speaker 1: the Acid Tests. Several hundred hippies would show up at
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  Speaker 1: his house, listen to live music, and take psychedelic drugs.
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  Speaker 1: This was before LSD was illegal in California, and it
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  Speaker 1: was in this scene that a local band showed up
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  Speaker 1: to the first Acid Test party. They called themselves the Warlocks,
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  Speaker 1: and they hit it off with Ken right away, so
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  Speaker 1: much so that Ken invited them to headline the next
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  Speaker 1: Acid test a week later. The band agreed, although by
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  Speaker 1: the following Saturday they had changed their name from the Warlocks.
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  Speaker 1: They became the Grateful Dead, and soon the Grateful Debt
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  Speaker 1: amassed a following of loyal fans called Deadheads. Whenever the
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  Speaker 1: band went on tour, thousands of dead Heads would follow.
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  Speaker 1: But even as they rose to fame, Ken Kesey and
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  Speaker 1: the band stayed close. Ken and Chuck would even go
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  Speaker 1: to concerts together and hang out with the Dead after
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  Speaker 1: the show. And now, all these years later, here was
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  Speaker 1: Chuck in a bind, and he wondered if the Dead
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  Speaker 1: would be willing to keep his business alive. So he
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  Speaker 1: called to Ken and explained his idea, and then he
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  Speaker 1: and Ken approached the band with a request. He asked
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  Speaker 1: if they would play a benefit show for Springfield Creamery,
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  Speaker 1: and to Chuck's surprise, the Grateful Dead agreed, and so
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  Speaker 1: Chuck and Sue got busy hand drawing posters to advertise
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  Speaker 1: the show. They rented a field in Venita, Oregon, outside
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  Speaker 1: of Springfield, and they turned Nancy's yogurt labels into concert
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  Speaker 1: tickets and they charged three dollars ahead. Twenty seven days later,
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  Speaker 1: more than twenty thousand dead heads swarmed the open lawn.
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  Speaker 1: It was over one hundred degrees that day, but the
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  Speaker 1: grateful dead still played a three hour concert. They raised
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  Speaker 1: more than fifteen thousand dollars for the Springfield Creamery, equivalent
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  Speaker 1: to about one hundred and fifteen thousand dollars today. It
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  Speaker 1: was more than an enough for Chuck and Sue to
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  Speaker 1: pay off their debt and keep the creamery afloat. Soon,
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  Speaker 1: Nancy's yogurt took off and began selling in stores nationwide. Today,
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  Speaker 1: the company is a leader in the dairy industry, with
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  Speaker 1: annual sales exceeding twenty million dollars. If you ask them,
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  Speaker 1: the Keasy family will be the first to tell you
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  Speaker 1: that none of this would have been possible without the
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  Speaker 1: help from the dead, and for that they are forever grateful.
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  Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
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  Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn
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  Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.
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  Speaker 1: The show was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership
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  Speaker 1: with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show
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  Speaker 1: called Lore which is a podcast, book series, and television
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  Speaker 1: show and you can learn all about it over at
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  Speaker 1: the Worldoflore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.