Colin Kaepernick made a surprise appearance at the Alcatraz Indigenous People’s Sunrise Gathering on Thursday.

A tradition since 1975, the annual dawn festivities, also known as Unthanksgiving Day, commemorate the 1969-71 occupation of Alcatraz by American Indians, during which 89 American Indian activists and leaders occupied the island and former penitentiary with the demands that it be turned into an Indian cultural center and school.