The diverse group of students, ranging in age 15-18, come from cities as far as Vacaville and Modesto to Bay Area cities of Berkeley, Oakland, and San Francisco. The group will travel north to Humboldt and Hoopa, and south to Wards Valley and the Mojave desert. Students will meet with friends and supporters of Native American Bear Lincoln in Covelo. Supporters of Lincoln say that he has been wrongfully imprisoned by the government. In Riverside, the group will tour Sherman Institute, the only remaining Indian boarding school in California. The group will also tour DQ University in Winters, the only Indian junior college in California. In Sacramento, the students will meet with representatives from the Bureau of Indian Affairs and with organizers of the Indian Gaming Initiative, a measure on the November 1998 California ballot.

A highlight of the trip will be the rare opportunity for the students to stay overnight at Alcatraz. In 1968, Alcatraz, the former federal penitentiary, was officially declared surplus property. The Sioux Treaty of 1868 entitled Sioux Indians to claim surplus land. Therefore, in 1969, a group called the Indians of All Tribes(IAT) reclaimed Alcatraz in the name of all American Indians based on the Sioux Treaty. The occupation lasted 19 months and nine days. The ACLU students will be hosted by the U.S. Park Service, the agency that now maintains the island.

"The issue of sovereignty for American Indians and their tribes is one that few Americans know much about. This is truly unfortunate since public opinion is so crucial in influencing Congress which has almost exclusive control over this area of law with little protection from the courts," said Nancy Otto, director of the Howard A. Friedman Project. "When students educate their peers in classrooms about their experiences on the trip, they will be providing a current look at a topic that is usually only covered from a historical perspective." Students who participate on the trip agree to present the information they learn in classrooms throughout northern California. They also publish their writing and photographs documenting the trip.

The Howard A. Friedman First Amendment Project of the ACLU-NC was founded in 1991 and works with teachers and students in an effort to educate others of the Bill of Rights and its relation to them. In 1997, the Project took students to prevention programs and prison cells around Northern California, including death row at San Quentin, to investigate the juvenile justice system. The previous year, students traveled to the U.S.-Mexican border and the agricultural areas of California to explore issues surrounding immigration.