A flag which was said to have flown during the American Indian occupation of Alcatraz nearly 40 years ago went on the auction block yesterday.

Whether the flag actually flew above one of the island’s guard towers, no one seems to know for sure.

“It’s not just a flag. It’s a moment in history,” said Bruce MacMakin, a senior vice president with PBA Galleries on Kearny Street, an auction house that specializes in Americana.

PBA Galleries auctioned the flag on behalf of Daniel Hagar, from Florida.

The flag, featuring red and white stripes and a teepee made up of stars, sold for $69,000 to an unidentified private collector. The selling price was less than half what the auctioneers had estimated the flag to be worth. The gallery had expected the banner, designed in the late 1960s by Lulie Nall, a North Beach housewife and Penobscot Indian, to fetch $100,000 to $150,000.

Posted: 01|25|08 at 10:22 am. Filed under: US News.