Biography
John Boncore Hill was a Mohawk (Haudenosaunee) prisoner and one of the leaders of the September 1971 Attica State Prison uprising in New York. After New York State Police killed dozens of inmates and hostages in the assault that ended the rebellion, the state singled out uprising leaders for prosecution; Hill was convicted in 1975 of killing prison guard William Quinn — a charge supporters and human rights observers cited by the U.S. National Minority Advisory Council on Criminal Justice (1980) considered politically motivated, given that the state continually invented and revised its account of Quinn's death to justify the assault on D-Yard. Hill spent years in New York prisons before his eventual release and went on to become a prominent Indigenous rights activist known as Splitting the Sky.
The March 1973 Attica News roster prints John Hill (Chief) among the uprising prisoner defendants, linked to indictment 1, 19: murder of Officer William Quinn; assault, prison contraband and weapon possession. The table lists maximum statutory exposure, not sentences actually imposed or time served; no custody dates or duration are inferred. His letter printed on physical page 3 thanks outside supporters and describes political awareness developed in confinement; the signature is John Hill. The common-name roster match rests on the Attica context, Chief nickname and the Quinn prosecution, not on unrelated John Hill namesakes. Source: https://freedomarchives.org/Documents/Finder/DOC510_scans/Attica/510.Prisons.AtticaNewsVol1No1.pdf#page=6
The 1978 Attica defense booklet identifies Hill as Dacajeweiah and describes his public speaking for the Attica defendants during 1974, between the original prison uprising and the later trial. A contemporaneous April 18, 1975 report in The Militant records his April 5 murder conviction and his immediate return to custody: deputies led him from the courtroom, bail was denied, and he was held by the Erie County sheriff. This was a return to custody following a period outside prison, rather than continuous confinement beginning with the uprising. The defense booklet records Governor Hugh Carey’s commutation on December 30, 1976, followed by parole denials in 1977; clemency did not itself release Hill.
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