The “state of nature” is paid for by the state of man. It’s a uniquely American arrangement: When the colonists first came to America, the land they claimed—and what grew on it—was considered the property of the king of England. But here in northern Minnesota, for now, public land still benefits the people.
1940s–: Civil Rights Movement
Civil Rights Movement encapsulating Native Americans
1944: 50-tribe delegates formed National Congress of American Indians (NCAI)
equal rights and equal protection, restoration of treaty rights, land and culture reclamation
overturned federal job disscrimination, state law reservation bans, limited state judicial control, health care, employment, education
gradualist, steady work: policy against direct action
conservative members purged in 1960s
1964: Vine Deloria Jr. → exec. director
1950s: National Indian Youth Council (NIYC)
Clyde Warrior, Ponca
also the 1960 Southwest Regional Indian Youth Council president
being Indian was good, and what culture and tradition Indians maintained were good as well, and sufficient to the task of being Indian in the twentieth century and beyond. It doesn’t sound so radical in our age of identity politics, but it was radical then, especially among Indians. Hundreds of years of being missionized, colonized, reservationized, mainstreamed, marginalized, and criminalized had had a pernicious effect on Indian self-regard. How not to think of oneself as less, how not to think of oneself and one’s place as at the bottom of hierarchical America after being downtrodden for a century?
youth leadership and firebrand, active, invested movements for Indian rights
Browning Pipestem
“take the negtive image of the Indians and shove it down people’s throats”
1966: NIYC direct action in PNW over treaty and fishing rights; “fish-ins” with intertribal alliances and allyship; primary pursuance of tribal sovereignty and Indian culture
American Indian Movement
1970s: inspiration and following of Black Panthers as a model for resistance
not only civil rights, but economic and political power and disruption of imperialism
American Indian Movement (AIM) led by Dennis Banks, Clyde and Vernon Bellecourt, George Mitchell, Harold Powless
economic independence and freedom from police ebrutality
loud, visible militant theatrics
forcing women and lighter-skinned Indians out of image; “The leaders were obsessed with image and given to grandstanding. Yet in the midst of the counterculture movement that co-opted so much Indian aesthetic and culture, AIM was doing one thing right: it was showing Indians around the country that they were proud of being Indian, and in the most uncomfortable ways possible for the mainstream. Indians from reservations and cities alike were, for the first time, pushing back against the acculturation machine that was a part of America’s domestic imperial agenda, and doing it loud and proud.”
11/1969: Alcatraz Island takeover by Bay Area students and activists
Alcatraz Island takeover
alcatraz closed in 1963
bay area power node in 1950s onward due to migration, termination, relocation, and UC education
03/08/1964: Lakota occupation of abandoned federal buildings
high support and later reignited by 1969 takeover
Adam Nordwall, Ojibwe; Richard Oakes, Mohawk
10/1969: SF American Indian Center burned; proposition to turn Alcatraz into an expanded Indian center → takeover plan
11/9/1969: soft opening of takeoveer
11/20: takeover; but no supplies and leadership brought initially; fraught issues of AIM communications
failed negotiations between Nixon officials and takeover
1971: BIA, DC → protest over policy and paternalism
1972 Caravan
1972: traveling caravan through reservations: “Trail of Broken Treaties” w/ 20-point list
large support from other citizens, organizations, and councils
failure through violence seeping into AIM disrupting large support
11/1/1972: DC, few shelter and food, police tensions
11/3: Lafayette Park, BIA
fear of armed resistance
police swarmed building; occupiers took over building
resolutions, avoidance of forcible eviction
reoccupation as “Native American Embassy”; Marion Barry, LaDonna Harris
de-escalation → court resolution
11/6: goodwill evaporated (was right before Election Day); eviction attempt → $2m worth of damage to embassy
67k offered to return caravan home; occupation ended, and little accomplished
20 point list drafted in Minneapolis and released over court
Restoration of constitutional treaty-making authority
Establishment of treaty commission to make new treaties
An address to the American people & joint sessions of Congress
Commission to review treaty commitments & violations
Resubmission of unratified treaties to the Senate
All Indians to be governed by treaty relations
Mandatory relief against treaty rights violations
Judicial recognition of Indian right to interpret treaties
Creation of congressional joint committee on reconstruction of Indian relations
Land reform and restoration of a 110 million-acre Native land base
Revision of 25 U.S.C. 163; restoration of rights to Indians terminated by enrollment and revocation of prohibitions against “dual benefits”
Repeal of state laws enacted under Public Law 280 (1953)
Resume federal protective jurisdiction for offenses against Indians
Abolition of the Bureau of Indian Affairs by 1976
Creation of an “Office of Federal Indian Relations and Community Reconstruction”
Priorities and purpose of the proposed new office
Indian commerce and tax immunities
Protection of Indians’ religious freedom and cultural integrity
National referendums, local options, and forms of Indian organization
Health, housing, employment, economic development, and education
1972: Pine Ridge
1972: murder of Oglala Sioux in Gordon, NB: Raymond Yellow Thunder
grandson to Lakota chief American Horse
protests and boycotts organized by AIM over Gordon
pressure led to human rights commission, jail turnover and inquiries, manslaughter charges
Wounded Knee Trading Post on top of the Wounded Knee massacre; trashing of fort and humiliation
01/21/1963: Wesley Bad Heart Bull, Buffalo Gap, SD
protests at Custer on 01/22 for second-degree manslaughter (lowest possible charge for murder)
Buffalo Gap white border town; low support and failure to cause change
1970s: Pine Ridge reservation
Dick Wilson controlling and district representative → chairman; nepotism, favoritism, mismanagement, stealing of funds
“Guardians of the Oglala Nation”
02/1973: backlash and impeachment; not impeached only due to technicalities
AIM members swarmed into Pine Ridge; militarization of P.R.
2/27/1973: takeover of Wounded Knee village
swarmed/sieged by federal law enforcement
demands to hold hearings on Indian treaties, investigate BIA malfeasance, investigate reservations, and restrict negotiating partners; remove Wilson and appoint Kissinger for negotiation
~3/9: cease-fire turned into infiltration by AIM activists bringing in supplies → “Inependent Oglala Nation”
3/1: AIM and hostages; escalation of siege
illegal presence of military; roadblocks via FBI
3/11: federal postal inspectors in Wounded Knee, spying; wounding and siege
Harlington Wood Jr. negotiator for several days
after failing aand leaving, intense gunfight; perpetual cycle
one month later: Kent Frizzell; violent starvation of resources; firefights
April: removal of BIA and Interior from negotiations
early April agreement: hearing grievances, Pine Ridge investigation, Means turning in
mid-April: sign for end of siege
“war games without a war”
1975: Jumping Bull
Wilson terrorizing reservation: increased homicides between 1973–1976 and increasseed cooperation between Wilson and FBI
March 1975: Jeannette Bissonette assassination
FBI investigations led to AIM members who seemed to perp for standoff, including Leonard Peltier
06/25/1975: camp at Lame Ranch of Peltier, Bob Robideau, Darrell Butler
Jack Coler and Ron Williams saw camp, followed van, and engaged in a firefight
execution of Coler and Williams
Robideau and Butler acquitted on self-defense
Peltier extradited and serving two consecutive life sentences
1976: Anna Mae Aquash
Mi’kmaq from Canada who went to join AIM at Wounded Knee
affair with Banks; fear of FBI informant (COINTELPRO infiltration), sexual politics and resentment by Dakota group — Pie Patrol
Arlo Looking Cloud aand John Graham ordered to kill; unknown reasoning or order
cult worship around AIM by white people
other influences of AIM
1972: Saint Paul, MN school for “self-determination” and independent education: Red School House
followed by Heart of the Earth Survival School and Indian Community School
abrupt grant funding pulls were reversed
1975: 16 Indian-run and Indian designed schools, with more to come
improvement of housing (1973, Little Earth)
improvement of community and leadership
high prominence in Minnesota
1978: Indian education in prison; spiritual and educational learning at MN Correctional Facility Stillwater and St. Cloud
1979: American Indian Opportunities Industrialization Center, Minneapolis: vocational education
grassroots activism and alliances
Federal Efforts
1964–1981: Lyndon Johnson
01/08/1964: Lyndon Johnson “war on poverty” speech: address included Indians in a nonviolent, non-“problematic” fashion, as American citizens
profound shift in mindset and view of Indians; Indian problem turned into the American problem
09/1964: Economic Opporunity Act
Job Corps, Youth Conservation Corps, Federal Work-Study, Adult Basic Education, Voluntary Assistance for Needy Children, rural loans, Volunteers in Service to America, migrant workers, business loans
Office of Economic Opportunity bypassing federal and state bureaucracies
dismantled and limited by Nixon
fully dismantled by Reagan
government acts
1972: Indian Education Act
curricula reworks, education and unemployment rates
local agencies develop curricula and support for Inddian students
federal funding and employment of Indians
regarded transportation, nutrition, disability management, grants and public school support
by 1980s, most hses in Indian country had dedicated education programss, staff, and cultural instruction
accredited tribal college; Navajo Community College → Diné College; two-year accredited colleges and vocational prep work
2013: Montana had a fully accredited tribal college administered to every reservation
1999: Indian Education for All Act
1976: Iowa Burials Protection Act
prevent exploitation of Indian burial remains
1978: American Indian Religious Freedom Act
Jimmy Carter
freedom of religious practice and devotion for American Indian, Inuit, Aleut, and Hawai’ian individuals; emphasis in speech twd Indians
establishment of geographical-religiouss limit of act
1990: Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA)
official processes for Indian remains and funerary rites
procedures for treating remains archaeologically discovered