The 1960’s marked the struggle towards equality for a variety of different groups. While the movements of African Americans, women, and Latinos are more well known, the Native American movement was an important one as well.
After observing the struggle among other oppressed groups, the Native Americans took advantage of the change and organized their own movement. Native American activists began to plan demonstrations in order to protest the US’ history of oppression towards the Natives. They aimed to protest for the rights of Native Americans.
The protests began as early as 1964. It was then that a handful of Sioux activists occupied Alcatraz Island in an effort to protest the federal government taking it from them. While they only ended up occupying it for a few hours, it served as a catalyst for more demonstrations in the coming years.
In 1968, The American Indian Movement was founded. It was a group led by Native American activists who wanted to advocate for certain stances on key Native American issues such as treaties and sovereignty. In addition, they protested for the guarantee of rights for the Native Americans and against civil rights violations. A couple of the several founders of the AIM were Jane Wilson and Dennis Banks.
In 1969, The American Indian Movement drew from the work of past activists and led a second attempt of the Alcatraz Island occupation. However, this time, there were several hundred activists who occupied the island for over 19 months. Their goals were to “reclaim the rock” which the government had seized from them. In 1972, the AIM organized another movement. They took hundreds of Native Americans on a march to Washington DC, which was called the “Trail of Broken Treaties”. Upon arrival, they took over “Bureau of Indian Affairs Office” for over a week in order to state their grievances over their treatment. In another protest, over 200 Native Americans marched to the town of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, and occupied it for over two months in 1973. They chose this location to protest as this had been the place where the US government had massacred hundreds of Sioux Native-Americans in the late 19th century. This AIM group is still active, as shown by the recent march to Washington DC in 2008 to protest the poverty of Native Americans.
All of these protests ended up having some effect, as the federal government paid a few hundred million dollars to Native American groups. In addition, acts like the 1972 Indian Education Act provided more opportunities for the education of Native American children. In addition, the 1976 Indian Health Care Act attempted to provide a greater healthcare coverage for Native Americans. While the Native Americans have not reached a level of equality, activists groups like the AIM conduct continual protests to attempt to achieve it.
Nice post Rushil! I really like how you introduce the Native American movement by showing the success of the black and latino rights movement. I found it interesting how the Sioux Native Americans occupied Alcatraz island to demonstrate their freedom. When you talked about the "trail of broken treaties" the name showed significant resemblance to the "trail of tears" which made a good play on words. Overall nice post and the way you organize your paragraphs helps your overall argument.
ReplyDelete