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American Indian Movement

The American Indian Movement (AIM) is an American Indian grassroots movement which was founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota in July 1968,[1] initially centered in urban areas in order to address systemic issues of poverty, discrimination, and police brutality against American Indians.[2] AIM soon widened its focus from urban issues to many Indigenous Tribal issues that American Indian groups have faced due to settler colonialism in the Americas. These issues have included treaty rights, high rates of unemployment, the lack of American Indian subjects in education, and the preservation of Indigenous cultures.[2][3]

AIM was organized by American Indian men who had been serving time together in prison. They had been alienated from their traditional backgrounds as a result of the United States' Public Law 959 Indian Relocation Act of 1956, which supported thousands of American Indians who wanted to move from reservations to cities, in an attempt to enable them to have more economic opportunities for work. In addition, Public Law 280, one of the first major laws contributing to U.S. Indian termination policy,[4] proposed to terminate the federal government's relations with several tribes which were determined to be far along the path of assimilation.[5] These policies were enacted by the United States Congress under congressional plenary power.[6] As a result, nearly 70% of American Indians left their communal homelands on reservations and relocated to urban centers, many in hopes of finding economic sustainability. While many Urban Indians struggled with displacement and such radically different settings, some also began to organize in pan-Indian groups in urban centers. They were described as transnationals.[7] The American Indian Movement formed in such urbanized contexts at a time of increasing Indian activism.[7]


From November 1969 to June 1971, AIM participated in the occupation of the abandoned federal penitentiary on Alcatraz Island organized by seven Indian movements, including the Indians of All Tribes and Richard Oakes, a Mohawk activist.[4] In October 1972, AIM and other Indian groups gathered members from across the United States for a protest in Washington, D.C., known as the Trail of Broken Treaties.[8] Public documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) reveal advanced coordination occurred between federal Bureau of Indian Affairs staff and the authors of a twenty-point proposal. The proposal was drafted with the help of the AIM for delivery to the United States government officials. Its focused on proposals intended to enhance US–Indian relations.


In the decades since AIM's founding, the group has led protests advocating indigenous American interests, inspired cultural renewal, monitored police activities, and coordinated employment programs in cities and in rural reservation communities across the United States. They have also allied with indigenous interests outside the United States.

Restore treaty-making (ended by Congress in 1871).

Establish a treaty commission to make new treaties (with sovereign Native Nations).

Provide opportunities for Indian leaders to address Congress directly.

Review treaty commitments and violations.

Have unratified treaties reviewed by the Senate.

Ensure that all American Indians are governed by treaty relations.

Provide relief to Native Nations as compensation for treaty rights violations.

Recognize the right of Indians to interpret treaties.

Create a Joint Congressional Committee to reconstruct relations with Indians.

Restore 110 million acres (450,000 km2) of land taken away from Native Nations by the United States.

Restore terminated rights of Native Nations.

Repeal state jurisdiction on Native Nations ().

Public Law 280

Provide Federal protection for offenses against Indians.

Abolish the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Create a new office of Federal Indian Relations.

Remedy breakdown in the constitutionally prescribed relationships between the United States and Native Nations.

Ensure immunity of Native Nations from state commerce regulation, taxes, and trade restrictions.

Protect Indian religious freedom and cultural integrity.

Establish national Indian voting with local options; free national Indian organizations from governmental controls.

Reclaim and affirm health, housing, employment, economic development, and education for all Indian people.

[19]

Relationship with other civil rights movements[edit]

AIM's leaders drew inspiration from the African American leaders of the Civil Rights Movement as they spoke out against injustices towards their people. They addressed issues such as high unemployment, slum housing, and racist treatment. They also fought for treaty rights and the reclamation of tribal land and advocated on behalf of urban Indians.


In response to its provocative events and its advocacy of Indian rights, the Department of Justice (DOJ) scrutinized the AIM.[29] The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) used paid informants to report on the AIM's activities and members.[30][31]


In February 1973, AIM leaders Russell Means, Dennis Banks, and other AIM activists occupied the small Indian community of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, on the Pine Ridge Reservation. They were protesting what they said was the corrupt local government, federal issues affecting Indian reservation communities, and the lack of justice in border counties. American Indians from many other communities, primarily urban Indians, rallied to come and participate in the occupation. The FBI dispatched agents and US Marshals to cordon off the site. Later a higher-ranking DOJ representative took control of the government's response. During the 71-day siege, twelve people were wounded, and an FBI agent was left paralyzed. In April, a Cherokee and a Lakota activist were killed by gunfire. At this point, the Oglala Lakota called an end to the occupation. Additionally, two other people went missing during the occupation and are believed to have been killed, although their bodies have never been found. One of the missing was African American civil rights activist Ray Robinson. Afterward, 1200 American Indians were arrested.


Wounded Knee drew international attention to the plight of American Indians. AIM leaders were tried in a Minnesota federal court. The court dismissed their case on the basis of governmental prosecutorial misconduct.[32] In 2014, the FBI confirmed that Robinson had been killed and buried on the reservation in April 1973 after AIM members allegedly killed him during an argument.[33][34]

History[edit]

AIM protests[edit]

AIM opposes national and collegiate sports teams using figures of indigenous people as mascots and team names, such as the Cleveland Indians, the Atlanta Braves, the Chicago Blackhawks, the Kansas City Chiefs and the Washington Redskins and has organized protests at World Series and Super Bowl games against these teams. Protesters held signs with slogans such as "Indians are people not mascots". or "Being Indian is not a character you can play".[35] Subsequently, Cleveland and Washington have changed their team names.[36]


Although sports teams had ignored such requests by individual tribes for years, AIM received attention in the mascot debate. NCAA schools such as Florida State University, University of Utah, University of Illinois and Central Michigan University have negotiated with the tribes whose names or images they had used for permission for continued use and to collaborate on portraying the mascot in a way that is intended to honor Native Americans.

Goals and commitments[edit]

AIM has been committed to improving conditions faced by native peoples. It founded institutions to address needs, including the Heart of The Earth School, Little Earth Housing, International Indian Treaty Council, AIM StreetMedics, American Indian Opportunities and Industrialization Center (one of the largest Indian job training programs), KILI radio and Indian Legal Rights Centers.[37]


In 1971, several members of AIM, including Dennis Banks and Russell Means, traveled to Mount Rushmore. They converged at the mountain in order to protest the illegal seizure of the Sioux Nation's sacred Black Hills in 1877 by the United States federal government, in violation of its earlier 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie. The protest began to publicize the issues of the American Indian Movement.[38] In 1980, the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government had illegally taken the Black Hills. The government offered financial compensation, but the Oglala Sioux have refused it, insisting on return of the land to their people. The settlement money is earning interest.[39]

Work on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation[edit]

Border town cases[edit]

In 1972, Raymond Yellow Thunder, a 51-year-old Oglala Lakota from Pine Ridge Reservation, was murdered in Gordon, Nebraska, by two brothers, Leslie and Melvin Hare, younger white men. After their trial and conviction, the Hares received the minimal sentence for manslaughter. Members of AIM went to Gordon to protest the sentences, arguing they were part of a pattern of law enforcement that did not provide justice to Native Americans in counties and communities bordering Indian reservations.[40]


In the winter of 1973, Wesley Bad Heart Bull, a Lakota, was stabbed to death at a bar in South Dakota by Darrell Schmitz, a white male. The offender was jailed but released on a $5,000 bond and charged with second degree manslaughter. Believing the charges to be too lenient, a group of AIM members and leaders from Pine Ridge Reservation and leaders travelled to the county seat of Custer, South Dakota, to meet with the prosecutor. Police in riot gear allowed only four people to enter the county courthouse. The talks were not successful, and tempers rose over the police treatment; AIM activists caused $2 million in damages by attacking and burning the Custer Chamber of Commerce building, the courthouse, and two patrol cars. Many of the AIM demonstrators were arrested and charged; numerous people served sentences, including the mother of Wesley Bad Heart Bull.[38]

Black Panther Party

Brown Berets

Republic of New Afrika

Young Lords Party

Zapatista Army of National Liberation

Banks, Dennis; Erdoes, Richard (2004). Ojibwa Warrior: Dennis Banks and the Rise of the American Indian Movement. University of Oklahoma Press.  978-0806135809. OCLC 53059503.

ISBN

Deloria, Vine Jr. (1988). Custer Died for Your Sins : an Indian manifesto. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.  978-0806121291. OCLC 17234301.

ISBN

Langworthy, Lucas (Director) (2010). Taking AIM: The Story of the American Indian Movement (DVD).

Johansen, Bruce E. (2015). . Greenwood. ISBN 978-1785394645.

Encyclopedia of the American Indian Movement

Johnson, Troy R. (2007). Red Power: The Native American Civil Rights Movement. New York: Chelsea House.  978-0791093412. OCLC 77520605.

ISBN

Matthiessen, Peter (1992). . New York: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0140144567. OCLC 25313752.

In the Spirit of Crazy Horse

Means, Russell (1995). . Wolf, Marvin J. (1st ed.). New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0312136215. OCLC 32780115.

Where White Men Fear to Tread: The Autobiography of Russell Means

Nagel, Joane (1996). American Indian Ethnic Renewal: Red Power and the Resurgence of Identity and Culture. New York: Oxford University Press.  978-0195080537. OCLC 31610380.

ISBN

Peltier, Leonard (1999). . Arden, Harvey. (1st ed.). New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0312203542. OCLC 40862180.

Prison Writings: My Life is My Sun Dance

Redford, Robert (2004). Incident at Oglala: The Leonard Peltier Story (DVD). Lions Gate.

Stern, Kenneth S (2002). Loud Hawk: the United States versus the American Indian Movement. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press.  978-0806134390. OCLC 876192514.

ISBN

(1982). Blood of the Land. The Government and Corporate War Against the American Indian Movement. Random House. ISBN 978-0394717326.

Weyler, Rex

Bancroft, Dick; Wittstock, Laura Waterman (2013). We Are Still Here: A Photographic History of the American Indian Movement. St. Paul, Minn: Minnesota Historical Society Press.  978-0873518871. OCLC 930953303.

ISBN

AIM Grand Governing Council homepage

American Indian IOC

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American Indian Movement of Colorado

Cleveland AIM is the oldest urban AIM organization and a member of the International Confederation of Autonomous Chapters of AIM.

Cleveland American Indian Movement

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International Confederation of Autonomous chapters of AIM

AIM's

"Background on US Government War Against AIM"

about AIM. by Ward Churchill and others.

Articles

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"USA: Longest Walk 2 for Native Americans rights"

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"Longest Walk 1978 Collected Works"

Jason Heppler, . Digital history project.

"Framing Red Power: The American Indian Movement, the Trail of Broken Treaties, and the Politics of Media"

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List of incidents attributed to the American Indian Movement on the START database

The is open for research at Princeton University. Luck was present at the incident at Wounded Knee in 1973 and the Menominee Warrior Society occupation of the Alexian Brothers Novitiate in Gresham, Wisconsin, in 1975 and took a total of 66 photographs. Images include Dennis Banks, Clyde Bellecourt, and Russell Means.

Owen Luck Photographs Collection, 1973–2001

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"A Brief History of the American Indian Movement"