Midterm Project Abstract

For my project I am going to look at the types of activism both Alanis Obamsawin and Winona LaDuke have employed to voice issues pertinent to Native people today. I am going to look at their work through the lens of three of our class themes. The first theme I am going to apply is restoration, the second environmental justice, and the third; matrilineal forms of resistance. In one way or another both of these women have addressed/ utilized matrilineal and restorative forms of activism in their work to bring awareness to Indigenous issues like environmental justice, land and water rights, education issues, and women’s rights, etc. I am going to take a closer look at how these two women applied/ addressed these themes in their work to bring awareness to Native issues and to open communication to create a better future for Indigenous people.

American Indian Women's Activism in the 1960s and 1970s

During the time when many different groups were organizing movements dedicated to civil rights. American Indians were drawing on their unique history of resistance and loss of land and resources to create a movement that would forever change racist policies aimed at assimilating Indigenous people.

In 1944 the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) was founded and became one of the leading Civil Rights groups of the American Indian Movement (AIM). Membership was restricted to people with Indian ancestry prohibiting Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) employees from leadership positions, which placed Native people in charge of their own issues. From the NCAI came goals for Indian policy and tribes and lobbying victories.

Lobbying Victories of the NCAI:

• Indian Self-Determination and Education Act (1965)
• Indian Civil Rights Act (1968)
• 1972 Indian Education Act
• 1975 Indian Education Assistance and Self-determination Act
• 1978 Indian Children Welfare Act
• 1978 Religious Freedom Act

Racist Policies

1953 Termination Act

• Occurred during time when Americans felt their values were under threat from outside and within the country.
• Compensation for stolen lands was only considered if tribe would develop a termination plan.

• Tribes divided into categories of immediate and eventual termination
• Began with Paiutes in Utah
• “Tribes were refused building permits for hospitals and schools since this might encourage some to remain on their land rather than relocate” (Langston, 2006, p.2).

Relocation Program (1952)

• Offered one-way bus fair and promises of help finding jobs and housing
• Focused on young tribal members with “more employable skills”
• In 1940 13% of Indians lived in urban areas—by 1980 more than half were urban
• BIA estimated that 200,000 Indigenous people were relocated under this program while the Indian Removal Act of 1830 forces less than half this number—89,000 to relocate.
• High point of termination policy 1952-1962
• By late 1960s termination policy in remission
• 1972 officially ended!

Consequence: Renewed interest in tribal values.

Response Groups

National Indian Youth Counsel (NIYC)

• Founded in 1961 after disputes between Oklahoma and Great Plains tribes and between tribal (leaders who dominated the NCAI) and younger urban Indians.
• Began in Chicago but a group was formed in New Mexico by Shirley Hill Witt and others shortly after.
• Began holding meetings on reservations. Meetings included traditional tribal songs and drum ceremonies.
• Employed non-violent, humorous, and symbolic ridicule of white society through publications on ABC of Americans Before Columbus.
• Perceived reservations to be that of internal colonies under the rule of the BIA—“white colonist movement” (Langston, 2006, p.3).
• First action students took was joining Fish-in Movement in WA (1964).

Fish-in Protests

• Responded to WA State policy that trued to use state laws to restrict fishing rights guaranteed by federal treaties.
• With high poverty rates fishing was an important subsistence strategy. Fishing traditionally formed basis of diets, culture, and spirituality.
• Boldt decision recognized treaty rights of tribes regarding fishing.
• Women carried the arms during the fish-ins.
• There were shootouts and firebombings, Ramona Bennett was shot by white vigilantes while 7 months pregnant.
• Women were the key figures in the fish-ins and comprised the majority of the protesters but only half of those arrested.

Occupation of Alcatraz (1969-1971)

• First “red power” movement to gain national attention.
• Began with 40 Indians from Bay Area Council of American Indians
• Drove claim stakes into the ground and offered government $0.47/acre for a total of $9.40 for the island.
• November 20^th a group of 90 students began building structure for long-term occupation. Conditions were similar to those found on reservations; no electricity or running water.
• 56,000 Indians took part in occupation, named themselves Indians of All Tribes
• Symbolized renewed cultural pride and more militant stances regarding self-determination.
• Remains longest occupation of federal site by Native people to date.

Occupations that Followed

• 1970 Fort Lawton in WA State was successful at getting land for Daybreak Star Cultural Center
• 1971 Davis CA successful in establishing DQ University
• Ellis Island 1970 Thanksgiving occupation of the Mayflower by AIM
• Numerous occupations of BIA offices including Washington D.C. headquarters

9 Policy Changes that Resulted from Alcatraz:

• Indian Self Determination and Education Act
• Indian Financing Act
• Indian Health Act
• Return of Mount Adams to Yakima tribe
• Return of 48,000 acres of the Sacred Blue Lake lands to Taos Pueblo in NM
• Nixon signed papers ending Termination Policy

American Indian Movement

Focuses/Goals of AIM:

• Maintain cultural integrity
• Gain enforcement of treaty rights

• Empower the tribe not the individual

One of the groups to organize the

Trail of Broken Treaties

• March to D.C. to voice grievances to presidential candidates
• Occupied BIA office
• When riot police tried to remove them from building police were pushed into the streets and the doors were blocked
• Madonna Gilbert-Thunderhawk and Russell Means collected 1.5 million pounds of documents on the practice of sterilization abuse and other abuses.

In the Midwest AIM served as a portable response unit for crimes committed by whites against Native people which were rarely prosecuted.

Pine Ridge

• Dick Wilson tribal chair of Pine Ridge Reservation and his ‘goons’ “created an atmosphere where arson, beating, and murder were common” (Langston, 2006, p. 9).
• All AIM activities banned
• Half of BIA police moonlighted as ‘goons’
• Murder rate 700 times that of Detroit
• Women spearheaded dissent on Pine Ridge and performed all tasks including carrying the weapons
• Out of 350 occupiers, only 100 were men.
• After dissent on Pine Ridge two years of terror followed with the ‘goons’ acting as a death squad—250 traditionalists were killed and 69 AIM supporters, 1/3 women.

Important Women in these Movements

• Lehman Brightman
• LaNada Boyer-Means
• Grace Thorpe
• Stella Leach
• Dr. Dorothy Lone Wolf Miller
• Wilma Mankiller
• Ramona Bennett
• Janet McCloud
• Pat Ballinger
• Lavonna Weller
• Madonna Gilbert-Thunderhawk
• Sarah Bad Heart Bull

Informative Resources:

AIM Website: http://www.aimovement.org/

Film: The Spirit of Crazy Horse