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American Indian Movement

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: American Indian Movement
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Civil rights organization founded in 1968, originally to help urban American Indians displaced by government programs. It later broadened its efforts to include demands for economic independence, autonomy over tribal areas, restoration of illegally seized lands, and protection of Indian legal rights and traditional culture. Some of its protest activities involved violence and were highly publicized (see Wounded Knee). Internal strife and the imprisonment of some leaders led to the disbanding of its national leadership in 1978, though local groups have continued to function.

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US History Encyclopedia: American Indian Movement
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American Indian Movement (AIM), an activist organization that came to national prominence in the 1970s, emerged during July 1968 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in response to police brutality committed against urban Indians in the Twin Cities. AIM's three primary founders were Clyde Bellecourt (Ojibwa), Dennis Banks (Ojibwa), and George Mitchell (Ojibwa). According to Bellecourt, 120 American Indians of an estimated 20,000 living in the Twin Cities at this time began to hold regular meetings in the area of Franklin Avenue and initially called themselves the Concerned Indian American Coalition. Later, two Indian women elders suggested the name "AIM" since the leadership of the organization was "aiming" to take action on several fronts to correct past injustices against Indian people.

AIM leaders organized Indian patrols to scrutinize police actions. The patrols located drunken Indians in bars before the police found them. The patrols carried citizens band radios to intercept police calls so that they could witness arrests and make sure that the arrested Indians were not abused. The patrol members wore red jackets with a black thunderbird emblem and became known as "shock troops" in the Indian neighborhood. Within a few months, the coalition structured itself as a nonprofit corporation with an Indian board and staff.

Among its other community activities in the Twin Cities, AIM started culturally oriented schools for Indian youths called the Little Red Schoolhouse and Heart of the Earth. These efforts were a response to the fact that at the junior high level, Ojibwa youths had a dropout rate of 65 percent in public schools. As more American Indians arrived in the Twin Cities via relocation, AIM provided temporary shelter and meals and developed an Indian elders program.

AIM became a national organization as widespread frustration over the urban conditions caused by the relocation of many Indians to cities led more Indian people to join the fight for Indian justice. Within four years of its founding, AIM had established forty chapters in U.S. cities, on reservations, and in Canada. Active chapters were in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver, Milwaukee, and Cleveland. Among the individuals in AIM who became national leaders were Eddie Benton-Banai (Ojibwa) and Mary Jane Wilson (Ojibwa), who were instrumental in the early formation of the movement; Vernon Belle-court (Ojibwa), Russell Means (Oglala), Richard Oakes (Mohawk), and Lehman Brightman (Lakota), who became director of Native American Studies at the University of California at Berkeley; John Trudell (Santee Dakota), who served as AIM national chairperson from 1974 to 1979; and Leonard Peltier (Metis), Anna Mae Aquash (Micmac), and Carter Camp (Ponca).

At the political level, AIM activists sought to bring attention to American Indian issues through a series of public protests, beginning with their participation in the nineteen-month occupation of Alcatraz that began in 1969. AIM activists protested at Mount Rushmore on 4 July 1971; at the Mayflower replica at Plymouth, Massachusetts, on Thanksgiving Day in 1971; and in Gordon, Nebraska, in February 1972, in response to the murder of Raymond Yellow Thunder. AIM members occupied the Bureau of Indian Affairs building in Washington, D.C., in November 1972 and initiated the nationwide Longest Walk in 1978, ending in Washington, D.C. Local chapters took over buildings in Wisconsin, California, and other states.

National attention peaked with two events, the first being AIM members' ten-week occupation of Wounded Knee, South Dakota (see Wounded Knee, 1973). Authorities charged Dennis Banks and Russell Means and put them on trial for their actions at Wounded Knee, while other AIM members were arrested and released. Following an eight-month trial in 1974, a federal judge dismissed charges against Means and Banks.

The second event, known as the Oglala Firefight of 1975, grew out of heightened tensions between Indian activists and the Federal Bureau of Investigation after the events at Wounded Knee. The FBI was involved with surveillance of all major Indian protests, working to subvert such protests and challenging AIM leaders. The firefight broke out on 26 June 1975 between AIM members and the FBI at the Jumping Bull family compound on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. The deaths of two FBI agents in the conflict led to a nationwide FBI effort to find the killer, and Leonard Peltier was ultimately convicted of the crime. (Two alleged accomplices were acquitted in a separate proceeding.) Despite protests over many years that Peltier did not receive a fair trial, and international calls for his release, in 2002 he was still serving a prison sentence at Leavenworth, Kansas.

By the late 1970s, AIM no longer occupied national headlines, although it served an important purpose in altering federal Indian policy. During the 1970s, AIM split into two groups that put Clyde and Vernon Bellecourt on one side and Russell Means and his supporters on the other. This division remained unhealed, and AIM's politics were subdued due to conflict over leadership. Nevertheless, in the early twenty-first century it remained as one of the longest-lived national organizations representing American Indian issues.

Bibliography

Johnson, Troy, et al., eds. American Indian Activism: Alcatraz to the Longest Walk. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1997.

Nagel, Joane. American Indian Ethnic Renewal: Red Power and the Resurgence of Identity and Culture. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.

Smith, Paul Chatt, and Robert Warrior, eds. Like a Hurricane: The Indian Movement from Alcatraz to Wounded Knee. New York: New Press, 1996.

—Donald L. Fixico

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: American Indian Movement
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American Indian Movement (AIM), organization of the Native American civil-rights movement, founded in 1968. Its purpose is to encourage self-determination among Native Americans and to establish international recognition of their treaty rights. In 1972, members of AIM briefly took over the headquarters of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington, D.C. They complained that the government had created the tribal councils on reservations in 1934 as a way of perpetuating paternalistic control over Native American development. In 1973, about 200 Sioux, led by members of AIM, seized the tiny village of Wounded Knee, S.Dak., site of the last great massacre of Native Americans by the U.S. cavalry (1890). Among their demands was a review of more than 300 treaties between the Native Americans and the federal government that AIM alleged were broken. Wounded Knee was occupied for 70 days before the militants surrendered. The leaders were subsequently brought to trial, but the case was dismissed on grounds of misconduct by the prosecution. AIM also sponsored talks resulting in the 1977 International Treaty Conference with the UN in Geneva, Switzerland.

Wikipedia: American Indian Movement
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Flag of the American Indian Movement.

The American Indian Movement (AIM) is a Native American activist organization in the United States. AIM gained international press when it seized of the Bureau of Indian Affairs headquarters in Washington, D.C., in 1972, and in 1973 had a standoff at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. AIM was founded in 1968 by Dennis Banks, George Mitchell, Herb Powless, Clyde Bellecourt, Harold Goodsky, Eddie Benton-Banai, and a number of others in Minneapolis' Native American community.[1] Russell Means was another early leader. From its beginnings in Minnesota, AIM soon attracted members from across the United States (and Canada). It was also involved in the Rainbow Coalition (Fred Hampton). Charles Deegan Sr. was involved with the AIM patrol.

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. AIM has often supported indigenous interests outside the United States as well. By 1993 AIM had split into two main factions, with the AIM-Grand Governing Council based in Minneapolis and affirming its right to use the name and trademarks for affiliated chapters.

Contents

Early AIM protest tactics

AIM was founded at a time of continuing social change and protest following achievement of national legislation of the Civil Rights Movement, such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965. The tactics AIM adopted were based on its leaders' perceptions that Indian activists had failed to achieve enough results at the time of its founding. AIM believed that advocates for Indian interests who had worked within the American political system had not been effective. The political system simply ignored Indian interests. The AIM leadership decided at its founding that a more aggressive approach had to be adopted in order for their voices to be heard. Up to this time, Indian advocacy had worked within the system by lobbying activities with the US Congress and the state legislatures.[2]

AIM used the American press and media to present its own unvarnished message to the United States public. It did so by ensuring an event which the press would want to cover. If successful, news outlets would seek out AIM spokespersons for interviews and receive its message. Instead of relying on traditional lobbying efforts, like other activist groups, AIM sought to control its message to the American public. AIM was always on the look out for an event that would result in publicity. Sound bites such as the "AIM Song" were often caught on camera and quickly became associated with the movement.

During ceremonies on Thanksgiving Day 1970, commemorating the 350th anniversary of the Pilgrims’ landing at Plymouth Rock, AIM seized the replica of the Mayflower. In 1971, members occupied Mount Rushmore , in 1972, they marched the "Trail of Broken Treaties" and took over the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) headquarters in Washington, D.C. AIM’s occupation of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge reservation in 1973, and other events during the 1970s were designed to achieve this goal of gaining attention. They ensured AIM would be noticed to highlight its belief that the rights of Indian people had eroded.[3]

The Longest Walk and The Longest Walk 2

The Longest Walk, one of the American Indian Movement's famous marches, took place during the year of 1978. This 3,600 mile walk's initiate purpose was to gather enough aid and support to stop the proposed legislation and abolish Native American treaties with the United States government after eleven new legislative bills were introduced by the 95th United States Congress. These treaties were supposed to protect the remaining pieces of Native sovereignty.

On July 15, 1978, "The Longest Walk" marched into Washington D.C. with several hundreds of supporters marching alongside them, including American boxer Muhammed Ali, American Senator Ted Kennedy and actor Marlon Brando. The Longest Walk of 1978 led to the defeat of the eleven legislative bills, and protected the remaining Treaty rights of the Native American people possessed. The activism contributed to the passage of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act.[4]

On July 11, 2008, an 8,200-mile walk, which had started from the San Francisco Bay area, for Native American rights, environment protection, and to stop global warming, reached Washington, D.C after approximately 175 days. Participants crossed 26 states on two different routes. The Longest Walk 2, as it was called by the walkers, consisted of over 100 Native American nations and an international group who walked and picked up more than 8,000 bags of garbage on their way to Washington, D.C. In Washington, the walkers delivered a 30-page manifesto, "The Manifesto of Change", and a list of demands, including mitigation for climate change, environmental sustainability plans, protection of sacred sites, and renewal of improvement to Native American sovereignty and health. This walk commemorated the thirtieth anniversary of the original Longest Walk.[5]

Connection to other minorities

With its provocative events and advocacy for Indian rights, AIM attracted scrutiny from the FBI and Department of Justice.[6] The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) used paid informants to report on AIM’s activities and its members.[7]

Other activities

AIM has opposed the use of caricatures of indigenous people as mascots for national and collegiate sports teams, such as the Cleveland Indians, the Atlanta Braves, the Chicago Blackhawks and the Washington Redskins. AIM organized protests at World Series and Super Bowl games involving those teams. Protesters held signs with slogans such as "Indians are people not mascots," or "Being Indian is not a character you can play.[8]

Although such requests were ignored 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 negotiated with the tribes whose names or images they used for permission and to collaborate on portraying the mascot in a way that honors Native Americans.

AIM has been committed to improving conditions faced by Native peoples. They 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.[9]

During the Sandinista/Indian conflict in Nicaragua of the mid-1980s, Russell Means sided with Miskito Indians opposing the Sandinista government. The Miskito charged the government with forcing relocations of as many as 8,500 Miskito. This position lost AIM some support from certain US left-wing organizations in the U.S., who opposed Contra activities and supported the Sandinista movement. The complex situation included Contra insurgents' recruiting among Nicaraguan Indian groups, including some Miskitos. Means recognized the difference between opposition to the Sandinista government by the Miskito, Sumo, and Rama on one hand, and the Reagan administration's support of the Contras, dedicated to the overthrow of the Sandinista regime.[10]

Many AIM chapters remain committed to confronting government and corporate forces that they allege seek to marginalize indigenous peoples.[11] They have challenged the ideological foundations of national holidays, such as Columbus Day[12] and Thanksgiving. AIM argues that Thanksgiving should be a National Day of Mourning, and protests the continuing theft of indigenous peoples' territories and natural resources.[13][Need quotation on talk to verify][14][Need quotation on talk to verify][15][Need quotation on talk to verify] AIM has helped educate people about the full history of the US and assert the Native American perspective in U.S. history. Its efforts are recognized and supported by countless institutional leaders in politics, education, arts, religion, and media.[16]

In April 2003, AIM chapters met at a conference with the founder of the Center for the SPIRIT (Support and Protection of Indian Religions and Indigenous Traditions) to discuss plans to protect and maintain Native American religious rights.[17] In June of that year, United States and Canadian tribes joined together internationally to pass the "Declaration of War Against Exploiters of Lakota Spirituality." SPIRIT teamed up with the AIM to declare war against all "plastic Indians." They felt they were being exploited by those marketing the sales of replicated Native American spiritual objects and impersonating sacred religious ceremonies as a tourist attraction. AIM delegates are working on a policy to require tribal identification for anyone claiming to represent Native Americans in any public forum or venue.

In February 2004, AIM gained more media attention by marching from Washington D.C. to Alcatraz Island. This was one of many occasions when Indian activists used the island as the location of an event, since their occupation of Alcatraz in 1969. Their 2004 march was in support of Leonard Peltier, whom they felt was wrongly imprisoned and who has become a symbol of spiritual and political resistance for Native Americans.[17]

In December 2008, a delegation of Lakota Sioux including Russell Means delivered a declaration of secession from the United States to the U.S. State Department. Citing many broken treaties by the U.S. government in the past, and the loss of vast amounts of territory originally awarded in those treaties, the group announced its intentions to form a separate nation within the U.S. known as the Republic of Lakotah.[18]

Other Native American rights activists have created groups such as WARN (Women of All Red Nations), NATIVE (Native American Traditions, Ideals, Values Educational Society), LISN (League of Indigenous Sovereign Nations), and the IPC (Indigenous Peoples Caucus).[17] Although each group may have its own specific goals or focus, they are all fighting for the same principles of respect and equality for Native Americans.

Ideological differences within AIM

In 1993, AIM split into two factions, each claiming to be the authentic inheritor of the AIM tradition. One group is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota and associated with leadership by the Bellecourts, is known as the AIM-Grand Governing Council. AIM-International Confederation of Autonomous Chapters is led by Russell Means and others.

In 1993 the latter group issued its "Edgewood Declaration", citing organizational grievances and complaining of authoritarian leadership by the Bellecourts. Ideological differences were growing, with the Grand Governing Council (GGC) taking a spiritual, perhaps more mainstream, approach to activism. The GGC tends toward a more centralized, controlled political philosophy.

The autonomous chapters group argues that AIM has always been organized as a series of decentralized, autonomous chapters, with local leadership accountable to local constituencies. The autonomous chapters reject the assertions of central control by the Minneapolis group as contrary both to indigenous political traditions, and to the original philosophy of AIM.

Notes, references

  1. ^ Dennis Banks, Ojibwa Warrior: Dennis Banks and the Rise of the American Indian Movement (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2004), pp. 62 & 64.
  2. ^ Banks, pp. 62-63 & 105.
  3. ^ Banks, pp. 108-113; Leonard Crow Dog and Richard Erdoes, Crow Dog: Four Generations of Sioux Medicine Men (New York, NY: HarperPerennial, 1996), pp. 170-171; Mary Crow Dog and Richard Erdoes, Lakota Woman (New York, NY: HarperPerennial, 1990), p. 88.
  4. ^ http://www.longestwalk.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=33&Itemid=108
  5. ^ http://globalvoicesonline.org/2008/07/25/longest-walk-2-for-native-americans-rights-and-environmental-sustainability/
  6. ^ See general Ward Churchill and Jim Vander Wall, Agents of repression: the FBI's secret wars against the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement, Boston, MA: South End Press, 1988.
  7. ^ Banks, pp. 266-283; See also, U. S. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws. Revolutionary activities within the United States: the American Indian Movement: report of the Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws of the Committee on the Judiciary. 94th Cong., 2nd sess., September 1976kj.
  8. ^ "Activists Protest Indian as Mascot", The Herald of Arkansas State, 12 Jan 2006, Arkansas State University, accessed 8 Apr 2009
  9. ^ AIMovement.
  10. ^ russellmeans.com.
  11. ^ Westword.
  12. ^ Transform Columbus Day.
  13. ^ WSDP.
  14. ^ Black Mesa Water Coalition
  15. ^ Gwichin SC.
  16. ^ Kubal, Timothy. 2008. Cultural Movements and Collective Memory: Christopher Columbus and the Rewriting of the National Origin Myth. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
  17. ^ a b c Meyer, John M., ed. American Indians and U.S. Politics, Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Grounp, Inc., 2002.
  18. ^ Bill Harlan (2007-12-21). "Lakota group secedes from U.S.". Rapid City Journal. http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2007/12/21/news/local/doc476a99630633e335271152.txt. Retrieved 2007-12-28. 

Weyler, Rex (1982). Blood of the Land. The Government and Corporate War Against the American Indian Movement. Random House. ISBN 0394717325. 

External links

  • The Owen Luck Photographs Collection, 1973-2001 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.

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