The American Indian Movement (AIM) is a Native American activist organization in the United States, founded in 1968 in Minneapolis, Minnesota by urban Native Americans. The national AIM agenda focuses on spirituality, leadership, and sovereignty. 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, born Oglala Lakota, was an early leader in 1970s protests.
The organization was formed to address various issues concerning the Native American urban community in Minneapolis, including poverty, housing, treaty issues, and police harassment.[2] From its beginnings in Minnesota, AIM soon attracted members from across the United States (and Canada). It participated in the Rainbow Coalition organized by the civil rights activist Fred Hampton. Charles Deegan Sr. was involved with the AIM Patrol.
In October 1971 AIM gathered members from across the country to protest in Washington, DC on what they called the "Trail of Broken Treaties." AIM gained national attention when it seized the Bureau of Indian Affairs national headquarters and presented a 20-point list of demands of the federal government. In 1973 it led a 71-day armed standoff with federal forces at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
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.
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Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson both made efforts to reform the damage done to the Indian nations. On March 6, 1968, Johnson signed Executive Order 11399, establishing the National Council on Indian Opportunity (NCIO). President Johnson said “the time has come to focus our efforts on the plight of the American Indian,” and NCIO’s formation would “launch an undivided, Government-wide effort in this area.” While knowing little of the American Indian issues, Johnson tried to connect the nation’s trust responsibility to the tribes and nations to civil rights, an area with which he was much more familiar.[3]
In Congress, the Democratic chairman of the House Subcommittee on Indian Affairs, James Haley from Florida, supported Indian rights; for example, he thought Indians should participate more in “policy matters,” but “the right of self-determination is in the Congress as a representative of all the people.” [4] In the 1960s Haley met with presidents Kennedy and Johnson, and pressed for Indian self-determination and control in transactions over land. One struggle was over the long-term leasing of American Indian land.[5] Non-Indian businesses and banks said they could not invest in leases of 25 years, even with generous options, as the time was too short for land-based transactions. Relieving the long-term poverty on most reservations through business partnerships by leasing land was seen as infeasible. A return to the 19th century 99-year leases was seen as a possible solution. But, an Interior Department memo said, “a 99-year lease is in the nature of a conveyance of the land.” These battles over land had their beginnings in the 1870s when federal policy often related to wholesale taking, not leases. In the 1950s, many Native Americans believed that leases were too frequently a way for outsiders to control Indian land.
Wallace "Mad Bear" Anderson was a Tuscarora leader in New York in the 1950s. He struggled to resist the New York City planner Robert Moses' plan to take tribal land in upstate New York for use in a state hydropower project to supply New York City. The struggle ended in a bitter compromise.[6]
As had civil rights and antiwar activists, AIM used the American press and media to present its message to the United States public. It created events to attract the press. If successful, news outlets would seek out AIM spokespersons for interviews. Rather than relying on traditional lobbying efforts, AIM took its message directly to the American public. Its leaders looked for opportunities to gain publicity. Sound bites such as the "AIM Song" became associated with the movement.
During ceremonies on Thanksgiving Day 1970 to commemorate the 350th anniversary of the Pilgrims’ landing at Plymouth Rock, AIM seized the replica of the Mayflower in Boston. In 1971, members occupied Mount Rushmore for a few days, as it was created in the Black Hills of South Dakota, long sacred to the Sioux. This area was within the Great Sioux Reservation ascreated by the US Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1868. After the discovery of gold, the federal government took the land in 1877 and sold it for mining and settlement to European Americans.
Also in 1971 AIM began to highlight and protest problems with the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), which administered programs and land trusts for Native Americans. The group briefly occupied BIA headquarters in Washington, DC. A brief arrest, reversal of charges for “unlawful entry” and a meeting with Louis Bruce, the Mohawk/Lakota BIA Commissioner, ended AIM's first event in the capital.[7] In 1972, activists marched across country on the "Trail of Broken Treaties" and took over the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), occupying it for several days and doing millions of dollars in damage.[8]
AIM developed a 20-point list to summarize its issues with federal treaties and promises, which they publicized during their occupation in 1972. Twelve points addressed treaty responsibilities which the protesters believed the U.S. government had failed to fulfill:
In 1973 AIM was invited to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation to help gain justice from border counties' law enforcement and to moderate political factions on the reservation. They became deeply involved and led an armed occupation of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in 1973. Other events during the 1970s were designed to achieve the goal of gaining public attention. They ensured AIM would be noticed to highlight what they saw as the erosion of Indian rights and sovereignty.[10][11]
"The Longest Walk" (1978) was an AIM-led spiritual walk across the country to support tribal sovereignty and bring attention to 11 pieces of anti-Indian legislation; AIM believed that the proposed legislation would have abrogated Indian Treaties, quantified and limited water rights, etc. The first walk began on February 11, 1978 with a ceremony on Alcatraz Island, where a Sacred Pipe was loaded with tobacco. The Pipe was carried the entire distance. This 3,200-mile (5,100 km) Walk's purpose was to educate people about the US government's continuing threat to Tribal Sovereignty; it rallied thousands representing many Indian Nations throughout the United States and Canada. Traditional spiritual leaders from many tribes participated, leading traditional ceremonies. International spiritual leaders, primarily from Japan, also supported the Walk.
On July 15, 1978, "The Longest Walk" entered Washington D.C. with several thousand Indians and a number of non-Indian supporters. The traditional elders led them to the Washington Monument, where the Pipe carried across the country was smoked. Over the following week, they held rallies at various sites to address issues: the 11 pieces of legislation, American Indian political prisoners, forced relocation at Big Mountain, the Navajo Nation, etc. Non-Indian supporters included the American boxer Muhammad Ali, US Senator Ted Kennedy and the actor Marlon Brando. The US Congress voted against a proposed bill to abrogate treaties with Indian Nations. During the week after the activists arrived, Congress passed the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, which allowed them the use of peyote in worship. President Jimmy Carter refused to meet with representatives of The Longest Walk.
Thirty years later, AIM led the Longest Walk 2, which arrived in Washington in July 2008. This 8,200-mile (13,200 km) walk had started from the San Francisco Bay area. The Longest Walk 2 had representatives from more than 100 American Indian nations, and other indigenous participants, such as Maori. It also had non-indigenous supporters. The walk highlighted the need for protection of American Indian sacred sites, tribal sovereignty, environmental protection and action to stop global warming. Participants traveled on either the Northern Route (basically that of 1978) or the Southern Route. Participants crossed a total of 26 states on the two different routes.[12]
The Northern Route was led by veterans of that action. The walkers used Sacred staffs to represent its issues; the group supported the protection of sacred sites of indigenous peoples, traditional tribal sovereignty, issues related to native prisoners, and the protection of children. They also commemorated the 30th anniversary of the original Longest Walk.[12]
Walkers along the Southern Route picked up more than 8,000 bags of garbage on their way to Washington. In Washington, the Southern Route delivered a 30-page manifesto, "The Manifesto of Change", and a list of demands, including mitigation for climate change, a call for environmental sustainability plans, protection of sacred sites, and renewal of improvement to Native American sovereignty and health.[12]
AIM's leaders spoke out against injustices against their peoples, as had the African-American leaders of the Civil Rights Movement. AIM leaders talked about high unemployment, slum housing, and racist treatment, fought for treaty rights and the reclamation of tribal land, and advocated on behalf of urban Indians.
With its provocative events and advocacy for Indian rights, AIM attracted scrutiny from the Department of Justice (DOJ).[13] The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) used paid informants to report on AIM’s activities and its members.[14][15] In February, 1973 AIM leaders Russell Means and Dennis Banks worked with Oglala Lakota people and AIM activists to occupy the small Indian community of Wounded Knee, South Dakota on the Pine Ridge Reservation. They were protesting its corrupt government, federal issues, and the lack of justice from border counties. The FBI dispatched agents and US Marshals to cordon off the site. Later a higher-ranking DOJ representative took control of the US government's response. Through the resulting siege that lasted for 71 days, twelve people were wounded, including an FBI agent left paralyzed; in April a Cherokee and a Lakota activist died of gunfire (at this point, the Oglala Lakota called an end to the occupation.) 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.[16]
AIM has opposed 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 and the Washington Redskins. AIM 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."[17]
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 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.[18]
In 1970, several members of AIM, including Dennis Banks and Russell Means, traveled to Mt. 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.[2] [Note: In 1980, the US 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.]
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 sentencing, as it was part of a pattern of law enforcement in border counties, where drinking was heavy, that did not provide justice to Native Americans.[19] In the winter of 1973, Wesley Bad Heart Bull, a Lakota, was stabbed to death at a bar in South Dakota by Darld Schmitz, a white male. The offender was jailed, but released on a $5000 bond and charged only with assault. In protest of the charges, a group of AIM members and leaders from Pine Ridge Reservation and leaders went 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.[2]
In addition to the problems of violence in the border towns, many traditional people at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation were unhappy with the government of Richard Wilson, elected in 1972. When their effort to impeach him in February 1973 failed, they met to plan protests and action. Many people on the reservation were unhappy about its longstanding poverty and failures of the federal government to live up to its treaties with Indian nations. The women elders encouraged the men to act. On February 27, 1973, about 300 Oglala Lakota and AIM activists went to the hamlet of Wounded Knee for their protest. It developed into a 71-day siege, with the FBI cordoning off the area by using US Marshals and later National Guard units.[2] The occupation was symbolically held at the site of the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre. The Oglala Lakota demanded a revival of treaty negotiations to begin to correct relations with the federal government, the respect of their sovereignty, and the removal of Wilson from office. The American Indians occupied the Sacred Heart Church, the Gildersleeve Trading Post and numerous homes of the village. Although periodic negotiations were held between AIM spokesman and U.S. government negotiators, gunfire occurred on both sides. A US Marshal was wounded severely and paralyzed. In April, a Cherokee from North Carolina and a Lakota AIM member were shot and killed. The elders ended the occupation then.[11]
After about a month, the Department of Justice excluded the press from access to Wounded Knee. (Before that, they were frequently interviewing Indian spokesmen and the event was receiving international coverage.) The Academy Awards ceremony was held in Hollywood, where the actor Marlon Brando, a supporter of AIM, asked an Apache actress, Sacheen Littlefeather, to speak at the Oscars on his behalf. He had been nominated for his performance in The Godfather and won. Littlefeather arrived in full Apache regalia and read his statement that, owing to the "poor treatment of Native Americans in the film industry," Brando would not accept the award. In interviews, she also talked about the Wounded Knee occupation. The event grabbed the attention of the US and the world media. The movement considered the Awards ceremony publicity, together with Wounded Knee, as a major event and public relations victory, as polls showed that Americans were sympathetic to the Indian cause.
AIM members continued to be active at Pine Ridge, although Wilson stayed in office and was re-elected in 1974 in a contested election. Violent deaths rose, and more than 60 political opponents of his died violently during the next three years. In June 1975 in what has been called the "Pine Ridge shootout", two FBI agents were killed near Jumping Bull Ranch, and found to have been shot execution style. Three AIM members were eventually indicted for the murders: Darryl, Robert Robideau and Leonard Peltier, who had escaped to Canada. Darryl and Robideau were tried in 1975 and acquitted. After extradition, Peltier was tried separately and convicted in 1976. He is serving two concurrent life sentences and has become a symbol of political injustice.
In late 1974 AIM leaders discovered that Douglas Durham, a prominent member who was by then head of security, was an FBI informant. They confronted him and expelled him from AIM at a press conference in March 1975. With some members in fugitive status after the Pine Ridge shootout, suspicions about FBI infiltration remained high. For various reasons, Anna Mae Aquash, the highest-ranking woman in AIM, was mistakenly suspected of being an informant. According to testimony at trials in 2004 and 2010 of men convicted of her murder, she was interrogated in the fall of 1975. In mid-December she was taken from Denver, Colorado to Rapid City, South Dakota and interrogated again, then taken to Rosebud Reservation and finally to a far corner of Pine Ridge Reservation, where she was killed by a gunshot wound to the back of the head. Her body was not found until February 1976. Low-level AIM members Arlo Looking Cloud and John Graham were convicted of her murder, but many people believed that higher ranking leaders had ordered it. Dissension over this issue contributed to the 1993 split in the AIM organization.
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.[20]
Many AIM chapters remain committed to confronting government and corporate forces that they allege seek to marginalize Indigenous peoples.[21] They have challenged the ideological foundations of US national holidays, such as Columbus Day[22] and Thanksgiving. AIM argues that Thanksgiving should be a National Day of Mourning, and protests what it perceives to be the continuing theft of indigenous peoples' territories and natural resources. AIM has helped educate people about the full history of the US, and advocates for the inclusion of Indigenous American perspectives in U.S. history. Its efforts are recognized and supported by many institutional leaders in politics, education, arts, religion, and media.[23]
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.[24] 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 the Occupation of Alcatraz in 1969, led by the United Indians of All Tribes, a student group from San Francisco. The 2004 march was in support of Leonard Peltier, whom many believed had not had a fair trial; he has become a symbol of spiritual and political resistance for Native Americans.[24]
In December 2008, a delegation of Lakota Sioux, including Talon Becenti, delivered a declaration of separation 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.[25]
1968- MINNEAPOLIS AIM PATROL: created to monitor police treatment of urban American Indians and their treatment in the justice system.
1969- INDIAN HEALTH BOARD of Minneapolis founded. This was the first American Indian, urban-based health care provider in the nation. The San Francisco-based United Indians of All Tribes and the Alcatraz-Red Power Movement occupied ALCATRAZ ISLAND, a former federal prison site, for 19 months. They reclaimed federal land in the name of Native Nations. The first American Indian radio broadcasts—Radio Free Alcatraz—were heard in the Bay Area. |Some AIM activists joined them.
1970- LEGAL RIGHTS CENTER: created in Minneapolis to assist American Indians. (As of 1994, over 19,000 clients have had legal representation, thanks to AIM's work.) AIM takeover of abandoned property at the naval air station near Minneapolis focuses attention on Indian education and leads to early grants for Indian education.
1971- CITIZEN'S ARREST OF JOHN OLD CROW: Takeover of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' headquarters in Washington, D.C. to publicize improper BIA policies. Twenty-four protesters arrested for "trespassing" and released. BIA Commissioner Louis Bruce shows his AIM membership card at the meeting held after the release of protesters. FIRST NATIONAL AIM CONFERENCE: 18 chapters of AIM convened to develop long-range strategy for the movement. TAKEOVER OF WINTER DAM: AIM assists the Lac Court Oreilles (LCO) Ojibwe in Wisconsin in taking over a dam controlled by Northern States Power, which had flooded much of their reservation land. This action gained support by government officials and an eventual settlement with the LCO. The federal government returned more than 25,000 acres (100 km2) of land to the LCO tribe for their reservation, and the Power company provided significant monies and business opportunities to the tribe.
1972- RED SCHOOL HOUSE: the second survival school to open, offering culturally based education services to K-12 students in St. Paul, Minnesota. HEART OF THE EARTH SURVIVAL SCHOOL (HOTESS): a K-12 school established to address the extremely high drop-out rate among American Indian students and lack of curricula that reflected American Indian culture. HOTESS serves as the first model of community-based, student-centered education with culturally correct curriculum operating under parental control. TRAIL OF BROKEN TREATIES: a pan-Indian march across country to Washington, DC, to dramatize failures in federal policy. Protesters occupied the BIA national headquarters and did millions of dollars in damages, as well as irrevocable losses of Indian land deeds. The protesters presented a 20-point demand paper to the administration, many associated with treaty rights and renewed negotiations of treaties.
1973- LEGAL ACTION FOR SCHOOL FUNDS: In reaction to the Trail of Broken Treaties, the government canceled education grants to three AIM-sponsored schools in St. Paul and Milwaukee. AIM files legal challenges, and the US District Court orders the grants restored and government payment of costs and attorney fees. WOUNDED KNEE '73: AIM was contacted by Oglala Lakota elders of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation for assistance in dealing with failures in justice in border towns, the authoritarian tribal president, and financial corruption within the BIA and executive committee. Together with Oglala Lakota, armed activists occupied the town of Wounded Knee for 71-days against US armed forces.
1974- INTERNATIONAL INDIAN TREATY COUNCIL (IITC): an organization representing Indian peoples throughout the western hemisphere was recognized at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. WOUNDED KNEE TRIALS: Eight months of federal trials of participants in Wounded Knee took place in Minneapolis. It was the longest Federal trial in the history of the United States. As many instances of government misconduct were revealed, the US District judge Fred Nichol dismissed all charges due to government "misconduct" which "formed a pattern throughout the course of the trial" so that "the waters of justice have been polluted."
1975- FEDERATION OF SURVIVAL SCHOOLS: created to provide advocacy and networking skills to 16 survival schools throughout the US and Canada. HUD chose AIM to be the primary sponsor of the first American Indian-run housing project, LITTLE EARTH OF UNITED TRIBES.
1977- MIGIZI Communications founded in Minneapolis. The organization is dedicated to produce Indian news and information, and educate students of all ages as tomorrow's technical work force. INTERNATIONAL INDIAN TREATY COUNCIL: establishes Non-government organization status at United Nations offices in Geneva; attends the International NGO conference and presents testimony to the United Nations. AMERICAN INDIAN LANGUAGE AND CULTURE LEGISLATION: AIM proposes legislative language which is passed in Minnesota, recognizing State responsibility for Indian education and culture. This legislation was recognized as a model throughout the country.
1978- FIRST EDUCATION PROGRAMS FOR AMERICAN INDIAN OFFENDERS: AIM establishes the first adult education program for American Indian offenders at Stillwater Prison in Minnesota. Programs later established at other state correctional facilities modeled after the Minnesota program. CIRCLE OF LIFE SURVIVAL SCHOOL established on the White Earth Indian Reservation in Minnesota. The school receives funding for three years of operation from the U.S. Department of Education. RUN FOR SURVIVAL: AIM youth organize and conduct 500-mile (800 km) run from Minneapolis to Lawrence, Kansas to support "The Longest Walk." THE LONGEST WALK: Indian Nations walk across the US from California to DC to protest proposed legislation calling for the abrogation of treaties with Indian nations. They set up and maintained a tipi near the White House. The proposed legislation is defeated.
1979- LITTLE EARTH HOUSING PROTECTED: an attempt by the US HUD to foreclose on the Little Earth of United Tribes housing project is halted by legal action; the US District Court issues an injunction against HUD. AMERICAN INDIAN OPPORTUNITIES INDUSTRIALIZATION CENTER (AIOIC): creates job training schools to alleviate the unemployment issues of Indian people. More than 17,000 Native Americans have been trained for jobs since AIM created the AIOIC in 1979. ANISHINABE AKEENG Organization is created to regain stolen and tax forfeited land on the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota.
1984- FEDERATION of NATIVE CONTROLLED SURVIVAL SCHOOLS: presents legal education seminars at colleges and law schools in Minnesota, Wisconsin, California, South Dakota, Nebraska and Oklahoma for educators of Indian students. National conference held in San Jose, California, concurrent with the National Indian Education Association Convention.
1986- SCHOOLS LAWSUIT: Heart of the Earth and Red School House successfully sue the U.S. Department of Education, Indian Education Programs for ranking the schools' programs below funding recommendation levels. The suit proved discriminatory bias in the system of ranking by the Department staff.
1987- AIM PATROL: Minneapolis AIM Patrol restarts to protect American Indian women in Minneapolis after serial killings committed against them.
1988- ELAINE STATELY INDIAN YOUTH SERVICES (ESIYS): developed to create alternatives for youth in Minneapolis as a direct diversion to gang-involvement of Indian youth. FORT SNELLING AIM ANNUAL POW WOW: AIM establishes an annual pow wow to recognize its 20th Anniversary, at Fort Snelling in Minnesota. The event becomes the largest Labor Day Weekend event in any Minnesota state park.
1989- SPEARFISHING: AIM is requested to provide expertise in dealing with protesters at boat landings. American Indian spearfishing continues despite violence, arrests, and threats from whites. Senator Daniel Inouye calls for a study on the effects of Indian spearfishing. The study shows only 6% of fish taken are by Indians. Sports fishing accounts for the rest.
1991 PEACEMAKER CENTER: AIM houses its AIM Patrol and ESIYS in a center in the heart of the Indian community, based on Indian spirituality. SUNDANCE RETURNED TO MINNESOTA. With the support of the Dakota communities, AIM revived the Sundance at Pipestone, Minnesota. Ojibwe nations have helped make the Minnesota Sundance possible. The Pipestone Sundance has become an annual event. In 1991, some self-appointed leaders of the Oglala Lakota, Cheyenne and other nations declared independence from the United States. The group established a provisional government and to develop a separate national government. Elected leaders and council members of the nations did not support this action. NATIONAL COALITION ON RACISM IN SPORTS AND MEDIA: AIM organized this group to address the issue of using Indian figures and names as sports team mascots. AIM led a walk in Minneapolis to the 1992 Super Bowl. In 1994, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune agreed to stop using professional sports team names that refer to Indian people unless these have been approved by the tribes.
1992- THE FOOD CONNECTION: organized summer youth jobs program with an organic garden and spiritual camp (Common Ground) at Tonkawood Farm in Orono, Minnesota.
1993- EXPANSION OF AMERICAN INDIAN OIC JOB TRAINING PROGRAM: the Grand Metropolitan, Inc. of Great Britain, a parent of the Pillsbury Corporation, merges its job training program with that of AIOIC and pledges future monies and support in Minnesota. LITTLE EARTH: after AIM's 18-year struggle, the HUD secretary Henry Cisneros rules that Little Earth of United Tribes housing project shall retain the right to preference for American Indian residents when considering applicants for the project. WOUNDED KNEE ANNIVERSARY: At the 20th anniversary of the Wounded Knee Incident at Pine Ridge Reservation, the elected Oglala Sioux Tribe president, John Yellow Bird Steele, thanked AIM for its 1973 actions.
Due to continuing dissension, AIM splits: AIM Grand Governing Council (AIMGGC) is based in Minneapolis and still led by founders. AIM- is based in Denver, Colorado.
1996- April 3–8, 1996 - As a representative of the AIM Grand Governing Council and special representative of the International Indian Treaty Council, Vernon Bellecourt, along with William A. Means, President of IITC, attended the preparatory meeting for the Intercontinental Encounter for Humanity and Against Neo-Liberalism (IEHN), hosted by the Emiliano Zapata Liberation Movement (EZLN), held in LaRealidad, Eastern Chiapas, Mexico, July 27 - August 3, 1996. The second meeting for the IEHN in 1997 was hosted by the EZLN and was attended by delegates of the IITC and AIM.
1998- February 12, 1998 - AIM is charged with Security at the Ward Valley Occupation in Southern California. The occupation lasted for 113 days and resulted in a victory for the Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT) against the plan to use the area for the disposal of nuclear wastes. February 27, 1998 - 25th Anniversary of Wounded Knee, an Oglala Lakota Nation resolution established February 27 as a National Day of Liberation. July 16–19, 1998 - 25th Annual Lac Courte Oreilles "Honor the Earth" Homecoming Celebration to honor the people who participated in the July 31, 1971 takeover of the Winter Dam and the beginning of the "Honor the Earth" observance. August 2–11, 1998 - 30th Anniversary of the AIM Grand Governing Council; Sacred Pipestone Quarries in Pipestone, Minnesota. Conference commemorating AIM's 30th Anniversary.
1999- February 1999 - Three United States activists working with a group of UÕwa Indians in Colombia were kidnapped by rebels. Ingrid Washinawatok, 41 (Menominee), a humanitarian; Terence Freitas, 24, an environmental scientist from Santa Cruz, California; and LaheÕenaÕe Gay, 39 of Hawaii, were seized near the village of Royota, in Arauca province in northeastern Colombia on February 25 while preparing to leave after a two week on-site visit. On March 5, their bullet-riddled bodies were discovered across the border in Venezuela.
2000 - July 2000 - AIM 32nd Anniversary Conference on the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe Nation Reservation in northern Wisconsin. October 2000 – AIM founded commission to seek justice for Ingrid Washinawatok and companions.
2001 - March 2001 – Reps of the AIM GGC attend the Zapatista Army of National Liberation March for Peace, Justice and Dignity, Zocolo Plaza, Mexico City. July 2001 – 11th Annual Youth & Elders International Cultural Gathering and Sundance, Pipestone, Minnesota. August 2001 – Five "anti-wahoo" demonstrators with AIM bring civil lawsuit for false arrest against the city of Cleveland, Ohio. November 2001 – The American Indian Forum on Racism in Sports and Media is held at Black Bear Crossing, St. Paul, Minnesota.
2002 - August 2002, 12th Annual International Youth & Elders Cultural Gathering and Sundance, Pipestone, Minnesota.
2003 - May 2003- Quarterly Meeting of the AIM National Board of Directors, Thunderbird House, Winnipeg, Manitoba. August 2003 – 13th Annual International Youth & Elders Cultural Gathering and Sundance, Pipestone, Minnesota.
2004 - August 2004 - 14th Annual International Youth & Elders Cultural Gathering and Sundance, Pipestone, Minnesota.
2005 - May 2005 – First Annual Clyde H. Bellecourt Endowment Scholarship Fund and Awards Banquet, Minneapolis, Minnesota. July 2005 – 15th Annual International Youth & Elders Cultural Gathering and Sundance, Pipestone, Minnesota.
2006 -May 2006 – Second Annual Clyde H. Bellecourt Endowment Scholarship Fund and Awards Banquet, Minneapolis. July 2006 - 16th Annual International Youth & Elders Cultural Gathering and Sundance, Pipestone, Minnesota [26]
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), Mexica Movement, EZLN (Zapatista Army of National Liberation), and the IPC (Indigenous Peoples Caucus).[24] 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. The Northwest Territories Indian Brotherhood, the Committee of Orginal People's Entitlement were two organization that spearheaded the native rights movement in northern Canada during the 1960s. Val Wake's fictional account of tbis development is contained in his novel White Bird Black Bird which is available on Amazon. Wake lived in the Arctic where he worked as a journalist for the CBC from 1969 to 1973.
AIM established the International Indian Treaty Council (IITC) in June 1974. It invited representatives from numerous indigenous nations, and delegates from 98 international groups attended the meeting. The sacred pipe serves as a symbol of the Nations “common bonds of spirituality, ties to the land and respect for traditional cultures”. The IITC focuses on issues such as treaty and land rights, rights and protection of indigenous children, protection of sacred sites, and religious freedom.
The International Indian Treaty Council (IITC) uses networking, technical assistance, and coalition building. In 1977, the IITC became a Non-Governmental Organization with Consultative Status to the United Nations Economic and Social Council. The organization concentrates on involving Indigenous Peoples in U.N. forums. In addition, the IITC strives to bring awareness about the issues concerning Indigenous Peoples to non-Indigenous organizations.[27]
On September 13, 2007 the United Nations General Assembly adopted the “Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.” A total of 144 states or countries voted in favor. Four voted against it while 11 abstained. The four voting against it were the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, whose representatives said they believed the declaration “goes too far.”[28]
The Declaration announces rights of Indigenous Peoples, such as rights to self-determination, traditional lands and territories, traditional languages and customs, natural resources and sacred sites.[28]
In 1993, AIM split into two factions, each claiming to be the authentic inheritor of the AIM tradition. The AIM-Grand Governing Council is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota and associated with leadership by Clyde Bellecourt and his brother Vernon Bellecourt (who died in 2007). The GGC tends toward a more centralized, controlled political philosophy.
The AIM-International Confederation of Autonomous Chapters, based in Denver, Colorado, was founded by thirteen AIM chapters in 1993 at a meeting in Denver, Colorado. The group issued its "Edgewood Declaration", citing organizational grievances and complaining of authoritarian leadership by the Bellecourts. Ideological differences were growing, with the AIM-International Confederation taking a spiritual, perhaps more mainstream, approach to activism. 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.[29]
At a press conference in Denver, Colorado on 3 November 1999, Russell Means accused Vernon Bellecourt of having ordered the execution of Anna Mae Aquash in 1975. The highest-ranking woman in AIM at the time, she had been shot execution style in mid-December 1975 and left in a far corner of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation after having been kidnapped from Denver, Colorado and interrogated in Rapid City, South Dakota as a possible FBI informant. Means implicated Clyde Bellecourt in her murder as well, and other AIM activists, including Theresa Rios. Means said that part of the dissension within AIM in the early 1990s had related to actions to expel the Bellecourt brothers for their part in the Aquash execution; the organization split apart.[30]
Earlier that day in a telephone interview with the journalists Paul DeMain and Harlan McKosato about the upcoming press conference, Minnie Two Shoes had said, speaking of the importance of Aquash,
"Part of why she was so important is because she was very symbolic, she was a hard working woman, she dedicated her life to the movement, to righting all the injustices that she could, and to pick somebody out and launch their little cointelpro program on her to bad jacket her to the point where she ends up dead, whoever did it, let’s look at what the reasons are, you know, she was killed and lets look at the real reasons why it could have been any of us, it could have been me, it could have been, ya gotta look at the basically thousands of women, you gotta remember that it was mostly women in AIM, it could have been any one of us and I think that’s why it’s been so important and she was just such a good person."[31]
McKosato said, "...her [Aquash's] death has divided the American Indian Movement..."[31] On 4 November 1999, in a followup show on Native American Calling the next day, Vernon Bellecourt denied any involvement by him and his brother in the death of Aquash.[32]
At Federal grand jury hearings in 2003, the Indian men Arlo Looking Cloud and John Graham were indicted for the murder of Aquash. In 2004 Arlo Looking Cloud was convicted in federal court of the murder of Aquash, and named John Graham as the gunman; he was in Canada. After extradition, in 2010 John Graham was convicted in South Dakota court of the murder of Aquash. In both trials, witness testimony included statements that Aquash had heard the AIM activist Leonard Peltier saying he killed two FBI agents at Pine Ridge Reservation in June 1975. (He was convicted of the murders in 1976 but was long considered a political prisoner.) Witnesses testified that they believed Aquash had been murdered because of fear that she might have been an FBI informant (which her family, supporters, and the FBI have denied.)
Weyler, Rex (1982). Blood of the Land. The Government and Corporate War Against the American Indian Movement. Random House. ISBN 0-394-71732-5.
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