However, the America Indian Movement informally existed and have been in existence over 500 years ago. The movement was named and in 1968 in Minnesota. It is a civil right organization that was founded by Dennis Banks, Clyde Bellecourt, Eddie Benton and George Mitchell. The main purpose of the American Indian Movement was to help Native Americans who had been forced out of their land to urban ghettos by government programs that had the effect of forcing them from the reservations. The goals of the movement later expanded and this time it was to champion for Indian demands., including economic independence, reviving their Indian culture, have autonomy over native tribal regions and the most important to regain the land that they believed had been illegally seized. The movement organized and participated in highly publicized protests and it was involved in the occupation of Alcatraz Island that purposed to protest against the violation of treaties.
Since it was first established thirty years ago, the American Indian Movement has managed to achieve a great many changes. However, the movement had been in existence for 500 years without a name. The Movement at one point protested about the government Indian policy. During its establishment, the AIM was much involved in protesting against the exploitation of government resources in the reserved Indian lands. The land where America sits today was the motherland of Native Indians long ago. The explorers who had explored the land later forced the Indians out of the land and moved to them to unfertile and unproductive land. The productive and resourceful land that belonged to Indians was taken away from them. This then led to harsh treatments by Europeans to the Native Americans. This was one of the main reason why the AIM was established. In addition, in the mid-1970s AIM played a crucial role in protecting the rights of Indian tribes in America (Strange & Loo, 2001).
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The movement made international headlines in 1969 when it occupied the Alcatraz Island. The occupation of the Alcatraz Island was to demand equal rights and justice for Native Americans who were at time indigenous peoples. The occupation in the Alcatraz Island would last for more than a year. U.S Marshals recovered the Island. All groups of the Native Americans activities ranging from students and children participated in the occupation. The federal government neglected treaties that were supposed to protect the indigenous people. They then occupied the island to express their concerns so that the federal government would improve on how Native Americans were treated. The occupation was a massive show of protest that for the first time the American Indians were taken seriously and that their issues were fully addressed.
In their stay at Alcatraz Island, the Native Americans had ignored warnings from the federal government that the occupation was illegal. They personalized the island with graffitis that showed freedom and peace. Other buildings on the islands were tagged with slogans like Red power and Custer had it coming.
The red power was a movement that had begun early on, before the establishment of the AIM. The red power was founded purposely to lobby for Native American rights. The Red Power movement worked within all levels of government. Prior to the establishment of the American Indian Movement, the Red Power Movement had three main goals that were to achieve tribal sovereignty, to achieve self-determination and to achieve better living conditions for Native American conditions. This goal remained the three main goals of the movement until the establishment of the American Native Americans (Hauptman, 2017).
The AIM’s occupation of the Alcatraz Island was among the three goals that it had hoped to achieve. This goal included occupying unused federal facilities that were in accordance with the treaty signed in 1868 with the Lakota Sioux. The second goal on their plan was to also occupy the federal sites that were significant to the governance of Native American affairs and the last of the plan was to protest at Indian affairs sites and lands. The Movement achieved most of what it planned by conducting protests at various sites to advocate and champion the plight of Native Americans. The occupations countrywide by Native Americans were how the Native Americans wanted to protest so as their concerns could be addressed.
The Alcatraz Island was a perfect place to begin their occupation because it was an island that had been abandoned by the federal government as a federal penitentiary. The occupation lasted for a year and so because the then administration led by President Nixon had opted to leave the Indians alone as long as they remained peaceful, this was in fear of a fallout that could have happened if they could attempt to remove the Native Americans by force. It was a serious scenario with the Native American activist claiming that the island was official the land of Indians by virtue of discovery. They demanded the federal government to transfer ownership to Native culture and turn the island into a Native cultural center and University. This thought never happened because the government officials were adamant about the transfer of land and insisted that the Native Americans needed to leave the island. This thought had an overall impact since it caused the federal government to sit down and have a national dialogue about Native issues (Gram, 2014).
Government officials tried in several ways to negotiate and see that the Indians could leave the island but their efforts bore no fruits. The Native Americans Indians remained adamant on leaving the island despite the negotiations claiming that they could not settle for less other than the owner of the Alcatraz Island. They wanted to possess and own the island but the government official maintained that the transfer of land to Indians was almost impossible. The island later had a governing body and clinics, kitchens and other public facilities were established. Due to challenges and worsening living conditions on the island, the Native Americans were forced to abandon the islands. However, this came after the Nixon administration had accepted to address the concerns of the Native Americans, with their main concern being the matter of justice to indigenous tribes. Their concerns also include the broken treaties that the federal government had broken, the empty promises that the government has promised to Native Americans and the termination of tribal areas. All these concerns were addressed and it was the first time in the American History that Native Americans concerns were fully addressed. They occupied in the island for than a year enduring the harsh living conditions in the island in order to advocate for their rights and how the government treated them. This was a victory for the Native Americans since their issues were to be addressed, though they had suffered and others had died in the island, it was a victory for the Native Americans. Though their primary goals were not achieved of owning the land, they sparked a platform where the government had to put into consideration to issues of that affected the Native Americans. It was a major achievement for Native Americans since they had tried occupying the island and the government failed to address their concerns. Their persistence and consistency helped them yield some fruits out of the Alcatraz occupation (Forbes, 2003).
Five years later the American Indian Movement members, held another protest that led to the occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, this was in 1972. The march was in Washington D.C. The Trail of the broken treaties was purposely organized to bring into attention to American Indians grievances. The trail began as an automobile caravan that had American Indians from different parts of the country from the West Coast; the caravan proceeded to the East in Washington D.C. Along the way, it encourages people to conduct workshops and draft agenda for Indian Policy reform. The main of aim of the trail was to seek media coverage that would help them bring their plight nationwide. The trail was designed to generate media coverage the media could provide a platform that could articulate the goals and changes that the Native Americans wanted to happen in the federal Indian policy. This period was an electioneering period and so media coverage was expected in the Washington D.C, the place where the caravan was heading. The goals later changed from meetings, negotiations, and demonstrations to the occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The occupation received huge media coverage including securing front pages of the New York Times. The media platform that they had achieved enabled them to establish a 20-point program that would see the role of tribes increased in the formation of Indian Programs. The government was used to establishing Indian programs without incorporating the Indians. The occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs had hoped to achieve the incremental of Indians in establishing Indian related programs. The Trail of Broken treaties also led to a surge of Native Pride and consciousness. The Trail of Broken treaties also had hoped to push Native issues to the forefront of the presidential campaign (Brown et al., 2009).
The American Indian Movement leader in 1773 and other fellow activists began yet another occupation of the town of Wounded Knee. The occupation was to show dissatisfaction of how the U.S government had failed to continuously honor treaties to American Indians and the corruption that existed in the tribal council. This site was infamous for the massacre of 1890 of Sioux members by the U.S Seventh Cavalry. After their occupation in the Wounded Knee, one of the poorest communities in the U.S, AIM members acquired rifles and gunfires in an attempt to fire on automobiles and aircraft that would come within the range of the rifles. The occupation lasted more than two months leaving casualties among them were federal agents shot two Sioux men to death. Several men that are more native were wounded in that period. The occupation was hailed one of the greatest success that the American Indian Movement had achieved. The occupation of the Wounded Knee showed that American Indians activists were willing to put their lives on the line for the cause. Russel means the leader of the movement was arrested after the occupation and was later released. The Native Americans staged three important occupations that sought to bring the federal government address the concerns of American Indians. Though the occupation had ended, violence continued on the Pine Ridge, leading to several American Indians that belonged in the American Indian Movement losing their lives. Among the three occupations that were planned by the American Indian Movement, the occupation in the wounded kneeled to numerous deaths of Native Americans. Despite the fact that the area had initially had caused deaths, the Native Americans occupied it in commemorating the loss of life early on. It was a difficult period through the concerns and grievances of the Native Americans were addressed.
Due to internal conflicts within the American Indian Movement, it started to unravel. The government frustrated its leaders, some were incarcerated, and government agencies infiltrated the group. Though there are local chapters of the group, the group’s leadership was disbanded in 1978. The leadership tried to achieve most of its goals that included to allow passage of laws that would enable better access to education for American Natives and that the federal government would give reservations resources to attract tourism. The second goal was to reestablish ownership of the Alcatraz islands. The third main goal of AIM was to renew traditional cultures, economic independence and quality education for Indians and the last goal was to bring to an end of termination policy and control over natural resources. Though not most of them were achieved, the AIM leadership achieved a lot for the American Indians. It was the AIM leadership that the federal government for the first time listened and addressed some of the issues that it had expressed (Brown et al., 2009).
In recent times, the American Indian Movement has its base in Minneapolis where it was first formed in 1968. The AIM has several branches nationwide. The organization still prides itself for advocating on rights of Native peoples and helping to preserve the indigenous culture. The movement also prides itself for fighting for the interests of indigenous people in Canada and all over the world. Previous attempts by the federal government to bring down the movement has failed instead of transitions in leadership and internal conflicts have taken a toll on the instability of the group. The movement though has remained together and in unity despite the challenges, they are experiencing. The movement has achieved in ensuring that Native American receive a better education and have better living conditions just like other Americans.
References
Brown, D. N., Dobyns, H. F., Frisch, J. A., Harman, R. C., Honigmann, J. J., Howard, J. H., … Schlesier, K. H. (2009). Value Themes of the Native American Tribalistic Movement Among the South Dakota Sioux. Current Anthropology , 15 (3), 284-303. doi:10.1086/201471
Forbes, J. D. (2003). Alcatraz: Symbol & Reality. California History , 62 (1), 24-25. doi:10.2307/25158135
Gram, J. (2014). Alcatraz Island, Occupation of. Multicultural America: A Multimedia Encyclopedia . doi:10.4135/9781452276274.n46
Hauptman, L. M. (2017). The Occupation of Alcatraz Island: Indian Self-Determination and the Rise of Indian Activism Troy R. Johnson. Pacific Historical Review , 66 (4), 633-634. doi:10.2307/3642274
Strange, C., & Loo, T. (2001). Holding the Rock: The "Indianization" of Alcatraz Island, 1969–1999. The Public Historian , 23 (1), 55-74. doi:10.1525/tph.2001.23.1.55
