Indian Movement Failures

The pacifism displayed in the opening half of the period contrasts heavily with forceful campaign and protest movement in the latter. Pressure groups such as ‘The National Congress of American Indians’ and the ‘Native American Rights Fund’ despite slow progress, secured some landmark decisions, partially during the 1960’s and 1970’s. For instance, the successful land claim secured in the 1972 case Passamaquoddy vs. Morton, in which opened the floodgates for similar land claims, resulting in either monetary compensation or less commonly the return of their native lands. The method of campaigning through the courts was considerably successful, yet this alone given its sluggish progress can hardly be solely responsible for the eventual gains made. However this was not the only method adopted by the Native Americans, with a more militant form of protest employed from the 1960’s onwards. The ‘Native Indian Youth Council’ continued these legalistic approaches with more vigor to protect the Native Americans Youths. Whilst AIM took this further, responsible for large-scale

The reservation was also the place where the Battle of Wounded Knee occurred (“History of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation”). As the Ghost Dance movement grew in strength and popularity, so did the uneasiness of the United States government. Sitting Bull was captured and killed. The U.S. 7th Cavalry attacked Black Elk’s Sioux encampment, killing 200 men, women, and children. Black Elk also experienced the poverty and starvation forced upon them by the policies of the U.S. government (“Black Elk”). The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 guaranteed land to the Great Sioux Nation. This was cut down to create the present day Pine Ridge Reservation (Martinez).

The Market Revolution occurred during the early nineteenth century where America was economically transforming. Road and canals were being created and that changed how people could distribute their products easier and father than before. New machinery was being used which helped developed new technologies. So how was the Market Revolution related to the Indian removal? During this time period Andrew Jackson was elected president of the United States in 1828.

The 1960’s and 70’s were a turbulent time in the United States, as many minority groups took to the streets to voice their displeasure with policies that affected them. During this time period a large movement for civil rights, including Native American’s, would seek to find their voices, as largely urbanized groups sought ways in which they could reconnect with their tribe and their cultural history. In their book, Like A Hurricane: The Indian Movement from Alcatraz to Wounded Knee, Paul Chaat Smith, and Robert Allen Warrior take an extensive look at the events leading up to the three of the largest civil rights movements carried out by Native Americans. Beginning with the takeover of Alcatraz Island in the San Francisco Bay by Indians of All Tribes in 1969; the authors tell in a vivid fashion of the Bay Area activism and Clyde Warrior 's National Indian Youth Council, Vine Deloria Jr.’s leadership of the National Congress of Indians, the Trail of Broken Treaties and the Bureau of Indian Affairs takeover, the Wounded Knee Occupation and the rise of the American Indian Movement.

From its birth, America was a place of inequality and privilege. Since Columbus 's arrival and up until present day, Native American tribes have been victim of white men 's persecution and tyranny. This was first expressed in the 1800’s, when Native Americans were driven off their land and forced to embark on the Trail of Tears, and again during the Western American- Indian War where white Americans massacred millions of Native Americans in hatred. Today, much of the Indian Territory that was once a refuge for Native Americans has since been taken over by white men, and the major tribes that once called these reservations home are all but gone. These events show the discrimination and oppression the Native Americans faced. They were, and continue to be, pushed onto reservations,

One of the most celebrated protests happened February 1973 at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. This was the site of the 1890 massacre of the Sioux Indians murdered in cold blood by American federal troops. AIM occupied and seized the town of Wounded Knee for about two months, demanding changes in their administration and asking the government to honor their treaty obligations that were said to be forgotten. Only one Indian was killed during this protest and another one wounded. The Indian civil rights movement, like most other civil rights movements of their times did not win full justice and equality for their people. The principal goal to some Native Americans was to defend, and protect their rights as Native Americans. As to other Native Americans it was equality. Native Americans wanted to win a place in society as an equal to all groups that made up Americans. However, there is no single Indian culture or tradition in America, so the movement to unite all Native American tribes failed. The Indian civil rights movement, for all the limitations it had endured, did accomplish winning a series of brand new legal rights and protections, which gave them a much stronger position in the twentieth century. (Brinkley, 2012 page

By 1940, Native Americans had experienced many changes and counter-changes in their legal status in the United States. Over the course of the nineteenth century, most tribes lost part or all of their ancestral lands and were forced to live on reservations. Following the American Civil War, the federal government abrogated most of the tribes’ remaining sovereignty and required communal lands to be allotted to individuals. The twentieth century also saw great changes for Native Americans, such as the Citizenship Act and the Indian New Deal. Alison R. Bernstein examines how the Second World War affected the status and lives of Native Americans in American Indians and World War II: Toward a New Era in Indian Affairs. Bernstein argues

They then eventually even embraced the tribal self-determination that the protestors wanted. The movement proved immense evidence of injustice, showing the reoccurring pattern in history of Indian subjugation and the broken laws and promises against Native Americans. This

Indian removal is still imbedded into the Native American people at this time. There was still a lot of tension between Native’s that were pro-removal, and those who were against it. For the most part, the stance an Indian took on removal dictated where they stood on the Civil war. The pro-removal side of Indians sided with the Confederate army, and the Indians against removal such as Chief John Ross sided with the Union army. Many Indian tribes fought in the civil war consisting of the Delaware, Creek, Cherokee, Seminole, Kickapoo, Seneca, Osage, Shawnee, Choctaw, Lumbee, Chickasaw, Iroquois, Powhatan, Pequot, Ojibwa, Huron, Odawa, Potawatomi, Catawba, and Pamunkey [City of Alexandria ].Only a few tribes fought on the side of the Confederates, which were the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole, Catawba, and Creek. There was roughly twenty thousand Native American’s that fought in either the Union or Confederate army’s [City of Alexandria]. No matter what side they were fighting for, Indians on both sides looked to gain the same thing out of adding their chosen side. By fighting with the whites, Natives were looking to end discrimination, end removal from their

Though the war concluded in a stalemate between opposing sides of Britain and America with the ratification of the Treaty of Ghent, the Native Americans were the true ‘losers’ of the war, as the end marked the loss of indigenous independence (Phillips 114). After the war, Native American morale had diminished as they no longer posed as prominent a threat towards the goal of American Manifest Destiny. However, not all Native Americans had retreated further into the West-- large tribes still dotted United States territory and continued to threaten American growth and economic prosperity promised with Western expansion (Welch 32). The Indian Removal Act, passed in Congress on May 26, 1830, supported the eager desires of Americans in allowing the access of western lands no longer in the possession of Native Americans (Kessel 371). In Andrew Jackson’s second annual message to Congress, delivered on December 6, 1830, Jackson stated that:

The Wounded Knee, the confliction of North Americans Indians and the U.S government representatives, was located on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation of South Dakota, U.S. This massacre that began on December 29, 1890, was the cause of

The Alcatraz opposition was followed by another major event in the struggle of native America’s civil right at Wounded Knee south Dakota. In 1972, they requested the government for land ownerships, rights for their water and mineral recourses in their land, and for equality according to the constitution. This was followed by the huge damage of the Bureau of Indian Affairs-BIA. In 1973, the government came with denying the requests and then the leaders of American-Indian movement -AIM, promised to keep struggling (Kent 1769). The leaders of the AIM were Russel Means and Denis Banks. There were also some internal differences among the Indian-American tribes. For instance Oglala Sioux Tribe leaders were criticizing the oppositions. As a result, The AIM leaders were also critical to those tribes and to the tribal president Richard Wilson. They blamed Wilson for his mismanagement of his tribe’s fund. Wilson had responded with serious attack on his opponents and their families. Hence, the government supported Wilson and convinced as the leaders intended to size BIA on February 12, 19763 which was followed by 60 heavily armed marshals (Kent). As a result, on February 23, 250 people of Oglala tribe and AIM members agreed and broke on arm store to fight Wilson at Wounded Knee.

The American Indian Movement is an organization in the United States that attempts to bring attention to the injustice and unfair treatment of American Indians. Aside from that, the AIM works for better protection and care for the American Indians and their families. They have been changing the American perception of Indians since the late 1960’s, as well as aiding our awareness of their existence.

Native Americans have felt distress from societal and governmental interactions for hundreds of years. American Indian protests against these pressures date back to the colonial period. Broken treaties, removal policies, acculturation, and assimilation have scarred the indigenous societies of the United States. These policies and the continued oppression of the native communities produced an atmosphere of heightened tension. Governmental pressure for assimilation and their apparent aim to destroy cultures, communities, and identities through policies gave the native people a reason to fight. The unanticipated consequence was the subsequent creation of a pan-American Indian identity

Despite all the double standard they have faced all their lives, Indians survived and fought strong for their rights. Even though prejudice