AMERICAN INDIAN MOVEMENT
Founded in 1968, the American Indian Movement (AIM) is an organization dedicated to the Native American civil rights movement. Its main objectives are the sovereignty of Native American lands and peoples; preservation of their culture and traditions; and enforcement of all treaties with the United States.
Despite the straightforwardness of its stated
objectives, AIM’s reputation had been seriously
harmed by well-publicized and controversial
incidents of law-breaking, VANDALISM, and vio-
lence, resulting in the organization’s peak and
decline within a few years. Significant historical
events include AIM’s hostile occupation of Alca-
traz Island (1969); the “Trail of Broken Treaties”
march on Washington, D.C. (1971); occupation
of Wounded Knee (1973); and the Pine Ridge
shootout of 1975, which resulted in the contro-
versial arrest and imprisonment of the most
famous AIM member, Leonard Peltier. Follow-
ing these events, the organization’s visibility and
viability as a political force greatly declined.
History
Prior to the formation of AIM, issues involv-
ing U.S. Indian–non-Indian relations had
largely faded away. Starting in the 1950s, the U.S.
government had embarked on a serious policy
plan to terminate its responsibilities to Native
Americans pursuant to extant treaties and
agreements. This action included the relocation
of thousands of reservation Indians to urban
areas and the termination of federal duties to
two major tribes, the Menominee of Wisconsin
and the Klamath of Oregon. (Federal rights were
restored to both a few years later.) However, by
the 1970s, relocation as well as termination poli-
cies were all but abandoned.
A number of problems arose when Native
Americans left the reservations and intermin-
gled with local towns, where Native Americans
allegedly caused and/or became parties to local
disturbances or crimes. Moreover, after WORLD
WAR II and the KOREAN WAR,many Native
Americans who had served in the armed forces
no longer wanted to return to stereotypical
Indian lifestyles. As more intermingling and
merging occurred, other Native Americans
became increasingly intent on searching for
their cultural roots and maintaining their ethnic
identities. They vowed not to be assimilated and
thus their views paralleled the ideals of other
CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENTS of the era. The most
radical elements to emerge from these militant
Native American groups ultimately formed the
AIM, which was intended as an indigenous ver-
sion of the BLACK PANTHER PARTY.
During the summer of 1968, about 200
members of the Native American community in
urban Minneapolis, Minnesota, met to discuss
various issues, including slum housing, alleged
police brutality, unemployment, and alleged dis-
criminatory policies involving the local county’s
WELFARE system. The group had been impressed
with media coverage of the Black Panther policy
of monitoring routine police interrogations or
arrests and adopted similar tactics.
From the beginning, the group stirred con-
troversy in seeking attention. Mobilizing in dif-
ferent cities and gaining momentum, it employed
increasingly negative tactics such as holding an
“anti-birthday party” for the United States atop
Mt. Rushmore on the Fourth of July, painting
Plymouth Rock bright red on Thanksgiving Day
1970, and seizing the Mayflower replica. All of
these actions served to alienate many would-be
sympathizers. However, AIM did get the media
attention it desired, which seemed only to spawn
further controversy.When the group organized a
hostile occupation of Alcatraz Island off the coast
of California, AIM finally became a force to be
reckoned with, however so briefly.
Alcatraz
On November 9, 1969, a group of Native
American supporters, led by Mohawk Richard
Oakes, chartered a boat and set out to symboli-
cally claim the island of Alcatraz for “Indians of
all tribes.” By November 20, the gesture had
turned into a full-scale occupation that ulti-
mately became the longest prolonged occupa-
tion by Native Americans of a federal facility or
federal property.
Early use of Alcatraz Island by indigenous
peoples is difficult to reconstruct. Ancient oral
histories seem to support the view that at one
time Alcatraz was used as a place of isolation for
tribal members who had violated some tribal
law or taboo and were exiled or ostracized for
punishment. Earlier or concurrently, the island
changed hands several times during Spanish and
Portuguese explorations, but ultimately it became
federal property and in time became the site of
the infamous federal prison once operated there.
Many of the Indian occupiers of November
1969 were students recruited by Oakes from
UCLA,who returned with Oakes to Alcatraz and
began to live on the island in old federal build-
ings. They ran a school and daycare center, and
began delivering local radio broadcasts that
could be heard in the San Francisco Bay area.
Initially, the federal government placed an
effective barricade around the island and insisted
that the group leave; it did, however, agree to an
Indian demand for formal negotiations. The
talks accomplished nothing, however, as the
Indian group insisted on a deed and clear title to
the island. The group continued occupation and
the federal government insisted they depart but
took no aggressive action to remove them. Offi-
cially, the government adopted a position of
non-interference and hoped that support for the
occupation would fade. The FBI and Coast
Guard were under strict orders to remain clear of
the island and media attention began to dwindle.
The occupation continued all through 1970,
but by this time, internal problems among the
indigenous group caused the occupation to lose
momentum. Student recruits left to return to
classes at UCLA and were replaced by urban
recruits, many of whom had been part of the
San Francisco drug and hippie culture of the
time. Several rose in opposition to Oakes’s lead-
ership on the island, and Oakes ultimately left
after his teenaged stepdaughter fell to her death
in a building stairwell.
After several months of hostile occupation,
the federal government shut off electric power
to the island and removed the water barge that
had been supplying fresh water to the occupiers.
A fire broke out, and both sides blamed the other for the loss of several historic buildings.Splintered leadership on the island resulted inthe loss of a common voice with which to negotiatewith the government. When the occupiersbegan stripping the remaining buildings of copperwiring and tubing, the press turned on themand began publishing stories of assaults, drugs,violence, and the trial of three Indians foundguilty of selling 600 pounds of copper.With government patience growing thin,then-president RICHARD NIXON finally approveda peaceful removal plan, to be conducted with aslittle force as possible and when the least numberof people were on the island. On June 10, 1971,FBA agents, armed federal marshals, and specialforces police removed five women, four children,and six unarmed men from the island.Trail of Broken TreatiesIn November 1971, AIM organized what itcalled the Trail of Broken Treaties, a march onWashington, D.C., involving approximately1,000 angry Native Americans. It ended with theoccupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs(BIA) headquarters.After taking over the offices,AIM protesters seized large numbers of filesfrom the BIA offices and caused over $2 millionin damages to the trashed building. They alsopresented President Nixon with 20 demands forimmediate action. The Nixon administrationprovided $66,000 in transportation monies inreturn for a peaceful end to the takeover. It alsoagreed to appoint a Native American to a BIApost. Again, the real success for AIM was in gettingsome media attention and in heighteningpublic awareness of unresolved Indian issues.Wounded KneeThe tiny village of Wounded Knee, SouthDakota, is the historic site of an infamous 1890massacre of Native Americans (the last) by theU.S. Cavalry. The original site and burial groundbecame part of the Pine Ridge Indian reservationin that state.In 1973, about 200 members of the localOglala Lakota Indians, led by AIM members,seized the village of Wounded Knee (a Catholicchurch, trading post, and post office) anddeclared it to be an independent nation. Theirsingle demand was the return of the Great SiouxNation (a sovereign parcel of real estate comprisingthe entire western half of South Dakota)allegedly promised to them by the United Statesin the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868.Just prior to this development, on the nearbyPine Ridge reservation, tribal council presidentDick Wilson (a Native American) had secured atribal council order prohibiting AIM membersfrom attending or speaking at reservation meetingsor public gatherings. He considered AIMmembers to be lawless misfits bent on agitatingthe populace. AIM members, in return, accusedWilson of nepotism, corruption, and mismanagementof tribal monies. A group of Wilsonsupporters, locally referred to as the “goonsquad,” began harassing and threatening AIMmembers. The Lakota Indians invited AIM tomeet with their group, and both decided to takea stand at Wounded Knee. At this point, the federalgovernment, including the BIA, remainedneutral, claiming the stand-off was an internaltribal dispute.However, when AIM occupiers built fortificationsand took up arms and munitions, bothWilson and the federal government (FBI, U.S.MARSHALS, and BIA police) moved in. In thewell-publicized 71-day occupation that followed,two AIM members were killed. Ultimately,AIM leaders negotiated a “peace pact”with the government stipulating that theactivists would be treated fairly and that the federalgovernment would conduct a fair review ofseveral treaties.Although the immediate stand-off wasdefused, tensions between Wilson’s goon squadand AIM members continued over the next severalyears. Dozens of AIM members, includingearly founding members Russell Means andDENNIS BANKS, were indicted on dozens ofcharges related to the Wounded Knee standoff,but the charges were ultimately dropped when afederal judge acknowledged spurious activityand involvement by the FBI.Pine RidgeWilson’s tribal leadership at the Pine Ridgereservation was reportedly federally sanctionedand supported. Allegations arose at the trials ofAIM members that goon squad members werepaid with BIA monies and that many of themembers were in fact off-duty BIA police. Severalmurders occurred on the reservation andwere never fully investigated. For its part, the FBImaintained that it was an investigatory ratherthan enforcement agency, a position that furtherexacerbated the regional tension and fear.In June 1975, two FBI agents in an unmarkedcar and clad in civilian clothes chased a pickuptruck into an isolated area near an AIM encampment.During the resulting shootout, the two FBI agents were shot and killed, along with oneIndian activist. Over the next several days, over300 FBI agents swarmed the reservation, followedby officers making dozens of arrests andprosecutions. Ultimately, AIM activist LeonardPeltier was tried and convicted for his role in theFBI killings, receiving two life sentences. Histrial and conviction remained shrouded withallegations of suppressed evidence, coerced witnesses,and a fabricated murder weapon.Later YearsFollowing the Pine Knee incident, AIMdeclined rapidly in both leadership and momentum.It held its last national unified event in1978 and the following year dismantled as anational organization, in favor of independentregional chapters. Russell Means and DennisBanks were in and out of court for years defendingtheir leadership roles in the 1973 and 1975shootouts. Eventually, both were acquitted of allsignificant charges. Dennis Banks went on tofound another Indian organization, the SacredRun, devoted to spiritual renewal and environmentalissues. As of 2003, Russell Means wascampaigning for governor of New Mexico on anindependent party ticket. Leonard Peltierremained in prison; his next PAROLE review wasscheduled for 2008. The FBI still refused torelease nearly 6,000 pages of documents onPeltier, being withheld on grounds of “nationalsecurity.”In 1978, Congress passed the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA)(42U.S.C.A. § 1996), designed to review and updatefederal policies regarding such matters as NativeAmericans’ right to access sacred grounds andlegal rights to practice their traditional religions.Reviews and recommendations were made. Pursuantto this action, Congress in 1990 passed theNATIVE AMERICAN GRAVES PROTECTION ANDREPATRIATION ACT, Public L. No. 101-601, 104Stat. 3048, but in that same year, the U.S. SupremeCourt reiterated its 1988 ruling that AIRFA was apolicy statement and not law, and as such, therewas no legal right to the protection of sacred sitesor the religious use of peyote in the Native Americanreligion. Lyng v. Northwest Indian CemeteryProtection Association, 483 U.S. 439, 107 S. Ct.2924, 97 L. Ed. 2d 364 (1988). New sacred landprotection legislation was again introduced in2002 and was still pending in early 2003.FURTHER READINGSChurchill, Ward. 1997. “A Force, Briefly, To Reckon With.”Progressive (June).Johnson, Troy. “We Hold the Rock: The American IndianOccupation of Alcatraz Island.” Indians of North America.Long Beach: California State Univ. Press.Marshall, Joseph M., III, and Sicangu Lakota. 2000.“Wounded Knee Takover, 1973.” Encyclopedia of NorthAmerican Indians. Houghton Mifflin.Oswalt, Wendell H., and Sharlotte Neely. 1994. This LandWas Theirs. 5th ed. Mountain View, Calif.: Mayfield.“Russell Means for Governor.” Available online at <www.russellmeans.com/governor/bio.html> (accessed May30, 2003).Singer, Daniel.1994. “Free Peltier!” Nation (July 18).
CROSS-REFERENCES
Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of1990; Native American Rights.
