In the 1970s, the American Indian Movement (AIM) came to dominate the public image of American Indian activism. AIM was founded in Minneapolis in 1968, and revolved around mostly urban activists like Dennis Banks, George Mitchell, Clyde Bellecourt, and Russell Means. It focused on such issues as housing, poverty, police brutality, and treaty rights. AIM's tactics were centered on direct confrontation. In October 1971 AIM staged a protest in Washington that came to be known as the "Trail of Broken Treaties." In 1972 it gained a lot of attention by seizing the Bureau of Indian Affairs building in Washington, DC, and in 1973 had a 71-day armed standoff with federal troops on the Pine Ridge Reservation at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. Besides the emergence of AIM, another high-profile issue in terms of treaty rights was the 1980s "Walleye War" between the Lac Du Flambeau Ojibwes and non-Indian Wisconsin residents. At the core of this issue was a controversy over the Ojibwes' off-reservation fishing rights that were guaranteed by treaties made with the US in the mid-1800s. Opponents of Ojibwe fishing rights held that the off-reservation spearfishing would hurt the Wisconsin economy, and a drawn-out conflict ensued as the 1980s progressed.
|
The American Indian Movement
Treaty Rights, Spearfishing, and the Lac du Flambeau Ojibwes
From: Rick Whaley and Walter Bressette, Walleye Warriors: An Effective Alliance Against Racism for the Earth (Philadelphia: New Society, 1994).
Study Questions
|