chronology-of-the-american-indian-movement-activities-1

Chronology of The American Indian Movement Activities1969-1979 November 9, 1969 Occupation of Alcatraz Island.. Fourteen Indian activists occupy Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay and

Chronology of The American Indian Movement Activities

1969-1979

November 9, 1969 Occupation of Alcatraz Island Fourteen Indian activists occupy

Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay and symbolically claim the island for Indian people, offering to purchase the island for $24 worth of glass beads and red cloth On November

20, the symbolic occupation of Alcatraz Island turns into a full scale occupation that lasts until June 11, 1971 One hundred Indian youth, primarily California college students, representing 20 tribes occupy Alcatraz Island and demand the establishment of a center for Native American studies, an American Indian spiritual center, an Indian center of ecology, and an Indian training school By November 28, the number of Indians on the island increases to approximately 400 They defy federal demands that they leave the island, and approximately 150 set up permanent occupancy in cell blocks and other buildings The federal government’s actions are orchestrated directly from the White House and a “hands off” policy toward the occupiers is adopted by President Richard Nixon This is the result of the growing negative public image resulting from the Vietnam War and the killing of college students at Kent State University by National Guard personnel While negotiations are conducted throughout the prolonged period of

occupation, the federal government refuses to give in to the demands of the occupiers Public sympathy for the Indians on the island decreases as time passes, and on June 11,

1971, federal marshals and Government Services Administration special forces personnel remove the 15 remaining occupiers Following the Alcatraz occupation, Indian activists, led by former participants in the protest, occupy over 60 government facilities across the United States, demanding that Indian rights be recognized During the occupation of Alcatraz Island, President Nixon signs legislation that returns the sacred Blue Lake to the Taos people and formally announces a government policy of self-determination for Indians Members of the Alcatraz occupation force become leaders in the American Indian Movement (AIM) and participate in the February 1973 occupation of Wounded Knee, and the 1975 occupation of the Washington, D.C., Bureau of Indian Affairs office

March 14, 1970 BIA Office Takeovers Indian activists take over the Bureau of Indian

Affairs office in Denver, Colorado An incident in Littleton, Colorado, incites this protest against discrimination regarding BIA anti-Indian employment policies An Indian woman applying for a position as school counselor working with Indian children is turned down despite her qualifications for the job There are two separate incidents in Littleton,

resulting in the arrest of 21 Indians A countrywide chain reaction is ignited: 23 arrests occur in Chicago; 12 in Alameda, California: 25 in Minneapolis; and 30 in Philadelphia BIA offices in Cleveland, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Albuquerque become scenes of Indian protests Those arrested in Alameda are charged with failure to leave a public building It is unclear to what extent Indians from Alcatraz are directly involved with the occupation

March 15, 1970 Reoccupation of Fort Lawton Indian activists reenter Fort Lawton

Federal authoritities serve eviction notices upon the activists The U.S Army then takes

78 Indians into custody following the group’s second attempt to takeover Fort Lawton Government officials identify Indians whom they consider to be leaders and agitators

from the March 8 occupation and arraign these Indians before a federal commissioner A preliminary hearing is set for April 2, but changes eventually are dropped without

prosecution Cover stories in Time and Look magazines feature Alcatraz and Fort Lawton occupations and refer to Alcatraz as “the symbolic act of Indian awareness.” The San Francisco Chronicle reports, “The Indians have demanded that Fort Lawton, an Army Reserve installation, be turned over to them for use as a cutural center The Indians claim they have a right to the fort under terms of an 1855 treaty To assert their claim, the Indians, may of them veterans of the takeover of Alcatraz island, scaled steep bluffs facing Puget Sound and entered the fort by climbing over high wire fences Sunday.”

March 23, 1970 Indian Occupy the BIA offices At an Alameda BIA office,

approximately 50 Indian protests alleged job discrimination in addition to other

grievances Approximately 30 Indians hold outside the BIA offices and eventually 12, including five from Alcatraz Island are arrested Richard Oakes, one of the 12 remaining occupiers, refuses to leave the office but finally submits peacefully to the police three hours later The Indian participants are released and scheduled for a court appearance on April 3

April 2, 1970 Fort Lawton, California Indian occupiers storm the east gate at Fort

Lawton and reenter the post This is the same date scheduled for the preliminary hearings

of the Indians who occupied Fort Lawton on March 8 and March 15 Fifteen more

Indians are arrested and held for arraignment, including Indian occupiers from Alcatraz Island Charges against the group are later dismissed Through the continuous efforts of the United Indians of All tribes, Fort Lawton is awarded to the Indians in 1971 as an Indian cultural center Today, Bernie Whitebear, director of the Daybreak Star Cultural Center at Fort Lawton, attributes much of their success to the occupation of Alcatraz In

1990 Whitebear states, “Alcatraz was very much a catalyst to our occupation here We saw what could be achieved there, and if it had not been for their determination effort at Alcatraz, there would have been no movement here We would like to think that Alcatraz lives on in part through Fort Lawton.” Ross Harden, one of the original occupiers of the island, says that the Lawton occupiers came from the different tribes on Alcatraz

April 18-23, 1970 Indian Sit-Ins Indians conduct sit-ins at several BIA offices

throughout the country

April 27, 1970 American Indian Movement Members of the American Indian

Movement (AIM) picket the Minneapolis opening of Elliot Silverstein’s A Man Called Horse The Indian activists urge a boycott of the picture (the story of an Englishman and his life among the Lakota Sioux) and label its graphic portrayal of the sacred Sun Dance ceremony “humiliating and degrading.” Later, the Minnesota Department of Human Rights joins the AIM members in their boycott Reaction to the film is mixed; some Indians approve of it Two sequels are released Return of a Man Called Horse (1976) and Triumphs of a Man Called Horse(1984)

May 17, 1970 Mohawk Occupations The Mohawk Indians of Akwesasne reoccupy

Loon Island, which is illegally being squatted upon by non-Indian recreation-seekers

On May 9, a Mohawk group occupies Stanley Island The Mohawks claim total of 42 islands in the St Lawrence River region

June 1970 Reclamation of Lassen National Forest Pit River Indians head for Lassen

National Forest to reclaim the land as their own Richard Oakes brings Indian occupiers from Alcatraz Island to assist in the occupation Marie Lego, a Pit River Indian, becomes

an activist/advocate for her people Sheriff’s deputies, local police, and United States marshals armed with riot equipment and shotguns greet the caravan at the entrance to the forest Not intending any violence, the leaders turn the caravan around and move toward their secondary goal, the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) camp at Big Bend, California Here PG&E claims 52,000 acres of Pit River land “We are the rightful and legal owner of the land,” proclaims a young Indian named Mickey Gemmill “Therefore,

we reclaim all the resourceful land that has traditionally been ours with the exception of that owned by private individuals.”

On June 6, the Pit River Indians occupy Lassen’s fully equipped and very comfortable private campground and cabins The campground and the national park are part of a huge section of northern California land that the Indians say was stolen from them in 1853 Some of the Pit River Indians become frightened when they are tailed from Mount Lassen to Big Bend Among those who elect to stick it out are Richard Oakes, Grace Thorpe and some other Alcatraz occupiers On the second day of the occupation, U.S Marshals “armed to the teeth” inform the group that they must leave The Indians respond

by telling the marshals that it is they who are trespassers on Indian land; therefore the marshals, not the Indians should leave The 82 marshals counter with Black Marias, M-16s, and riot helmets, and arrest 80 women and 26 men for trespassing The Indian who are arrested appear in court and are sued for trespassing without having established that they owned the land Included in the support group from Alcatraz are Oakes, Thorpe and singer Buffy Saint-Marie Indian Lawyers make motions to dismiss the charges but the judge sustains every objection by the district attorney The first two groups are convicted, but the case then is relocated to Sacramento, where the third group receives a trail and is acquitted in June 1971 Following the acquittal, Pit River Indians go back to the PG &E campgrounds where more Indians are peacefully arrested Again the Pit River Indians return to Lassen National Forest, and this time 22 are arrested on charges of building a fire without a permit The government pursues a policy of avoidance, hoping to let the whole matter cool down and die away The Pit River Nation resists and any attempt that would let issues be “simply” forgotten They announce their continuous claim and

occupation of their ancestral lands until the lands are returned

Throughout the trespass trails, the Pit Rivers maintain a camp at the Four Corners site near Burney and begin to cut trees that the Forest Service had left along the road; the Indians plan to use the trees to build cabins on the land A police patrol spots them After four days of conferences that include officials in Washington D.C., the U.S Marshals, Forest Service personnel, and approximately 400 law enforcement personnel remove the Indians, using rifle butts, clubs, mace-guns, and trained dogs The Indians respond by arming themselves with sticks and two-by-fours in an effort to defend themselves One of

the young Indians, Coyote, later recalls that “the day was bloody.” He remembers the slow, painful ride the next day from a Susanville jail to the jail in Sacramento with “four handcuffed Indians squashed into the back of a police car with no handles on the doors”

June 7, 1970 Chicago American Indians Village Police raid the “Chicago American

Indian Village”, a tent city behind WrigleyField, where Indian people protest a lack of services for them in Chicago

September 1970 Takeover of Mount Rushmore Approximately 50 Indians from

different tribes climb to the top of Mount Rushmore and announce their takeover of the historic landmark They intend to occupy Mount Rushmore until 123, 000 acres of Indian land, unjustly taken for a gunnery range during World War II, is returned

September 17, 1970 Occupation of Federal Land Army intelligence in San Francisco

reports that is national office in Washington has received information regarding plans to occupy federal land there belonging either to the Department of Army or the Interior The action reportedly will take place sometime within the near future by a group of Indians from Alcatraz Island Army intelligence requests all information regarding the movement

of Indians occupying Alcatraz Island

Autumn 1970-Spring 1971 Mount Rushmore American Indian Movement (AIM)

member and a traditional group called the Oglala Sioux Tribe establish a camp at Mount Rushmore enacting a symbolic Lakota claim to the Black Hills

October 1970 Badlands National Monument Sioux Indian activists establish a protest

camp at Badlands National Monument in South Dakota Traditionally a religious

ceremonial ground, the federal government seized Sheep Mountain to use as a bombing area during World War II Among those erecting the camp’s 23 trips are representives from the Alcatraz Island occupation

October 1970 Pit River, California Pit River Indians and other Indian supporters, many

from Alcatraz Island, occupy a site at the Four Corners area near Burney, California The Indians erect a Quonset hut as temporary while they attend the trials stemming from the June 1970 occupation of PG&E lands, when approximately 80 federal officers, sheriff’s deputies, and forestry employees appear Armed with mace, clubs, shotguns, and

automatic rifles, the troops surround the Indian Camp Peter Blue Cloud describes the battle:” As forest workers and officers moved toward the Quonset hut to tear it down, all hell broke loose, as the protectors of the law waded into the Pit River people, spraying mace, and breaking heads, swinging clubs and striking even those who already lay unconscious Riffle butts were smashed into heads and mace filled the air Indian women shouted and cried out in anger.” Again, arrests are made but officers their people’s rights

A 100-year old tribal woman witnesses police destruction and says, “I hope the white men are proud.” Of the 36 Indian people arrested at the PG&E camp near Big Bend on June 14, 1970, only seven are convicted on charges of building occupation and placed on probation Out of 108 counts, convictions are obtained on 14 On March 30, 1972, five Indians charged with assaulting federal marshals during the battle of Four Corners are

found innocent Charges against the remaining 33 are dropped prior to or during the trial One Juror comments upon a lack of evidence in the case against the Indian people

November 3, 1970 CIA Listening Post Occupied Two dozen Indian activists,

including Indians from Alcatraz Island, occupy a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) listening post near Santa Rose, California The CIA facility was used in the 1950s

to monitor foreign broadcasts The Indians are removed from the government property on November 6; five are arrested for trespassing Richard Oakes, an Alcatraz leader,

participates in the strategy-planning session for the occupation Title to the land is

ultimately transferred to the Pomo Indians and the Ya-Ka-Ma, “Our land,” American Indian learning center is established

November 3, 1970 Deganawida-Quetzalcoatl University Site Occupied Indians

occupy a 647-acre site ( a surplus military facility) near Davis, California, later the site of Deganawida-Quetzalcoatl University 9dqu) “ The land is ours” is the cry accompanying

a claim to one square mile of the Central Valley Slated for title by a nonprofit

educational institution, the site is considered up for grabs

A press release on October 29 indicates that the University of California at Davis will receive the land for primate research and rice farming despite its incomplete application

To gain public attention, American Indian activists, including Grace Thorpe and other former Alcatraz occupies, climb over the site’s fence and lay claim to the land DQU recieves the deed to the site on April 2, 1971

November 4, 1970 Foreign Broadcast Information Service Station Occupied Twelve

Indians occupy the former Foreign Broadcast Information Service Monitoring Station at Healdsburg, California All but four of the Indians leave the property at the request of the local sheriff Indians from Alcatraz Island participate in the occupation Aubrey

Grossman, San Francisco attorney for Indians of All tribes, appears as their counsel

November 8, 1970 Army Communications Center Occupied Approximately 75

Indians activists seize an abandoned army communications center in Davis, California The Indians demand that the center be turned over to them for use an Indian Cultural Center

November 22, 1970 Pomo Indian Reservation Richard Oakes stops motorists driving

through a Pomo Indian Reservation, and charges an entry toll; he is placed under arrest for this action The San Francisco Chronicle reports, “Oakes, a leader of last year’s invasion of Alcatraz, allegedly posted himself, armed with a rifle at Skagg’s Spring Road, after placing a fallen tree part way across the road A sign posted there reads: “Stop pay toll ahead -$1.00 This is Indian land.” California Highway Patrol officers arrest Oakes pending investigation of an armed robbery and release him from jail on his own

recognizance once he agrees to a moratorium on his toll charges

November 24, 1970 Wohler Birdge, California Seven young Indians plus other Indian

activists are arrested on trespassing charges when they confront federal authorities at a broadcast station near Wohler Bridge, California Four Indians from Alcatraz Island are

among those taken into custody The Indians had been warned to leave the federal

property leased to a private citizen The occupation group claims a right to the land under

a treaty made with the Indians in 1865

November 25, 1970 Kashia Reservation A total of $22 is collected at the toll crossing

on Kashia Reservation near Stewart’s Point-Skaggs Spring Road and Tin Barn Road, California Charges of felony robbery levied against Richard Oakes are reduced to the charge of obstructing a public roadway This particular incident, while mimicking Oakes earlier actions, may not have actually including his participation

Thanksgiving Day, 1970 American Indian Movement Seizes Mayflower II Members

of the American Indian Movement(AIM), including Russell Means and Dennis Banks, seize control of the Mayflower II in Plymouth, Massachusetts Proclaiming Thanksgiving day a national day of mourning, AIM protests against this celebration of thanks for taking

of Indian lands by white colonists This is the first AIM attempt to extend its activism onto the national scene Previously, AIM focused upon providing physical protection against police harassment for Indian people living in Minneapolis, Cleveland, and

Washington, D.C The names of Means and Banks, and later Trudell become

synonymous with the AIM movement

April 2, 1971 Deganawida-Quetzalcoatl University The federal government formally

turns over the title to 647 acres to the trustees of DQU The Indians and Chicanos hold a powwow and victory celebration The White House feels that the establishment of DQU fulfills the demands of the Alcatraz occupiers for an Indian University

May 16 and May 21, 1971 Indian Intertribal Force Occupies Abandoned Naval Air Station An Indian intertribal force takes over an abandoned naval air station near

Minneapolis The occupation force intends the station for use as an all-Indian school and cultural center Members of AIM and other Indian organization and tribes claim the Sioux Treaty of 1868, article 6, as their authority, just as the Indian occupiers of Alcatraz Island had done in 1964 The Indian occupiers form a governing structure and security system similar to the Alcatraz occupation structure and issue a petition to the federal government similar to that of Indians of All Tribes and the Alcatraz demonstrators The occupiers are arrested on May 21, when members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) occupy a naval air station in Milwaukee, Wisconsin Unlike earlier occupations of vacant land, this new occupation disrupts naval facility operations U.S marshal special operations group (SOG) members forcibly enter the theater and clash with Indians armed with clubs, knives, and other weapons

May 26, 1971 Occupation of Toyon Job Coprs Center California Pit River Indians

and others join a group of Wintu Indians in occupying the 61 acre surplus Toyon Job Corps Center near Redding, California They believe the site suits a number of Indian purposes, including housing A settlement reached with the BIA determines that the center will be given to the Indians in two years, during which time the Shasta Community Action Project will administer and maintain the land

June 6-7,1971 Mount Rushmore National Memorial Forty Indians demand that the

federal government honor the 1868 treaty with Sioux Nation promising that all lands west

of the Missouri River would belong forever to the Sioux Nation The Indians establish a camp on top of the Mount Rushmore National Memorial Police later arrest 20 of the protestors for climbing the monument

June 11, 1971 Alcatraz Occupation Ends The 19- month takeover of Alcatraz Island

ends when federal marshals remove the last 15 Indians (six men, four women, and five children) occupying the prison Averaging 100 protesters from 50 different tribes, the activists announce plans to turn Alcatraz into a Center of Ecology, an American Indian Museum, a Great Indian Training School, and an Indian Center of Ecology

June 14, 1971 Abandoned Nike Missile Base Occupied Indians of All Tribes (formally

of Alcatraz Island) enter and occupy an abandoned Nike missile base in the Berkeley Hills overlooking San Francisco Bay; more than 100 Indians settle there Occupiers announce their intention to remain on the base and call for the establishment of a

liberation supply line On June 17, prison buses, park rangers, marked and unmarked police cars, and army trucks loaded with military police descent upon the occupiers The Indian occupiers, many of whom were participants in the Alcatraz occupation, are

forcibly evicted

June 14-July 1, 1971 Alcatraz Indians Demonstrate Approximately 40 Indians

demonstrate in front of the federal office building in San Francisco, protesting their eviction from Alcatraz Island The demonstrators do not attempt to enter FBI space, consequently, no arrests are made Many protestors are veterans of the Alcatraz

occupation

June – August 1971 Wallace Black Elk’s Wounded Knee Sun Dance Calling

themselves “Indians of All Tribes,” a group of young Indian people come from San Francisco to Wounded Knee for a Sun Dance performed by Wallace Black Elk, John Lame Deer, and Leonard Crow Dog This group unifies the former members of Indians of All Tribes from Alcatraz Island with the American Indian Movement (AIM), now

recognized as a national Indian activist organization

July 30, 1971 Occupation of Former Nike Missile Site Seventy-five Indians occupy a

former Nike site on the grounds of the Argonne National Laboratories in Hinsdale, Illinois

August 1971 Onandaga, Oneida, Mohawk and Tuscarora Protest Approximately

100 Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk, and Tuscarora Indians go to Interstate 81 in New York State, south of Onondaga Reservation lands, and sit down to protest the widening of the interstate highway, claiming that the initial treaty with the United States is illegal and does not provide for roadway additions The state agrees to abandon plans for the

construction of an acceleration lane on Indian lands, to drop charges against those Indians arrested, and to consult with the Council of Chiefs at all stages of the highway

improvement project

August 15, 1971 AIM Seizes Abandoned Coast Guard Lifeboat Station A group of

approximately 25 members of the Milwaukee chapter of the American Indian Movement (AIM) seize an abandoned coast guard lifeboat station at McKinley Beach, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin The group seizes two abandoned buildings during the predawn rain, claiming

a right to the property under the Sioux Treaty of 1876 The first recorded occupation of a federal facility, this is the second attempt by AIM to expand beyond its role as an urban Indian protection organization

October 13-15, 1971 AIM National Convention The American Indian Movement

(AIM) holds its first national convention Approximately 100 delegates representing 18 chapters attend the conference at Camp Owendigo, Minnesota

March 4, 1972 Death of R Yellow Thunder In Gordon, Nebraska, five persons are

charged with manslaughter and false imprisonment in the death of R Yellow Thunder, a

41 yer old Oglala Sioux Indian Three weeks prior, he was stripped of his clothes and forced into an American Legion Hall where a dance was in progress

March 7, 1972 National American Indian Council Urban Indians hold a conference in

Omaha, Nebraska, forming the National American Indian Council The council commits itself to working on behalf of urban Indians nationwide

March 8, 1972 American Indians Demonstrate in Sacramento, California Hundreds

of American Indians demonstrate in front of the California State capitol in Sacramento and call for a state investigation into the fatal shooting of a 20 year old Indian youth in December 1969 A student at UCLA, Tom Ferris was shot to death in a Willow Creek bar

by a white bartender The grand jury does not return an indictment, hence the

demonstrators call for a more thorough investigation of the incident

Spring 1972 AIM Leaders Condemn Trial Councils At a convention of tribal leaders

held in the spring at Cass Lake, Minnesota, AIM leaders openly condemn tribal councils for letting European Americans and BIA officials exploit tribal resources, especially fishing rights on Chippewa Lake Bearing guns and blockading the convention center, AIM leaders demand that the Chippewa Tribal Council take a militant stand strong enough to intimidate the surrounding non-Indians into accepting trial control of the fishing areas

April 23, 1972 AIM Members Stage Peaceful Protest on the Fort Trotten Indian Reservation Thirty Lakota and Chippewa American Indian Movement (AIM) members

stage a peaceful protest on the Fort Totten Indian Reservation in North Dakota The sit-in-intends to call attention to police brutality on the Reservation In the previous few months, according to the protestors, three Indians died while jail custody

June 1972 Lumbee Students Protect Historic Building at Pembroke State

University Lumbee students at Pembroke State University strive to prevent the

destruction of a historic Indian building on the campus In 1885, the state of North

Carolina began permitting the Lumbee to operate their own school systems The state’s

laws recognizes the Lumbee as “free people of color,” and bars them from attending white schools while permitting them to operate their own “Indian” schools The Lumbee started school in 1887 and it became a four yer college in 1935 Old Main, as the building

is known, serves for many years as the only building on campus With a current

enrollment of 2,500 students, the mostly non-Indian campus administration finds itself pitted against the Lumbee who are determined to save the historic building

September 13, 1972 Indian Protest over Education Funds In Pawnee, Oklahoma,

angry Oklahoma Indians seize a federal office for over two hours in a dispute with federal and state officials over educational funds John Trudell, one of the leaders of the 1969-71 Alcatraz Island occupation, says that the Indians won a clear-cut victory when government officials agreed to freeze all federal funds while an investigation and

renegotiation of disbursements of funds, requested by the Indian occupiers, is undertaken

October-November 1972 Trail of Broken Treaties The idea for the Trial of Broken

Treaties, the march on Washington, and the occupation of the federal BIA building begins at the Sioux Rosebud Reservation in 1972 American Indian Movement (AIM) activist Robert Burnette organizes the project in which Indians from all over the country will converge upon Washington, D.C., just before the presidential elections, to protest and draw attention to Indian issues Caravanners coming from the Southwest follow the Cherokee Trial of Tears; the Sioux pass by the 1800 Wounded Knee massacre site Arriving in Washington, they find that living accommodations promised to them by their planners are not available, so the group decides to take over the Bureau of Indian Affairs office On November 2, 1972, 600-800 Indians occupy and barricade the BIA building They present a list of 20 civil rights demands drawn up during the march Among them are that: treaty relations be reestablished between the federal government and the Indian nations; termination policies be repealed, including Public Law 280; the Indian land base

be doubled; tribes be given criminal jurisdiction over non-Indian on reservations; and cultural and economic conditions for Indians be improved After almost a week of

occupation in which activists destroy files, furniture, and Indian art, the government promises to review the “twenty-point program,” refrain from making arrests, and pay the Indian’s return travel expenses The occupation ends November 8

A great moral victory for the Indians, this occupation signifies the first time a national organization of Indians has faced a confrontation as a united people The two government negotiators, Brad Patterson and Len Barment, also kept an eye on the Alcatraz occupation for the government While many of the Alcatraz occupiers participated in the Trail of Broken Treaties, it is the first large Indian protest staged by AIM

November 14, 1972 American Indians Testify before Commission on Civil Rights

The U.S Commission on Civil Rights hear testimony from the American Indian witness claiming that the agency has directed its attention to the needs of African-American and Hispanic Americans, overlooking the needs of American Indians

1973 Oglala Sioux Civil Rights Organization In Pine Ridge, South Dakota, Gladys

Bissonette and Ellen Moves Camp establish the Oglala Sioux Civil Rights Organization (OSCRO) Responding to the federal government’s policy of using military enforcement

against the women, children, and elderly of Pine Ridge, Bissonette and Moves Camp favor armed self-defense for the Indians This approach will distinguish Indian political tactics from previous twentieth-century policies involving disputes with the U.S Federal government

January 9, 1973 AIM Demands Rejected The Nixon administration officially rejects

demands received from the leaders of the Trail of Broken Treaties The demands were drawn up during the “Trail of Broken Treaties” caravan to Washington, D.C which ended in the seven-day occupation of the BIA headquarters building

February 6-8, 1973 AIM Protesters Clash with Police Two hundred American Indian

Movement (AIM) protestors clash with police in Cluster, South Dakota Thirty-seven Indians are arrested during a melee with police over a judge’s decision to grant bail to the white man charged with the stabbing death of Wesley Bad Heart Bull According to AIM sources, the riot erupted when after a meeting with officials the mother of the victim was pushed down a flight of stairs Dennis Banks, AIM leader, is among those arrested

February 27-May 8, 1973 Wounded Knee II A group of 200 Indians, led by the

American Indian Movement (AIM), congregate at the site of the 1890 Wounded Knee massacre They demonstrate against the elected council head of the Pine Ridge

Reservation, Richard (Dicky) Wilson, whose administration, they charge, is rife with corruption and nepotism and silences its critics through intimidation and violence The Sioux traditionalists, who do not accept the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) government

as represented by Wilson, called AIM when Wilson and his administration begin beatings and shootings to enforce “ Wilson rule” Tensions between the protesters and local authorities grow until the situation becomes a siege of the town, drawing 2,000 Indians from around the area and lasting for 70 days The Indian occupiers are surrounded by 300 federal marshals and FBI agents equipped with guns and armored personnel carriers (APCS) On March 12, the Indians declare Wounded Knee a sovereign territory of the new Oglala Sioux Nation according to the Laramie Treaty of 1868, which recognizes the Sioux as an independent nation The siege peaks when the two sides begin firing on each other and two Indians, Frank Clearwater and Buddy Lamont, are shot and killed The impasse ends after 67 days with a negotiated settlement and the withdrawal of both sides The occupation calls national and worldwide media attention to the Native American civil rights movement Although an AIM occupation, former occupiers of Alcatraz Island (Indians of All Tribes) also participate

March 27, 1973 Marlon Brando Refuses Oscar Sacheen Littlefeather, adorned in

buckskin, headband, and braids, reguses the Oscar for Best Actor on Marlon Brando’s behalf Amidst both boos and applause, Ms Littlefeather stands in front of the large audience at the Academy Awards presentation and announces that Brando will not accept the Oscar (for his role in The Godfather) She explains that the veteran actors’ decision is due to “the treatment of Indians by the film industry, in television, in movie reruns, and the recent happenings in Wounded Knee, South Dakota.”