Led by the Norman, Oklahoma, chapter of the National Indian Youth Council (see entry for AUGUST 1961), Indian students speak out against the University of Oklahoma’s mascot, Little Red. During sports games, the student portraying Little Red dances and whoops wearing a breechcloth bearing the school’s name. Although Little Red was traditionally depicted by a young white man, the university begins choosing Indian students to play the mascot, as a misguided attempt to address the protesters’ concerns. The plan backfires when Navajo Ron Benally refuses to perform as Little Red at the school’s giving Day football game, in consideration of the concerns of his fellow Indian students. After protesters stage a sit-in at the university president’s office, the school finally agrees to abolish the Little Red tradition.
Harvard’s school of education recruits Indian students.
With funds provided in part by a grant from the federal government, Harvard University establishes the American Indian Program (later renamed the Harvard Native American Program) in its Graduate School of Education. The program is intended to recruit Indian and Inuit students to the school and train them to be leaders in the field of education. Since the program’s inception, Harvard has conferred on Indians more than 180 advanced degrees in education.
LaDonna Harris founds Americans for Indian Opportunity.
Americans for Indian Opportunity is formed by LaDonna Harris, a Comanche public servant and activist. An outgrowth of her previous organization, Oklahomans for Indian Opportunity, AIO is a non-profit group dedicated to improving the economic, political, and cultural self-sufficiency of Indian tribes throughout the United States.
Determination of the Rights and Unity for Menominee Shareholders (DRUMS) is founded to fight land sales.
To prevent Menominee leaders from selling land to pay property taxes, a group of activists headed by Ada Deer form Determination of the Rights and Unity for Menominee Shareholders (DRUMS). DRUMS will later take on the larger goal of fighting to restore the Menominee’s tribal status, which was terminated by the United States (see entry for MAY 1, 1961).
“The immediate effect of termination on our tribe was the loss of most of our hundred-year-old treaty rights, protections, and services. No amount of explanation or imagination prior to termination could have prepared us for the shock of what these losses meant. . . . We hope you can appreciate the magnitude of these treaty losses to us. Visualize a situation similar to ours happening to one of your home states. Imagine the outrage of the people in one of your own communities if Congress should attempt to terminate their basic property, inheritance, and civil rights.”
—DRUMS representatives protesting the Menominee’s termination before the Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs in 1971
The Makah village of Ozette is uncovered.
A severe storm in northern Washington State uncovers a portion of the ancient Makah Indian village of Ozette, which had been destroyed in a mudslide before the Makah came into contact with whites. Well preserved in the mud are thousands of artifacts. With the help of Washington State University, the Makah will eventually unearth more than 55,000 objects, forming the largest collection of artifacts ever assembled from a precontact site. (See also entry for 1979.)
The Native American Rights Fund is founded.
With a grant from the Ford Foundation, the Native American Rights Fund is created to provide legal aid to Indians and Indian groups that otherwise could not afford representation. The organization is an outgrowth of the California Indian Legal Service, which was established in the 1960s as part of the Johnson administration’s War on Poverty.
Cree leader William I. C. Wuttunee defends the White Paper.
Because of his support for the White Paper (see entry for JUNE 25, 1969), the Canadian government appoints Cree lawyer William I. C. Wuttunee as the commissioner of Indian land claims. Wuttunee’s encouragement of Native participation in white society earns him the enmity of many Natives, including those of his own band, who ban him from their reserve. Wuttunee will soon resign his post and write Ruffled Feathers, in which he tells Natives to work to improve their own lives and stop “cry[ing] about broken promises and broken treaties.”
The “crying Indian” television spot is first aired.
Keep America Beautiful sponsors a public-service television announcement against littering, a spot that features veteran western actor Iron Eyes Cody. Wearing a feather in his hair and dressed in buckskin, Cody stands by the side of a highway as trash tossed from a passing car falls at the actor’s feet. In an extreme close-up on his face, a single tear slowly drips down.
Produced by the Ad Council, the spot becomes one of the most effective and famous public service
Announcements ever telecast. The advertisement, however, is criticized by some Indians, who see it as propagating the romantic stereotype of Indians as “children of nature.” Others later accuse Cody of fabricating his Indian ancestry, a charge he denies until his death in 1999.
The National American Indian Court Judges Association is established.
To improve the quality of legal services offered by reservation court systems, the National American Indian Court Judges Association is created. Over the next several decades, the organization will offer training sessions in federal, state, and constitutional law to hundreds of tribal court judges.
March to April
Protesters seize Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) offices.
On March 14, a group of Indian activists take over the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) office in Denver, Colorado, to protest the BIA’s hiring practices. The specific cause of their anger is the case of an Indian woman in Littleton, Colorado, who was turned down for a job teaching Indian children despite her solid credentials.
The Denver protest sparks a wave of demonstrations and sit-ins at BIA offices throughout the United States. Protests are held in Albuquerque, Cleveland, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and Santa Fe.
March 8
A California march protests the shooting death of an Indian student.
A group of Indians marches on the California state capitol in Sacramento to draw attention to the death of Michael Ferris, a Hupa Indian student at the University of California at Los Angeles. Ferris was shot to death by a non-Indian at a bar in nearby Will Creek in December 1969. The Sacramento protest is led by Lehman Brightman, later the director of the Native American Studies program at the University of California at Berkeley.
March 8 and 15
United Indians of All Tribes occupy Fort Lawton.
Inspired by the occupation of Alcatraz (see entry for NOVEMBER 20, 1969), Indian activists calling themselves the United Indians of All Tribes take over Fort Lawton, a federal land area about 50 miles south of Seattle, Washington. Seattle Indians had asked for title to Fort Lawton, which was due to be declared surplus land, but their requests were ignored. Military police arrest 77 Indians and use clubs to disperse the protesters, who include nonIndian actress and activist Jane Fonda.
A week later, activists reoccupy the fort and are again routed by the U. S. Army. The protest makes the international news, and stories about the Fort Lawson and Alcatraz occupations are featured on the covers of Time and Newsweek magazines.
March 16
Indian protesters attempt to take over Ellis Island.
Activists from 14 tribes led by Bruce Oakes and David Leach plan to establish a camp on New York City’s Ellis Island, an action modeled after the Alcatraz occupation (see entry for NOVEMBER 20, 1969). The attempt fails, however, when winter temperatures freeze the fuel lines of the boats meant to carry them to the island. While the group is stranded on the New Jersey shore, news of the planned occupation is leaked to the press, alerting the police to a possible takeover and thus spoiling the protesters’ plans to try again the following day.
March 23 to 26
The first Convocation of American Indian Scholars is held.
Indian academics, students, and tribal leaders gather at Princeton University for the Convocation of
American Indian Scholars. Sponsored by the American Indian Historical Society (see entry for 1964), the participants discuss the issues facing contemporary Indians and explore means of preserving Indian cultures and traditions in the future.
The Indians of All Tribes show support for the Pyramid Lake Paiute.
Forty of the protesters occupying Alcatraz Island (see entry for NOVEMBER 20, 1969) form a caravan and travel to Nevada to bring attention to the plight of the Paiute of Pyramid Lake. For 65 years, water has been diverted from the Truckee River, which feeds into the lake, so that it can be used to irrigate nearby farms owned by non-Indians (see entry for 1905). Although Pyramid Lake threatens to dry up completely, the Department of the Interior continues to ignore the Paiute requests for help.
Indian activists protest A Man Called Horse.
In Minneapolis, Minnesota, members of the American Indian Movement (see entry for JULY 1968) picket the premiere of A Man Called Horse, a film directed by Elliot Silverstein and starring British actor Richard Harris. Harris plays an English gentleman captured by the Lakota Sioux during the Plains Wars. When the Englishman valiantly withstands the Lakota’s torture, he is adopted into the tribe and leads them into battle against their Shoshone enemies. The protesters particularly object to the presentation of Harris’s character as the Lakota’s superior, and to a gory and inaccurate depiction of the Sun Dance, a traditional religious ritual.
Mercury poisoning leads to a fishing ban on an Ojibway reserve.
The Grassy Narrows Ojibway of Ontario are forced to close their commercial fishing operations after rivers on their reserve are found to be contaminated with methyl mercury. The methyl mercury had been dumped by the Reed Paper Company, an English mill located 100 miles upriver.
When the Canadian government is slow to react to concerns about related health problems among the Ojibway, the Indians themselves hire experts from Minamata, Japan, where rivers have been similarly poisoned. They confirm that some Ojibway are suffering from “Minamata disease,” a nervous disorder caused by exposure to mercury.
Pomo occupy burial grounds and an army base.
On May 1, Pomo protesters take over their ancient burial grounds on Rattlesnake Island near Clear Lake, California. The island is owned by the Boise-Cascade Lumber Company, which intends to develop the area as a vacation resort.
The next day, Pomo activists seize a surplus army radio station near Middletown, California. Their demands that the buildings be made into a Pomo education and cultural facility will lead to the establishment of the Ya-Ka-Ama (meaning “our land”) Center.
Canadian Natives issue the Red Paper.
As a response to the Canadian government’s White Paper (see entry for JUNE 25, 1969), which advocated the termination of Native groups, Native leaders endorse the opinions offered in Citizens Plus, a report drafted by Cree Indian Harold Cardinal and issued by the Indian Association of Alberta. Also known as the Red Paper, Citizens Plus maintains that Natives should retain their special status as defined by past treaties. It also insists that the Ministry of Indian Affairs be reorganized and that the Canadian government recognize Native land claims.
June 6
July 8
The Pit River Indians occupy Lassen National Forest.
The Pit River Indians take over the Pacific Gas and Electric Company campgrounds in Lassen National Forest, in northern California. The tribe claims that the forest was illegally seized from them in 1853. Joining them in the protest are members of the American Indian Movement (see entry for JULY 1968), including Richard Oakes and Grace Thorpe (the daughter of sports star Jim Thorpe). On the second day of the occupation, U. S. marshals in full riot gear oust the protesters and place more than one hundred of them under arrest for trespassing. (See also entry for OCTOBER 1970.)
“We believe that money cannot buy the Mother Earth. She has sheltered and clothed, nourished and protected us. We have endured. We are Indians.
We are the rightful and legal owners of the land. Therefore, we reclaim all the resourceful land that has traditionally been ours, with the exception of that ‘owned' by private individuals.
On this land we will set up our own economic and social structure, retaining all the values that are commensurate with Indian life.”
—from a proclamation issued by the Pit River Indians during the Pacific Gas and Electric Company occupation
President Richard M. Nixon declares his support of Self-determination.
In a special message to Congress, President Richard M. Nixon announces his intention to support a federal Indian policy ofSelf-determination, which would give Indian groups more control over their political and economic affairs. He states that the government should “break decisively with the past and create the conditions of a new era in which the Indian future is determined by Indian acts and Indian decisions.”
Autumn
Activists stage a protest at Mount Rushmore.
In a symbolic protest, Indian activists calling themselves the Black Hills National Monument Movement seize portions of Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. The famous monument has long been resented by Indians, because it was carved from a mountain in the Black Hills, an area sacred to the Lakota Sioux and other peoples of the Plains. The protest will continue through the following spring.
October
Lakota Sioux establish a protest camp at the Badlands National Monument.
Lakota Sioux protesters at South Dakota’s Badlands National Monument demand the return of Sheep Mountain, an area that is sacred to the Indians. The U. S. government took Sheep Mountain from the Lakota without compensation during World War II for use as a gunnery range (see entry for 1943). (Badlands National Monument became a national park in 1978.)
October
The Pit River Indians meet federal troops at Four Corners.
During the trial of the Pit River activists arrested in Lassen National Forest (see entry for JUNE 6, 1971), Indian supporters establish a camp at Four Corners, near Burney, California. When they begin cutting up felled trees to build cabins at the site, a team of federal troops, U. S. marshals, and Forestry Service officials storm the camp. The activists try to defend themselves with sticks as the troops spray them with mace and bludgeon them with clubs and rifle butts. Thirty-eight Indians are arrested, but the charges will later be dropped against all but five. Those who stand trial for assault will be found not guilty in 1972.
Indian protesters occupy University of California land.
A group of Indian activists take over a 650-acre plot of land near Davis, California, after the University of California announces plans to establish a primate research center on the site. The board of trustees of the Deganawida-Quetzalcoatl University, planned to be the first Indian-run college for Native Americans of all tribes, had applied to the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare to use the site— formerly an army communications center—but the request had been denied. Largely because of the protest, the federal government will be persuaded to award the university title to the land the following January. (See also entry for JULY 7, 1971.)
American Indian Movement (AIM) activists stage a protest at Plymouth Rock.
Declaring giving “a national day of mourning,” members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) led by Russell Means and Dennis Banks stage a protest in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The activists paint the historic Plymouth Rock red and take over Mayflower II, a replica of the ship that transported the Pilgrims to North America. Using the ship as a podium, Means speaks out against the United States’s treatment of Indians. The event is the first AIM protest intended to focus the attention of the public nationwide on contemporary Indian issues and grievances.
The U. S. government returns the Blue Lake area to the Taos Pueblo.
In the culmination of a 64-year legal battle, the people of Taos Pueblo regain control over Blue Lake and the surrounding area in New Mexico. The land was seized by the United States in 1906, when it was incorporated into the Carson National Forest. The Indian Claims Commission offered monetary compensation for Blue Lake, a sacred site to the people of Taos, but they refused the money and continued to fight for the land’s return (see entry for SEPTEMBER 1965). A landmark in the history of Indian land claims, Congress’s decision to give the 48,000-acre Blue Lake area back to the Taos marks the first time the United States has ever returned land to an Indian group.
P
“I can only say that in signing the bill I trust that this will mark one of those periods in American history where, after a very, very long time, and at times a very sad history of injustice, that we started on a new road—a new road which leads us to justice in the treatment of those who were the first Americans, of our working together for the better nation that we want this great and good country of ours to become.”
—President Richard M. Nixon, upon signing the bill mandating the return of Blue Lake to the Taos Indians
February 19 to 20
1971
Dee Brown’s Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is published.
Subtitled “An Indian History of the American West,” Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, by Dee Brown, documents the systematic destruction of Indian nations and cultures in the latter half of the 19 th century. The book becomes an immediate best-seller and will sell more than one million copies in hardcover and four million in paperback.
Bury My Heart also makes non-Indian readers familiar with the tragedy of the Wounded Knee Massacre, during which the U. S. Army murdered nearly 300 unarmed Lakota Sioux men, women, and children (see entry for DECEMBER 29, 1890). Long a symbol for Indian people, Wounded Knee now takes on similar meaning for non-Indian Americans, thus inspiring the American Indian Movement to chose the site two years later for its most dramatic protest (see entry for FEBRUARY 28,
1973).
February
The American Indian Movement protests the murder of Oglala Lakota Raymond Yellow Thunder.
In a 200-car caravan, a group of activists organized by the American Indian Movement (AIM) descends on the small town of Gordon, Nebraska. The group means to pressure the local police to press charges against two white men who beat Raymond Yellow Thunder, an Oglala Sioux man from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, and paraded his battered body through an American Legion dance hall. Yellow Thunder later died of his injuries.
Confronted by the protesters, the police finally arrest the accused, who will become the first whites in Nebraska sentenced to a jail term for the murder of an Indian. This victory for AIM will give the organization new legitimacy in the eyes of many reservation residents in the region.
The National Tribal Chairmen’s Association is formed.
At a meeting in Billings, Montana, tribal leaders from 50 reservations establish the National Tribal Chairman’s Association. Formed with the support of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the organization is intended to help give tribal chairmen more of a voice in federal Indian policy, which reservation leaders fear is influenced too greatly by the demands of urban Indian activists.
February 22
Chief Dan George is nominated for an Academy Award.
When the 1970 Oscar nominations are announced, 71-year old Salish actor Chief Dan George becomes the first Native American to compete for the award. George is nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Old Lodge Skins, a wise and witty Cheyenne elder in the comic western epic Little Big Man. George will not win the Oscar, but he will be honored as Best Supporting Actor by the prestigious New York Film Critics Circle.
March 17
The Canadian government withdraws the White Paper.
Under intense pressure from pan-Native organizations, the administration of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau officially disavows the White Paper (see entry for JUNE 25, 1969), which recommended the Termination of Canadian Natives. With the withdrawal of this new policy, the Indian Act (see entries for APRIL 12, 1876, and for JUNE 20, 1951) resumes effect.
April 30
The James Bay Hydroelectric Project threatens the lands of the Cree and Inuit.
Quebec announces plans to build the James Bay Hydroelectric Project, which calls for rivers in the James Bay region to be dammed or diverted. As a result, the lands of Cree Indians and Inuit in the area will be flooded. When the Cree and Inuit object to the plan, the provincial government ignores them and maintains that they have no claims to the territory that they have occupied for centuries. To make their grievances heard, the Natives will turn to the courts to uphold their rights to their ancestral lands (see entry for NOVEMBER 1972).
Continue for if it does, Mother Nature will react in such a way that almost all men will suffer the end of life as they now know it.”
—Hopi religious leaders in a letter to President Richard M.
Nixon protesting the strip-mining of Black Mesa
Hopi traditionalists file suit to stop strip-mining.
In 1966 the Hopi Tribal Council signed a contract with the Peabody Coal Company permitting it to strip-mine for coal in the Joint Use Area, an area shared by the Hopi and the Navajo (Dineh) (see entry for 1962). Four years later mining began on Black Mesa, prompting traditionalists to band together to object to the desecration of this sacred area. With the support of non-Indian conservationists and the Native American Rights Fund (see entry for 1970), 64 traditional Hopi file a lawsuit, Lomayaktewa v. Morton, to stop the mining on the grounds that it violates their religious freedom.
P
“The white man's desire for material possessions and power has blinded him to the pain he has caused Mother Earth by his quest for what he calls natural
Resources____Today the sacred
Lands where the Hopi live are being desecrated by men who seek coal and water from our soil that they may create more power for the white man's cities. This must not be allowed to
American Indian Movement members take over an abandoned naval station.
American Indian Movement protesters seize an abandoned naval station near Minneapolis, Minnesota. Claiming their right to the area by the Treaty of Fort Laramie (see entry for NOVEMBER 7, 1868), they announce that they want to make the station into an Indian school and cultural center. The protesters are forcibly removed on May 21, when U. S. marshals storm the site.
The Indian occupation of Alcatraz ends.
Twenty armed federal marshals arrive on Alcatraz, forcing the less than 30 Indian protesters remaining on the island to leave. The event ends the Indian occupation of Alcatraz, which had begun 19 months earlier (see entry for NOVEMBER 20, 1969). The number of protesters fluctuated throughout that period, but at its height more than 400 people occupied the island, while many others on the mainland gathered supplies for the protesters and focused media attention on the event.
In the end, no Indian policies will be changed as a direct result of the protest. The occupation will, however, heighten international awareness of a wide variety of Indian issues. It will also prove to young Indian activists the power of collective protest and therefore lead to similar multitribal actions, including the Trail of Broken Treaties (see entry for NOVEMBER 2 TO 8, 1972) and the Wounded Knee occupation (see entry for FEBRUARY 28, 1973).
June 14
The Indians of All Tribes take over a San Francisco Bay missile base.
Activists ousted from Alcatraz Island (see entry for JUNE 11, 1971) move their protest to an abandoned Nike missile base in the Berkeley Hills on San Francisco Bay. The protesters intend to occupy the base indefinitely, but truckloads of military police descend on their camp, forcing them to leave the base three days after the takeover begins.
July 7
Deganawida-Quetzalcoatl University begins holding classes.
Established at a former army communications station near Davis, California (see entry for NOVEM BER 3, 1970), Deganawida-Quetzalcoatl University (also known as D-Q University) opens its doors to Indian students. Unique among Indian-operated universities, Deganawida-Quetzalcoatl University is not located on a reservation or affiliated with a single tribe. Instead it is founded to serve indigenous peoples throughout North and Central America. Its diverse student body and educational vision is reflected in its name: Deganawida was the great Peacemaker of Iroquois oral tradition (see entry for CA. 1400), while Quetzalcoatl was a god of several Mesoamerican peoples, including the Toltec, Maya, and Aztec (see entry for CA. 900 TO 1200).
August
The Iroquois protest interstate construction.
Protesters from the Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk, and Tuscarora tribes lie down on Interstate 81 to prevent New York State from building an additional lane on lands owned by the Onondaga. Following meetings between Onondaga leaders and Governor
Nelson Rockefeller, the conflict ends when the state abandons its plans to widen the highway and agrees to consult with the Onondaga Council about any future construction.
December 18
The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act is signed into law.
Under pressure from the Alaska Federation of Natives (see entry for OCTOBER 1966) and several large energy corporations, Congress passes the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA). The goal of the legislation is to settle long outstanding land claims disputes between the Alaskan Natives and the state of Alaska. After becoming a state, Alaska was authorized by the federal government to take control of more than a quarter of the state’s land base for its own use (see entry for JANUARY 3, 1958). The Natives of this land, however, have never formally relinquished their claims to this territory.
The ANCSA gives Native groups title to 44 million of Alaska’s 375 million acres. In compensation for the remaining land, the Natives are awarded $462.5 million and mineral royalties worth $500 million. In a radical departure from earlier policies, the Native lands in Alaska are not established as reservations held in trust by the U. S. government. Instead, in an effort to assimilate Alaskan Natives into the larger economy, Native groups are granted fee simple patents to their 44 million acres. These lands are to be managed by for-profit corporations, the shares of which are owned exclusively by Native peoples. The ANCSA calls for the creation of 12 regional corporations and about 200 village corporations. (See also entry for FEBRUARY 3, 1987.)
World History
