To provide a showcase for Indian dance, theater producer Barbara Schwei and Kiowa playwright and theater professor Hanay Geiogamah organize the American Indian Dance Theater. Representing many tribes, the company’s dancers will introduce traditional dances as well as powwow “fancy” dancing to non-Indian audiences by touring throughout the United States and abroad. The troupe will also be the subject of two PBS television specials.
Wings of America is established.
The Full Moon Foundation of Santa Fe, New Mexico, founds Wings of America. The organization sends teams of athletes to reservations in the West and Midwest to conduct running camps for Indian children and teenagers. The goal of the camps is to resurrect Indian running traditions and teach young Indians about health and fitness. Wings of America also sponsors regional teams to attend national championship track meets.
Congress considers opening an Arctic refuge to oil companies.
The Reagan administration lends its support to legislation that would open up the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. Created in the 1950s, the 20-million acre refuge is one of the largest protected wilderness areas in the United States. It is also the home of the Gwich’in
A dancer performs in the American Indian Dance Theatre in 2002. (AP/Wide World Photos)
Alaska. (See also entries for 1995 and for DECEM BER 21, 2005.).)
The National Native News is first broadcast.
Produced by the Alaska Public Radio Network, the National Native News becomes the first daily radio program to focus on news concerning Native Americans. Originally broadcast primarily in Alaska, the news service will eventually be used by more than 150 public and tribal radio stations throughout the United States.
The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act is amended.
The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) (see entry for DECEMBER 18, 1971) is amended to satisfy the demands of many Native groups. Originally, the ANCSA called for the establishment of corporations to manage property communally owned by Alaska Natives, who then held the shares in these corporations. The amendment permits shareholders to vote whether to offer new shares to Native children born after 1971, to give additional dividends to elderly shareholders, and to extend restrictions on the sale of shares.
People, who have lived in northeastern Alaska for approximately 1,200 years. Like their ancestors, they survive on subsistence hunting of a great caribou herd. The area slated for oil development includes the grounds where the caribou give birth and raise most of their calves.
Fearing that oil drilling would destroy these grounds and thus decimate the caribou herd, the Gwich’in form the Gwich’in Steering Committee to publicize their concerns worldwide. Despite their efforts, the proposed legislation will be close to passing when the Exxon Valdez disaster (see entry for MARCH 24, 1989) temporary deflates congressional enthusiasm for further oil development in
California v. Cabazon Band allows for unregulated Indian gaming houses.
In California v. Cabazon Band of Mission Indians, the state of California takes the Cabazon band of Indians to court for operating bingo and poker games whose prizes exceed the $250-per-game limit allowed by California gaming regulations. Upholding a lower-court ruling, the Supreme Court finds that California cannot prohibit or regulate these forms of gambling on Indian reservations because it allows them on non-Indian lands. It could, however, prohibit a form of gambling on reservations if it were also prohibited elsewhere in the state.
The decision establishes that Indian groups throughout the United States can operate unregulated gaming enterprises as long as the types of gambling they offer customers are legal in their states. This clarification of gambling law leads many Indian tribes to consider opening casino and gambling parlors to bolster their tribal income.
The Canadian government proposes the Meech Lake Accord.
At Meech Lake, Quebec, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and 10 provincial premiers meet to amend Canada’s Constitution Act (see entry for APRIL 17, 1982). The meeting results in a proposal called the Meech Lake Accord, which recognizes French-speaking Quebec as a “distinct society.” The accord infuriates Native leaders. They resent the willingness of Canadian officials to grant a group of citizens of European descent the special status that Canada’s aboriginal peoples have long been denied. Despite their protests, the accord is sent on to the provincial legislatures for ratification (see entry for JUNE 23, 1990).
The first Red Earth Festival is held in Oklahoma City.
Thousands attend the three-day Red Earth Festival, a celebration of Indian cultures sponsored by the Oklahoma Department of Tourism. The festival— which includes dance performances, art shows, an Indian powwow, and a parade through the center of Oklahoma City—will become an annual event that attracts non-Indian tourists from around the world.
Seminole leader is acquitted of killing an endangered panther.
Seminole councilman James Billie is tried for violating the Endangered Species Act after shooting a panther of a rare Florida species. Billie is acquitted after he claims that the Seminole’s 1847 treaty with the U. S. government gave him the right to hunt in their lands. The jury also questions whether Billie knew the animal was a panther before he fired his gun.
“We have frequently been unconscious and insensitive and not come to your aid when you have been victimized by unjust Federal policies and practices. In many other circumstances we reflected the rampant racism and prejudice of the dominant culture with which we too willingly identified. During this 200th Anniversary year of the United States Constitution we, as leaders of our churches in the Pacific Northwest, extend our apology. We ask for your forgiveness and blessing.”
—from the “giving Day Proclamation” to northwestern American Indians
Church leaders apologize to northwestern Indians.
In a meeting at an Indian burial site outside of Seattle, Washington, Christian leaders from 1,800 congregations and nine denominations apologize to representatives from 36 northwestern tribes for the church’s historical attempts to destroy Indian religions. The clergy involved issue a document, known as the giving Day Proclamation, in which they also vow to defend Indian religious traditions and to help Indians recover sacred objects and protect sacred sites.
World History
