KTDB-FM becomes the first radio station owned and operated by Indians. Based in Ramah, New Mexico, the station defines its mission as providing local, state, and national news and educational programming in the Navajo (Dineh) language. Its call letters stand for the Navajo words “Te’ochini Dinee Bi-Radio,” meaning “Radio Voice of the People.”
Indian groups speak out against Indian mascots.
Indian organizations, such as the American Indian Movement (AIM), launch a campaign against sports teams that make use of offensive Indian mascots. AIM leader Russell Means threatens to sue the Atlanta Braves (whose Chief-Noc-a-Homa emerges from a tipi and whoops every time the team scores a run) and the Cleveland Indians (whose mascot, Chief Wahoo, performs similar on-field antics). AIM, the National Congress of American Indians (see entry for NOVEMBER 1944), and Americans for Indian Opportunity (see entry for 1970) also send representatives to meet with the owner of the Washington Redskins to persuade him to change the team’s name. Aside from drawing attention to the issue of Indian mascots, their efforts are largely unsuccessful. (See also entry for APRIL 2, 1999.)
The Heart of the Earth Survival School is founded.
Responding to the alarming dropout rate of Indian high school students, members of the American Indian Movement found the Heart of the Earth Survival School. The school teaches Indian students about their culture and history from an Indian perspective. The institution will serve as a model for other “survival schools” established by Indian activists throughout the United States.
The Smithsonian Institution establishes the Native American Cultural Resources Training Program.
In response to Indian demands for access to tribal artifacts and records, the Smithsonian’s Department of Anthropology creates the Native American Cultural Resources Training Program. The program allows Indians to come to Washington, D. C., for up to six months to research their tribes using the resources of the Smithsonian, National Archives, and Library of Congress. During the next 10 years, about 90 Indians from 55 tribes will participate in the program, including a Tunica-Biloxi intern who will find documents to help support the tribe’s application for federal recognition.
The paintings of Indian artists T. C. Cannon and Fritz Scholder are showcased in a Smithsonian exhibition.
The Smithsonian’s National Collection of Fine Art in Washington, D. C., presents Two American Painters, an exhibition of the works of T. C. Cannon, a Caddo-Kiowa Indian, and Fritz Scholder, a member of the Luiseno tribe. Their clever and ironic representations of Indians of the past and present are well received by the international art world. In part because of the success of the show, Cannon and Scholder will emerge as the leading figures in a revival of interest in contemporary Native American art.
The American Indian Higher Education Consortium holds its first meeting.
Representatives from seven tribally run colleges and three postsecondary schools operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs meet to share information and discuss ways to improve educational options for Indian college students. The group, named the American Indian Higher Education Consortium, will help move tribal colleges into the forefront of the movement to preserve Indian cultures and values. Concerned with increasing funding for tribal colleges, the consortium will also be instrumental in the passage of the Tribally Controlled Community College Act (see entry for OCTOBER 17, 1978).
The Grand Council of the Crees is formed.
The eight Cree communities of Canada, which have always been politically autonomous, come together to found the Grand Council of the Crees. The council is created in response to the threat posed to Cree lands along James Bay by the construction of the James Bay Project, a hydroelectric plant (see entry for APRIL 30, 1971). The organization will launch a series of legal battles in an attempt to halt the project.
The Indian Education Act is passed.
The Senate Special Subcommittee on Indian Education called for major reforms in its study Indian Education: A National Tragedy—A National Challenge (see entry for 1969). As a response, Congress passes the Indian Education Act, which will become known informally as Title V. The act provides additional funds for public schools with a large number of Indian students and requires increased parental involvement in educational programs for Indian children. It also offers educational grants to tribes and other nonprofit organizations serving Indians, allocates money for adult job training programs, and calls for the formation of an Office of Indian Education within the U. S. government. As a direct result of this legislation, Indians throughout the country will see a substantial improvement in their educational opportunities. (See also entry for NOVEMBER 1, 1978.)
“We have concluded that our national policies for educating American Indians are a failure of major proportions. They have not offered Indian children—either in years past or today—an educational opportunity anywhere near equal to that offered the great bulk of American children. . . . Our own general thus faces a challenge— . . . [to] recognize our failures, renew our commitments, and reinvest our efforts with new energy.”
—from Indian Education:A National Tragedy—A National Challenge (1969)
Mount Adams is returned to the Yakama.
Acknowledging the wrongdoing of the United States, President Richard M. Nixon signs an executive order to return 21,000 acres of land in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest to the Yakama of central Washington State. The area includes Mount Adams, a site of great religious importance to the tribe. The land was part of a 121,000-acre parcel of Yakama territory illegally seized by the U. S. government in 1897.
Indians of All Tribes leader Richard Oakes is murdered.
During an altercation with an employee of a YMCA camp, Mohawk Indian activist Richard Oakes is shot and killed. While a student from San Francisco, Oakes emerged as the leading spokesperson for the Indians of All Tribes during its occupation of Alcatraz Island (see entries for NOVEMBER 20, 1969, and for JUNE 11, 1971). The shock of his sudden death helps unify participants of the growing Red Power Movement.
Quebec rejects Cree and Inuit land claims.
The Grand Council of the Crees (see entry for 1972) and the Northern Quebec Inuit Association apply for an injunction to halt the construction of the James Bay hydroelectric project (see entry for APRIL 30, 1971). The injunction is granted, but it is withheld a week later by the Quebec Court of Appeals, which maintains that Native rights in Quebec were extinguished by the Hudson’s Bay Company charter (see entry for 1670). The decision prompts a storm of protest and moves Quebec Natives to come together to demand recognition of their claim to lands in the province. (See also entry for NOVEMBER 11, 1975.)
November 2 to 8
The Trail of Broken Treaties protesters occupy the Bureau of Indian Affairs headquarters.
Starting from the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, a contingent of nearly 1,000 Indian activists, including many American Indian Movement members, travel to Washington, D. C., in a caravan they dub the Trail of Broken Treaties. The activists bring a 20-point platform on Indian rights, which they intend to present to President Richard M. Nixon during a massive demonstration. The majority of the platform deals with treaty rights, including a demand that the U. S. government reinstitute the treaty-making process (see entry for MARCH 3, 1871). Other portions of the document call for the dissolution of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), the end of state interference in civil and legal matters on Indian territory, and a formal repeal of the Termination policy (see entry for AU GUST 1, 1953).
When the caravan reaches Washington, about 400 activists enter the government building that houses the BIA, while representatives of the group meet with bureau officials to discuss the demonstration. When guards try to expel the activists, they fight back and take over the building. No one is hurt during their six-day standoff with police, which ends peacefully when the Nixon administration agrees not to prosecute the activists and promises to give a written response to each point in their platform.
November 25
The American Indian Athletic Hall of Fame admits its first inductees.
Located at the Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas, the American Indian Athletic Hall of Fame is established to celebrate the achievements of Indians in football, baseball, basketball, and track. At its first induction ceremony, 14 ath-letes—including Charles “Chief” Bender (see entry for 1953), Joseph Guyon, and Allie P. Reynolds (see entry for SUMMER 1942)—are admitted into the hall of fame.
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