Formed in San Francisco, the Indian-run American Indian Historical Society dedicates itself to producing materials about Indian issues and history from the Native American perspective. In the next two decades, it will publish several periodicals, including a journal (The Indian Historian, 1964—80), a newspaper (Wassaja, 1972—84), and a children’s magazine (The Weewish Tree, 1974—83). Beginning in 1970, the society will also operate the Indian Historian Press, whose published titles will include Tsali and Textbooks and the American Indian.
Pueblo potter Helen Cordero first displays storytelling dolls.
At the New Mexico State Fair, Helen Cordero, a potter from Cochiti Pueblo, exhibits her “storytelling dolls,” which she has developed from earlier and largely extinct Pueblo effigy figures. The clay figurines show a storyteller, with eyes closed and mouth wide open, on whom several smaller figures of children are crawling. The figurine style creates a sensation and garners the fair’s first, second, and third prizes. In addition to making an active career for Cordero, storytelling dolls prove so popular that their creation will become an industry for future generations of the Pueblo artists.
“I don't know why people go for my work the way they do. Maybe it's because to me [my sculptures] aren't just pretty things that I make for money. All my potteries come out of my heart. They're my little people. I talk to them and they're singing. If you're listening, you can hear them.”
—Cochiti Pueblo sculptor Helen Cordero on the appeal of her storytelling dolls
Economic Opportunity Act funds tribal social programs.
As a part of the Johnson administration’s “War on Poverty,” Congress passes the Economic Opportunity Act, which establishes funds for Community Action Agencies (CAA) to fight poverty on a local level. Under the act, tribal governments can declare themselves as CAAs and receive federal money to finance education, employment, health, and community development programs.
The Department of the Interior exhibits Indian paintings.
The First Annual Invitational Exhibition of American Indian Painting is hung in the art gallery of the Department of the Interior building in Washington, D. C. The show features 132 works, the majority by contemporary artists, including some graduates of the new government-sponsored Institute of American Indian Arts (see entry for OCTOBER 1, 1962).
The exhibition catalog singles out these painters’ works as exemplifying “the new spirit of experimentation and invention which has resulted in a wide latitude of styles and media now at the command of Native American artists.”
Cree singer Buffy Sainte-Marie releases her first album.
Already well known on the folk circuit, Cree Indian Buffy Sainte-Marie reaches a mass audience with her first album It’s My Way. Named the “Best New Artist of the Year” by Billboard magazine, Sainte-Marie uses many of her songs—including “Native American Child,” “Now That the Buffalo’s Gone,” and “My Country ’Tis of Thy People You’re Dying”—to protest the United States’s mistreatment of Native Americans. As an activist, she also uses her notoriety to bring attention to a variety of Indian causes and to speak out against the Vietnam War. Her song “Universal Soldier” will become the unofficial anthem of the Vietnam War protest movement. (See also entry for 1996.)
Lakota Sioux protesters occupy Alcatraz Island.
Six Lakota Sioux men take over the closed federal prison on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay to protest the seizure of Indian lands. The protesters claim the area, citing the Treaty of Fort Laramie (see entry for NOVEMBER 7, 1868) between the Lakota and the United States. The treaty included a provision stating that ownership of federal lands abandoned by the government is to revert back to the Indians. Although treated as a joke by the media, the protest sets the stage for the later occupation of Alcatraz by the Indians of All Tribes (see entry for NOVEMBER 20, 1969).
March
The National Indian Youth Council organizes the first “fish-in.”
To protest illegal fishing restrictions placed on many small tribes in western Washington State, the National Indian Youth Council (see entry for AU-
GUST 1961) recruits volunteers for a “fish-in.” In violation of state regulation, the participants fish in the waters of Quillayute River. As the state police arrives to arrest the protesters, local Indians step in to take their place. When hundreds of Indian join in the protest, the police are forced to stop making arrests. The success of this new type of protest will spark a rash of “fish-ins” held by Indians whose fishing rights are being violated.
March 27
Aleut villages are destroyed by an earthquake.
A massive earthquake in Alaska levels several Aleut villages, including Old Harbor and Kaguyak on Kodiak Island and Afognak on Afognak Island. The disaster also kills 23 people at the village of Chenega in Prince William Sound. It will take the survivors 20 years to rebuild their settlement (now called Chenega Bay).
August
The California Supreme Court protects the ceremonial use of peyote.
In 1962, three Navajo (Dineh) men were arrested in California for distributing peyote, a hallucinogen used in the rituals of the Native American Church (see entry for OCTOBER 10, 1918). Two years later, the California Supreme Court finds that preventing the men from using peyote is a violation of their First Amendment rights to freedom of religion. The ruling will discourage federal officials from prosecuting Indians for using peyote in religious rituals.
October
The United States starts construction of the Kinzua Dam over Seneca objections.
For several years, the Seneca have staged a campaign in the media and the courts to stop the construction of the Kinzua Dam on the Allegheny River (see entry for 1958). Over their objections, the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers begins work on the dam, which leads to the flooding of more than 10,000 acres of land on the tribe’s lands in Pennsylvania and New York State. Although the United States pays the Seneca $15 million in compensation, the destruction of the land is a disaster for the tribe. Some 130 families have to leave their homes—a forced relocation that many elders describe as a “trail of tears.” The dam also destroys the Cold Spring Longhouse, the Seneca’s spiritual center, and floods the grave site of the 18th-century Seneca leader Cornplanter (see entry for 1790) (the grave itself is moved to a new cemetery).
Lakota Sioux Billy Mills wins an Olympic Gold Medal.
Billy Mills, a Lakota Sioux from South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation, was a track star at the Haskell Institute and the University of Kansas. While serving as an officer in the marines, he is selected to represent the United States in the 10,000-meter run in the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. In an upset victory, Mills beats the favored runners in the race. In addition to winning the gold medal, he sets an Olympic record in the event.
The Supreme Court challenges states’ rights to collect taxes on reservations.
In Warren Trading Post Co. v. Arizona Tax Commission, the non-Indian owner of a reservation trading post challenges Arizona’s attempts to collect taxes on purchases made by his Indian customers. The Supreme Court finds that the state’s actions violate Congress’s right to regulate Indian commerce on reservations. It rules that reservation trading posts can collect sales tax only from non-Indians.
Taos leaders reject $10 million settlement offer for Blue Lake.
In 1906 the federal government confiscated 48,000 acres surrounding Blue Lake in northwestern New Mexico and made it part of the Kit Carson National Forest. The Taos Indians, to whom the Blue Lake area is sacred, have spent decades trying to recover the land. After hearing their case, the Indian Claims Commission (see entry for AUGUST 12, 1946) offers the Taos 3,000 acres and $10 million in compensation. Taos leaders, however, refuse to take the settlement and vow to continue to fight for the return of the lake and all 48,000 acres.
P
“We don't have gold temples in this lake, but we have a sign of a living God to whom we pray—the living trees, the evergreen and spruce and the beautiful flowers and the beautiful rocks and the lake itself____
We are taking that water to give us strength so we can gain
In knowledge and wisdom____
That is the reason this Blue Lake is so important to us.”
—Taos spokesperson at a 1961 Association on American Indian Affairs meeting
The Indian Actors’ Workshop is founded.
A longtime critic of stereotyped Indian characters in film, Jay Silverheels (see entry for JULY 12, 1979), the Mohawk actor best known for portraying Tonto on the Lone Ranger television series, establishes the
Indian Actors’ Workshop at the Los Angeles Indian Center. The workshop calls for more accurate portrayals of Indians in television and film, and it advocates the casting of Indians in Indian roles.
Oneida Indian Robert Bennett becomes commissioner of Indian affairs.
Stating that “the time has come to put the first Americans first on our agenda,” President Lyndon B. Johnson swears in Robert Bennett, the first Indian chosen to head the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in nearly a century. (Ely S. Parker, a Seneca, had earlier served as commissioner of Indian affairs; see entries for 1869 and 1871.) To increase Indian representation in the BIA, Indians will be selected to hold the agency’s top position throughout the rest of the 20th century.
The Rough Rock Demonstration School is established.
Headed by educator Ned Hatathi, the non-profit organization Demonstration in Navajo Education (DINE) founds the Rough Rock Demonstration
School, the first American Indian school completely controlled by Indians. The institution is funded through a contract with the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the Office of Educational Opportunity. With a curriculum shaped by Navajo (Dineh) traditions and classes taught in Navajo and English, Rough Rock encourages the Navajo community to participate in making decisions affecting the school. A great success, the school will inspire Indian tribes across the country to negotiate with the BIA to found their own contract schools.
The Alaska Federation of Natives is formed.
After joining the Union, Alaska was authorized by the U. S. government to select 108 million acres of territory for its own use (see entry for JANUARY 3, 1958). Native Alaskans, however, still claimed all the land appropriated by the state. To bring attention to these land claims and halt further appropriations, the Natives of Alaska join together to establish the Alaska Federation of Natives. Its lobbying efforts will lead to the passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (see entry for DECEMBER 18, 1971).
P
“I am glad our children are learning to read and write English, but I'm also very glad they're learning about the Navajo culture and the Navajo way. We want our children to be proud they are Navajo and this is what our school is doing.”
—Navajo school board member Ada Singer on the Rough Rock Demonstration School
The Canadian government issues the Hawthorne Report.
In 1963, the Canadian government appointed anthropologist Harry B. Hawthorne to investigate the social, economic, and educational conditions of the country’s Indian population. His findings are published as The Survey of the Contemporary Indians of Canada, popularly known as the Hawthorne Report.
The Hawthorne Report states that Canadian Indians are in general much worse off than nonIndian citizens. In opposition to Canada’s long-held policy of Assimilation, the document also maintains that the economic condition of Indians is not likely to be improved by forcing them to “acquire those values of the major society [they do] not hold or wish to acquire.” Instead, its authors state that Indian communities need more control over government trust funds and revenues from land leases and mineral rights. Well received by most Canadian Indian leaders, the Hawthorne Report also introduces the concept of a “citizens plus” status for Indians, explaining that “in addition to the normal rights and duties of citizenship, Indians possess certain additional rights as charter members of the Canadian community.”
World History
