Through the lobbying efforts of the International Indian Treaty Council, the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations (see entry for JULY 1977) announces that it will reject all plans for celebrating the upcoming quincentenary of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in North America. The Working Group maintains that such a celebration would negate “our existence, our systems of government, our cultures, and our pre-Columbian and pre-colonial history.”
The film Dances with Wolves premieres.
Dances with Wolves, a three-hour epic starring and directed by non-Indian actor Kevin Costner, opens to wide acclaim from the public and critics. The movie tells the story of a white army officer who goes to live among the Lakota Sioux during the Plains Indian Wars of the late 19 th century. In addition to being one of the year’s biggest box-office hits, the film will receive the 1990 Academy Award for Best Picture.
The film is praised among Indians for its sympathetic view of the plight of the 19th-century Lakota and for its casting of Indian actors, such as Rodney Grant, Tantoo Cardinal, and Graham Greene (who will be nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor). Some Indians, however, fault the movie for taking an overly romantic view of the Lakota Sioux and for perpetuating the myth of Indians as
Oneida actor Graham Greene was nominated for an Academy Award for his portrayal of Kicking Bird in Dances with Wolves. (Courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art Film Stills Archive)
A “vanishing race,” inevitably doomed to extinction. The film is also criticized for presenting Indian life through the eyes of a white man rather than from the perspective of the Indian characters. (See also entry for FEBRUARY 1993.)
“Dances with Wolves is first and foremost a movie, and should be seen as one. . . . It wasn't made to manipulate your feelings, to reinvent the past, or to set the historical record straight. It's a romantic look at a terrible time in our history, when expansion in the name of progress brought us very little and, in fact, cost us deeply.”
—actor-director Kevin Costner on his film Dances with Wolves
The North American Indian Prose Award is established.
The University of Nebraska Press, in conjunction with the Native American studies programs of the University of California at Berkeley and the University of New Mexico, announces that it will sponsor the North American Indian Prose Award. This literary prize is to be given annually to a nonfiction manuscript by an Indian author. Part of the award is publication of the manuscript by University of Nebraska Press. Future winners will include Claiming Breath, by essayist Diane Glancy, and They Called It Prairie Light, by historian K. Tsianina Lomawaima.
The Rosebud Reservation becomes a landfill site.
The Lakota tribal council of South Dakota’s Rosebud Reservation approves a proposal by O&G Industries to construct a landfill on 5,700 acres of reservation land. Under the agreement, Rosebud residents will receive one dollar for every ton of trash dumped in the enormous landfill. Fearing environmental damage, the council of the Pine Ridge Lakota has rejected a similar landfill proposed for its nearby reservation.
The Department of Education creates the Indian Nations at Risk Task Force.
Concerned with modern threats to Indian traditions, the Department of Education appoints a task force to examine ways that schools can help to preserve and protect tribal cultures. The Indian Nations at Risk Task Force makes a number of recommendations, including training more Indian teachers, teaching Indian languages in public schools, and bringing schools, parents, tribes, and social service organizations together in an effort to improve Indian education.
Mary Crow Dog’s Lakota Woman is published.
In Lakota Woman, activist Mary Crow Dog tells of her involvement in the American Indian Movement in the 1970s. Working with non-Indian author Richard Erdoes, Crow Dog first wrote the autobiography in 1979, but the manuscript was abandoned by its publisher, which deemed the material too controversial. Finally published 11 years later, the book is an immediate popular and critical success and is named the winner of the American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation. Following the success of Lakota Woman, Crow Dog (then calling herself Mary Brave Bird) and Erdoes will collaborate on its sequel, Ohitika Woman (1993). In 1994, a television movie based on Lakoka Woman will air on the cable network TNT.
The Iroquois National Lacrosse Club becomes a national team.
Formed in 1983, the Iroquois National Lacrosse Club lobbies successfully to join the membership of the International Lacrosse Federation as a national team. The Iroquois team is therefore allowed to enter the world championships in Australia on an equal status with all other member teams, including that sent by the United States. A traditional Indian sport, lacrosse has been played by the Iroquois for hundreds of years.
The Turtle Mountain Ojibway begin operating Uniband Data Entry.
The Turtle Mountain Ojibway ofNorth Dakota purchase Uniband, a data entry-services corporation. By soliciting government contracts as a minority-owned business, Uniband will grow quickly and provide increased employment opportunities for the tribe. The business will eventually have more than 800 employees throughout the country.
March
A site near the Akwesasne reservation is named America’s worst toxic dump.
Following five years of environmental studies initiated by the Mohawk of New York State, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) releases a Superfund report that sets aside $138 million to clean up the General Motors waste dumps near the tribe’s Akwesasne reservation. The massive cleanup plan identifies the dumps as the worst toxic site in the United States. As the EPA begins work, the dumps have already leaked PCBs, insecticides, and other toxins into the surrounding region, affecting the Akwesasne Mohawk’s health and economy. The level of pollution is so great that fishing, a traditional Mohawk means of making a livelihood, in no longer viable in many area waters.
March 30
Shots are fired at an army helicopter over Ganienkeh.
While passing over the Mohawk community at Ganienkeh (see entry for MAY 13, 1977), an Army National Guard helicopter is struck by three bullets, one of which wounds an army doctor on board. When the state police attempt to investigate the shooting, the Ganienkeh Mohawk will refuse to cooperate, maintaining that their sovereignty prohibits state interference in their affairs. The Indians form a barricade to keep the police out and exchange gunfire with troops that attempt to enter Ganienkeh.
Oregon v. Smith supports laws against peyote use.
In the case Employment Division, Department of Human Resources of Oregon v. Smith, two Indian drug and alcohol counselors, Alfred Smith and Galen Black, sue Oregon’s human resources department when they are denied unemployment compensation. The men were fired from their jobs after ingesting peyote as part of a religious ceremony held by the Native American Church (see entry for OCTOBER 10, 1918), which Oregon defined as “misconduct” that disqualified them for benefits by state law.
Maintaining that Oregon’s laws against peyote use do not contradict the First Amendment’s protection of religious freedom, the Supreme Court finds in favor of Oregon. The decision is criticized by many Native American leaders, who see it as inconsistent with the religious rights guaranteed by the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (see entry for AUGUST 11, 1978).
A militant Mohawk faction takes over the Akwesasne reservation.
On the Mohawk’s Akwesasne reservation on the border of New York State and Canada, members of the heavily armed Mohawk Warrior Society overrun roadblocks set up by the Antis, a group of antigambling traditionalists, to prevent non-Indians from patronizing the reservation’s gambling parlors. The Mohawk Warrior Society is a radical political force that favors tribal gambling operations and opposes the Iroquois leadership structure represented by the various tribal councils.
As the Mohawk Warrior Society takes control of the reservation, about 2,000 Antis flee from Akwesasne, fearing for their lives. The standoff continues for four days, during which two men are killed in a gun fight. The shooting stops only after hundreds of New York state troopers storm the area and restore order.
Duro v. Reina weakens the power of tribal courts.
In the case of Duro v. Reina, the Supreme Court finds that the tribal court of the Quinault’s reservation in Washington State does not have jurisdiction over Indians who live on the reservation but are not enrolled in the tribe. The decision threatens the ability of tribal courts to maintain law and order, especially on reservations on which nonen-rolled Indians make up a large percentage of the population.
The Meech Lake Accord is defeated.
The Meech Lake Accord, which proposes that the Canadian government consider Quebec a “distinct society” (see entry for APRIL 30, 1987), has earned the contempt of Native leaders who believe Native groups deserve the same recognition. The accord must be approved by all provincial legislatures by June 23, 1990, to be accepted as law.
As the deadline approaches, the only holdout is Manitoba, where by law the accord must be approved by all legislators. Cree Indian Elijah Harper, the province’s only Native legislator, refuses to participate in a debate of the issue. When asked for his vote, he holds up a white feather and declines to answer. With Harper’s abstention, the accord is not approved by the Manitoba legislature and thereby fails to pass. Its defeat is considered a victory in the fight for Native rights.
Mohawk activists and Canadian police face-off in Oka, Quebec.
The mayor of the town of Oka, Quebec, located 25 miles west of Montreal, approves a plan to expand a municipal golf course into a neighboring forest.
The forest, however, lies in lands, including an Indian graveyard, that were traditionally claimed by the Mohawk. To prevent the local government from taking control of the area, Mohawk activists arm themselves and block the entrance into the forest.
On July 11, the Quebec police force storms the blockade. One officer is killed in the gunfire exchanged between the Mohawk and police. In a desperate attempt to end the conflict, the Canadian government sends 3,700 troops to Oka to surround the protesters. The tense standoff finally ends on September 26 without further bloodshed. The incident at Oka is reported internationally during the summer of 1990, thus bringing worldwide attention to the land claims of Canadian Natives.
P
“Everyone thinks that July 11, it
Just started. It didn't____You think
This came out of nowhere? What that one day we said we are going to put up barricades? This wasn't something new. It went back hundreds of years. It wasn't a new struggle, it was part of an old one, a continuous one. Look at the history, it's there.”
—Mohawk protester Debra Etienne on the Oka occupation
The United States admits the Yakama have been exposed to radioactive waste.
A federal government spokesperson acknowledges that since the 1950s radioactive waste from a nuclear facility at Hanford, Washington, on the border of the Yakima (Yakama) Reservation has contaminated local ground water sources. Residents in the area have been exposed to about 2,000 times the amount of nuclear waste deemed safe—a greater exposure than that experienced by Soviets living near Chernobyl after the 1986 nuclear accident there.
The first North American Indigenous Games are held.
In Edmonton, Alberta, thousands of Native athletes gather to compete in the North American Indigenous Games. The competition, which will become a biannual event by the end of the decade, is intended to promote pride in Canadian Native youths by showcasing their athletic talents in eight sports, including baseball, soccer, and lacrosse—a game first played by Native peoples.
Peter MacDonald is convicted of bribery.
Navajo Tribal Chairman Peter MacDonald and his son are found guilty of taking bribes in the Navajo (Dineh) tribal court. In addition to being barred from holding political office for four years, MacDonald is sentenced to a six-year prison sentence and fined $11,000. His son is sent to prison for 18 months and fined $2,500. (See also entry for JULY 22, 1989.)
The Native American Languages Act encourages the use and study of Indian languages.
The warnings of Native American language scholars that many Indian languages are in danger of becoming extinct moves Congress to pass the Native American Languages Act. The law recognizes Indian languages as an important part of American culture and makes their preservation a goal of U. S. policy. More specifically, the act states that Indian languages should be taught and used in government-run Native American educational programs. This provision reverses the century-old policy of forbidding Indian students from speaking their own languages in institutions operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Prohibits galleries from selling nonenrolled artists’ works as Indian art.
November 16
December 23 to 29
The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act is passed.
Despite opposition from the Society of American Archaeology, Congress passes the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. The legislation is a response to Indians’ demands for repatriation—the return to Indian tribes of Native American remains and artifacts collected by non-Indians from grave sites.
The act increases legal protection of Indian burial grounds by citing penalties for tampering with graves and selling objects collected from them. It also requires all federal agencies and institutions that receive funds from the U. S. government to inventory the Indian remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and items of central ceremonial significance in their collections. These institutions are also responsible for contacting the appropriate Indian groups about the objects held. The groups may then submit applications requesting that any or all of these items be returned.
November 29
The Indian Arts and Crafts Act criminalizes nonauthentic Indian art.
With the rapid growth of the Indian art industry, many non-Indian craftspeople have tried to increase sales by marketing their work as Indian art. Responding to pressure from Indian leaders to stop this practice, Congress passes a revision of the Indian Arts and Crafts Act (see entry for AU GUST 27, 1935), establishing means to punish impostor Indian artists. The act allows the Indian Arts and Crafts Board to bring civil and criminal suits against artists not enrolled in a federally recognized Indian tribe who represent themselves as Indians to their customers. (Indian artists belonging to tribes not formally recognized by the federal government can obtain special certification.) It also
The Big Foot Memorial Riders commemorate the Wounded Knee Massacre.
In recognition of the hundred-year anniversary of the massacre at Wounded Knee (see entry for DE CEMBER 29, 1890), 200 Lakota horsemen calling themselves the Big Foot Memorial Riders retrace the 150-mile route taken by Chief Big Foot’s band from their Cheyenne River Reservation to the massacre site. Throughout the ride, participants say prayers to ensure the survival of the Lakota and their culture. Describing the event’s purpose, one participant later explains, “The Lakota Nation’s greatest tragedy was used to build the people’s strength.”
World History
