Choctaw activist Owanah Anderson establishes the Ohoyo Resource Center to improve educational and employment opportunities for Native American women. Founded with the support of the Department of Education, the center sponsors conferences and leadership training. Before closing in 1983, it will also produce the Ohoyo One Thousand, a directory of more than 1,000 Indian women working in professional fields, such as business, communications, education, and law.
The Federal Acknowledgment Project is founded.
The Department of the Interior creates the Federal Acknowledgment Project to investigate and rule on applications for tribal status. This new agency (later renamed the Branch of Acknowledgment and Research) is to base its decisions on documentation submitted by groups in support of their contentions that they meet the specific criteria for tribal status established by the department (see entry for OCTOBER 1, 1978). The Federal Acknowledgment Project is also required to publish the “Federal
Register,” an annual listing of tribes recognized as eligible for federal funds and services by the secretary of the interior.
The Supreme Court affirms Indians’ right to use modern fishing methods.
Pressured by non-Indian sports fishermen, the legislatures of Washington, Oregon, and California outlaw large gillnets, which commercial Indian fishermen use to catch large numbers of steelhead trout. The Indian fishermen sue in state court, claiming that these laws violate their tribes’ fishing rights as confirmed by treaty (see entry for MAY 24 TO JUNE 11, 1855).
In Washington v. Washington State Commercial Passenger Fishing Vessel Association, the Washington state court rules against them on the rationale that gillnets, a 20th-century fishing technology, did not exist when the treaties were made. The Supreme Court, however, reverses this decision. It maintains that the Indians’ fishing methods do not affect their right to fish in their traditional areas.
The Makah open a cultural center.
Developed with tribal funds, the Makah Cultural and Research Center opens in the village of Neah Bay in Washington State. The facility houses an exhibit gallery and a laboratory, which preserves more than 80,000 artifacts, including
55,000 collected at the Ozette site (see entry for 1970). The center also manages a highly successful program through which Makah elders instruct preschoolers and kindergartners in the tribe’s language.
The family of American Indian Movement activist John Trudell dies in a fire.
At a demonstration outside the FBI headquarters in Washington, D. C., John Trudell, the national chairman of the American Indian Movement, denounces the federal agency and burns an American flag. Twelve hours later, the house of Trudell’s father-in-law on the Duck Valley Reservation in Nevada is engulfed in flames. Killed in the fire are Trudell’s wife, three children, and mother-in-law. The FBI investigates and determines the fire was an accident; Trudell accuses his political adversaries of setting the blaze.
P
“We are statistics that everyone has heard about, the unemployed, uneducated, alcoholics, welfare recipients____
[The American Indian Movement's] functions have been to educate our own people and to try and educate the white Americans as to the fact that we exist today. . . . We are concerned about what is happening to our people now, because, you know, we don't like to be a statistic.”
—John Trudell in a 1975 statement on the AIM's purpose
Mohawk traditionalists take over the Akwesasne police station.
On the Akwesasne reservation, tribal police arrest Loran Thompson, a traditional Mohawk leader, on a minor charge. Outraged by the policemen’s actions, other traditionalists demand they resign but the policemen refuse. The traditionalists then take over the tribal police station in protest, prompting the tribal government to request New York State to send troops in to help resolve the conflict. The standoff reflects a long feud between two factions on Akwesasne—one that recognizes only the authority of traditional leaders and one that accepts the leadership of the tribal council supported by the United States. The incident will be diffused when the tribal police force is disbanded in 1981, but the tension on the reservation will continue (see entry for April 24, 1990).
July
A Canadian Native delegation is denied an audience with Elizabeth II.
In an effort to secure recognition of the treaty rights of Natives in the Canadian constitution, a delegation of 300 Natives travels to London and asks to present its case to Queen Elizabeth. The delegation hopes that she, as a member of the monarchy that had been an original party to the treaties, will be persuaded to support their cause and use her influence to make Canadian officials listen to Native demands. The Tory government, however, will not allow the delegation to meet with the Queen.
July 12
Jay Silverheels is honored with a Hollywood “star.”
Mohawk actor Jay Silverheels, costar of the Lone Ranger television series of the 1950s, becomes the first American Indian to receive a “star” on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Throughout his career, Silverheels has chosen roles in television shows and films that depict Indians and whites cooperating with one another. He is widely credited with changing public perceptions of Indians by refusing to play the stereotypical savage Indian warrior. (See also entry for 1966.)
July 16
Radioactive material escapes from a Navajo (Dineh) reservation mine.
In one of the largest nuclear accidents in American history, more than 11,000 tons of uranium mining wastes escape from a mine on the Navajo Indian Reservation. Some 100 gallons of polluted water rush through a dam near Church Rock, New Mexico, and contaminate the Rio Puerco. Shortly after the accident, the river is measured as having 7,000 times the acceptable level of radioactivity for drinking water.
July 20
Leonard Peltier attempts a prison escape.
Amidst rumors that he is targeted for assassination, Leonard Peltier escapes with two other inmates from the federal prison in Lompoc, California. A member of the American Indian Movement, Peltier was convicted of murdering two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Reservation (see entry for APRIL 18, 1977) but has long maintained his innocence. The police soon recapture Peltier and return him to Lompoc. The next year, for his escape attempt, seven years will be added to the two life sentences he is already serving.(See also entries for DECEMBER 15, 2000, and for JANUARY 20, 2001).
October 31
The Archaeological Resources Protection Act regulates excavations on federal lands.
Through the passage of the Archaeological Resources Protection Act, Congress exerts greater control over archaeological excavations on federal lands. It requires excavators to apply for permits before digging at sites and to keep thorough records of their findings. The act is the first federal law designed to prevent the archaeological looting that historically has robbed Indian groups of many of their ancestors’ remains, sacred objects, and other artifacts.
Autumn
The first Native American Film and Video Festival is held.
To showcase films and videos by and about American Indians, the Native American Film and Video Festival is held in New York City. The festival will become a biennial event sponsored by the Film and Video Center of the National Museum of the American Indian (see entry for NOVEMBER 28, 1989). The center provides information about Indian productions and film professionals to the mainstream film and video industries.
World History
