Affiliated with the University of Victoria, the En’owkin Centre is founded in Penticton, British
Columbia, by the Okanagan Tribal Council. In addition to offering classes in the Okanagan language and visual arts, this cultural center will later operate Theytus Books, a publishing company focusing on the works of Native writers. It will also establish the International School of Writing, the first Indian-run writing school, with Okanagan novelist Jeannette Armstrong as its director.
Reagan recommends enormous cuts in Indian spending.
In his first budget, President Ronald Reagan proposes cuts in federal funds to Indians amounting to $1 billion—approximately one-third of the total budget for programs benefiting Indian peoples. The Reagan administration also endorses transferring responsibilities for Indian education and resources to state governments. Although Indian leaders and the Senate Subcommittee on Indian Affairs will resist these measures, funding to Indian programs will be slashed by more than $100 million during Reagan’s tenure in the White House.
April 4
Activists establish Camp Yellow Thunder in the Black Hills.
In a 20-car caravan, a contingent of Indian activists led by Russell and Bill Means enters the Victoria Creek Canyon in the Black Hills. There they set up a tent settlement that they call Camp Yellow Thunder. The camp is named after Raymond Yellow Thunder, an Oglala Lakota murdered by a white man in Gordon, Nebraska (see entry for FEBRUARY 1971).
The activists declare that their right to occupy the area dates back to the Treaty of Fort Laramie (see entry for NOVEMBER 7, 1868), which guaranteed the Lakota Sioux “undisturbed use” of the Black Hills, lands sacred to the Lakota people. The protest is meant to draw attention to the Sioux’s recent decision to reject a $106 million land claim settlement from the U. S. government for the Black Hills in favor of continuing their fight for the return of the land (see entry for JUNE 30, 1980).
Camp Yellow Thunder will remain in operation for four years. The peaceful protest will compel the federal government to reexamine the Lakota’s claims to the Black Hills region.
May 29
Montana v. United States denies the Crow’s right to prohibit non-Indian hunting and fishing.
In Montana v. United States, the Crow tribe of Montana seeks to stop non-Indians from hunting and fishing within its reservation borders, even on land non-Indians have purchased from the Crow. The Supreme Court, however, rules that the Crow have no tribal jurisdiction over these non-Indians. The court concedes that earlier cases have given tribes authority over non-Indians on their reservations in some matters but maintains that non-Indian hunting and fishing does not “so threaten the Tribe’s political and economic security as to justify tribal regulations.”
July 1
The Lakota Times begins publication.
The Lakota Times is founded by editor Tim Giago, an Oglala Sioux, to report the news of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. As other reservations request coverage, the weekly newspaper will broaden its focus. In 1992 the Lakota Times will be renamed Indian Country Today, to reflect its status as one of the leading news sources about Indian affairs nationwide.
September 2
The United Nations condemns Canada’s Indian status laws.
Sandra Lovelace, a Maliseet Indian, appears before the Human Rights Commission of the United Nations to protest Canada’s laws for determining Indian status. When Lovelace married a non-Indian man, by law she lost her Indian status and was therefore barred from living on a reserve. If she had been a man married to a non-Indian woman, however, she would still have been regarded as an Indian by the Canadian government.
After hearing Lovelace’s testimony, the committee agrees that Canada’s actions constitute “an unjustifiable denial of her rights” under the United Nations’ Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Although the statement does nothing to change Lovelace’s situation, it does bring attention to issue of gender discrimination in the Canadian definition of Indian status.
Largely because of Lovelace’s activism, the Canadian government will revise the Indian Act in 1985, allowing Indian women married to non-Indians to retain their Indian status.
World History
