Mr. Noble
American Indian Movement
2007-08
(AIM)
RED MAN'S GREAT INTERNATIONAL WARRIOR SOCIETY
“Pledged to fight White Man's injustice to Indians, his oppression, persecution, discrimination and
malfeasance in the handling of Indian Affairs. No area in North America is too remote when trouble
impends for Indians. AIM shall be there to help the Native People regain human rights and achieve
restitutions and restorations.”
words by respected Mohawk elder Louis Hall December 1973
AIM
The American Indian Movement (AIM), is a Native American civil rights group in the United States that
became prominent in Native Peoples’ Rights with its 1968 seizure of Alcatraz Island, the BIA headquarters
in Washington, D.C. in 1972 and the standoff at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, on the Pine Ridge Indian
Reservation in 1973. AIM was cofounded in 1968 by Dennis Banks, Clyde Bellecourt, Eddie Benton Banai,
Herb Powless and others. Russell Means later became AIM’s most well known spokesperson. Since its
founding, AIM has organized and led many demonstrations and protests advocating Native American
interests, inspired cultural renewal, served as the “watch dog” over law enforcement activities and has
coordinated urban and rural reservation community programs throughout the U.S.
WHAT IS THE AMERICAN INDIAN MOVEMENT?
“Things will never be same again and that is what the American Indian Movement is about ...
They are respected by many, hated by some, but they are never ignored ...
They are the catalyst for Indian Sovereignty ...
They intend to raise questions in the minds of all, questions that have gone to sleep in the minds of
Indians and non-Indian alike ...
From the outside, AIM people are tough people, they had to be ...
AIM was born out of the dark violence of police brutality and voiceless despair of Indian people in the
courts of Minneapolis, Minnesota ...
AIM was born because a few knew that it was enough, enough to endure for themselves and all others
like them who were people without power or rights ...
AIM people have known the insides of jails; the long wait; the no appeal of the courts for Indians,
because many of them were there ...
From the inside AIM people are cleansing themselves; many have returned to the old traditional religions
of their tribes, away from the confused notions of a society that has made them slaves of their own
unguided lives ...
AIM is first, a spiritual movement, a religious re-birth, and then the re-birth of dignity and pride in a
people ...
AIM succeeds because they have beliefs to act upon ...
The American Indian Movement is attempting to connect the realities of the past with the promise of
tomorrow ...
They are people in a hurry, because they know that the dignity of a person can be snuffed by despair and
a belt in a cell of a city jail ...
They know that the deepest hopes of the old people could die with them ...
They know that the Indian way is not tolerated in White America, because it is not acknowledged as a
decent way to be ...
Sovereignty, Land, and Culture cannot endure if a people is not left in peace ...
The American Indian Movement is then, the Warriors Class of this century, who are bound to the bond of
the Drum, who vote with their bodies instead of their mouths ... THEIR BUSINESS IS HOPE.”
Words and thoughts by Birgil Kills Straight, Oglala Lakota Nation.
Author, Richard LaCourse, Director, American Indian Press Association 1973
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Mr. Noble
American Indian Movement
2007-08
(AIM)
In November, 1972 AIM brought a caravan of Native Nation representatives to Washington, DC, to the
place where dealings with Indians have taken place since 1849: the US Department of Interior. AIM put the
following claims directly before the President of the United States:
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Restoration of treaty making (ended by Congress in 1871).
Establishment of a treaty commission to make new treaties (with sovereign Native Nations).
Indian leaders to address Congress.
Review of treaty commitments and violations.
Unratified treaties to go before the Senate.
All Indians to be governed by treaty relations.
Relief for Native Nations for treaty rights violations.
Recognition of the right of Indians to interpret treaties.
Joint Congressional Committee to be formed on reconstruction of Indian relations.
Restoration of 110 million acres of land taken away from Native Nations by the United States.
Restoration of terminated rights.
Repeal of state jurisdiction on Native Nations.
Federal protection for offenses against Indians.
Abolishment of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Creation of a new office of Federal Indian Relations.
New office to remedy breakdown in the constitutionally prescribed relationships between the
United States and Native Nations.
Native Nations to be immune to commerce regulation, taxes, trade restrictions of states.
Indian religious freedom and cultural integrity protected.
Establishment of national Indian voting with local options; free national Indian organizations
from governmental controls
Reclaim and affirm health, housing, employment, economic development, and education for
all Indian people.
PREAMBLE TO TRAIL OF BROKEN TREATIES 20-POINT POSITION PAPER—
AN INDIAN MANIFESTO
RESTITUTION, REPARATIONS, RESTORATION OF LANDS FOR A RECONSTRUCTION OF
AN INDIAN FUTURE IN AMERICA (RRRR)
THE TRAIL OF BROKEN TREATIES
“We need not give another recitation of past complaints nor engage in redundant dialogue of
discontent. Our conditions and their cause for being should perhaps be best known by those who
have written the record of America's action against Indian people. In 1832, Black Hawk correctly
observed: You know the cause of our making war. It is known to all white men. They ought to be
ashamed of it.
The government of the United States knows the reasons for our going to its capital city.
Unfortunately, they don't know how to greet us. We go because America has been only too ready to
express shame, and suffer none from the expression - while remaining wholly unwilling to change
to allow life for Indian people.
We seek a new American majority - a majority that is not content merely to confirm itself by
superiority in numbers, but which by conscience is committed toward prevailing upon the public
will in ceasing wrongs and in doing right. For our part, in words and deeds of coming days, we
propose to produce a rational, reasoned manifesto for construction of an Indian future in America.
If America has maintained faith with its original spirit, or may recognize it now, we should not be
denied.
Press Statement issued: October 31, 1972
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Mr. Noble
American Indian Movement
2007-08
(AIM)
AIM today
AIM's original mission included protecting native people from police abuse, using CB radios and police
scanners to get to the scenes of alleged crimes involving native people before or as police arrived, for the
purpose of documenting or preventing police brutality. AIM patrols still work the streets of Minneapolis.
AIM has been active in opposing the use of native caricatures as mascots for sports teams, such as the
Atlanta Braves and the Washington Redskins, organizing protests at World Series and Super Bowl games
involving those teams.
Founders of AIM (according to Peter Matthiessen's book In the Spirit of Crazy Horse) include:
• Dennis Banks
• Clyde Bellecourt: director of the Peace Maker Center in Minneapolis. Administers U.S.
Department of Labor job-development services.
• Eddie Benton-Benay: school administrator, Little Red School House in Minneapolis.
• Russell Means: actor, politically active, ran for Governor of New Mexico and for president of the
Oglala Sioux tribe in 2002.
• Leonard Peltier: currently serving a prison term relating to his involvement in the hostage standoff
with federal law enforcement agents at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in 1975.
AIM take-overs
At a time when peaceful sit-ins were a common protest tactic, early AIM takeovers were notably forceful.
Some appeared to be spontaneous, while others included planned armed seizure of public facilities.
• Alcatraz Island, 1969
Native Americans attempted to reclaim the land saying that an 1868 federal treaty allowed
Native Americans to use all federal territory that the government was not actively using.
After nearly two years of occupation, the government forced them off. 19 months.
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Bureau of Indian Affairs Headquarters, 1972
Washington D.C., sacked building, 24 arrested
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Pine Ridge Reservation, 1973
71 days, two dead
Pine Ridge Reservation—Pine Ridge Shootout—Wounded Knee Incident
On Feb. 28, 1973, after a group of AIM members and traditional Dakota people took over the community of
Wounded Knee to demand a U.S. Senate investigation of Native American problems. U.S. government
activity mushroomed into a full-scale military operation.
Most of the protesters went into Wounded Knee believing the stand would last one or two days. But the
village was encircled by federal troops and U.S. marshals armed with tanks, machine guns and armored
personnel carriers.
A 71-day shooting war ensued…two AIM protesters were killed, while one U.S. Marshal and one FBI agent
would be seriously wounded. Hundreds of Wounded Knee-related charges were eventually dropped
because the courts found that the military was improperly deployed on an Indian reservation. The Native
Americans were promised that negotiations concerning their grievances would be considered. After one
meeting with White House representatives and a promise of a second one, the Native Americans were
informed that their treaty grievances should be referred to Congress. No further meetings took place.
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Mr. Noble
American Indian Movement
2007-08
(AIM)
After Wounded Knee, some AIM members, at the request of tribal elders, remained on Pine Ridge to help
protect the people from alleged military training maneuvers. An AIM camp was established on the
Jumping Bull property because of a rash of shootings in the Oglala District that had paralyzed the
population. On June 26, 1975, two FBI agents drove onto the Jumping Bull property. Concerned with the
safety of the women and children in the camp, AIM members took up rifles. A firefight ensued. The agents
shot Joseph Stuntz, a 24-year-old Coeur D’Alene Indian, fatally in the head. The agents were wounded by
bullet fire and eventually shot dead at close range.
Leonard Peltier, a Lakota AIM member, was convicted to two life sentences for the agents’ murders. There
is/was no physical evidence connecting Peltier to the crime. Still, Peltier remains in prison. Pleas from
Amnesty International, the National Council of Churches, Nelson Mandela, current and former
government officials, and the petition signatures of millions worldwide have failed to gain his release—
even though he has been eligible for parole for several years. Peltier has refused to admit to killing the
agents. A lack of a confession and/or expression of remorse is often cited as the pretext for keeping him
behind bars. In a letter written from his cell at Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary in Kansas, Peltier
addressed his “friends and supporters” at the 25-year memorial gathering. “I do feel for the families of the
agents because I know first-hand what it is like to lose a loved one. I have lost many loved ones due to
senseless violent acts. If I had known what was going on that day, and I could have stopped it, I would
have.”
Sources include aimovement.org, usdoj.gov, encarta and others
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