© 2012 Deborah J. Shepherd
AIM: The American
© 1970 The Native American Experience,
Denver Public Library
Indian Movement
from the 20th to the
21st Century
____________________________________
____________________________________
Deborah J. Shepherd
O
rigins
Identified in the public American
eye largely as a protest movement
but coming to stand as something
much larger to its Indian participants, the
American Indian Movement (AIM) was
founded in 1968 in Minneapolis in response
to brutal police actions against Native
Americans. Some sources trace the
movement back to the National Indian
Youth Council formed in New Mexico in
1961 as part of the broader Civil Rights
movement for minorities in the United
States (Wittstock and Salinas c2006; Shreve
2011).
In the early 1960s, clashes between state
governments and tribes came to a head
over fishing rights. Early treaties had
guaranteed fishing rights outside of existing
reservations. In an effort to preserve their
cultural heritage, tribes wished to recover
their native patterns of subsistence and
food production. Fishing with nets, traps,
spears and other means were all native
methods prohibited by state laws, which
did not exclude Indians in contradiction to
the old treaties (Hightower-Langston
2003:399-400). Governor Isaac Stevens of
the Territory of Washington signed a treaty
Popular Anthropology Magazine 2012 Vol3 No1
provision around 1854 that allowed the
local tribes the right to fish in their
accustomed places in common with settlers
(Supreme Court of the United States 1968).
For the Indians this meant that they could
fish according to their own ways as part of
the preservation of their cultural heritage.
For 1960s law enforcement, cultural
heritage had nothing to do with fishing
rights, and use of unapproved methods
resulted in arrests of native fishermen in
Washington State (Chrisman 2008).
AIM in the heyday of the Civil Rights
Movement took on the mantle of Red
Power in direct emulation of Black Power
and the Black Panther movement. Both
minorities were struggling to achieve
tumultuous cultural and political shifts. The
initial focus of AIM on police harassment
quickly expanded to include slum housing
conditions, high unemployment, poor
public education, and inadequate welfare
© 2012 Deborah J. Shepherd
assistance. AIM began with a clear urban
stance on native rights but has since moved
on to include the concerns of Indians living
on reservations. Today AIM also works to
help groups regain rights granted in U.S.
government treaties (Hightower-Langston
2003:328).
Urban Focus
The influx of Native Americans to urban
centers gained ground after World War II.
At this time the federal government began
pursuing “termination policy.” The name
and the goals of this policy are confusing. In
short, the federal government wanted to be
free of obligations to tribes. One way to
achieve this was for the federal government
to dispose of tribal lands. The Indian Claims
Commission Act of 1946 asked for final
settlement of tribal land claims (HightowerLangston 2003: 419). A federal commission
recommended in 1949 that the government
should end all federal programs for tribes.
This did not happen. However, Public Law
280 was signed by Eisenhower in 1953
(ibid.). PL 280 affected some states but not
others, initially California, Minnesota,
Nebraska, Oregon, and Wisconsin. Later,
Alaska was added after it achieved
statehood. In these states, federal control
on tribal lands was transferred to state
jurisdictions. The tribes retained less power
than held previously. The end result was
that greater lawlessness and violence in
Indian country. Numerous studies have
addressed this problem (Tribal Court
[2012]; Goldberg [n.d.]).
Tribes that were terminated, or rather, lost
federal governance and fell under state
jurisdiction, generally suffered increased
poverty and loss of land (HightowerLangston 2003:420). Some men immigrated
Popular Anthropology Magazine 2012 Vol3 No1
to cities in search of a livelihood. As their
numbers grew and their poverty persisted,
the urban Indian became both increasingly
discontent and knowledgeable about the
growing Civil Rights Movement. The urban
Indian population was not stable or
grounded in family life. These were mostly
lone males. Although media history has
often dramatized the struggles on
reservations, the rise of Red Power
occurred in the cities (D’Arcus 2010: 12411250; Oakland [2012]).
Self-Determination and Rights
During all this time, the symbol of
oppression in the eyes of most native
Americans was the Bureau of Indian Affairs
in Washington, D.C. which promoted and
implemented much of the termination
policy. The Bureau had been founded back
in 1824 to oversee treaty negotiations,
Indian schools, and Indian trade. Its other
purpose was to move Indians away from
lands desired by white settlers and frontier
developers. The BIA was also supposed to
deliver cash annuities to tribes, but
widespread corruption meant that most
monies were simply kept by officials rather
than delivered. They were out beyond the
edge of civilization. Who would complain?
Indians remained powerless against the BIA
for many decades, but in early November
1972, inspired by AIM and their success
with the occupation on Alcatraz (see
below), Indians protesting years of treaty
violations marched on Washington. Once
there, police actions interpreted as
threatening led the 2,000 protesters to
barricade themselves within the BIA
building. This action resulted in an allegedly
unplanned seven-day occupation (Redhawk
© 2012 Deborah J. Shepherd
Alcatraz
2002; WyteDove 2011 for documentary
footage).
In the 1970s, civil rights ideals had taken
hold and for native Americans, termination
policy was largely reversed. Termination
was replaced by self-determination policy.
The Indian Self-Determination act as well as
the Education Assistance Act, both of 1975,
allowed Indians “maximum participation”
and involvement in federal programs and
services (Hightower-Langston 2003: 380).
Notably, since 1977, the Bureau of Indian
Affairs has existed under the leadership of
Native directors
(http://www.bia.gov/WhoWeAre/BIA/index
.htm).
Alcatraz
It is not possible in this short space to cover
all the newsworthy protests conducted by
AIM. For the purposes of this article, only
the Alcatraz occupation and Wounded Knee
II will be covered.
Alcatraz, an island out in San Francisco Bay,
was occupied and utilized by Native
Americans long before European contact. It
once was as a place of isolation and food
gathering. Later, it also became a hideout
from the Spanish Catholic Mission system of
combined religious and military outposts.
Starting in 1850, the U.S. Army took control
of the island and began constructing a
military fort. During the Civil War, some
Confederate prisoners were incarcerated.
The fort also served as a prison for Indians
beginning in 1873 after six Modoc tribe
members were charged with killing two
army officers. The cells were formally
converted to a military prison in 1907 (ITVS
and PBS 2002).
Popular Anthropology Magazine 2012 Vol3 No1
© 2012 Deborah Shepherd
Prohibition
led
to
increased
law
enforcement and need for more secure
prisons for bootleggers and their associates.
A maximum-security facility was created on
Alcatraz in 1934 and stayed in operation
until 1963 when it was emptied and
declared federal surplus land. Native
American groups immediately began
planning a reoccupation. In 1964, the first
attempt lasted only a few hours but made
the point that an 1868 treaty had granted
Indians the right to occupy federal surplus
land. A second effort likewise was short
lived after the Coast Guard stepped in and
threatened arrests. A third effort, in
November 1969, thwarted the Coast Guard
and landed seventy-nine Indians who
maintained a well-organized occupation
that lasted for nineteen months, under the
charismatic leader Richard Oakes and
others with AIM affiliation (HightowerLangston 2003:325; Locke 1999). In the end,
Oakes left when his teenaged stepdaughter
died in a stairwell fall, and in-fighting for
control weakened the collective resolve
(Johnston [n.d.]; Locke 1999; Vercillo [n.d.]).
However, the nineteen-month duration left
an impression of strength and mission on
many Indians and non-Indians alike. It was
perhaps the first time that many nonIndians began to think about what the
protests were about.
© 2012 Deborah J. Shepherd
Wounded Knee II
Wounded Knee II turned out to be a much
more violent and angry confrontation that
most often did not receive much empathy
from the mainstream media at the time. A
striking exception was coverage from the
African-American magazine, Ebony. In 1973,
black artist Paul Collins submitted
photographs, art and text explaining the
conflict from a native point of view and
drawing clear comparisons to black
experience in America.
The first Wounded Knee event occurred on
December 29, 1890 when some 300 Sioux
men, women, and children were massacred
by the U.S. Seventh Calvary. The Sioux were
unarmed, and no resistance had been
offered or threat expected. As many
anthropology textbooks tell, the massacre
had been prompted by fear and
misunderstanding of the ritual Ghost Dance
and its associated beliefs. This ritual had
been recently created by a Paiute holy man
named Wovoka who taught it as an
invocation for a future time when all
Indians would be reunited in a life of
tranquility (Hightower-Langston 2003:100101). Wovoka’s followers supported peace
and held that the oppressive white rule
would be removed by the spirit powers
without the use of war. White authorities,
however, interpreted the religious beliefs
simplistically and held that the performance
of the dance was literal preparation for a
military assault. This was obviously how the
prediction of white rule removal would
come true. In December of 1890 the U.S.
authorities banned the Ghost Dance on all
Lakota
Sioux
reservations.
When
performance of the ghost dance continued
that same month because natives living
Popular Anthropology Magazine 2012 Vol3 No1
under widespread conditions of disease and
starvation found Wovoka’s teachings
comforting, the soldiers were ordered to
annihilate the offending populations
(Hightower-Langston 2003: 431-432).
In 1973, the massacre site was part of Pine
Ridge Reservation, South Dakota, among
the poorest of all Native American
reservations with, at that time, fifty-four
percent unemployment, and rampant
poverty. Two hundred natives, mostly
young men, in an effort to make the nation
see how desperate life at Pine Ridge on the
edge of the Badlands was and also to
protest the policies of their own tribal
chairman, occupied the village of Wounded
Knee (Scott 2008:25-26). The FBI arrived,
and two occupiers were killed during the
seventy-one day long standoff, but many
more Indians died or were wounded
subsequently during the continuing struggle
with the tribal government. Many of the
original occupiers were AIM supporters, and
AIM continued to champion the rights of
the residents against their government. At
this time, the FBI saw AIM as the enemy
and worked to infiltrate and destroy the
organization. AIM’s chief security officer
was discovered to be working for the FBI
(Cannon 2003). Understandably, many have
said that fear and mistrust grew within the
AIM organization. In June of 1975, two FBI
agents were killed, and an AIM leader,
Leonard Peltier, was convicted and given
two consecutive life sentences for the
murders (ibid.).
In December 1975, Anna Mae PictouAquash, a young AIM activist and mother of
two was murdered with a gunshot to the
back of the head. Her body was exposed
out on the desert and not found for some
© 2012 Deborah J. Shepherd
weeks by which time early forensic science
could recover only limited information. The
question of whether her murder could be
traced back to the FBI or to certain AIM
members is still in court (Cannon 2003;
Mihesuah 2000; see also the John Graham
Defense
Committee,
http://www.grahamdefense.org/).
The
years after Wounded Knee II were a time of
great anger and mobilization on the part of
Indian activists as well as a time of intensive
investigation and repression of protest by
the FBI and other legal authorities (D’Arcus
2003:718-726). The now-published catalog
of the FBI microfilm files on AIM and
Wounded Knee describes clashes and
information-gathering efforts on many
thousands of pages (Dewing and Schipper
1986). The situation had become a war.
Evolving AIM Initiatives
After the violence of the mid-1970s, both
sides slowly struggled to work more
effectively together. Native American
groups learned how to control their
representation in the media so that stories
were no longer so one sided (Heppler
2009:68). AIM started many youth,
education and housing initiatives as well as
continuing its focus on recovering and
protecting treaty rights (e.g., Mihesuah
2000; Krouse 2003). One further AIM goal,
however, required that “Indian religious
freedom and cultural integrity [be]
protected.” (Wittstock and Salinas c2006).
The National American Graves Protection
and Repatriation Act of 1990 (NAGPRA) was
a major achievement in this direction.
NAGPRA
Popular Anthropology Magazine 2012 Vol3 No1
Some Additional Resources
Banks, Dennis, with Richard Erdoes
2004 Ojibwa Warrior: Dennis Banks and the Rise of
the American Indian Movement. Norman, OK:
University of Oklahoma Press.
D’Arcus, Bruce
2010 The Urban Geography of Red Power: The
American Indian Movement in Minneapolis-Saint Paul,
1968-1970. Urban Studies 47(6):1241-1255.
Hoxie, Frederick E.
1996 Encyclopedia of North American Indians. New
York: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Public Broadcasting Corporation
2008-2009 American Experience Transcript. We Shall
Remain: Wounded Knee.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/weshallremain/files/tr
anscripts/WeShallRemain_5_transcript.pdf, accessed
February 29, 2012. Full episode (for U.S. viewers) and
other resources here:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/weshallremain/
Shreve, Bradley G.
2011 Red Power Rising: The National Indian Youth
Council and the Origins of Native Activism. Norman,
OK: University of Oklahoma Press.
Thompson, William Norman
2005 Native American Issues: a reference handbook.
Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.
© 2012 Deborah J. Shepherd
NAGPRA allowed federally recognized
Native American nations the right to
retrieve the remains of their ancestors from
museums and other research institutions.
These remains could then be buried with
correct ritual and reverence. As for many
other human societies, the respectful
treatment of dead ancestors is fundamental
in Indian spiritual life. Furthermore,
NAGPRA allowed that cultural artifacts with
sacred and ritual connections could also be
reclaimed. Such spiritual items as prayer
sticks and ritual masks were no longer to be
kept in museum cabinets (Shepherd 2012,
in preparation). Certainly, there were
restrictions within and later clarifications of
the law. First, the law only applies to tribes
that have legal recognition from the federal
government. Not all tribes have federal
recognition or necessarily want it
(Indianz.com 2011). Second, tribes had to
be identified as the real descendents of the
makers of specific artifacts or related to
specific human remains in order to lay claim
to them. Anthropologists, archaeologists,
geologists, and Indians frequently have
been in conflict over the verification of
cultural connections. The scientists argued
from their research in the laboratory and
field whereas the Indians brought their
origin stories and teachings of elders to
court (ibid.). Settling questions of cultural
relationships, especially over periods of
many centuries, is often a task made
difficult by past native migrations.
holding treaties and for American natives
collectively. Sovereignty is a key issue for
gaining bargaining power with the federal
government on a host of smaller issues
from fishing rights to Indian preference in
HUD housing programs (Wittstock and
Salinas
c2006).
From
an
outside
perspective, and probably internally as well,
AIM seeks to prevent Indian cultural and
physical assimilation for the security and
wellbeing of those many natives who do not
desire such assimilation (Rich 2004:82;
Scott 2008: 45-46). Many in the Indian
community, whether or not they are part of
AIM,
believe
that
problems
of
unemployment, poverty, addiction, and
crime are due to loss of Indian culture.
AIM and Native Americans
It is important to realize that AIM takes
strong political stands and is not supported
in every way by all tribes or Indians. Like
other indigenous group movements around
the world, AIM seeks to establish legal
powers of sovereignty for individual tribes
Chrisman, Gabriel
2008 The Fish-in Protests at Franks
Landing. Seattle Civil Rights & Labor
History Project.
http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/fishins.htm, accessed March 30, 2012.
Popular Anthropology Magazine 2012 Vol3 No1
REFERENCES CITED
Archives and Special Collections, I. D. Weeks
Library 1999 Abourezk, James G.,
Wounded Knee 1973 Series, University of
South Dakota. Processed by Mary Ellen
Ducey.
http://www.usd.edu/library/upload/Abo
urezkWoundedKnee.pdf,
accessed February 29, 2012.
Cannon, Angie
2003 Special Report. Healing Old
Wounds: an Indian woman’s murder
goes to trial—too many years later. U.S.
News & World Report 135(22):34-39.
© 2012 Deborah J. Shepherd
Collins, Paul
1973 Showdown at Wounded Knee.
Ebony 28(8):46-56.
D’Arcus, Bruce
2003 Protest, Scale, and Publicity: the
FBI and the H Rap Brown Act. Antipode
35(4):718-741.
Dewing, Rolland, ed., and Martin Schipper,
comp.
1986 The FBI Files on the American
Indian Movement and Wounded Knee. A
microfilm project of University
Publications of America, Inc.
http://cisupa.proquest.com/ksc_assets/c
atalog/2141_FBIAmIndMovWoKnee.pdf,
accessed February 3, 2012.
Enderson, Douglas B. L.
1995 The Challenges Facing Tribal
Courts Today. Reprinted from
Judicature, the Journal of the American
Judicature Society 79:3. Tribal Court
Clearing House: a project of the Tribal
Law and Policy Institute.
http://www.tribalinstitute.org/articles/enderson1.htm,
accessed February 29, 2012.
Goldberg, Carole
[n.d.] Questions and Answers about
Public Law 280. Tribal Court Clearing
House: a project of the Tribal Law and
Policy Institute. http://www.tribalinstitute.org/articles/goldberg.htm,
accessed February 29, 2012.
Heppler, Jason A.
2009 Framing Red Power: The American
Indian Movement, the Trail of Broken
Treaties, and the Politics of Media.
Dissertations, Theses & Student
Popular Anthropology Magazine 2012 Vol3 No1
Research, Department of History. Paper
21.
http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/historydi
ss/21, accessed February 2, 2012.
Indianz.com
2011 Winnemem Wintu Tribe refuses to
go thru BIA recognition process.
http://64.38.12.138/News/2011/002743.
asp, accessed March 30, 2012.
Johnston, Troy
[n.d.] The Alcatraz Indian Occupation.
National Park Service, U.S. Department
of the Interior.
http://www.nps.gov/alca/historyculture/
we-hold-the-rock.htm, accessed
February 29, 2012.
Krouse, Susan Applegate
2003 What Came Out of the Takeovers:
women’s activism and the Indian
community school of Milwaukee.
American Indian Quarterly 27(3-4):533547.
Hightower-Langston, Donna
2003 The Native American World: a
Wiley desk reference. Hoboken, NJ: John
Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Locke, Michelle
1999 With Alcatraz Takeover, Indians
Staked Claim to National Attention. Los
Angeles Times. November 21, 1999.
http://articles.latimes.com/1999/nov/21
/local/me-35916, accessed February 29,
2012.
Mihesuah, Devon A.
2000 Interview with Denise MaloneyPictou and Deborah Maloney-Pictou.
© 2012 Deborah J. Shepherd
American Indian Quarterly 24(2):264280.
Oakland Museum of California
[2012] Unforgettable Change: 1960s:
American Indians Occupy Alcatraz.
http://museumca.org/picturethis/timelin
e/unforgettable-change1960s/american-indians-occupyalcatraz/info, accessed February 29,
2012.
Redhawk, William
2002 The Occupation of the Bureau of
Indian Affairs. Redhawk’s Lodge.
http://siouxme.com/lodge/bia.html,
accessed February 29, 2012.
Rich, Elizabeth
2004 “Remember Wounded Knee”:
AIM’s use of metonymy in 21st century
protest. College Literature 31(3):70-91.
Scott, Sonya
2008 An Examination of the Causes of
Wounded Knee 1973: a Case of Intratribal Conflict or Response to Federal
Policies toward Indians?.
http://castle.eiu.edu/historia/archives/2
008/Historia2008Scott.pdf, accessed
February 29, 2012.
Shepherd, Deborah J.
2012 (in preparation) Current Native
(and Other) Views of NAGPRA. Teaching
Anthropology: SACCNotes, a publication
of the Society for Anthropology in
Community Colleges, American
Anthropological Association 18(1).
Shreve, Bradley G.
2011 Red Power Rising, The National
Indian Youth Council and the Origins of
Popular Anthropology Magazine 2012 Vol3 No1
Native Activism. Norman, OK: University
of Oklahoma Press.
Supreme Court of the United States
1968 PUYALLUP TRIBE v. DEPARTMENT
OF GAME OF WASHINGTON ET AL., No.
247, 391 U.S. 392; 88 S. Ct. 1725; 1968
U.S. LEXIS 1549; 20 L. Ed. 2d 689.
http://www.ccrh.org/comm/river/legal/
puyallup.htm, accessed March 30, 2012.
Tribal Court Clearing House: a project of the
Tribal Law and Policy Institute
[2012] Public Law 280.
http://www.tribalinstitute.org/lists/pl280.htm, accessed
February 29, 2012.
Vercillo, Kathryn
[n.d.] History of Native American
Activism on Alcatraz Island.
http://kathrynvercillo.hubpages.com/hu
b/History-of-Native-American-Activismon-Alcatraz-Island, accessed February 29,
2012.
Wittstock, Laura Waterman, and Elaine J.
Salinas
[c2006] A Brief History of the American
Indian Movement.
http://www.aimovement.org/ggc/history
.html, accessed February 4, 2012.
WyteDove
2011 Trudell [video] … “film about the
most inspiring man of this time~ John
Trudell (born February 15, 1946) is a
Native American-Mexican author, poet,
actor, musician, and former political
activist.” http://youtu.be/egesrnVbjiM,
accessed February 29, 2012.