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... on Treaties" was a pursuit for the government's recognition on discrimination, sovereignty, and treaty rights. This protest event was designed to attract media attention to Native American concerns in the height of a presidential election. Under the direction of the AIM, large caravans of American Indians began forming and traveling towards Washington. "It was hoped that this march would be the Indian equivalent of the 1963 march by African-American activists" (Vine 46). As members of AIM ventured towards Washington, D.
C. militant activity broke out within the group, which completely differentiated them from the Civil Rights march. Native Americans began to ransack stores along the way, "[e]very thing that wasn't nailed went into someone's jacket or pants pocket. We did that with clear consciences: We were repossessing, in another form, that which had been taken from us" (Means and Wolf 225). The American Indian Movements original intent was to present Richard Nixon with a twenty-point referendum regarding the United States Indian relations, however this completely shifted in a radical direction. "The Twenty Points combined issues that aroused the passions of both the young, primarily urban American Indians who formed the core of protests, as well as appealing to the older, reservation based, traditional American Indians" (Sanchez and Stuckey 3). On November 3 rd, the caravan of natives converged on the Bureau of Indian Affairs to address their issues to the government.
Their written proposal addressed issues ranging from the abolition of the BIA to government subsidization for lost lands in treaty violations. Tensions and actions among the AIM members began to grow as; "Interior Department officials who had earlier pledged logistical support to caravan participants once they arrived in the capital reneged on their promises, apparently in the belief that this would cause the group to meekly disperse" (Churchill 246). This sparked the occupation of the BIA building by the movement participants, who evicted the staff, demolished the walls, and confiscated confidential BIA files. The United States government became distraught when, "Russell Means, in fine form, captured the front page of the nation's newspapers and the six o'clock news by conducting a press conference in front of the building, while adorned with a makeshift "war club" and a "shield" fashioned from a portrait of Nixon himself" (Churchill 246).
The administration was anxious to end this because of the negative publicity and promised to look over the AIM referendum, while compensating the participants for travel expenses back to Minneapolis. The Native Americans headed back to their homes with a positive attitude, however neither of their points would be addressed in the up coming years. Following BIA takeover, the FBI began to take a closer look at the American Indian Movement, which would ultimately lead to the decline of their radical tactics and leadership. The American Indian Movements seizer at Wounded Knee in 1973 resulted in a governmentally endorsed counter movement to tackle the participant's militant strategies. In 1973, tensions at the historical battle site of Wounded Knee proliferated between the tribal administrator Richard Wilson's tribal ranger group the "Guardians of the Oglala Nation" and members of the reservation in support of AIM. This governmentally funded police unit was potentially affiliated with the murder of a Lakota Indian named Wesley Bad Heart Bull.
Pressures began to grow greater in this area when David Schmitz went on trial for the murder, "[a]l though he admitted having killed Wesley Bad Heart Bull, an all-white jury found him not guilty of manslaughter" (Means and Wolf 248). The Pine Ridge Reservation elders requested the AIM support in an effort to protect them under the brutality of Wilson. Members of the Oglala Nation at Pine Ridge supported an AIM stance to take action to the rising hostilities in the area. On February 27 th, a group of nearly three hundred armed AIM members and allies left Pine Ridge and headed to Wounded Knee, where they occupied the village.
This radical demonstration in hope of desired media attention was quickly met with defiant governmental intervention. "The occupiers were surrounded by three hundred federal marshals and FBI agents equipped with armored personnel carriers, M- 16 s, automatic infantry weapons, chemical weapons, steel helmets, gas masks, body armor, illuminating flares, military clothing, and almost unlimited rations" (Johnson 236). The government burned the outlying area at Wounded Knee in an attempt to stop the flow of supplies and ammunition. After a brutal governmental campaign, the seize of this historical battle site ended seventy-one days later. "More than 500, 000 rounds of military ammunition were fired into AIM's jerry-rigged "bunkers" by federal forces, killing two Indians-an Apache named Frank Clearwater and Buddy Lamont, an Oglala" (Churchill 249). The end of the standoff was negotiated between the two sides on May 7 th, 1973. The United States government promised at a meeting with the native community that their grievances would be addressed, however no further meeting occurred. Governmental counter movement tactics to repress the AIM objective of recognition by action quickly shifted to the legal arena.
In the three years following Wounded Knee, federal government methods of repression dramatically effected AIM members and affiliates. Shortly after this incident, the FBI made repeated arrests, surveillance's, and harassment's against AIM leaders and supporters on the Pine Ridge Reservation. "[T] he had made 562 arrests of those who had been involved in defending Wounded Knee. Russell Means was in jail awaiting release on $ 150, 000 bond; OSCRO leader Pedro Bissonette was held against $ 152, 000; AIM leaders Stan Holder and Leonard Crow Dog were held against $ 32, 000 and $ 35, 000, respectively" (Churchill 250). These legal actions of arrest, incarcerations, hearings, and trails tied up virtually all of the American Indian Movements leadership.
The movement began to break up and falter due to the litigation processes and the financial means required for mounting legalized defenses. The federal government continued to ignore actions and assaults by Wilson's patrol units and citizens against Native Americans. "During the period between 1973 and 1976, 61 homicides among AIM supporters are reported; many never investigated" (web). The government's legal interaction caused the relationship and direction of the American Indian Movement to shift downward, ultimately weakening their radical militant approach. The Native American community within the United States has been subject to governmental repression for hundreds of years. In the 1960 s, a growing pan-Indian identity was being formed, which fueled the optimistic perception for Native Americans desire to change their societal positioning. This growing necessity to address governmental inadequacies sparked the formation of the American Indian Movement in the summer of 1968.
The movements early occupation with other native participants at Alcatraz, led to the AIM repertoire of confrontational activism at strategically located sites across the country. AIM's first radically approached land seizer was Mount Rushmore in 1970, which received repressive action from the armed U. S. Park Service. Sociological theory explains, "[s] tragedies of repression also influence repertoires of action. [H] answer policing techniques tended to discourage peaceful mass protest and at the same time encourage radical fringes of protest" (Della Porta and Diani 211). In 1972, the AIM organized a national campaign to address governmental polices and implementations with their "Trail of Broken Treaties." This radical militant takeover of the BIA building ultimately ended with government's failure to address the AIM referendum and their deeper effort to demobilize the movement.
In 1973, with pressures from federally compensated police units, the AIM members occupied the historic battle site of Wounded Knee. This tactical maneuver was quickly responded by a federally sponsored counter movement, which led to a seventy-one day siege. Following the event hundreds of AIM members and participants faced legal actions. This government intervention culminated the end of AIM radical militant demonstrations, due to the financial repercussions and loss of direction.
The AIM radicalized activism evoked a governmentally repressive stance that dismantled the movement's solidarity and militant tactics. Works Cited Calloway, Colin G. First Peoples: A Documentary Survey of American Indian History. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's. 1999. Churchill, Ward. "The Bloody Wake of Alcatraz: Political Repression of the American Indian Movement during the 1970 s. " American Indian Culture and Research Journal 18. 4 (1994): 242 - 64.
Della Porta, Donatella, and Mario Diani. Social Movements: An Introduction. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 1999. Johnson, Troy R.
The Occupation of Alcatraz Island: Indian Self-Determination and the Rise of Indian Activism. Chicago: University of Illinois Press. 1996. Johnson, Troy, Jan Nagel, and Duane Champagne. American Indian Activism: Alcatraz to the Longest Walk. Chicago: University of Illinois Press. 1997. Means, Russell, and Marvin J.
Wolf. Where White Men Fear To Tread. New York: St. Martin's Press. 1995. PBS. Alcatraz is Not an Island: Timeline of Indian Activism.
PBS Online. 1 Dec. 2004. Sanchez, John and Mary E. Stuckey. "The rhetoric of American Indian activism in the 1960 s and 1970 s. " Communication Quarterly 48. 2 (2000): 1 - 9. Smith, Paul Chat, and Robert Allen Warrior. Like a Hurricane: The Indian Movement from Alcatraz to Wounded Knee. New York: W.
W. Norton. 1996. Vine, Deloria. Behind the Trail of Broken Treaties: An Indian Declaration of Independence. Austin: University of Texas Press. 1985.
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