In the 1950s, after
decades of failed policies and programs, the U.S. government under President
Eisenhower implemented relocation and termination programs as the official Indian
policy of the federal government. These two plans, which encouraged Indian
people to move off the reservations and into major cities, were designed to
take control of and sell Indian land and officially end federal treaties and
agreements. Terminating the relationship between the federal government and
Indian communities would mean that tribes would lose special relationships they
had been given under federal law, including the tax-exempt status of their land
and federal responsibility for Native economic and social well-being.
In 1953, Congress passed a resolution seizing over a million acres of American
Indian land and displaced 11,466 people in an effort to wipe out reservations,
combine treaties and close down the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), which at
the time carried out the federal government's policies to control and
assimilate American Indian tribes. The government promised vocational training,
financial assistance and decent housing to those who moved to large cities. But
promises of assistance were empty, and with no job skills and little knowledge
of English, some Native Americans had to move into poverty-level housing and
onto welfare.
By the mid-1960s, an estimated 40,000 Indian people from 100 tribal groups
lived in the San Francisco Bay Area. Previous relocatees to the Bay Area
included men who had served in World War II, men who worked on the railroad and
students who had been educated at government-run boarding schools. Rather than
dissolving into the urban "melting pot," Bay Area Indians fiercely
clung to their culture, forming social and political organizations and began to
mobilize. Echoing anti-war voices and activists of free speech, civil rights
and social justice, Bay Area Indians began their own protest of Native American
treaty and civil rights abuses. By the late '60s, San Francisco's urban Indian
community was one of the largest and best organized in the country.
A Brief History of the American Indian Movement (AIM)
By Laura Waterman Wittstock and Elaine J. Salinas
In the 30 years of its history, the American Indian Movement (AIM) has given witness to a great many changes. Making steady progress, the movement has transformed policy making into programs that have served Indian people in many communities. During the past thirty years, The American Indian Movement has organized communities and created opportunities for people across the Americas and Canada.
The movement was founded to turn the attention of Indian people toward a renewal of spirituality which would impart the strength of resolve needed to reverse the ruinous policies of the United States, Canada, and other colonialist governments of Central and South America. At the heart of AIM is deep spirituality and a belief in the connectedness of all Indian people.
AIM has brought successful lawsuits against the federal government for the protection of the rights of Native Nations guaranteed in treaties, the United States Constitution, and laws. The philosophy of self-determination upon which the movement is built is deeply rooted in traditional spirituality, culture, language and history. AIM develops partnerships to address the common needs of the people. Its first mission is to ensure the fulfillment of treaties made with the United States. This is the clear and unbending vision of The American Indian Movement. [self-determination - freedom of the people of a given area to determine their own political status: political independence.]
Indian people live on Mother Earth with the clear understanding that no one will assure the coming generations except us. No one from the outside will do this for us. And no person among us can do it all for us, either.
Over the years, as the organizations have grown, they have continued to
serve the community from a base of Indian culture. Before AIM in 1968, culture
had been weakened in most Indian communities due to U.S. policy, the American
boarding schools and all the other efforts to extinguish Indian secular and
spiritual life. Now, many groups cannot remember a time without culture. This
great revival has also helped to restore spiritual leaders and elders to their
former positions of esteem for the wisdom and the history they hold.
The Trail of Broken
Treaties - a 20 Point Manifesto
Seizure of the BIA Headquarters
Angered by the lack of logistical support promised by Interior Department officials, Native American activists took over BIA headquarters in Washington, D.C., taking vast numbers of confidential files concerning the BIA and Indian Health Service (IHS) and inflicting $2.2 million in damage to the building. Embarrassed by the media coverage, the Nixon Administration promised to respond to their demands within a month and gave them $66,000 in transportation money immediately in exchange for a peaceful end to the occupation.