Indians Civil Rights Pages 524-530

1. Indians Civil RightsPages 524-530 Amber W, Luci M, Ashley L, Gilberto B, Amanda C, Gil G, Amir M

2. Nobody Thought… • That the Indians would ever retaliate or be heard from again, especially after the last massacre • Last massacre took place at Pine Ridge, South Dakota • Sitting Bull, The great Sioux leader had just been assassinated by the Indian police in the pay of the United States • Troopers had ordered the remaining Sioux to turn over weapons, and one trooper fired his rifle, which lead to the other soldiers to fire • When it was over, between 200 and 300 out of the original 350 men, women and children were dead

3. Aftermath of Massacre • The Indian tribes were all attacked, starved and divided into reservations where majority lived in poverty • In 1887, the Allotment Act tried to break up the reservations into small plots of land owned by Indians • This was to turn them into American-type small farmers • John Collier (in charge of Bureau of Indian Affairs) tried to restore tribal life, but over the years, no changes ever took place • Many Indians stayed on the impoverished reservations

4. Start of the Civil Rights • Many civil rights and antiwar movements started happening in the 1960’s • Many Indians were gathering to start planning to resist and change their current situation • In 1961, five hundred tribal and urban leaders met in Chicago to form the National Indian Youth Council • Mel Thom (first president of the NIYC) quoted ”The struggle goes on…Indians are gathering together to deliberate their destiny….” • Many Indians were also approaching the US Government on the topic of treaties • The US government had signed more then four hundred treaties with Indians and violated every single one

5. Indian Resistance • In Washington, an old treaty was taking land from the Indians but leaving them fishing rights • As the white population grew, they wanted the fishing areas for themselves • State closed the river areas to Indian fisherman • In 1964, Indians had “fish-ins” on the Nisqually River, and went to jail • A local judge ruled that the Puyallup tribe never existed, and all the members couldn’t fish on the river that was named after them (Puyallup River) • Police raided fishing groups, destroyed boats, slashed nets and arrested many Indians • Supreme Court ruled in 1968 that a state could “regulate all fishing” if it didn’t discriminate against Indians

6. More Resistance • Washington continued to arrest Indians for fishing • Some of the Indians that were involved with the fish-in were veterans of the Vietnam War • Sid Mills said; “I am a Yakima and Cherokee Indian, and a man. For two years and four months, I’ve been a soldier in the United States Army. I served combat in Vietnam…My first obligation now lies with the Indian people fighting for the lawful Treaty to fish in usual and accustomed water of the Nisqually…”

7. Using the Press • Many Indians used “artifacts of white culture” to fight back • Mostly books and newspapers • In 1968, members of the Mohawk Nation at Akwesasne began a popular newspaper called Akwesasne Notes, which was filled with news, editorials, poetry filled with bold disobedience • Many autobiographies of Indians show their refusal to be absorbed by “white man’s culture” • For example, Chief Luther Standing Bear and his 1933 autobiography From the Land of the Spotted Eagle • “True, the white man brought great change. But the varied fruits of his civilization, though highly colored and inviting, are sickening and deadening.”

8. November 9th, 1969 • This was a dramatic event that focused on Indian grievances like nothing else had • It declared to the entire world that Indians still lived and would fight for their rights • 78 Indians landed on Alcatraz Island and occupied it • Group was lead by Richard Oakes and Grace Thorpe • By the end of November nearly 600 Indians, representing more then 50 tribes were living on Alcatraz • They called themselves “Indians of All Tribes” and even issued their proclamation “We Hold the Rock” • In the proclamation they offered to buy Alcatraz in glass beads and red cloth, the price Indians paid for Manhattan Island 300 years ago

9. Alcatraz Occupation • Also in the proclamation, they claimed Alcatraz resembles most Indian reservations because of: • It is isolated from modern facilities, and without adequate means of transportation. • It has no fresh running water. • It has inadequate sanitation facilities. • There are no oil or mineral rights. • There is no industry and so unemployment is very great. • These are no health care facilities. • The soil is rocky and non-productive; and the land does not support game. • There are no educational facilities. • The population has always exceeded the land base. • The population has always been held as prisoners and dependent upon others.

10. Alcatraz Occupation • Indians of All Tribes announced that they would make the island a center for Native American Studies for Ecology to “de-pollute air and waters of the Bay area…restore fish and animal life…” • Months later, the Government cut off telephones, electricity and water to the Island • Many left, but also many still stayed • A year later Indians were still there and they sent out a message to “our brothers and sisters of all races and tongues upon our Earth Mother” • Quoted; “We have learned that violence only breeds only more violence and we therefore have carried on our occupation of Alcatraz in a peaceful manner, hoping that the government of those United States will also act accordingly…” • 6 months later, federal forces invaded the island and physically removed the remaining Indians living there

11. Navajo Indians • Back in the mid-1800s, United States troops under Kit Carson burned Navajo villages, destroyed crops and orchards, and forced them from their lands • They never surrendered during the Black Mesa of New Mexico • In the late 1960s, the Peabody Coal Company started strip mining on their land (taking away topsoil) • The company pointed to a “contract” that resembled past “treaties” which took away all Indian land • 150 Navajos met in 1969 to declare that strip mining would pollute water, air, destroy the grazing land for livestock, and use up their scarce water sources

12. Hopi Indians • They were also affected by the Peabody Oil Company operations • Many got together and wrote to President Nixon in protest • “Today the sacred lands where the Hopi live are being desecrated by men who seek coal and water from our soil that they may create more power for the whiteman’s cities…The Great Spirit said not to allow this to happen…” • They are very peaceful people and are also pleading with Nixon to use all the energy the United States for good uses

13. La Raza • In 1970, La Raza was a magazine that was around to supply information that was ignored in regular media • They told the public about the Pit River Indians of Northern California • 60 Pit Indians occupied land they said belonged to them and they disobeyed Forest Services when they were ordered to leave • Pit Indians asked the government what treaty claimed the land, and there wasn’t any • Pit Indians built a Quonset hut, and the Marshals told them it was ugly and they ruined it • 150 Marshals came with machine guns, rifles, pistols, dogs, chains, and other weapons • Many were injured or killed