American Indian Movement

The American Indian Movement (AIM) was founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota , in the summer of 1968 by founders Dennis Banks (1937–) and Clyde Bellecourt (1939–). Modeling itself after the Black Panther Party , the organization initially focused on forming street patrols to stop police brutality and other violence in the local Indian community. A number of service programs ranging from alternative schools to low-cost housing followed within the next two years.

Expands to national goals

After 1971, with the recruitment of American Indian activists such as Russell Means (1939–) and John Trudell (1946–), the organization became national in character and shited its focus to gaining recognition of American Indian treaty rights in Indian reservations . (Reservations are tracts of land set aside by the federal government for use by the American Indians, often as the result of major concessions on the part of American Indian communities.) Most of AIM's activity from late 1972 onward was based at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota .

Trail of Broken Treaties

For a time, AIM pursued a strategy of forcing confrontations with federal, state, and local authorities to gain national attention for the plight of American Indians. The most spectacular of these clashes was called the Trail of Broken Treaties.

Originating on the West Coast in the autumn of 1972, the Trail of Broken Treaties began as a car caravan of several hundred American Indians who traveled across the country to Washington, D.C. There they were prepared to carry out a week-long schedule of ceremonies, meetings, and peaceful protests. The protesters brought with them a list of twenty points for presentation to federal officials, calling for the restoration of treaty activity between federal and tribal governments, the recognition of existing treaties, the creation of a commission to review treaty commitments, and much more. The document forcefully asserted sovereignty (self-rule) for Indian people.

The road-weary protesters expected to find decent accommodations when they arrived in Washington. Instead, they found they had no assigned places to stay, no provisions, and no real acknowledgment from federal officials. Hundreds found themselves stranded in an unfamiliar city. On the morning of November 3, caravan participants sought shelter in the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) building while the group's leaders met with federal officials. A confrontation between police and Native Americans soon erupted in the lobby of the bureau. Within minutes, the police were pushed out onto the street and the building was barricaded from within. The protesters officially occupied the BIA building for the next week.

The takeover of the BIA might have been interpreted by some as a bold act of political resistance. However, damage to the building and its contents, and the destruction and removal of important tribal documents, as well as those pertaining to individual Native Americans, resulted in notable negative press. As the main force behind the Trail of Broken Treaties, AIM had secured a reputation as a militant (war-like) organization capable of violence.

Wounded Knee II

AIM's membership grew in the early 1970s as many American Indians joined the movement for American Indians rights. Attention began to focus on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota when Richard Wilson was elected president of the Oglala Sioux tribal council in 1972. Wilson was accused of buying hundreds of votes in that election. His administration was charged with mishandling government funds and granting questionable contracts to whites. In response to these charges, Wilson had opponents beaten and their families threatened. He maintained a GOON squad—an acronym for Guardians of the Oglala Nation—to physically intimidate his opponents.

Investigators from the Department of Justice concluded later that Wilson had imposed a “reign of terror” on reservation residents and that federal authorities had funded him to do so. But Wilson won the support of the BIA by refusing to allow protests within the reservation. The BIA ignored complaints against him, funded his GOON squad, and sent its own agents to help him. Means, by then an AIM leader, vowed to run against Wilson in the next election for tribal chair, but that would not occur until 1974.

The residents of Pine Ridge voted to impeach Wilson as tribal chair in 1973, but at his hearing he managed to talk the tribal council into voting in his favor. Several hundred angry members of the Oglala Sioux tribe convened a meeting, asking AIM to attend. AIM's policy was to enter the reservation only on request. The Oglala Sioux Civil Rights Organization made the official request for AIM's help in overthrowing Wilson.

The occupation

On February 26, 1973, AIM members began to caravan to the Pine Ridge Reservation. As he tried to enter the reservation, two members of Wilson's police force beat Means. He later returned, leading a larger band of about 250 Indians. According to a police report, they broke into the reservation store at 7:55 PM and took weapons and ammunition. Then they took over the community of Wounded Knee, the site of the 1890 Wounded Knee massacre . Their original intent appears to have been a short occupation to negotiate for Wilson's dismissal and a traditional tribal government free of BIA interference. The various government forces, however, blockaded the roads and arrested anyone coming out of Wounded Knee who appeared to be implicated in the takeover. In response, the occupiers set up defenses and barricades of their own. A seventy-one-day armed standoff had begun.

Support for the occupation grew on other reservations. Other Indians made their way to Wounded Knee. During the occupation, there was regular gunfire between the federal agents and the occupiers. Hundreds of thousands of shots were fired into the village; two Indians were killed and another dozen badly wounded during the fighting. The occupation ended peacefully when federal officials agreed to discuss violations of U.S. treaty obligations with the Oglala chiefs.

The aftermath

In the aftermath of Wounded Knee, 562 federal felony charges were lodged against AIM members. Only fifteen of those resulted in convictions, but the expense of continuously posting bail and paying attorneys exhausted the movement's funds and diverted its members' attention for years.

From March 1973 to March 1976, at least 69 AIM members and supporters died violently on Pine Ridge, while some 340 others suffered serious physical assaults. In twenty-one of the AIM deaths, eyewitnesses identified the killers as known GOON squad members. Not one of these crimes was ever brought to trial as the result of a federal investigation.

The disagreement among the Oglala Sioux did not end, nor did friction between AIM and the government. A shootout at Pine Ridge in June 1975, which killed one Indian and two FBI agents, led in 1977 to a controversial trial and a life sentence for murder for AIM leader Leonard Peltier (1944–).

Later years

Despite the Wounded Knee trials and Peltier's conviction, AIM has remained active. The organization has drawn considerable national and international attention to the Peltier case. In 1978, AIM participated in the “Longest Walk,” a national march on Washington, D.C., in the continued attempt to air Native American grievances. Three years later, AIM established Yellow Thunder Camp on federal land in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The establishment of the camp was the first step, according to AIM leaders, in reclaiming this sacred land for the Lakota, or Sioux, people. AIM has also protested against false and harmful images of Native Americans in the media and as sports team mascots, and against environmental abuses.