Native American Rights

The Issues
1. Tribal homelands
  1. Many Native Americans had been driven from their homelands in the forced relocation of the 1830s, following the Indian Removal Act of 1830.
  2. The federal government made treaties (many by force) with individual tribes, giving land and money for their removal.
  3. 1960s: Widely agreed, even in government, that the treaties had been unfair.
  4. Many Native Americans wanted new treaties, maybe even to return to their homelands and sacred sites where possible.
2. Self-determination
  1. Tribes were independent nations under federal government.
  2. Tribes ran their own affairs, but only in their own reservations and only under the control of the BIA.
  3. The BIA had, over the years, very heavy-handily implemented regulation to break up Indian culture and damage tribal cohesion.
    1. It oversaw the setting up of Indian Boarding Schools from 1893 onwards.
      1. These schools made the children speak nothing but English, cut their hair, dress in 'proper' clothes and give up their native customs.
    2. Older children were placed as farmworkers in the East and Midwest.
  4. Years of actions like this had made Native Americans mistrustful of the BIA; they certainly felt it didnt have their interests at heart.
  5. Wanted respect for the tribal organisation, freedom to run their own affairs and a change of BIA personnel.
Organised protest
1. American Indian Movement (AIM)
  1. Set up in 1968.
  2. Its members were mostly young urban people.
  3. Specifically targeted the demeaning of Native American culture by white people in their 'Red Indians' pastiches of the culture.
  4. Had a specific issues with its homelands, so groups often targeted disputed land for occupation, although they also occupied federal buildings.
  5. It consciously adopted the direct-action techniques of black American civil rights groups, including sit-ins, demonstrations and occupations.
  6. Unlike the other big Indian organisation, The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) (which worked within the system), AIM took a more radical, anti-federal stance and the slogan 'Red Power'.
2. 1968: Indian Civil Rights Act banned tribes restricting the civil rights of tribal members.
  1. It didn't do anything to redress issues Native Americans had with federal government.
The Voluntary Relocation Programme
1. Initial dislocation meant that, while some Native Americans returned, others left and the tribal structure was dislocated.
2. By 1961, the BIA estimated that between 25% and 33% had returned; other sources suggested this was well over 50-90% for some tribes.
3. Federal scheme that began in 1952 in order to encourage assimilation.
4. 1956: Indian Relocation Act encouraged Native Americans aged 18-35 to move to specified towns and cities for work.
  1. Very few found the lifestyle the government brochures suggested they would.
Gains and Limitations
1. President Nixon sympathised with Native American rights campaigners and felt that it should be possible to make positive changes for about 830,000 people that it wasn't possible to do for the 22,600,000 black Americans.
  1. Rejected both termination and forced assimilation.
  2. Advisors consulted tribal leaders on solutions.
  3. Nixon brought bills to Congress for Indian autonomy.
  4. Nixon's administration didn't reform the BIA, nor did Nixon renegotiate about Native American sacred sites.
2. By 1980, Congress had passed the 1972 Indian Education Act (funds for tribal schools), the 1974 Indian Financing Act (which lent tribes funding) and the 1975 Indian Self-Determination Act (which kept the BIA but contracted out services services such as healthand ecucation), giving tribes much more control.
3. 1980: Voting Rights Act was extended to cover more racial groups, including Native Americans, and to provce language assistance when voting.
4. 1978: Indian Child Welfare Act gave Native Americans more control over the adoption of Native American children.
5. 1970: Congress returned land at Blue Lake to the Taos Pueblo tribe.
6. 1971: The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act transferred 40 million acres of land and $462,500,000 to Native Alanskans.
7. All thought the 70s, there was a dribble of land returns, often, as with the Kootenai tribe in Idaho, after occupation of the area.
8. No overall solution to the land issues and various states, for example, Hawaii in 1971, continued to evict Indians from land if the state wanted it for buildings or other use.
Government policies towards Native Americans, managed by the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), shifted between breaking up or supporting tribal existence.
Roosevelt reversed the trend of assimilation under his Indian New Deal but wanted Indian tribes run in a 'constitutional' way, under tribal council.
After Roosevelt, federal policy became assimilation again; the BIA encouraged Native Americans to move to towns and cities for work, offering job training and housing, but disrupting tribal culture.
1953: House of Representatives passed a resolution for 'termination'.
1. Many Native Americans resisted termination; under a later ruling, termination needed the tribe's consent.
By 1970, about half of all Native Americans lived in towns or cities. It was from this, that groups of civil rights campaigners came from.

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