American Indian Movement

Objectives:

* The main objectives of the American Indian rights movement are the sovereignty of Native American lands and peoples, preservation of their culture and traditions, and enforcement of all treaties ever made between the United States and any Indian tribe.

* On October 1972, AIM wrote the 20 point proposal: Trail of Broken Treaties, calling for a renewal of contracts--reconstruction of Indian communities and securing an Indian future in America.

Protests:

* AIM gained worldwide notoriety for its takeover of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) building in Washington, D.C., in 1972. The organization brought the corruption and inefficiency of the BIA to the general public's attention and worked to protect the rights of Indian people caught up in justice systems.

* In 1973 AIM took over the South Dakota village of Wounded Knee, where soldiers in the late 19th century had massacred a Sioux encampment. Protestors hoped to dramatize miserable conditions in the reservation surrounding the town, where half of the families were on welfare. The episode ended, after one Indian was killed and another wounded, with a government agreement to re-examine treaty rights, although little was done.

* In 1969, 78 Native Americans seized Alcatraz Island in the San Francisco Bay and held it until federal officials removed them in 1971. These Native Americans were holding Alcatraz in an effort to reclaim Indian land as a part of what is known as the Red Power Movement.