Describe the overall purpose of their organizational effort Dennis Banks , an American Indian of the Ojibwa Tribe, was born in 1937 on the Leach Lake reservation in Minnesota and was raised by his grandparents. Dennis Banks grew up learning the traditional ways of the Ojibwa lifestyle. As a young child he was taken away from practicing his traditional ways and was put into a government boarding school that was designed for Indian children to learn the white culture. After years of attending the boarding school, Banks enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, shipping out to Japan when he was only seventeen years old. When Banks returned to Minnesota he was living in poverty and was later arrested for stealing groceries to help feed his growing family. His accomplice, who was white, was freed and given probation, but Banks was sent to prison. While in prison, Banks was determined to educate himself. He heard about the civil rights struggle that African Americans were dealing with at the time. He realized that the same thing was happening with American Indians and they must fight for their rights too. He wanted Americans to realize that native people are still here, that they have the same rights as every other U.S. citizen and have morals of their own. Dennis Banks dealt with racism most of his life and was robbed of his culture. He did not want Native people to live in poverty anymore or not have a voice in the government. He was tired of putting up with the battery, unfairness, and racism against Indians. He felt it was time for him to step up and take control of the situation. Dennis Banks 3 Accomplishment in assisting disadvantaged groups and how they were achieved In 1968 Banks co-founded the American Indian Movement (AIM). AIM is to help and protect the traditional ways of Indian people and also to engage in legal cases that protected treaty rights of Indian people, such as hunting and fishing, trapping, wild riceing. Through AIM, Dennis Banks wanted to confront racism with activism that deeply affected the Native religion and culture. Banks had inspired many Indians from many different tribes to join and fight for American Indian rights. In 1972 AIM organized a march called “Trail of Broken Treaties” across the U.S. to Washington... ... middle of paper ... ...ian rights. He is a true activist and refuses to let anyone degrade or abuse Indians. He has stud up to government policies and laws and still will not be destroyed to fight for what he believes in. Dennis Banks 7 List any publications written by this individual Books by Dennis Banks Include: Banks, D., Erodes, R. (2004). Dennis Banks and the Rise of the American Indian Movement. Ojibwa Warrior. Reference Wilcox, B. (1996). Dennis Banks runs for justice on behalf or American Indian Rights. Metro, 14-20.Retrieved January 20, 2005, from http://siouxme.com/lodge/banks.html Banks, D. (2001). Biography of Dennis Banks .Retrieved January 20, 2005, from http://members.aol.com/Nowacumig/main.html Banks, D., Erodes, R. (2004). Dennis Banks and the Rise of the American Indian Movement. Ojibwa Warrior. Retrieved January 20, 2005, from http://www.oupress.com/bookdetail.asp?isbn=0-8061-3580-8 Corbett, B. (1999). Last call in Pine Ridge For the Lakota’s in White Clay, Nebraska, death is on the house. Retrieved February 6, 2005, from http://ishgooda.org/oglala/whitcla1.htm
out against the injustice and urged the Indians, “to unite in claiming a common and equal right in
The Indian Removal Act of 1830 was an abuse of power exerted on the Indian tribes residing in America by the people of the colonies as well as presidents at the time of their removal. Many Indians affected lost their lives, their loved one’s lives’, and the land they thrived on dating back years to their ancestors. This act would be later named “the trail of tears” because of the monumental loss the Indian tribes had endured during their displacement, and the physical and psychological damages of these people (TOTWSR).
Nevertheless, in the author’s note, Dunbar-Ortiz promises to provide a unique perspective that she did not gain from secondary texts, sources, or even her own formal education but rather from outside the academy. Furthermore, in her introduction, she claims her work to “be a history of the United States from an Indigenous peoples’ perspective but there is no such thing as a collective Indigenous peoples’ perspective (13).” She states in the next paragraph that her focus is to discuss the colonist settler state, but the previous statement raises flags for how and why she attempts to write it through an Indigenous perspective. Dunbar-Ortiz appears to anchor herself in this Indian identity but at the same time raises question about Indigenous perspective. Dunbar-Ortiz must be careful not to assume that just because her mother was “most likely Cherokee,” her voice automatically resonates and serves as an Indigenous perspective. These confusing and contradictory statements do raise interesting questions about Indigenous identity that Dunbar-Ortiz should have further examined. Are
When we look back into history, we are now able to fully comprehend the atrocities the Indians faced at the hands of the historic general and President, Andrew Jackson. It can be seen as one of the most shameful and unjust series of political actions taken by an American government. However, as an American living almost 200 years later, it is crucial to look at the motives possessed by Andrew Jackson, and ask whether he fully comprehended the repercussions of his actions or if is was simply ignorant to what he was subjection the natives to. We must also consider weather he truly had the countries best interest in mind, or his own.
O'Neill, Laurie A.. Chapter 9: Final Defeat of the Plains Indians. The Millbrook Press, 1993. eLibrary.
AIM was the first Native American group to realize that their message would not be heard with just words. Their words had gone unheard for too long, and it was time to take action. The need to take action stemmed from the way in which Native Americans were forced to live on a daily basis. Native Americans were forced to live on government appointed lands, and many of them lived in squalor. They felt that this country was rightfully theirs, and wanted an equal opportunity to be able to live where they pleased. Also, they were constantly discriminated against. Many stores and establishments had signs that read “No Indians Allowed.” AIM would go to these places and protest openly, sometimes getting violent. Many acts of violence and murder also occurred on reservation lands against Native Americans, and the white men who committed the crimes would receive a light sentence in court, sometimes not even be punished at all. Examples such as these show how the time was ripe for a movement such as AIM to be born.
Thornton, Russell, Matthew C Snipp, and Nancy Breen. The Cherokees: A Population History Indians of the Southeast. Lincoln, NB: University of Nebraska Press, 1990.
In Like a Hurricane: The Indian Movement from Alcatraz to Wounded Knee two American Indians from separate tribes join together to co-author this historically thought provoking portrayal of a time in history when playing by the rules did not work when dealing with minority rights issues. Paul Chaat Smith, a Comanche and Robert Allen Warrior an Osage join forces to create an accurate account of a time when the Native American civil rights movement took center stage television and press coverage. The world watched as Indian militants, American military, and world media covered three key events, which took place in a forty-two month period beginning with the student takeover of Alcatraz in November 1969 to the occupation of the B.I.A. in Washington D.C., and finally ending with the siege at Wounded Knee in May of 1973. Collectively many books have been written about this particular period in history but from the standpoint of the U.S. government’s failed policies or aggression and repression of Native American rights. Smith and Warrior co-authored the book out of a need to shake off the stereotype that Indian people were either “victims or pawns” in American history. The resources are relevant including sixty interviews; archives in California Minnesota, New Mexico, and Washington, D.C.; press accounts from Indian and mainstream news organizations; memoirs, and other records. (SW pg. VIII)
2. Ruby, Robert, and Brown John. A Guide to the Indian Tribes of the Pacific Northwest. Norman, Oklahoma: 1992. 96, 120, 272-274. Print.
Smith, Paul Chaat. 2009. Everything You Know about Indian Is Wrong. Minneapolis: Unviersity of Minnesota Press. Print.
Perdue, Theda, and Michael Green. The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears. New York: Penguin Books, 2007. Print.
The United States Government was founded on the basis that it would protect the rights and liberties of every American citizen. The Equal Protection Clause, a part of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, provides that “no state shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws”. Yet for hundreds of years, the US government and society have distressed the Native American people through broken treaties, removal policies, and attempts of assimilation. From the Trail of Tears in the 1830s to the Termination Policy in 1953, the continued oppression of American Indian communities produced an atmosphere of heightened tension and gave the native peoples a reason to fight back. In 1968, Clyde Bellecourt, Dennis Banks, and Russell Means founded the American Indian Movement to address issues concerning the Native American community and tackle the situation and position of Native Americans in society. Over the next few decades, the movement led to a series of radical protests, which were designed to raise awareness to the American Indians’ issues and to pressure the federal government to act on their behalf. After all of the unfair and unjust policies enacted by the U.S. government and society, all of the American Indian Movement’s actions can be justified as legitimate reactions to the United States’ democratic society that had promised to respect and protect their people and had failed to do so.
Chip Wadena was the former chief of the Ojibwe tribe and he ruled the reservations for more than 20 years. Life in the Ojibwe tribe’s reservation is not quite great. Many people there have to live in mobile homes and they have limited access to electricity and internet. People in the reservation are mostly isolated from the rest of the United States. Since their reservation has boundaries from the U.S., the U.S. government has no control over their land. Therefore, everything was built by their own people on the reservation including hospitals and vital
There were several motives for the removal of the Indians from their lands, to include racism and land lust. Since they first arrived, the white Americans hadn’t been too fond of the Native Americans. They were thought to be highly uncivilized and they had to go. In his letter to Congress addressing the removal of the Indian tribes, President Jackson states the following:
Some of the goals of the American Indian Movement (AIM) are to retrieve land taken by the US government, autonomy, and to have protection over sacred sights. Currently AIM is both successful and unsuccessful in gaining these goals.