American Indian Movement Analysis

Many social movements are graded by the impact on specific outcomes or policies that are a result of the social movement. The American Indian Movement (AIM) could be graded on these same grounds but a more accurate portal of AIM would be to grade the AIM organization based simply on the ability of AIM to be a self-determining organization took action regardless of what the federal government allowed. A young American Indian activist Clyde Warrior stated in a paper entitled “What I Would Like My Community to Look Like in Ten Years”: Programs must Indian creations, Indian choices, Indian experiences. Even the failures must be experiences because only then will Indians understand why a program failed and not blame themselves for some personal

The two main ways that the AIM helped renew Native American culture and spirituality through the sweat lodge and Sun Dance. The inclusion of both these rituals shows how the AIM organization was defining its purpose and life. After Dennis Banks was taught these spiritual activities, they became more common with the AIM organization. While spiritual ceremonies were being performed around this time there were not as public. For this reason Dennis Banks sought out Henry Crow Dog, a Lakota Sioux, to help inform him of things such as the sweat lodge and Sun Dance rituals. The spiritual awakening of these practices gave AIM a more stable core. The many spiritual practices of the other tribes, within AIM, were not detracted from in favor of the Lakota Sioux spirituality. Instead, the Lakota Sioux spiritual practices were sought out because of their accessibility. Many of the spiritual practices of other tribes were not being practiced openly were they could not be accessed. The national spotlight that AIM received probably helped elevate the spirituality of Native American peoples and probably helped revive of American Indian spiritual customs or at least sparked the interest of other American Indians to search out the spirituality of their own

AIM had planned on meeting with government officials during this time in order to go over the twenty point proposal but the meetings did not occur. Instead, the housing arrangements made for the convoy turned out to be less than ideal. The convoy instinctively went to the BIA building looking to start the meetings that they had arranged. AIM had not intended to occupy the BIA building but instead simply went for their meetings. The convoy followed and more and more people started to arrive at the BIA. Later in the day, it was confirmed that all meetings had been canceled. After the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Louis Bruce, was fired for not removing the American Indians from the BIA building, a decision had to be made about where the AIM convoy would stay. Many of the places that were offered to the AIM convoy were also in very poor condition. Once the Lieutenant of the Metropolitan police ordered the other police officers inside and d fight broke out, AIM decided to take over the building. The Trail of Broken Treaties did not start out as an occupation but it turned into one once violence was inflicted on them first. After about five or six days, AIM had come to an agreement with the government. The agreement stated that the government would seriously consider looking into the twenty points presented by AIM and produce a council that would go over