American Indian Movement Essay

On March 28, 1830, President Andrew Jackson and Congress passed the Indian removal Act, which would become the first significant event in the forced relocation of American Indian tribes. This is only one example of racial discrimination towards American Indians. Since the founding of America, Native Americans have been pushed out of their own land, and forced to assimilate into more modern and Western civilization. In most cases, they were pressured to abandon their culture and traditions, fearing the white settlers’ greed and harassment. In the late 60s, organizations such as the American Indian Movement began to establish. This movement believed that in order to break out of these limitations, they needed to confront and resist the government.

While the AIM fought for urban Indians who lived with inequity and poverty, indigenous communities continue to suffer the same difficulties at an alarmingly higher rate than other ethnicities.
During the Civil Rights era, Native Americans were still bending to the will of white settlers, and were forced to relocate to government funded reservations. Although integration was heavily supported during this time, it was used at the expense of the Native Americans’ traditions and culture. In an article called “American Indian Movement,” it explains how the government carelessly chose to manage the placement of indigenous tribes. This article states that “In 1956, the U.S. government passed the Indian Relocation Act. The intention of the legislation was to assimilate members of tribal nations into the dominant, white culture, which amounted to immeasurable cultural genocide” (“American Indian

They conducted movements in the purpose of emphasizing the revitalization of indigenous traditions and communities, and the elimination of European influence. The AIM took inspiration from the African American civil rights movement, and had similar motivations, but from a different perspective. For example, in an article from the Encyclopedia of Race and Racism, it is mentioned that the “AIM blended civil rights and antiwar protest strategies--such as marches, demonstrations, occupations, and sit-ins--with Indian symbolic targets and repertoires of resistance” (Moore). The AIM’s approach to tackling racial discrimination is important in understanding the dissatisfaction of Native Americans towards the governments’ treatment. Encouraging this wave of activism in the community, with the structure of past civil rights movements, many impactful protests began to unfold throughout the following decades. Their first national protest of the 1970s, the “Trail of Broken Treaties,” was able to propel them into popularity, and cemented their central role in organizing protests for American Indian rights. Although the protest started in California, AIM activists traveled across the country, ending up in Washington D.C. In an excerpt of an article, an anecdote narrates a witness’ experience as she watches the youth of a reservation in South Dakota respond to the AIM passing