Throughout the United States, movements of equality begin to challenge the 1960’s. Not only did it shape time, but it also encouraged minority groups to speak out on their lost civil liberties. African Americans were essential the leaders of this monumental crusade, then others began to follow. The American Indian Movement (AIM), composed of young Indians, voiced their concerns into a 20-point manifesto of their lost rights as Indigenous peoples. They demanded civil rights from what they saw as broken treaties established long ago with the United States federal government.
Before AIM begin to challenge urban Indians into political action. The relationship between the United States Federal Government and Indians was merely a closed, paper partnership.
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Which gave them jurisdiction over land distribution and the resell of lands designated by individual Indians. Although at the time, activists were using the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, that was only applicable to Sioux Indians, making the takeover of Alcatraz a stretch. The primary goal for the takeover of Alcatraz Island was to implement an Indian cultural center on the island for future generations to come. Indians saw this as an opportunity to share and maintain their heritage as a collective group, but others like the United States Federal Government saw their actions as mediocre since the BIA saw these vocal actions to be an ignorant effort towards their own actions by running federally ruined programs created in order to help the …show more content…
They used the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, to justify their actions in this takeover since in the treaty it states that the United States will recognize the Black Hills belonging to the Sioux Indians. (https://ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=42) Leaders such as Banks and Means led a caravan of AIM members and some Pine Ridge residents towards Wounded Knee, where a seventy-one-day siege would take place. Guardians of the Oglala Nation (GOONs) and Federal Marshalls sought to put an end to AIM’s actions, due to AIM’s aggressive reputation. Despite the GOONs and Federal Marshall’s concerns, the caravan toward of AIM members went on without delay. Cars filled with Indians left the Pine Ridge Reservation with the blessings of esteemed tribal elders into the night shooting and honking their way towards the liberation of the American Indian peoples. This massive caravan had confronted both the Federal Marshalls and the GOONs, along with Tribal law enforcement, trying to stop this AIM caravan from moving further. But AIM members kept pursuing towards Wounded Knee, South Dakota twenty-one miles away from Pine Ridge. Once the activists arrived, the small town of Wounded Knee had gone through a siege of vandalism and terror from AIM members. The only store was ransacked along with the museum. The young AIM members were the ones who broke the