The Indian Civil Rights Movement

As a wave of social reform for African-Americans and other minorities swept the nation, many groups such as Native Americans drew inspiration from the success of the Civil Rights Movement, leading to a growing awareness among Indians that challenged unfair governmental policies, as well as a method of unification and a platform for the disenfranchised to speak their mind. The Native American population in America was one of the groups with one of the largest poverty rates in the entire nation, and statistically being the least stable, having the worst health compared to other ethnicities, as Indians on average lived twenty years less than most Americans. Although Native Americans were a minority, making up only one percent of the total population, the unemployment rate among Indians was ten times the

This movement gained further movement as Indians became increasingly proactive through protest, such as the occupation of Alcatraz, that precipitated a long standoff with authorities. This movement with the various groups that compromised it, often turned to direct action when not satisfied with the actions of Congress. In spite of the multiple victories gained through the movement 's activism such as the Supreme Court ruling reaffirming the independent legal status of Indian tribes that could not be terminated", the Indian movement for Civil Rights failed to achieve full equality and justice for Native Americans due to different tribes and group holding varying beliefs over the main goal of the movement, and the diversity of the tribes hindered widespread Indian unification. In spite of the movement 's limitations, it certainly helped in progressing forward with a series of legal victories that ensured new legal rights and protections, elevating the social and political conditions of Native Americans to an unprecedented