American Indian
Movement
(AIM)
Brief Overview
•Treaties
•Allotment
•Boarding Schools
•Termination and
relocation
• Aim was founded
minneapolis
in 1968 in
•Edward Benton, Vernon and Clyde
Bellecourt were among the
founders
•Dedicated to protecting as well as
imporoving life of native americans
as well as keeping their culture
alive
•First goal: Deal with police
brutality
•1969 – Occupation
of Alcatraz Island
•1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie.
•19 month occupation
•More than 5,600 American Indians
•Wanted positive example: no
violence
Occupation of Alcatraz
•Celebrity Support:
•Boxes of food and money from
CCR, Grateful Dead, Jane Fonda,
Marlon Brando and polititians.
•Life wasn’t perfect occupying the
island:
•Many tribes
•Drugs/alcohol
•Death – 12 yr old Yvonne Oakes
Outcome of Alcatraz
•Some gov. officials wanted
armed takeover – Nixon said
‘no’
•A fire burned 4 buildings
which signaled the end of the
occupation
•People began leaving on
their own
Takeover of Winter Dam
•Dam – Built 1921 with damaging
effects
•1971 – takeover began
•AIM assisted the LCO tribe
•Winter Dam 50 yr. License about to
expire – tried to block renewal
•Divided the ojibwe community
•Success: Gov. replaced 25,000
acres, able to generate hydroelectric power.
•Issue of flooded graves: unresolved
Winter Dam, Continued
“Basically, all we were doing
was some real minor symbolic
statement of just occupying the
dam, but immediately we were
aware that there were federal
marshalls in the region…There
were planes flying over and
newsment started getting onto
the story…people downstream
believed that we had wired the
dam to explode…there was quite
a calamity.”
-Richard St. Germaine
Children at a 1971 demonstration by the Lac Court
Oreilles Ojibwe band and the American Indian
Movement (AIM) against relicensing the Winter
Dam.
-Chippewa Valley Museum
Takeover at Wounded Knee
Wounded Knee, Cont’d
1973 – Lakota contact AIM to help
with corruption within the BIA and
Tribal Council
Armed indians reclaimed wounded
knee
Over 75 nations were represented
Many demands:
•Investigations into 371 Treaties
•Investigate misuse of tribal
funds
•BIA investigation
Wounded Knee Cont’d
•Government cut of electricity and
tried to keep food from going in.
•Heavy Gunfire daily
Buddy Lamond and Frank
Clearwater were killed – 12 others
disappeared.
After 71 days of being free peoples,
the siege ended – Over 1200 were
arrested
Wounded Knee Cont’d
Next 3 years “Reign of Terror”
•64 unsolved murder victims
•300 harassed and beaten
•562 arrests made – only 15
convicted of a crime
Milo Goings, a 27-yearold Oglala, gets a ride
from a fellow tribe
member after Goings was
wounded in an exchange
of gunfire between the
occupiers of Wounded
Knee and U.S. marshals
on March 10, 1973.
AIM has been involved
in many other things
as well.
Link for overview of
events:
http://www.aimoveme
nt.org/ggc/history.h
tml
AIM today
AIM still patrols the streets of
Minneapolis for their original
purpose, police brutality.
Involved in protesting Indian
mascots
Committed to keeping native
culture alive
1993 - Split into two factions due
to differences in opinion
Bibliography:
http://siouxme.com/lodge/alcatraz_np.html
http://siouxme.com/siege.html
http://www.aimovement.org/ggc/history.html
http://www.cvmuseum.com/Paths5.html
Bieder, Robert E, Native American Communities in
Wisconsin 1600-1930
Lurie, Nancy Oestrich, Wisconsin Indians
Paths of the People, The Ojibwe in the Chippewa
Valley
Prucha, Francis Paul, Documents of United States
Indian Policy