Topic > The Impact of Native American Organizing After 1960

Inspired by the African American civil rights movement in 1968, Native American groups such as the American Indian Movement (AIM) were created to highlight the serious problems faced by the indigenous population of the United States. AIM has carried out a series of actions to raise awareness both among Native Americans and the rest of US society. The most notable included the March of the Broken Treaties of 1972 and the Wounded Knee Incident in 1973. Although AIM succeeded in drawing attention to the problems of Native Americans and convincing Congress to restore some of their rights, the results in the long term they are missing. We say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get Original Essay One way AIM attempted to receive compensation for US treaty violations was through the Trail of Broken Treaty in October 1972. In front of more than 600 AIM activists marched from San Francisco to Washington DC , AIM had presented a 20-point proposal that highlighted possible solutions to the serious problems of Native Americans. For example, one of the items was “Health, Housing, Employment, Economic Development and Education,” which stipulated that the proposed $15,000,000,000 budget for the remainder of the 1970s should be used to provide 100,000 housing units and more of 100,000 new permanent and tribal housing units. jobs. One could argue that the Trail of Broken Treaties was quite effective because it forced the federal government to react immediately. Because AIM protesters caused over $2 million in damage to the BIA building, President Nixon was forced to provide $66,000 in transportation money in exchange for the march's peaceful end. Therefore, even though AIM did not get the exact amount it requested, it still got reasonable compensation and, more importantly, it was the first time that AIM forced the government to follow its own rules. This demonstrates the effectiveness of the Trail because AIM was now seen as a potential threat to the government, thus making it more sensitive to Native American concerns. However, it could be argued that the Trail was not as effective because, although it attracted national publicity, most television and newspapers overlooked the historical context of the Trail. Historian Jason A. Heppler states, "Television coverage focused largely on the extent of damage done to the building rather than the underlying causes of the protest." This means that TV wanted to put Native Americans in a bad light so that the public would overlook the fact that its government broke more than 500 treaties with Native Americans to prevent more US citizens from joining the march and causing more damage. than they already existed. This shows that the Trail is ineffective as people did not realize the purpose of the Trail and continued to think of Native Americans as an aggressive and ignorant population, which increased the discrimination that Native Americans faced. As a result, the Trail was mostly ineffective in the long term because it failed to bring national publicity in a profitable way and did not obtain full compensation for the violation of treaties, which was the Trail's primary goal. The goal achieved its goal of publicizing the problems faced by Native Americans through the Wounded Knee Incident in 1973. In 1890, Sioux were massacred in the village of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation. In 1973, the village was occupied by 300 Sioux to draw attention to the serious problems.