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Esther Ross
-Completed high school in California
-Worked many different jobs like secertary and newspaper reporter
-Helped establish Stillaguamish- filed claims against the federal government
-Moved to Western Washington State to help relatives
-campaigned for 50 years for her people`s rights.
-Tribal membership rose from 29 to 160 before her death.
-She established fishing rights for the Stillaguamish, obtained federal recognition, and gained treaty rights that made them eligible for federal benefits. -
Fish-ins in various states
-Major civil rights issue for a long time has been fishing rights
-Successfully defended these rights with treaties
-began “fish-in” protests
-SAIA (Survival of the American Indian Association) was founded, a radical group, determined to resolve fishing rights.
-mainly successful in securing treaty fishing rights for Native Americans
-Native American Rights movement also helped the civil rights movement in general -
Occupation of Alcatraz
-group by the Indians of all Tribes
-lasted 19 months
-forcibly ended by the US government
-79 American Indians went to occupy the island, coast guard was partially successful in blockading
-14 protestors landed on the island to begin the occupation
-intention of the Occupation was to gain Indian control over the island for the purpose of building a center for Native American Studies, an American Indian spiritual center, an ecology center, and an American Indian Museum -
Founding of AIM
The AIM or America Indian Movement, was created in order for Native americans to gain the same rights as the majority white people who were treating them so poorly. It was founded by large amounts of people from minneapoli's native american community and eventually gained support all over the U.S. and some of canada. Since the creation of AIM the group has led protests advocating for indigenous american intrests. it has also monitored police activities, and coordinated employment. -
Occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington, DC
the occupation of the bureau of indian affairs, was the combined group of over 500 native americans and the AIM. The group then took over the building (the BIA) in washington and began to vandalize it after being told they could negotiate for better housing and other issues but was interpreted as a government doublecross. they caused over 700,000 dollars in damage and native american officials said the loss of many of their records could set them back for nearly 50 years. -
Occupation of Wounded Knee by Oglala Sioux
-200 Oglala Lakota and followers of the AIM occupied the town of Wounded Knee
-Grassroots protest came after the failure to impeach the elected tribal president, Richard Wilson
-The government failed to fulfill the treaties of Indian people
-Indians demanded the reopening of treaty negotiations
-Results: wounded knee returned to government control
-Violence increased on the reservation -
Major Accomplishments
some of the major accomplishments of group includes the returning of fishing rights to native americans, the returning of some civil rights to native americans, and the proccess of getting the AIM off the ground and functioning properly so that it continued to work (and still does work) even today in the early to mid 2000's. -
Goals and problems today (1)
one problem that the native americans continue to fight for today, is the protection of native american sacred sites and the land they possess. recently in 2008 representatives from over 100 different native american tribes came together to walk over 8 thousand miles for the recogniton of native sacred sites and the protection of their surrounding environments. -
Goals and problems today (2)
Another problem they fight for is the recogniton and the respect of spiritual object in their culture. in 2003, the AIM rocognized the creation of fake spiritual objects and cerminoies used for tourist attraction in areas, and are now attempting to create a policy that requires authentic tribal identifiction of tribal objects in order to stop the spread of their fake practices.
