Indian Termination Policy

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In 1953, the Indian termination policy was enacted by the Federal Government to help assimilate Native Americans into mainstream American culture. Unfortunately the policy was created based on the idea that Native Americans should leave their traditional living situations and their culture in order to become more “civilized.” From the government’s perspective, they were trying to make Native Americans citizens who were granted all the rights and privileges of citizenship. The policy however, only added fuel to the flame, Native Americans felt that their own desires to preserve their tribes and cultural identity was being taken away from them. The activism that the Native American people were involved in began after World War II when they were …show more content…

government. (Deloria-God is Red 5). This narrative of the “vanishing Indian” continues to persist in American society today. In the summer of 1968, about 200 community members met in Minneapolis, Minnesota to discuss various harmful issues that the United States government was inflicting on the Native American community, including high rates of unemployment, police brutality, and unfair government policies. Clyde Bellecourt, Dennis Banks, Russell Means, and others were integral in founding the movement to advocate for the Native American community. They decided that in order to initiate true change, it would be more effective to capture the public’s attention through large demonstrations rather than through mere passive …show more content…

Rushmore was another one of AIM’s well-known protests. This was done to gain recognition of the acts of land loss as well as the violation of a Native American spiritual site. The Black Hills have an extreme amount of significance for Native American tribes, including the Souix, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Kiowa nations. The United States government extracted minerals as well as created a tourist attraction. AIM members renamed the area Mt. Crazy Horse and performed cleansing ceremonies in the area (5). AIM is also widely known today for opposing the use of indigenous figures as sports mascots, such as the Cleveland Indians, Chicago Blackhawks, and the Washington Redskins. They have organized large protests at the Super Bowl against these teams and the use of cultural symbols, which have been widely publicized. One of these well-known campaigns against such mascots is the #NotYourMascot, run by a union of multiple organizations in the Minneapolis area including AIM-Minneapolis (6). This has been extremely successful in gaining recognition for the derogatory mascots as the march continues to grow

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