National Tribal And American Organization – History
In this lesson we study about national, tribal and American organization History
Treaty of Fort Laramie, 1868
United States recognizes The Black Hills as part of the Sioux reservation, closing the land to white immigrants(wag). Soon overrun by gold prospectors starting The Black Hills war. The Treaty of Fort Laramie (also called the Sioux Treaty of 1868) was an agreement between the United States and the Oglala, Miniconjou, and Brulé bands of Lakota people, Yanktonai Dakota, and Arapaho Nation[1] signed in 1868 at Fort Laramie in the Wyoming Territory, guaranteeing to the Lakota ownership of the Black Hills, and further land and hunting rights in South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana. The Powder River Country was to be henceforth closed to all whites. The treaty ended Red Cloud’s War.
Red Cloud
A very strong war leader and a chief of the Oglala Lakota. He led as a chief from 1868 to 1909. One of the most capable Native American opponents the United States Army faced, he led a successful campaign in 1866-1868 known as Red Cloud’s War over control of the Powder River Country in northeastern Wyoming and southern Montana. Ended with the Treaty of Fort Laramie.
George Armstrong Custer
After the Civil War, American officer, Custer was dispatched to the west to fight in the Indian Wars. His disastrous final battle overshadowed his prior achievements. Custer and all the men with him were killed at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876, fighting against a coalition of Native American tribes in a battle that has come to be popularly known in American history as “Custer’s Last Stand.”
Black Hills
Sacred land for both the Sioux and Cheyenne. Overrun by gold prospectors in the 1870’s leading to the Black Hills war.
Little Bighorn
Sight of the slaughter of General Custer’s troops. Most famous Indian victory. Those involved were later tracked down and captured. Congress takes back the Black Hills and relinquishes Lakota rights outside of reservation. Cheyennes were also affected by the outcome of the battle. The Battle of the Little Bighorn, commonly referred to as Custer’s Last Stand, was an armed engagement between combined forces of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes, against the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army
Sioux Wars
Battles leading up the the Sioux uprising; include Wounded Knee. Indians fight alongside Americans to prevent Sioux expansion. Short-term gains made for Crows.
Wovoka
also known as Jack Wilson, was the Northern Paiute religious leader who founded the Ghost Dance movement. Wovoka means “cutter” or “wood cutter” in the Northern Paiute language A return of old ways that was a response to reservation life. Non-Indians see it as preparation for uprising
Chief Joseph
Succeeded his father Tuekakas (Chief Joseph the Elder) as the leader of the Wal-lam-wat-kain (Wallowa) band of Nez Perce, a Native American tribe indigenous to the Wallowa Valley in northeastern Oregon, in the interior Pacific Northwest region of the United States.
He led his band during the most tumultuous period in their contemporary history when they were forcibly removed from their ancestral lands in the Wallowa Valley by the United States federal government and forced to move northeast, onto the significantly reduced reservation in Lapwai, Idaho Territory. A series of events which culminated in episodes of violence led those Nez Perce who resisted removal including Joseph’s band and an allied band of the Palouse tribe to take flight to attempt to reach political asylum, ultimately with the Sioux chief Sitting Bull in Canada.
Detribalization(pg. 415-16)
The act of revoking an Indian nation’s tribal status. Used the means of Americanizing Indians. Agents play key role in monitoring reservations. Resentment channeled at Indians, not against the fed gov.
Dawes Act
1887Used in order to reduce # of reservations. Assessed and reorganized tribal lands into allotments for individual Indians. Meant to assimilate Indians into American society, land ownership was seen as a crucial step.
Oklahoma
Designated ‘Indian Territory’ following the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Allotment produced huge losses of land and the area eventually became the state of Oklahoma in 1907. Some Indians resist this sale leading to violence with whites. Non-Indians marrying Indians to be eligible for allotments.
Boarding Schools
Established by Christian missionaries to educate Indian youth according to Euro-American standards.
Richard Pratt
Army Captain in charge of prisoners at Ft. Marion. Forced prisoners to assimilate to white lifestyle. Opened Nations 1st off reservation boarding school in Carisle, Pennsylvannia. Pratt’s practice of Americanization of Native Americans by forced cultural assimilation, which he effected both at Fort Marion and Carlisle, was later regarded by some as a form of cultural genocide.[2] He believed that to claim their rightful place as American citizens, Native Americans needed to renounce their tribal way of life, convert to Christianity, abandon their reservations, and seek education and employment among the “best classes” of Americans. In his writings he described his belief that the government must “kill the Indian to save the man”.
Charles Eastman
Educated at boarding school, later went on to be a doctor and champion of Indian rights. Was of Santee Dakota and Anglo-American ancestry. Active in politics and issues on American Indian rights, he worked to improve the lives of youths, and founded thirty-two Native American chapters of the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA). He also helped found the Boy Scouts of America. He is considered the first Native American author to write American history from the Native point of view.
Francis La Flesche
Omaha Indian and one of the first Indian anthropologists, worked for the Smithsonian.
Buffalo Bill
Creator of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. Hired ‘authentic’ Indians to reenact battles from the Indian Wars such as The Little Bighorn. Soon grew to enjoy the company of his actors and brought them all over the world treating them kindly. There was an interesting portrayal of Indian identity in his shows: on one hand, during the show the Indians would be shown as violent savages about to go extinct; on the other hand, before/after the show visitors would be able to walk through the Indian encampment and see their domestic life — a contradiction. Buffalo Bill shows were largely responsible for capitalizing on/popularizing the image of Native Americans as savages on the brink of extinction/a warrior culture (cowboys vs. indians)
Alfred Kroeber
Anthropologist who studied Ishi (add more to this)
Luther Standing Bear
notable in American history as one of the first Native American authors, educators, philosophers and actors of the 20th century. Standing Bear fought to preserve Lakota heritage and sovereignty and was at the forefront of a Progressive movement to change government policy towards Native Americans. Standing Bear was one of a small group of Lakota leaders of his generation, such as Black Elk, Gertrude Bonnin and Charles Eastman, who were born and raised in the oral traditions of their culture, educated in white culture and wrote significant historic accounts of their people and history in English. Luther’s experiences in early life, the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, Wild Westing with Buffalo Bill and life on government reservations present a unique view of a Native American during of the Progressive Era in American history. Standing Bear’s commentaries on Native American culture and wisdom educated the American public, deepened public awareness and created popular support to change government policies toward Native American peoples. Luther Standing Bear helped create the popular 20th century image that Native American culture is holistic and respectful of nature. Luther Standing Bear’s classic commentaries appear on college reading lists in anthropology, literature, history and philosophy, and leave a legacy and treasure of Native American wisdom
John Collier
He served as Commissioner for the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the President Franklin D. Roosevelt administration, from 1933-1945. He is considered chiefly responsible for the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, which he intended to correct some of the problems in federal policy toward Native Americans. It was considered to aid in ending the loss of reservations lands held by Indians, and making some progress for enabling tribal nations to re-institute self-government.
Indian Reorganization Act
sometimes known as the Indian New Deal, was U.S. federal legislation that secured certain rights to Native Americans (known in law as American Indians or Indians), including Alaska Natives.[1] These include actions that contributed to the reversal of the Dawes Act’s privatization of communal holdings of American Indian tribes and a return to local self-government on a tribal basis. The Act also restored to Indians the management of their assets (being mainly land) and included provisions intended to create a sound economic foundation for the inhabitants of Indian reservations.
The IRA was perhaps the most significant initiative of John Collier Sr., Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) from 1933 to 1945. He had worked on Indian issues for ten years prior to his appointment, particularly with the American Indian Defense Association. He had intended to reverse some of the worst government policies and provide ways for American Indians to re-establish sovereignty and self-government, to reduce the losses of reservation lands, and establish ways for Indians to build economic self-sufficiency. Various other interests effected changes to the legislation that reduced protections for Indians and preserved oversight by the BIA .
The act did not require tribes to adopt a constitution. But, when a tribe chose to do so, the constitution had to:
–allow the tribal council to employ legal counsel;
–prohibit the tribal council from engaging in any land transactions without majority approval of the tribe; and,
–authorize the tribal council to negotiate with the Federal, State, and local governments.
Code Talkers
The Navajo code talkers contributed to American victory in the Pacific by conveying coded messages in Navajo that the Japanese were never able to crack.
Citizenship:
when you are a citizen
Ira Hamilton Hayes:
Pima Indian who served in WWII in the US Marines. Famous for helping raise the flag on Iwo Jima. Descended into alcoholism and died in a ditch, forgotten.
Termination
Indian termination was the policy of the United States from the mid-1940s to the mid-1960s.[1] The belief was that Native Americans would be better off if assimilated as individuals into mainstream American society. To that end, Congress proposed to end the special relationship between tribes and the federal government. The intention was to grant Native Americans all the rights and privileges of citizenship, and to reduce their dependence on a bureaucracy whose mismanagement had been documented.
In practical terms, the policy terminated the U.S. government’s recognition of sovereignty of tribes, trusteeship of Indian reservations, and exclusion of Indians from state laws. Native Americans were to become subject to state and federal taxes as well as laws, from which they had previously been exempt
Relocation
was a United States law intended to encourage Native Americans in the United States to leave Indian reservations, acquire vocational skills, and assimilate into the general population. Part of the Indian termination policy of that era, it played a significant role in increasing the population of urban Indians in succeeding decades.[1][2][3][4]
At a time when the U.S. government was decreasing subsidies to Indians living on reservations, the Relocation Act offered to pay moving expenses and provide some vocational training for those who were willing to move from the reservations to certain government-designated cities
National Congress of American Indians
The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) is an American Indian and Alaska Native indigenous rights organization. It was founded in 1944[1] in response to termination and assimilation policies that the U.S. government forced upon the tribal governments in contradiction of their treaty rights and status as sovereign entities. The organization continues to be an association of federally recognized American Indian tribes.
National Indian Youth Council
is considered the nation’s second oldest American Indian organization [2] and currently has a membership of more than 15,000 nationwide. It was the first independent Native student organization, and one of the first Native organizations to use direct action as a means to pursue their goals. During the 1960s NIYC acted primarily as a civil rights organization and was very active in the movement to preserve tribal fishing rights in the Northwest
American Indian Movement:
is a Native American activist organization in the United States, founded in 1968 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with an agenda that focuses on spirituality, leadership, and sovereignty. The founders included Dennis Banks, George Mitchell, Herb Powless, Clyde Bellecourt, Harold Goodsky, Eddie Benton-Banai, and a number of others in the Minneapolis Native American community.[1] Russell Means, born Oglala Lakota, was an early leader in 1970s protests.
The organization was formed to address various issues concerning the Native American urban community in Minneapolis, including poverty, housing, treaty issues, and police harassment.[2] From its beginnings in Minnesota, AIM soon attracted members from across the United States and Canada. It participated in the Rainbow Coalition organized by the civil rights activist Fred Hampton. Charles Deegan Sr. was involved with the AIM Patrol.
In October 1971, AIM gathered members from across the country to a protest in Washington, D.C. known as the “Trail of Broken Treaties”. AIM gained national attention when it seized the Bureau of Indian Affairs national headquarters and presented a 20-point list of demands to the federal government. In 1973, it led a 71-day armed standoff with federal forces at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
Trail of Broken Treaties
was a cross-country protest in the United States by American Indian and First Nations organizations that took place in the Autumn of 1972. It was designed to bring attention to American Indian issues, such as treaty rights, living standards, and inadequate housing.
The eight organizations sponsoring the caravan included the American Indian Movement, the National Indian Brotherhood (a Canadian organization), the Native American Rights Fund, the National Indian Youth Council, the National American Indian Council, the National Council on Indian Work, National Indian Leadership Training, and the American Indian Committee on Alcohol and Drug Abuse.
In Minneapolis, a Twenty-Point Position paper was drawn up.[2]
The caravan began on the west coast of North America in October, with protesters traveling by car, bus, and van. It reached its destination–Washington, D.C.—in early November (the week before the day of the presidential election), culminating with the takeover of the Bureau of Indian Affairs building by participants.
Alcatraz:
According to the IAT, the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868) between the U.S. and the Sioux all retired, abandoned or out-of-use federal land was returned to the Native people from whom it was acquired. Since Alcatraz penitentiary had been closed on March 21, 1963, and the island had been declared surplus federal property in 1964, a number of Red Power activists felt the island qualified for a reclamation.
20 Points
20 point list of demands and complaints with the US Government, released during the occupation of the BIA building.
Fish-Ins
Pacific NW tribes enforcing their right to fish there. Form of a sit-in as a form of protest. The Fish Wars were a series of civil disobedience protests in the 1960s and ’70s in which Native American tribes around the Puget Sound pressured the U.S. government to recognize fishing rights granted by the Point No Point Treaty.
Dr. Connie Pinkerton-Uri
Did a study on the forced sterilization of Indian women. He found that 1 in 4 women were sterilized against their will.
Dine College
First college founded on reservation in 1968. Gave Indian students the option of higher education on reservation instead of travelling to an alien environment.
American Indian Religious Freedom Act
is a United States federal law and a joint resolution of Congress that was passed in 1978. It was enacted to protect and preserve the traditional religious rights and cultural practices of American Indians, Eskimos, Aleuts, and Native Hawaiians.[1] These rights include, but are not limited to, access of sacred sites, freedom to worship through ceremonial and traditional rights and use and possession of objects considered sacred. The Act required policies of all governmental agencies to eliminate interference with the free exercise of Native religion, based on the First Amendment, and to accommodate access to and use of religious sites to the extent that the use is practicable and is not inconsistent with an agency’s essential functions. It also acknowledges the prior violation of that right
Leonard Crow Dog
a Sicangu Lakota medicine man and spiritual leader who became well known during the takeover of the town of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota in 1973, known as the Wounded Knee Incident. Through his writings and teachings he has sought to unify Indian people of all nations.[1] As a practitioner of traditional herbal medicine and a leader of Sun Dance ceremonies, he is also dedicated to keeping Lakota traditions alive.
Mary Crow Dog
was a Sicangu Lakota writer and activist who was a member of the American Indian Movement during the 1970s and participated in some of their most publicized events, including the Wounded Knee Incident when she was 20 years old.
Raymond Yellow Thunder
was an Oglala Lakota, born in Kyle, South Dakota on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. He was killed in Gordon, Nebraska after being attacked while intoxicated. His death became notable as an example of a racial assault, as he was killed by four white men who had bragged earlier that evening about beating an Indian. The case provoked incorrect rumors that he was tortured and mutilated prior to his death, and members of the American Indian Movement went to Gordon in search of justice in the case. The prosecution of his killers aroused much controversy, as the two brothers convicted of manslaughter were given light sentences.
Pan-Indianism
The belief that all Indian tribes are united. A philosophy and movement promoting unity among different American Indian groups in the Americas regardless of tribal or local affiliations.[1] The movement is largely associated with Native Americans in the Continental United States, but has spread to other indigenous groups as well. A parallel growth of the concept has occurred in Alaska and Canada. There, however, other indigenous peoples, such as the Inuit and the Métis are often included in a wider rubric, sometimes called pan-Aboriginal or some variation thereof.[2]
Pan-Indian organizations seek to pool the resources of indigenous groups in order to protect the interests of native peoples across the world
Richard Oakes
A Mohawk Native American activist who promoted the fundamental idea that Native peoples have a right to sovereignty, justice, respect and control over their own destinies. His legacy reflects the struggles of Native peoples and all people to maintain their land, identity, and lifeways. Was disappointed in the classes that were offered and he went on to work with an Anthropology professor to change that. Oakes played an integral part in creating one of the first Native American studies departments in the nation. He developed the initial curriculum and encouraged other American Indians to enroll at San Francisco State University. At the very same time, the Mohawk National Council was forming and traveling in troupes to fight oppression of Mohawk religion by means of peaceful protest, which they called White Roots of Peace. Spring 1969, Oakes met the members of the White Roots of Peace who encouraged him to take a stand and fight for what he believed in. Oakes had also gained the support of many students. These two events proved to be the culmination of the Occupation of Alcatraz.
California v. Cabazon
was a breakthrough case in the development of Native American Gaming. The Supreme Court decision, which has come to be known as the Cabazon Decision of 1987, effectively overturned the existing laws restricting gaming/gambling on U.S. Indian reservations.
Indian Gaming Regulatory Act
Protected Indian gaming/gambling on reservations, defined three classes of games ranging from horse racing, to bingo, to slots. A 1988 United States federal law that establishes the jurisdictional framework that governs Indian gaming. There was no federal gaming structure before this act.[1] The stated purposes of the act include providing a legislative basis for the operation/regulation of Indian gaming, protecting gaming as a means of generating revenue for the tribes, encouraging economic development of these tribes, and protecting the enterprises from negative influences (such as organized crime).[2] The law established the National Indian Gaming Commission and gave it a regulatory mandate. The law also delegated new authority to the U.S. Department of the Interior and created new federal offenses, giving the U.S. Department of Justice authority to prosecute them.
Ishi
was the last member of the Yahi, the last surviving group of the Yana people of the U.S. state of California. Widely acclaimed in his time as the “last wild Indian” in America, Ishi lived most of his life completely outside modern culture. At about 49 years of age, in 1911, he emerged from “the wild” near Oroville, California, leaving his ancestral homeland, present-day Tehama County, near the foothills of Lassen Peak, known to Ishi as Wa ganu p’a.
Ishi means “man” in the Yana language. The anthropologist Alfred Kroeber gave this name to the man because it was rude to ask someone’s name in the Yahi culture. When asked his name, he said: “I have none, because there were no people to name me,” meaning that no Yahi had ever spoken his name. He was taken in by anthropologists at the University of California, Berkeley, who both studied him and hired him as a research assistant. He lived most of his remaining five years in a university building in San Francisco.
Grattan’s Attack
the opening engagement of the First Sioux War, fought between United States Army and Lakota Sioux warriors on August 19, 1854. It occurred east of Fort Laramie, Nebraska Territory, in present-day Goshen County, Wyoming.
A small detachment of soldiers entered a large Sioux encampment to arrest a man accused of taking a migrant’s cow, although such matters by treaty were to be handled by the US Indian Agent. After one of the soldiers shot Chief Conquering Bear and killed him, the Brulé Lakotas returned fire and killed a total of 29 soldiers, Lieutenant John Grattan, and a civilian interpreter. The massacre, as it was called by the American press, is considered an early, significant event in the Plains Indian Wars.
Manifest Destiny
Americans proclaim they have God given right to occupy all land west to the pacific and a duty to extend the blessings of American democracy to the people directly living there
Sand Creek
was an atrocity in the Indian Wars that occurred on November 29, 1864, when a 700-man force of Colorado Territory militia attacked and destroyed a peaceful village of Cheyenne and Arapaho encamped in southeastern Colorado Territory,[3] killing and mutilating an estimated 70-163 Indians, about two-thirds of whom were women and children. The location has been designated the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site and is administered by the National Park Service.
Chief Illiniwek
Mascot used by U of Illinois that was found offensive for its ethnic stereotype and thus removed in 2007. NCAA steps in and places ban on schools with hostile Indian nicknames.
Pequot
Indian tribe that was decimated during the Pequot War, leaving very few members left. Mashantucket Pequot Nation rises to power with the repurchase of land in the 1980s and builds an enterprise from Foxwoods Resort Casino.
Hard Rock Cafe
Seminole tribe’s casino
…
The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA)
The Act requires federal agencies and institutions that receive federal funding[1] to return Native American “cultural items” to lineal descendants and culturally affiliated Indian tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations. Cultural items include human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony. A program of federal grants assists in the repatriation process and the Secretary of the Interior may assess civil penalties on museums that fail to comply. Most notably: Kennewick Man and Ishi’s brain.
Grandfather Peyote
Myth that explains the origins of psychoactive peyote and its use as medicine by the Sioux.
Wounded Knee
Occupation of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge reservation by Oglala Lakota. Standoff with FBI/US Marshals lasting 71 days. on the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in the U.S. state of South Dakota. It was the last battle of the American Indian Wars. On the day before, a detachment of the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment commanded by Major Samuel M. Whitside intercepted Spotted Elk’s band of Miniconjou Lakota and 38 Hunkpapa Lakota near Porcupine Butte and escorted them five miles westward (8 km) to Wounded Knee Creek, where they made camp.
The remainder of the 7th Cavalry Regiment arrived, led by Colonel James W. Forsyth and surrounded the encampment supported by four Hotchkiss guns.[5]
On the morning of December 29, the troops went into the camp to disarm the Lakota. One version of events claims that during the process of disarming the Lakota, a deaf tribesman named Black Coyote was reluctant to give up his rifle, claiming he had paid a lot for it.[6] A scuffle over Black Coyote’s rifle escalated and a shot was fired which resulted in the 7th Cavalry’s opening fire indiscriminately from all sides, killing men, women, and children, as well as some of their own fellow soldiers. Those few Lakota warriors who still had weapons began shooting back at the attacking soldiers, who quickly suppressed the Lakota fire. The surviving Lakota fled, but U.S. cavalrymen pursued and killed many who were unarmed.
By the time it was over, at least 150 men, women, and children of the Lakota had been killed and 51 wounded (4 men, 47 women and children, some of whom died later); some estimates placed the number of dead at 300. Twenty-five soldiers also died, and 39 were wounded (6 of the wounded would later die).[7] It is believed that many were the victims of friendly fire,[citation needed] as the shooting took place at close range in chaotic conditions. At least twenty soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor.
Proclamation to the Great White Father, 1969:
Proclamation made by Indians occupying Alcatraz Island claiming it as their own. Offered $24 in crafts as “payment” for the island.