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What was the American Indian Movement? |
The entire history of Natives is a fight for civil rights. Since the very beginning when colonizers began coming to their land, they have been fighting to preserve their identity, values, land, and rights. To put their civil rights in only one category is limiting but the civil rights movement was during the 1900's so this is what will be covered.
To begin, tribes came together to create the United Tribes of All Nations. This, just like the name says, united many different tribes. This allowed for tribes to fight together for their rights as opposed to in the past, where individual tribes had to fight rights on their own. This unification proved that there is power in numbers. After this unification came the American Indian Movement. This movement began as a way to help the Natives that lived in poor areas as a result of the forced relocation of the United States but then became a movement to fight for all things related to Natives. One prominent thing that Natives continuously, and still continue to fight for is the rights to their land. The United States has taken substantial amount of land from the Natives, in fact, the entire United States was once Native land. As a result, Natives began to occupy different areas. Two popular times of occupying are the occupation of Alcatraz and Mount Rushmore. Aside from fighting for land, Natives faced another problem of education. In the United States history, the education for Natives has been discriminatory and did not allow the Native culture in schools. During this time period, tribal colleges came into existence. Many people are knowledgeable of HBCU's and these Tribal Colleges hold the same idea of retaining the culture and expression on campus. The Indian Education Act of 1972, gave money to Native education. The next four acts, Indian Self-Determination Act, Indian Religious Freedom Act, Indian Child Welfare Act, and Native American Languages Act, are all rights Natives should have already had without having an act needed to assure of them. The self-determination act said they had the right to be in charge of their own programs and services. The religious freedom act said Natives could practice their own spiritual beliefs, something that should be covered in the first amendment. The child welfare act aided the Native children who were being taken from their families. Lastly, the Native American Languages Act promoted the use of Native languages instead of hindering them. |