Native American Rights

Anthropology Proposal

Literature from this movement is important to the readers of today because it show them only one of the many countless examples of the powerful oppressing those who are weaker in one way or another.  This part of American history causes people to realize how the “strong” are always doing the same thing over and over again as time passes and how nothing ever seems to change until people decide to make things change.  The fight for Native American rights protesting is a great subject to protest because of its history with our country and its highlighting on the fact that we come from a “racist” society.  To be given an insight such as this is a great prize that nobody should live without because that is one of the few base causes for all wars, racist tendencies, and other inhumane things.  To not know the history of the human race is to be unaware of the human race itself.  We live without knowing the causes for societal beliefs and systems and we live without knowing how wrong we are when we follow what society tells us to do and say and believe.  It is my belief that all we human must know our history and we must know what mistakes our ancestors have taken part in because if we do not know then we will surely take part in such mistakes ourselves.

As I study this topic I plan to read up on John Trudell who was the spokesperson for the United Indians of All Tribes' takeover in 1969.  I believe that he will give an insight on why these men and women fought for their rights and what they are fighting for as a whole. 

A few examples of literature that I will look over and annotate are…

Stickman by John Trudell

Rich Man’s War

God Help and Breed You All

He Said, She Said

Star Dreamer Woman

Lavender Blues

New Old Man

Imagine by John Lennon

http://www.gatheringofnations.com/educational/writings/derek_mathews_NA_ProtestMusic1960.htm

Rising Voices by Arlene Hirschfelder

The Last Reservation by Walter Learned

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown

Introductory Essay

Today's Foundation

            What makes a protest mean something?  What makes it worthwhile pursuing and supporting?  What makes it stand out in the public eye?  I feel that the answer to these questions can be found within any historical protest, whether it was done two thousand years ago or is still going on.  Although one could feel some sense of connection between many, many different protests and revolutions there is one that has been created and has been in the process of reaching its goals for over five centuries.  This long lasting protest is the American Indian protest for Native American Rights.

            The natives were once a proud force who spread across all of America and lived their lives of peaceful work and worship towards their ancestors and deities that surrounded them in the natural world they lived in.  These men and women were content with the land their lived on and were happy with the lives they lived, until the day that the rest of the world found them.  Christopher Columbus, an Italian, was the first person to "discover" America, in 1492, and find the peaceful natives that flourished there.  He saw them as a kind people that created a "wonderful nation" that the Europeans should not fight battle with.  Columbus then went on and got the Indians to work for him and adopt his culture's ways because what he saw ultimately led him to believe that their ways were those of "heathens" (Dee Brown 14).  The white men continued to travel across the seas and have the natives work from them and soon take their land as well.  After the first generation of Native Americans, who met the white men, died off the rebellious tribes then immediately fought to drive the Spaniards back to their own lands.  This, however, proved disastrous for the natives because they had underestimated the settlers and, after a short time, they were massacred by the thousands (Dee Brown 15).  The white men had better weapons and new recruits coming across the seas by the boat load.  One example of the white man's brutality was after the Mohican tribe killed four soldiers in repentance for the killing of four of their own.  The white men then attacked once more and massacred two entire villages worth of Indians (Wounded Knee 16).  The white men also, for generations, would sign treaties and make promises towards the Native Americans, speaking of equality and justice, but they would figuratively tear them up and take from the Indians what they had earlier promised.  The European descendents justified this by creating Manifest Destiny, which tried to explain their supposed dominance over the Indian "race" and "responsibility" over/for the natives as well as their land (Dee Brown 20).  These acts of brutality and dishonor have been occurring ever since foreigners first came to America and have not stopped since.

            Until the late twentieth century American Indians had fought against the foreigners separately but then in 1968 a group of people were able to find the strength and following to create a society of natives, the American Indian Movement.  The group started out as an association to keep an eye on the police brutality that was brought against Indians and to attempt Indians from being abused in the first place.  After the group became more well known throughout the Native American communities it began to increase in participants and soon found itself working in the political world to put notice on the issues that their people still had to live with.  The activists took part in public protesting around the nation; such as, the Occupation of Alcatraz and the Occupation of Wounded Knee (Donald Fixico).  The Occupation of Wounded Knee was a protest against the fact that Dick Wilson, a tribal leader, had given off part of his tribes land.  The people then got him to get impeached but he was slow to get out of office.  So AIM then decided to hold a press conference at Wounded Knee, which was the sight were 350 Lakotas had been massacred by the U.S. Army in 1890.  The situation then became challenging when Wilson had the roads blocked and the reporters were unable to reach the sight.  With that act of coward-ness and defiance the AIM were stuck on Wounded Knee and the occupation began.  After many months the siege finally came to an end when federal officials promised to look into Wilson's management.  This act of protest was just what the AIM wanted as it brought focus to the natives and gave them the opportunity to go into politics, the International Indian Treaty Council (ITC).  Although it had taken the tribes many generations to get together as one people they were finally able to do so and start to fight back for their rights (Anonymous).

            Now days the American Indian Protesting is still continuing but their past accomplishments still mean much to the people of today.  Much of American History is not spoken of in society and when it is it is always shocking and taken in with joy when the listeners and readers aren't actually taken back by the entire thing.  Once, a student in an Indian Study course took notice in the subject and stated, “Probably many have never seen it in this aspect, I know I did not. I was an Indian but I did not know what was expected of me” (Paul MCKENZIE-JONES).  The past is always important to the future as it is the base of what is known today and what today's people thrive upon.  To not know one's past is to not know what will work in life and what will not, what has been done and what must never be done again.

            The American Indian fight for Civil Rights has been an enormous part of American History and will continue to be until all are truly treated equally and the statement "all are created equal" is actually meant in this nation.  Once the Native Americans were a proud people, strong and powerful, but they are now weakened and divided.  To this day, the county with the deepest poverty in the United States is still a tribal reservation (Dee Brown 8).

video version <LINK

Annotated Bibliography

Bibliography Link <LINK

1.      

Hitchmough, Sam. "‘It’s Not Your Country Any More’. Contested National Narratives and the \
     Columbus Day Parade Protests in Denver." European Journal of American Culture 32.3
     (2013): 263-83. Ebscoshost. Web.

            This journal is based on the idea that there are still ways that American Indians are being oppressed and that one of them, Columbus Day, should be ended.  The Activists for the American Indian Movement fight that this holiday must end and believe that if it were to be ended that it would be a huge milestone for American Indians everywhere.  This fight that began in 2007 brings up topic of what is myth and what is fact, and what is patriotic and what is not.  It gives an insight on what the people of America believe and what topics or things such as Columbus Day truly represent.

            This source will be helpful as an example of how American Indians are still being oppressed and how they are still fighting for their own rights as the closest to American there is.  This source will be one of few that tell of the current happenings that are occurring because of the American Indian Movement that is still occurring to this day.  This information is reliable as it was found in the Pasadena online library and is a peer-reviewed journal.  The main goal of this source is to give notice to the oppression and decolonization that has occurred because of the past woes of certain groups of non Indian Americans.

            This source is helpful to me because it will express a few examples of how the past occurrences forced upon American Indians are still oppressing them and causing them to be lesser than those of different ancestry.  This subject has not changed my views on my topic and if anything it has only increased my shame of what others have done and my need for this source of oppression to cease.

2.      

Brown, Dee. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West. 
     New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1971. Print.

            The main point of this book is to express how American Indians had been continuously oppressed throughout the second half of the nineteenth century through destruction of whole tribes and mutilation of others.  The book touches on topics such as times when white settlers and American citizens had treated Indians as lower beings that themselves and kicked them off their land because of their better weapons and savage like nature.  The main idea of this story is to express how the white men have destroyed a whole content's civilization and treated men in ways that are hypocritical, based on their beliefs, and savage like themselves.

            This source will be useful to the assignment because it will give the reader a taste of the inhumane cause for the American Indian Movement that should have swept the nation at some point and should also have already been successful in its goals because of its obvious humane reasons.  Some may see this tale as biased but all in all it is a factual account of what really shaped America and of the world Americans actually live in, not this fairy tale that the oppressors want others to believe.  The goal of this source is to only tell the truth of how America was created and what it still is.

            This source will be very helpful to me as an anchor for my topic.  It will help shape the cause for the American Indian Movement and the reason for its development.  This book has not changed how I view the subject but it has opened my eyes even wider to the truth of the matter and to the reality of what people can do and will do for power and their own sickening greed.

3.

Anonymous. "American Indian Movement Siege of Wounded Knee." Government, Politics, and
     Protest: Essential Primary Sources. Ed. K. Lee Lerner, Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, and
     Adrienne Wilmoth Lerner. Detroit: Gale, 2006. 276-278. Opposing Viewpoints in Context.
     Web.

            The main purpose of this article is to highlight on the cause of the movement of the Siege of Wounded Knee that was begun in February, in 1973.  It expresses what the people against the Indians did to keep them oppressed as the Native Americans were trying to get their tale out to more and more people.  The article also highlights on the fact that this one act of rebellion was the final battle that the Native American Movement (AIM) had to take part in before they were finally able to reach their goal, to create the International Indian Treaty Council (ITC).  The basis of this article is a description of the last major rebellious act that AIM took part in before they were able to create ITC.

            This source of information is useful because it will help me express what the AIM group had been able to do and what they had been forced to do to make their goals happen.  The information is reliable because it is an article that only states facts.  The article is not biased nor objective as the only goal it seems to have is to tell the facts about what happened to start the rebellion, that the article is based on, and what happened after it ended.

            This source of information was helpful to me because I will be able to write about the American Indian Movement and what they had been able to accomplish, and what had been set up before the TTC.  This article will help me shape my argument because I will be able to show how American Indians had been oppressed less than 50 years ago, which is not a long time at all.  This article has not changed how I view the topic  because I still feel that the Native Americans were in the right and that the people who oppressed them were in the wrong.

4.

Mckenzie-Jones, Paul. "Evolving Voices of Dissent: The Workshops on American Indian Affairs,
     1956–1972." The American Indian Quarterly 38.2 (2014): 207-36. Ebsco. Web.

            The base of this article is to express the different types of occurrences that took place in the history of the American Indian political movement that took place during the 19 Hundreds.  It is an article based on the occurrences that took place to shape the Native American rebellion as well as the thoughts on the subject of current Native Americans.  The article will give the reader an insight on part of the rebellion's creation as well as how past generations can help empower future generations to do what is believed to be right and good.

            This article will be a helpful source because it will help the past unite with the present Native Americans.  This article is different from my other sources because it does not single out the past nor the present.  This article will help express how the past and the present are not two separate things but one entire movement.  The information will be most likely reliable because it is a second hand account of the views and the actions of the current Native American activists.

            This source is helpful to me because it will help me add to the fight that the rebellion for Native American rights is still current and still represents some importance in today's society.  this article has changed my view on the topic, in a way, because I had not been aware of what was currently happening in this movement nor was I aware of what these people were currently fighting for, other than the general fight for freedom and right of land (etc).

  

5.

Gross, Emma R. "The American Indian Case." Deconstructing Politically Correct
     Practice Literature: The American Indian Case. 40.2 (1995): 206-13. Ebsco. Web.

            This article, written by Emma R. Gross, professor at Utah University of Social Work, is based a political standpoint of the current Native American rebellion that the U.S. has been facing for centuries.  The paper highlights on certain facts, such as the fact that many arguments that have been created against the Native Americans have had politically correct roots that are/were meant to represent Indians and their cultural in a less than flattering light.  This article uncovers the common but not often thought off reality of the biased world we live in and the biased views of those who wish to continue to oppress the American Indians.

            The source seems reasonably creditable as it is written by a person with reasonable creditability.  The information will be different from most of my others sources as it is not written, nor created, by a Native American and will give people the view of an outsider looking within the troubles that revolve around the Native American protesting.  The information is not biased if it is indeed factual, and if not then the idea certainly is.  The goal of this article is to, quite simply, point out how the government and certain people of this nation are still oppressing those whose ancestors had walked these lands long before any of their own.

            This source will be helpful to me as I write my essay, on the Native American rights movement, and write of the present occurrences within the movement and the present things that are currently against it.  It will also help me express the point further on how natives have been oppressed for centuries and are still to this day.  This article has opened my eyes to the truth of this revolution.  It has helped me notice more of the fact that Indians are still being oppressed and that there are still those who want to continue to overpower them.

  

6.

D'arcus, Bruce. "Protest, Scale, and Publicity: The FBI and the H Rap Brown
     Act." Antipode 35.4 (2003): 718-41. Ebsco. Web. 

            This article, written by Bruce D'arcus, Department Chair and Associate Professor of Geography at Miami University, is written about the upheaval that took place in South Dakota after the occupation of Wounded Knee that took place in 1973.  D'arcus also brings out certain facts about the H Rap Brown Act that was set up during the time of the occupation.  Also, this article takes point in the fact that although the state had attempted to minimize police involvment with the occupation there were still those that protested for the Indians.

            This source will be useful for my assignment because of its present viewpoint on a past rebellion that took place in regards to the Native American rights movement.  This article is similar to one or two of my other sources of information I will be using as I work on my assignment but it is, all in all, about different points of the matter than the other articles.  The information is reasonably reliable as the author is known to understand the type of setting the subjects in his article are based on.  The source may be somewhat biased because of his subject matter but is objective in the facts that are put within his words.  The goal of this source is to tell of what happened on the outside of the Wounded Knee Occupation that occurred in 1973 rather than just what happened within it.

            This source will be helpful to me as work on my assignment because I will be able to add a reasonably modern viewpoint on a past occurrence.  This will help me as I express how the peoples' view on this protest have not truly changed.  There was people on the outside for Indian rights and there are still to this day.  My view on this protest has not changed, but if it has by any percentage then I feel as if my view on the protest is confirmed even more then it has been by previous articles.

"Small though the comparative number of American Indians is, almost all other Americans seem to have an earnest fascination for their history, their arts and literature, their attitude toward the natural world, and their philosophy of human existence.

And this wide interest exists beyond the borders of America into the lands of other people and other cultures. Name a small nation, one whose people have a history of past injustices and oppression, and this book will likely be in print there."

-Dee Brown

                    

Run For The Hills - Iron Maiden <LINK