July 1968: American Indian Movement (AIM) was founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
AIM’s original purpose was to improve the conditions of Indigenous peoples living in urban areas by tackling issues of racism and police brutality in the Twin Cities.
November 1969 - June 1971: Occupation of Alcatraz Island by Indians of All Tribes [27:10].Occupation of Alcatraz Island by Indians of All Tribes [27:10].
The United States government closed down the federal prison, so it became excess land. According to the Sioux treaty of 1868, any unused federal land will return to the Native people. This treaty stated American Indians would receive land no longer used by the Federal government that was previously theirs. They went to take back the island. This nineteen month occupation was led by Richard Oakes, Akwesasne Mohawk, and other Indians from different tribes. The occupation was a result of House Resolution 108, which ended tribal sovereignty, tribal protections, and reservations—making that land open to the public—forced Native Americans to follow the same laws as US citizens. The goal of the occupation was to get the deed to the island, as well as, establishing an Indian university, a cultural center, and a museum. “Alcatraz Island ended because the federal government in no way was going to return land to Indian people.”
Source: (29: 49) “Alcatraz Island ended because the federal government in no way was going to return land to Indian people.” -Madonna
August 29, 1970: United Native Americans lead occupation of Mount Rushmore [25:46].
The occupation was an attempt to reclaim the land promised to the Sioux in The Fort Laramie Treaty (signed on April 29, 1868). This agreement bestowed the Sioux ownership of all land west of the Missouri River, including the sacred Black Hills on which Mount Rushmore was built. Madonna participated in this occupation. Fort Laramie Helped the Sioux, the Cheyenne, Rosebud, Pine Ridge, said they could have the land from the Powder River to the Black Hills. After the treaty was signed the white man never kept their part and pioneers and people started coming in. that’s illegal” (34:23) - young boy, Survival school
June 6, 1971: American Indian Movement leads occupation of Mount Rushmore.
10 months after the occupation by United Native Americans, AIM sets up camp on top of Mount Rushmore. They demand federal recognition of The Fort Laramie Treaty. 29 people are arrested and charged for trespassing at Rapid City jail. Upon arrest, they demand jury trials. The federal judge, a landowner in the Black Hills, excuses himself from the case due to a conflict of interest. Marcy, at just 12 years old, participates in this occupation.
November 1972: Trail of Broken Treaties march to Washington, D.C., resulting in the occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
The Trail of Broken Treaties was a caravan in which about 500 to 800 Native Americans drove from the west coast (starting at Los Angeles, San Francisco, or Seattle (with one caravan leaving from Oklahoma)) to Washington DC The caravan arrived in Washington DC to demand from President Richard Nixon legal recognition of treaties, among other points. The caravan occupied the Bureau of Indian Affairs after being unable to meet with the president, the Department of the Interior (BIA), the Department of Labor, or the Department of Commerce.
January 1973: The Oglala Sioux Civil Rights Organization was formed by local people to draw attention to the abuses of Chairman Dick Wilson on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation; founders included Geraldine Janis, Gladys Bissonette and her nephew Pedro Bissonette.
February 27 - May 8, 1973: 71-day Occupation of Wounded Knee [39:55].
Oglala Lakota (Sioux) activists and members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) occupied the town of Wounded Knee, South Dakota to remove tribal chairman Dick Wilson from his position and to demand that the U.S. government abide by its treaties with Indigenous people across the country. Expecting this occupation, Wilson called in FBI agents and US Marshals for support who came in heavily armed. Those occupying fought back, resulting in armed standoffs with US forces. Two Indian men lost their lives in the occupation. The loss of Buddy Lamont, a member of the Oglala Lakota, on April 26 saddened the community and prompted elders of the tribe to call off the occupation. The Oglala Lakota and AIM formally surrendered on May 8th. Madonna referred to this being the “awakening, the rise of our people.” (35:54)
Madonna's testimony of Wounded Knee:
“Wounded Knee, we were just on our way through. a lot of different stories of what happened with different people. Because not everybody got the same information. I was there so this is what I can remember what happened. There was always a committee or a group of people that would request our presence. They wanted us to come down to the reservation and meet the little community of Calicou? We were just going to go for the day and be back in rapid that night. We got word that the porcupine community wanted us over there. Because they knew we were on the res. We had to turn off and go north through wounded knee. We had a whole bunch of cars. I was like in the middle. And I happened to look over towards the VIA Building. And I noticed there were a lot of, what looked like military vehicles. And I look on top of the VIA buildings, there were sandbags and barrels of big guns. I don’t know what they thought we were doing. We were coming through town. Ya know It wasn’t planned. I mean,I had my 10-year-old son with me. “ (40:44)
1973: Wounded Knee Legal Defense Offense Committee (WKLD/OC) was formed to handle the legal trials of the 400 people arrested around the Occupation of Wounded Knee.
1974: The We Will Remember Survival School was established (also calling itself the We Will Remember Survival Group). It was first located in Rapid City, South Dakota and later moved to Porcupine on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota [04:06].
June 1974: The International Indian Treaty Council was formed on the Standing Rock Reservation.
The International Indian Treaty Council (IITC) is composed of Indigenous peoples from North, Central, South America, the Caribbean, and the Pacific, serving as a voice to advocate for Indigenous peoples.
1977: First gathering of Indigenous people at the United Nations – Marcy attended the International Conference on Discrimination Against Indigenous Populations in the Americas in Geneva, Switzerland [45:48].
1978: Women of All Red Nations (WARN) was formed, and the Longest Walk which protested the anti-Indian legislation was proposed in Congress [52:30].
That same year, AIM organized and led a march from Alcatraz to Washington D.C. in protest of 11 pending congressional bills that would repeal treaty agreements, limit water rights, limit hunting and fishing rights, and would cut social services, shutting down Native schools and hospitals. 26 people made the 3,200-mile trip on foot. In Washington D.C., thousands of marchers participated in demonstrations and rallies. None of the 11 proposed bills were passed as a result.
July 18-28, 1980: Black Hills International Survival Gathering was held in the Black Hills in South Dakota hosting 10,000 people interested in indigenous-led sustainability practices [53:33].
May 14, 1998: Executive Order No. 13084, Consultation and Coordination with Indian Tribal Government
Signed by President Clinton, this Executive Order stated that the US government would establish regular and meaningful consultation and collaboration with Indian tribal governments when creating policies that would directly affect them, as well as strengthen government-to-government relationships between the US and tribal governments, and minimize unfunded mandates on Indian tribes. This order was revoked on November 6, 2000, and replaced by Executive Order 13175, which had the same regulations.
2007: The UN passes the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; however, the US, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia voted against this adoption.
The Declaration honors Indigenous sovereignty by reinstating the importance of honoring treaties, agreements and additional arrangements that are formed between Indigenous peoples and any state. It also recognizes Indigenous practices as crucial to the sustainability of the environment, as well as identifying the United Nations responsibility in ensuring the protection of Indigenous peoples rights.
2009: Obama signs presidential memorandum to renew and enhance tribal consultation and collaboration. Specifically, this memorandum prompted his administration to develop a detailed 90 day plan of how they would incorporate native nations in all federal policy conversations in relation to Indigenous sovereignty.
2015: As the Dakota Access Pipeline Project is initiated, the US Army Corps of Engineers claims to avoid any impacts on tribal sites. Tribes including the Osage Nation and Iowa Tribe stand in solidarity with Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, sharing how they were “not consulted in an appropriate manner about the presence of traditional cultural properties, sites, or landscapes vital to our identity and spiritual well-being.”
Line 3 Pipeline: “1200 mile pipeline that will carry crude oil from the black and oil fields to Illinois. Builders want to tunnel under the Missouri River. Destroying sacred sites and could pollute the Missouri River, Clean water source for millions.” (34:56)
2016: The Standing Rock Sioux sues the US Army Corps of Engineers for violating the National Historic Preservation Act and the Dakota Access LLC countersues Standing Rock tribal leaders for blocking construction. Dakota Access Pipeline construction is halted.
2017: Despite various concerns being raised on the possibility of there being an oil spill, the pipeline was fully operating by June.
2020: President Trump orders the US Army Corps of Engineers to form an extensive environmental impact statement. On July 6th, the Dakota Access Pipeline was ordered to shut down, resulting in a win for Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and other Tribes.
1. American Indian Movement (AIM)
a reaction or an answer to the brutality in Minneapolis during the late 60s. It is a family legacy, preserving and maintaining our language and our ways. Making our people survive. It started by reclaiming, saying this is who I am and what I stand for.
We are preserving and maintaining our language and our ways, Making our people survive. (00:44)
(31:06) “Thats how it started, was just Reclaiming, saying this is who I am and this is what I stand for “ - marcella
“American Indian movement was the most dominant at the time -- start the late 60s in Minneapolis -- as reaction or answer to the police brutality --- mushroomed to Indian country, to South Dakota” (11:53) - madonna
(1:00:32) “I’m really proud to be AIM. It’s a family legacy that needs to be kept alive because we were a large part of it. A huge part of it. It really is who we are.” - marcella
2. Boarding Schools
Indian children are being placed in Bureau of Indian Affairs Boarding Schools in order to educate them to the white man’s way. Children were stolen in the night, forced, dragged away from their parents to boarding schools. tThey were mistreated, abused, and locked up. These school are a form of genocide. The UN has a list of violations under the category of genocide. In that list there is an item that says, that if one culture takes the children from this culture and moves them over and puts them with another culture, that is an act of genocide
Sources:
(16:49) “Thousands of Indian children are being placed in Bureau of Indian Affairs Boarding Schools in order to educate them to the white man’s way.”
(16:56) Children Stolen in the night forced dragged away from their parents to boarding schools. Where they were mistreated. , abused, and locked up.
(23:33) “The UN has alist of violations under the category of genocide. In that list there is an item that says, that if one culture takes the childrenfrom this culture and moves them over and puts them with another culture, that is an act of genocide. “
3. Capitalism
a free market economic system where there is limited government involvement.
4. Dispossession
act of depriving someone of (their) possessions. People are forced, sometimes violently, out of their community against their will, often leaving people without land and homes.
5. Environmental racism
(intentional) environmental hazardous practices that detrimentally and directly impact people of color and the areas that they live in.
the state, economic, social, and political violence that specific gender groups face, specifically women of color and trans people of color.
7. Lakota People's Law Project
Dedicated to reversing the slow genocide of the Lakota People and destruction of their culture. Partners with Native communities to protect sacred lands, safeguard human rights, promote sustainability, reunite indigenous families, and much more. Counteract treaty violations, protect sovereignty, and confront systemic racism. We're helping to safeguard sacred lands and water, end the epidemic of children being removed from their families and traditions, and amplify Native voice
Source: help family members (extended family) get custody of children, (23:25)
8. Matriarch
a powerful woman in a family or society where power is passed down from mother to daughter; a woman who is the founder or dominant member of a community or group; a venerable older woman.
Definition from Warrior Women website
9. Neoliberalism:
value of free market capitalism and liberal thought to allow economic prosperity, all while being able to act freely. This ideology reinforces the oppression that communities of color face due to the profit that companies make, one example being from mass incarceration.
10. ‘Oahe Unit’
When Madonna was in high school the federal government built a series of damns all along the Missouri River. They lost almost a million acres of land and were displaced from their homes.. The cottonwoods, willows, and all the natural food all went under, they were flooded. This is a form of social destruction.
Sources:
“We lost almost a million acres of our land… The cottonwoods and the willows and all the natural food all went under. “ (9:20) - Madonna
“Social Destruction” …(10:21) - Madonna
commodified labor that relies on the racialization of racial groups to exploit and extract their labor.
12. ‘Relocation’
Big federal government program intended to get the Indians off the reservation, mainstream them, and thinking this is how we will solve the Indian Problem. (21:50)
13. “Revolutionary Activities within the United States”
A report conducted by the federal government. Documents proved the FBI undertook a program in 1968 to harass and destroy new left political organizations whose views the federal police agency disagreed with. The purpose of the program would be to expose and disrupt the new left. These were tactics used to attack black and brown communities fighting for their rights. The Black Panthers were also targets of FBI programs, such as Cointelpro intended to destroy and eliminate these groups efforts
14. The Run For Freedom 1997
There were several AIM leaders and members that were political prisoners. Survival school/group responded with this freedom run. They ran through all four seasons as they prayed for political prisoners everywhere. AIM and other black and brown fights for freedom, stand in solidarity as they experience similar targeted violence, criminalization and destruction of their communities.
Part of Survival school/group. “we went through all four seasons, as we ran we prayed for political prisoners everywhere” - Marcella (49:20)
(49:03) “ There was a lot of AIM leadership and membership that were being railroaded into prison. And so we had Political prisoners and our survival school was, what can we do? “ - Marcella
15. Settler colonialism
the violent displacement and erasure of Indigenous peoples through the theft of land and the act of genocide.
16. Sovereignty
“Self-determination, freedom, independent nation.” (34:04)
17. Survival
is being able to cope with whatever comes along. And yet being YOURSELF. Being what you are. And Being proud of it. (5:38)
18. Survival School/Group
started out for Madonna’s kids, niece and nephews, from there it grew. Many were children who dropped out of the education system and had been forced out. These were also children of families involved in the movement. It was for the survival of their people and ways. To have a respect for knowledge and education that is relevant to Indian lives. There were three 'subjects,’ 1) taking care of the Earth aka natural resources, 2) our legal rights, and 3) spirituality. In the Indian way of life, you don’t separate education from the home life and your spiritual life. School was based on what was going on at the time and what needed to happen. It was a political education. one year they took a summer road trip, along the way they attended political trials. They learned how to prepare and hold debates.
Sources:
“ It's survival of our people, Survival of our way. “ (6:11) X
started out for Madonna's kids, nieces, and nephews, they just mushroomed. (6:25) X
“Many of our students are children that have dropped out of the present education system, not only dropped out, but had been forced out” (6:28)X
the ones who came there were the ones whos Families were involved in the movement→ it was a political education. (6:42)X
Education being a Indian person during that time of 70s, was a political education.(6:52)
3 ‘Subjects’:
1) Taking care of Earth, AKA natural resources
2) Our rights, legal rights
3) spirituality (7:04) X
Respect knowledge, education that's relevant to us, our lives (7:18)
(14:56) another important part of SURVIVAL SCHOOL: “ Relearning and getting connected to our spirituality” X
“In the Indian way of life, you don’t separate education, don’t separate it from the home life, you don't separate it from your spiritual life. The way you live your life everyday is your religion. “ (15:03) X
(31:42) “One year took a whole summer trip, and all along the way there was to political trials, the fishing rights. Always did these debates. Had to know our issue and then had to debate it - Marcella
(38:28) Marcella: “ Our school was based on what was going on then, what needed to happen. We kind of made up our own rules “ “THIS IS YOURS NOT OURS, THIS IS YOURS”
19. Treaties
Treaties are created and agreed upon, yet they are ignored. The white settlers do not respect or acknowledge the land and freedom of Indian people. Instead it is stolen making treaties meaningless. This is continued by the U.S. government to dishonor treaties but enforce the laws that benefit corporate and government greed. The Treaty of Fort Laramie and the theft of Alcatraz Island are examples of illegal land theft that violate treaties.
Sources:
(7:37) “why are treaties so important?” : Student/Child: “So that we can get our land back and be free “
(7:44)Taught in Survival school: ” Remember what you taught us in school about the Timber and the natural gas and the water and the fishing and hunting and stuff like that. …(Madonna: What about it? what’s happening today?) … The white man is stealing it. “
(8:03) Still going on today. That makes the 1868 Treaty irrelevant today just as it was back then “ - Madonna
34:23) Fort Laramie Helped the Sioux, the Cheyenne, Rosebud, Pine Ridge, said they could have the landfrom the Powder River to the Black Hills. After the treaty was signed the white man never kept their part and pioneers and people started coming in. that’s illegal”
Laws don’t mean anything, oil and corporate greed,
20. Waniyetu Iyawapi
A survival school launching by Marcella Gilbert to continue to reintroduce wild foods in her community.
21. Warrior Women
They handled everything, protecting our people and our children and fighting, Being warriors in that way (1:56). Women were the ones running the show. (2:05)
In Indian Country they say “if you want good words invite the men, but IF YOU WANT SOMETHING TO GET DONE, BRING THE WOMEN.”(4:51)
22. Women of All Red Nations (WARN)
WARN was founded by Lorelei DeCora Means, Madonna Thunder Hawk, Phyllis Young, Allene “Chockie” Cottier, Lakota Harden, Agnes Williams, Janet McCloud, Pat Bellanger and many others. They organized in response to the harmful reproductive health effects caused by uranium mining as well as the repeated extraction and commodification of Indigenous land. W.A.R.N. lead a study of the Black Hills water and found radiation causing spontaneous abortions of Indian women. Women of all Red Nations were involved in the initial forming of the Black Hills alliance with 3rd generation ranchers. That was the first cowboys and Indians alliance in the history of South Dakota. They kicked out uranium miners (Union Carbide Corporation) out of the Black Hills.
(52:39): “ When WARN did, found the radiation in the water study and all the spontaneous abortions. I mean we knew that stuff. I was even living proof that, “ - Lakota, Madonna’s Niece
(52:47): “cause me and 3 other of our friends on the res got pregnant at the same time and two of them had spontaneous abortions. the other one had severe birth defects and Tsk was born normal. Because we had separate water “- Lakota, Madonna’s Niece
( 53:04) : “Women of all Red Nations, we were involved in the initial forming of the black hills alliance. 3rd generation ranchers got involved. That was the first cowboys and Indians alliance in the history of South Dakota” - Madonna
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