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Essay on How The Civil Rights Movement Lead To The American Indian Movement
One of the great movements now is the Native American movement, because it occupies a very high moral position. Not just for itself; for the earth. And it's not just the Indians who talk about it. In the Old Testament, we're reminded again and again that whatever happens lasts seven generations and keep it in mind. Influenced by the Black Power movement, Native American activists who sought political and cultural sovereignty and social and economic equality in the 1960s adopted the slogan “Red Power.” The term also served as an expression of pan-Indian unity exemplified by organizations such as the National Indian Youth Council and the American Indian Movement.
The National Indian Youth Council was founded by ten university students—a Paiute, a Mohawk, a Ute, a Ponca, a Shoshone-Bannock, a Potawatomi, a Tuscarora, two Navajos, and a Crow—in Gallup, New Mexico on August 10, 1960, this group helped to launch a new Native American movement. Citing their responsibilities as the “younger generation,” the members of the Youth Council opposed the policy of “termination,” under which the federal government worked toward ending all relationships with tribes, including all treaties, services, and trusteeship of tribal lands (which would pass into private hands), thus ending tribes' sovereignty within the United States. Instead, they sought a greater degree of self-determination for native peoples. The NIYC grew steadily during the 1960s and fostered “red nationalism” and pride in Indian heritages.
On November 9, 1969, a small group of Native American activists from the American Indian Movement occupied Alcatraz Island, the former site of Alcatraz prison, in San Francisco Bay. They claimed the island for native peoples and offered to buy it for $24 worth of glass beads and some red cloth. The number of occupiers rose to about 400 by the end of November......
