Native American Movement

Yasir Y. Juan G. Sebastian B. Eduard S.

Things to keep in mind

• Acquisition of Christopher Columbus.

• The “white man,” as in the European conqueror.

Native Americans

• Lands were stripped from them.

• Were killed for their land.

• Indian tribes were attacked, subdued, starved out, and divided into reservations, living in poverty.

• In 1887, Allotment Act tried to break up the reservations into small plots of land owned by individual Indians—American type of farms.

• This failed, because lands were taken by white speculators, but reservations remained.

Brother Kills Brother

• Native Americans were killing each other so they can get paid (ordered by authorities).

• The last massacre was after Christmas in the year of 1890, where Sitting Bull was assassinated by another Native American.

History rhymes…kind of…

• “When the troopers ordered the Indians to turn over their weapons, one of them fired his rifle. The soldiers then let loose wit their carbines, and the big guns on the hill shelled the tepees. When it was over between 200 and 300 of the original 350 men, women, and children were dead.” (Zinn, 524)

Chief Luther Standing Bear Said….

• Read or listen PAGE 525

• “True, the white brought great change…

FACT

• There were only 300,000 Native Americans in the US in the turn of the century…from the millions there were before...

Fishermen

• Some of the Indians that were involved in the fish-ins were Vietnam veterans. Sid Mills said: “…what kind of government or society would spend millions of dollars to pick upon our bones, restore our ancestral life patterns, and protect our ancient remains from damage—while at the same time eating upon the flesh of our living People…?” (Zinn, 527)

Civil Rights Movement

• Native Americans protested for their civil rights, and the Puyallup river for fishing as well. (Gov said Puyallup tribe doesn’t exist, made fishing illegal)

• The whites said that the continent had to be developed, but the Native Americans stood in the way. A newspaper editor said, “whites had made better use of the land. How many Indians could have thought of creating an inflammable river?” (Zinn, 527)

Protest through Music

• Ghost Dance:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Pen8GoXPq0&playnext_from=TL&videos=mEeChR_oMc4&playnext=1

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JY5SQO54uSQ&playnext_from=TL&videos=LxNiMMJxmIs&playnext=1

• Xit—N.A. BAND

Alcatraz• November 9, 1969, 78 Native Americans landed on Alcatraz island

in San Francisco Bay and occupied the island.• Alcatraz was an abanded federal prison, hated and terrible place,

nicknamed “the rock.”• In 1964, there was an attempt to make it a university, but they were

driven off, there was no publicity.• Richard Oakes and Grace Thorpe, landing nearly 600 indians,

representing more than 50 tribes, lived on Alcatraz.• They called themselves “Indians of All Tribes” and proclaimed “We

hold the rock.”

Alcatraz cont.

• They offered to buy Alcatraz in glass beads and red cloth, the price paid Indians for Manhattan Island over three hundred years earlier.

• Alcatraz was a more suitable place for an Indian reservation, instead of the white man standards.

Alcatraz is more suitable for Indians because…

• It was isolated from modern facilities, and without adequate means of transportation.

• It has no fresh running water.

• It has inadequate sanitation facilities.

• There are no oil or mineral right

• There is no industry and so unemployment is very high.

Cont.

• There are no health care facilities.• The soil is rock and non-productive; and the land

does not support game.• There are no educational facilities.• The population has always exceeded the land

base. • The population has always been held as

prisoners and dependent upon others.

Cont…

• The Indians announced that they would make the island a center for native American studies for Ecology, and they would find a way to de-pollute the air and waters of the Bay Area…restore fish and animal life…

Government’s rebuttal

• Cut off telephones, electricity, and water to Alcatraz Island.

• Many left, but others insisted on staying.

• Stayed for a year, and sent out a message to the “brothers and sisters of all races upon the Earth Mother.”

READ

• PAGE 529, FIRST 3 PARAGRAPHS

FEDS

• 6 months later, federal forces invaded the island and removed the Indians.