THE NATIVE-AMERICAN MOVEMENT
In the 1950s, Native Americans struggled with the government’s pol- icy of moving them off reservations and into cities where they might as- similate into mainstream America . Many of the uprooted often had dif- ficulties adjusting to urban life . In 1961, when the policy was discontin- ued, the U .S . Commission on Civil Rights noted that, for Native Ameri- cans, “poverty and deprivation are common .”
In the 1960s and 1970s, watch- ing both the development of Third World nationalism and the progress of the civil rights movement, Native Americans became more aggressive in pressing for their own rights . A new generation of leaders went to court to protect what was left of tribal lands or to recover those which had been taken, often illegally, in previ- ous times . In state after state, they challenged treaty violations, and in 1967 won the first of many victories guaranteeing long-abused land and water rights . The American Indian Movement (AIM), founded in 1968, helped channel government funds to Native-American-controlled organi- zations and assisted neglected Native Americans in the cities .
Confrontations became more common . In 1969 a landing party of 78 Native Americans seized Alca-
CHAPTER 13: DECADES OF CHANGE: 1960-1980
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
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traz Island in San Francisco Bay and held it until federal officials removed them in 1971 . In 1973 AIM took over the South Dakota village of Wound- ed Knee, where soldiers in the late 19th century had massacred a Sioux encampment . Militants hoped to dramatize the poverty and alcohol- ism in the reservation surrounding the town . The episode ended after one Native American was killed and another wounded, with a govern- ment agreement to re-examine trea- ty rights .
Still, Native-American activ- ism brought results . Other Amer- icans became more aware of Native-American needs . Govern- ment officials responded with measures including the Education Assistance Act of 1975 and the 1996 Native-American Housing and Self- Determination Act . The Senate’s first Native-American member, Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado, was elected in 1992 .