black power for NA

Black power movement did influence Native American protest

• The more militant protests from groups such as
  AIM followed the period of greatest militant activity in the civil rights movement.

• The timing of the more militant Native American protests suggests that they were influenced by what they saw of the Black Power movement.
  The Native Americans may have been inspired to forget their tribal differences by the unity of the Black Power movement. This unity was certainly a factor in the success of the Native American protests
  The Black Power movement's tactics encouraged many Native Americans, particularly the younger element, to abandon the more peaceful methods of legal cases, which they perceived as slow and failing to make much progress.

• Many Native Americans saw the popular appeal of the Black Power movement and its ability to create a mass movement, which could pressurise he government for change. This encouraged a similar response from Native Americans who saw the NCAl as limited in its appeal to those who had been assimilated and were doing well.

• The very term Red Power' was taken directly from 'Black Power' and military man of the tactics and the desire to create a mass movement followed from the inspiration of Malcolm X and the African American movement.

• They also took the idea of pride in their race and culture from the Black Power movement.

• Young militants demanded that they been know as Native American's and engaged in a number of high-profile activities that, like the Panthers attracted media coverage (1968 Fish in, 1968 AIM formed, Siege of Alcatraz 1969, 1969 Vine Deloria Inr 'Custer Died for Your Sins', 1970
  Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown, 1972 Trail of Broken Treaties to the BIA, 1973 Wounded Knee 2

• AIM took up the issue of racial discrimination against Native American youths

• NA youths patrolled the streets wearing red berets and jackets and monitoring police activities - as a result there was a decline in the arrest and imprisonment and in the numbers of young Indian offenders

• In 1968 a group of Chippewas in Minneapolis formed an 'Indian Patrol' to watch and foflow the police on weekend nights as they travelled through NA neighbourhoods - Dennis Banks was a leader of the patrol (out of this patrol AIM was formed)

• Talk of 'native sovereignty was used to describe the power that had rested with the tribes from time immemorial to inhabit their lands and to live according to tribal laws, religions and customs

• Militant actions of the Siege of Alcatraz - $24
  dollars in beads and cloth was offered to highlight economic injustice as that was what was paid for Manhattan - over 10,000 NA's visited the island

• The action showed what could be achieved by directed action and a call for 'Red Power - a militant approach to achieve separation from whites

• Like the Panthers it received huge media coverage - it excited the media because police militia attempted to end the occupation which some saw as reminiscent of the cinema struggles with the Indians

• Alcatraz incident stirred up other young NA's and accelerated militant action

• NA's occupied federal lands and disobeyed state and federal fishing regulations

• IN Maine, members of the Passamaquoddy tribe even collected tolls on buys highways crossing their lands

• Younger NA's were frustrated by the slow progress of the NCAI and saw that they were increasingly out of touch with the mass of NA's as they were mainly assimilated Indians

• NA's saw the importance of Pan-Indianism if they were going to succeed

• Mass movement of Indians to the cities in the 60s and 70s ironically let to a new interest in tribal values and pan-Indian unity, potentially influenced by Black Power

• By the mid-1960s 1000s of young NA were reaching adulthood in the cities; better educated than any earlier generations they observed with interest the rising activism and decided that media-capturing events intrigued European Americans and focused their attention on minority issues

Black power movement was not an influence – NA protest was already under the way before the black power movement

• There were already clear indications from the Second World War and the policy of termination that the Native Americans were more united in their resistance to government policies and did not need the inspiration of Black Power

• There were already Native American pressure groups that were achieving success in gaining civil rights, and the government had also established bodies such as the Indian Claims Commission

• Militancy was already a feature of some Native American protest groups, such as the National Indian Youth Council, and therefore to suggest that militancy was simply inspired by the Black Power movement would deny the developments that were already taking place among Native Americans

• The development of protest movements might be seen as simply a response to the wider developments in US society. Attitudes towards a range of groups within society were changing, as seen in the views of presidents such as Kennedy and Johnson

• Johnson's 'Great Society' and his War on Poverty' may have encouraged groups to take up their causes, believing that they had a greater chance of success

• The militancy was a direct response to the conditions that any NA's fond themselves in when they moved into urban areas, and the protest about living conditions and unemployment
  The alien conditions they encountered in the cities made them more determined to preserve their culture and way of life

• Urbanisation and the policy of termination had a disastrous effect and spurred many into action - their statue as native people belonging to a tribe of nation was terminated

• However, this gave a sense of unity that emerged from the experience of adversity

• Tribal separation was replaced by a growing awareness, largely amongst the young, of the need for solidarity to fight for what was rightfully theirs

• NYC council was formed in 1961 showing there was movement towards more direct action before Black Power

• Their growing assertiveness was a mixture of personal frustration but also the inspiration of the AA Civil Rights movement as a whole

• In the 19060s there was a willingness to unite in protest

• In 1964 hundreds of Indians gathered in

• Washington DC for recognition of LBJ's 'War on

• Poverty'

• NCAl had some successes in the 60s through the court

• NIYC was joined by white movie star Marlon Brandon for a huge fish in - many took place between 1964 and 1966

red power

name for NA version of Black Power

when was the red power

60s-70s