Reference no: EM133206529 , Length: 300 Words
1. What was the "Trail of Broken Treaties"? What happened during the occupation, and what demands were made? How did the occupation conclude?
2. According to the documentary, what historical events led up to the Occupation of Wounded Knee?
3. Alternatively, what led to the ending of the Occupation of Wounded Knee, according to the documentary?
4. According to the documentary and the article, what is the historical significance/symbolism of the location in which the Occupation of Wounded Knee took place?
5. According to the documentary, what were the protesters at Wounded Knee hoping to achieve through the Occupation? What were the lasting effects?
6. According to the article, why is Wounded Knee considered a "forgotten Civil Rights movement"?
7. Lastly, please share your thoughts and reactions to both this week's and last week's discussions on the Occupations of Alcatraz and Wounded Knee, and the American Indian Civil Rights movement overall.
1. In 1972, AIM activists, along with members of tribes, organized the Trail of Broken Treaties and Pan American Native Quest for Justice, a caravan of automobiles that would cross the country in a protestation ending at the White House. The caravans were escorted by Native American spiritual leaders, and they passed through a great many Indian reservations on the way to Washington. Eventually, the three caravans came together in St. Paul, Minnesota where they outlined a twenty-point The Trail of Broken Treaties position paper. In the manifesto, it was demanded legal recognition of treaties, renovation of the treaty making process, the return of one hundred and ten million acreages of land to indigenous communities and the reform of federal-tribe relationships. At the time, President Richard Nixon sent three level officials to negotiate with AIM and despite the fact that the demands were rejected, aspects of the plan became the blueprint for later policies.
2. The Pine Ridge Reservation, where Wounded Knee was pinpointed, had been in turbulence for years. To many in the area, the siege was no surprise. The Oglala Lakota who lived on the reservation faced racism beyond its boundaries and an imperfectly managed tribal government within them. They particularly sought the removal of tribal chairman Dick Wilson, whom many on the reservation thought to be corrupt. According to some, Mister Wilson seemed in favor of mixed race. Efforts to remove him by way of impeachment broke down, thus, Oglala Lakota tribal leaders turned to AIM for help in removing him by force. The answer was to engage Wounded Knee.
3. For the Oglala Lakota, the death of a fellow tribe member was the critical moment. Despite the fact that AIM members still fought to keep the occupation continuing, the Oglala Lakota withdrew them, and, from the point, negotiations between federal officials and the protesters commenced seriously. The activists officially surrendered on May 8, and a number of members of AIM managed to escape the town before being arrested.
4. To many observers, the standoff resembled the Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890 itself, when a U. S. cavalry detachment butchered a group of Lakota warriors who refused to disarm. Some of the protesters also had a more contemporary conflict in mind. As one former member of AIM articulated in the documentary, "They were shooting machine gun fire at us, tracers coming at us at nighttime just like a war zone. We had some Vietnam vets with us, and they said, Man, this is just like Vietnam."
5. The objective for the protesters at Wounded Knee was that they demanded that the U.S. government make good on treaties from the 19th and early 20th centuries. The lasting effects were that even after the siege officially ended, a muffled war between Dick Wilson and the pro-AIM clique of Oglala Lakota continued on the reservation, despite the re-election of Mister Wilson to the tribal presidency in 1974. In the years following the deadlock, Pine Ridge had the highest per capita murder rate in the country.
6. Today, the Pine Ridge reservation is the largest community in what may be the poorest country in the whole United States. Per capita income in 2010 was lower than in any other county in the United States. There are reports that say that the unemployment rate on the reservation is somewhere between 70 and 80 percent. Even though AIM drew a lot of attention towards indigenous people in the U.S., the work is still not finished.
7. Ultimately, my thoughts regarding both occupations of Alcatraz and Wounded Knee are that despite the fact that it may have been preventable, I am also aware that it was essential and of the utmost importance to Native Americans to fight back in order to correct the injustices being formed. While I hoped for a better resolution when it came to the situation in Wounded Knee, I comprehend all the attributes that corresponded to that place and that time. Not to mention, what occurred after that with Mister Dick Wilson and the Oglala Lakota. In the end, all of these occurrences show what was still happening and how the relationship between the federal government and tribes was switching into something entirely different.