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American Indian Movement
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The American Indian Movement (AIM), is an Native American activist organization in the United States. AIM burst onto the international scene with its seizure of the Bureau of Indian Affairs headquarters in Washington, D.C., in 1972 and the 1973 standoff at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. AIM was cofounded in 1968 by Dennis Banks, George Mitchell, Herb Powless, Clyde Bellecourt, Eddie Benton-Banai, and many others in the Native American community, almost 200 total. Russell Means was another early leader.
In the decades since AIM's founding, the group has led protests advocating Indigenous American interests, inspired cultural renewal, monitored police activities and coordinated employment programs in cities and in rural reservation communities across the United States.
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Encyclopedia
The American Indian Movement (AIM), is an Native American activist organization in the United States. AIM burst onto the international scene with its seizure of the Bureau of Indian Affairs headquarters in Washington, D.C., in 1972 and the 1973 standoff at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. AIM was cofounded in 1968 by Dennis Banks, George Mitchell, Herb Powless, Clyde Bellecourt, Eddie Benton-Banai, and many others in the Native American community, almost 200 total. Russell Means was another early leader.
In the decades since AIM's founding, the group has led protests advocating Indigenous American interests, inspired cultural renewal, monitored police activities and coordinated employment programs in cities and in rural reservation communities across the United States. AIM has often supported other indigenous interests outside the United States as well.
Early AIM protest tactics
The tactics AIM adopted were premised on the fact that Indian activists failed to achieve results at the time of
its founding. AIM believed that advocates for Indian interests who had worked within the American political system
had not been effective. The political system simply ignored Indian interests. The AIM leadership decided at its
founding that a more aggressive approach had to be adopted in order for their voices to be heard. Up to this time,
Indian advocacy had been passive and consisted of the typical lobbying effort with the Congress and the state
legislatures.
AIM used the American press and media to present its own unvarnished message to the American public. It did so
by ensuring that the members of the press would have an event they wanted to cover for their respective newspaper or
television/radio station. If successful, news outlets would seek out AIM spokespersons for interviews and receive
its message. Instead of relying on traditional lobbying efforts with the Congress or state legislature, AIM directly
sought out the American public to ensure it would get AIM’s message. AIM was always on the look out for an event that
would result in publicity. Sound bites such as the AIM Song were often caught on camera and quickly became associated with the movement.
The seizure of the Mayflower replica on Thanksgiving Day in 1970 during ceremonies commemorating the 350th anniversary of the Pilgrim’s landing at Plymouth Rock, the occupation of Mount Rushmore in
1971, the Trail of Broken Treaties march and takeover of the Bureau of Indian Affairs headquarters in Washington,
D.C. in 1972, AIM’s occupation of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge reservation in 1973, the Longest Walk in 1978, and
other events during the 1970s were designed to achieve this effect. All of these events were undertaken to ensure AIM
would be noticed in order to highlight its belief that the rights of Indian people had eroded.
In view of the nature of its more provocative advocacy for Indian rights and the experience of other minority
groups during the civil rights era, AIM encountered a similar reaction from the government. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) used paid informants to report on AIM’s activities and its members.
Other activities
AIM has been active in opposing the use of indigenous caricatures as mascots for sports teams, such as the Cleveland Indians, the Atlanta Braves, the Chicago Blackhawks and the Washington Redskins, organizing protests at World Series and Super Bowl games involving those teams.
AIM has been committed to improving the conditions that face Native peoples. AIM has founded institutions to address those needs including the Heart of The Earth School, Little Earth Housing, International Indian Treaty Council, AIM StreetMedics, American Indian Opportunities and Industrialization Center (one of the largest Indian job training programs), KILI radio, and Indian Legal Rights Centers.
During the Sandinista/Indian conflict in Nicaragua of the mid-1980s, Russell Means sided with Miskito Indians opposing the Sandinista government due to allegations of forced relocations of as many as 8,500 Miskito. Predictably, this stance damaged some of AIM's support from many White dominated left wing organizations in the U.S., who opposed Contra activities and supported the Sandinista movement. Contra activities included insurgent recruitment among Nicaraguan Indian groups including some Miskitos. Means' position recognized the difference between opposition to the Sandinista government by the Miskito, Sumo, and Rama on one hand, and the Reagan administration's support of the Contras, who were dedicated to the overthrow of the Sandinista regime.
More recently, Banks and the Bellecourts have rallied in support of John Graham and Arlo Looking Cloud, who were indicted in 2003 for the 1976 murder of Anna Mae Pictou-Aquash. Means and other AIM affiliates believe that those who ordered Aquash's murder, even if they are AIM leaders, should be held accountable. Means argues that Looking Cloud's conviction has made Looking Cloud a scapegoat for those who actually ordered Aquash's murder. Each of the current AIM factions accuses the other of complicity in Aquash's murder.
Many AIM chapters remain committed to confronting the government and corporate forces that allegedly seek to marginalize indigenous peoples. Some of these activities included challenging the ideological foundations of anti-indigenous policies, which they believe are exemplified in national holidays such as Columbus Day and Thanksgiving. AIM argues that Thanksgiving should be a National Day of Mourning, and protests the continuing theft of indigenous peoples' territories and natural resources.
In 2004 AIM held protests against the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial, and even threatened to blow up the keel boat of the nationally recognized re-enactment group .
In December 2007, a delegation of Lakota Sioux, including Russell Means, delivered to the U.S. State Department a declaration of secession from the United States to the U.S. State Department. Citing many broken treaties by the U.S. government in the past, and the loss of vast amounts of territory originally awarded in those treaties, the group announced its intentions to form a separate nation within the U.S. known as the Republic of Lakotah.
Ideological differences within AIM
In 1993, AIM split into two main factions, each claiming that it was the authentic inheritor of the AIM tradition, and that the other had betrayed the original principles of the movement. One group, based in Minneapolis, MN and associated with the Bellecourts, is known as the AIM-Grand Governing Council, while the other segment of the movement, led by, among others, Russell Means, was named AIM-International Confederation of Autonomous Chapters.
The split was formalized when the latter group issued its "Edgewood Declaration" in 1993, citing organizational grievances and authoritarian leadership by the Bellecourts. However, ideological differences seem to have simmered for a long time, with the Grand Governing Council (GGC) presenting a spiritual, albeit more mainstream, approach to activism. The GGC tends toward a more centralized, controlled political philosophy. The autonomous chapters argue that AIM has always been organized as a series of decentralized, autonomous chapters, with local leadership that is accountable to local constituencies. The autonomous chapters reject the assertions of central control by the Minneapolis group as contrary both to indigenous political traditions, and to the original philosophy of AIM.
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