Continuing the Struggle: Indigenous Protests, Legal Agendas, and Aboriginal Internationalism

Abstract

Aboriginal people have protested incursions by outsiders for centuries. A 1973 confrontation between the United States government and the Sioux Indians of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota lifted the struggle to a new level. The location — Wounded Knee — was auspicious, for it was the site of a nineteenth-century massacre of the Sioux by the US army. The American Indian Movement had established itself as a strong national voice on aboriginal issues, and fitted in with the American protest culture of the 1960s. But the conflict took a nasty turn in the coming years. In 1975, a firefight between AIM members and the FBI resulted in the death of two FBI agents. Leonard Peltier, subsequently charged with murder and imprisoned for his role in the deaths, became an icon of the Native American struggle, although commentators have described him not as a major leader but rather as “a not particularly beloved AIM regular.” Over time, the conflicts at Wounded Knee and Pine Ridge have been conflated and have emerged as international symbols of the contemporary oppression of indigenous peoples.¹ The American government looked to the world like an aggressor against its own people, and a new spirit emerged in the world of aboriginal protest. The AIM struggles proved to be a significant turning point in public understanding of the plight, aspirations, and determination of indigenous peoples in North America and, ultimately, around the world. More importantly, the AIM resurgence provided graphic illustrations of the frustrations, political power, and anger that festered within Native American communities across the United States.