AIM
The American Indian Movement
Faith Attaguile concisely delineates AIM's present structure in "Why do you think we call it struggle?" It is very well done, based on first-hand knowledge, and is not common knowledge, so I reprint two paragraphs at length. Hyperlinks are my addition.
"Today AIM consists of two fundamentally different movements. One wing, with all the trappings of an organized political party, describes itself as National AIM, Inc. (NAIMI) and is headed by Clyde and Vernon Bellecourt, whose subordination of native liberation to their own personal advancement amplifies and documents talking native talk while walking the corporate walk. NAIMI is nicely organized under the statutory provisions defining corporate structures, evincing the characteristics of a privately-held business enterprise replete with corporate offices, regional subsidiaries, a self-appointed command structure, membership rolls, fees and dues, fundraising capabilities, and vanity license plates. NAIMI, by its own admission, is heavily funded by the US government and by neoliberal corporate structures dictating governmental policies towards indigenous peoples throughout the world."
"The other wing of the movement consists of a loosely knit collection of local groups describing themselves as the Confederation of Autonomous Chapters of the American Indian Movement (autonomous AIM). The autonomous chapters each tend to operate with a more locally-focused agenda and scrupulously avoid anything approximating a central command or decision structure, a means of governance they associate with the dominant culture, and one inconsistent with native ways. Consciously eschewing the organizational trappings, the fascination with money, and financial ties with either the US government or corporate America, autonomous AIM's structure remains closer to the spirit of the AIM of the 60s and 70s than the corporate edifice that is NAIMI. While autonomous AIM's focus is primarily local, many local leaders also actively address national and international indigenous liberation issues." (2-3)
AIM is presently active in advocating for the investigation into the murders of eight men (six Indian) killed in the past 18 months in Rapid City, South Dakota. AIM asserts that police are not aggressively investigating the deaths because the victims were Indian. (AP, AIM List) But AIM’s loudest shots were seen and heard between 1968 and 1976, when the FBI's COINTELPRO program, - "a secret program to undermine the popular upsurge which swept the country during the 1960s" - and the BIA’s corruption and its GOON squads brutality on the Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota, destroyed thousands of Indians’ hopes of recovery. (Churchill, Vander Wall 175: see statistics here) With the 1964 release of Clyde Bellecourt, another ex-con named Dennis Banks, George Mitchell and Eddie Benton Banai, the group, at Bellecourt’s initiative, called themselves the "Concerned Indian Americans." (Matthiessen, 34) Recognizing the "CIA" acronym immediately, they called themselves the American Indian Movement (AIM). "There has always been an American Indian Movement," Bellecourt has said. "For hundreds of years there have been people like Crazy Horse who stood up and fought for us." (Ibid.) Aim grew out of the "dynamic of historical antagonism shaping U.S. - Lakota relations" in the mid 1960s (Ibid. 118).
AIM is best known for its February 27th, 1973 occupation of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, a site of much AIM history and the December 29th, 1890 massacre by the U.S. 7th Cavalry. This "siege at Wounded Knee" is a term coined by AIM leader Russell Means. (Churchill, Vander Wall 145) The stated goal, according to Means and Dennis Banks (probably the second most famous AIM leader), was congressional hearings on the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 and investigation into the BIA's rampant abuses. (Ibid. 141) The US government sent "17 armored personnel carriers, 130,000 rounds of M-16 ammunition, 41,000 rounds of M-1 ammunition, 24,000 flares, 12 M-79 grenade launchers, 600 cases of C-S [tear] gas, 100 rounds of M-40 explosives, helicopters, Phantom jets [a la Vietnam], and personnel, under the direction of US General Alexander Haig." (Ibid. 144) It was the first time the military had been dispatched for a civil operation since the Civil War. (Ibid.) The battle lasted 71 days, ending in a standown on May 7th, 1973. (Ibid. 169) "Nation wide, Wounded Knee related arrests reached more than 1,200." (Ibid., 170) AIM's and the Oglala nation's demands -- grant sovereignty to native nations and reestablish direct treaty relationships [undone under Title 25, Section 71, U.S.C., March 3, 1871] -- were never given serious attention. (Ibid. 171-174) Practically speaking, the siege had failed to change any law. Intrinsically, however, this was an invigorating, monumental militaristic stand against an illegally acting government that listened while shots rang out but quickly supported further silencing of AIM once its members had been arrested and scattered.
AIM had received previously occupied the international spotlight during "the [November 20,] 1969 occupation of Alcatraz by the "Indians of All Tribes," who claimed the island by right of discovery under the provisions of the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868." (Sanchez, et al, 31) The occupation ended June 11, 1971, 19 months later. The Alcatraz occupation was a boost for the 1972 "…'Trail of Broken Treaties' caravan, which traveled the country and ended in Washington, DC, where meetings had been arranged with members of the executive branch." (Ibid.) AIM activists ended up occupying the BIA building for less than a week after being denied promised housing. The building was trashed, and AIM was branded "lawless" by the Nixon administration. (Ibid.)
In Robert Warrior and Paul Smith’s book, Like a Hurricane, the authors conclude with these notes: "The Indian movement was an edgy, unpredictable creature that challenged American power in a way not equaled this century before or since. In the decades that followed, activists have tried and failed to re-create its passion and drama" (279) But there can be no doubt that AIM was and is effective.
Works Cited
Associated Press. "American Indians Protest in Rapid City." 23 September 1999. Fwd. by White Feather. Online posting. 24 September 1999. AIM List (discussion group: private list) <http://www.egroups.com/group/aimlist/232.html>
Smith, Paul Chaat and Warrior, Robert. Like a Hurricane: The Indian Movement from Alcatraz to Wounded Knee. New York: The New Press, 1996.
Churchill, Ward, and Vander
Wall, Jim. AGENTS OF REPRESSION: The FBI's Secret War Against The
Black Panther Party & the American Indian Movement. Boston:
South End Press, 1988.
Matthiessen, Peter. In The Spirit of Crazy Horse. New York: Viking, 1980.
Sanchez, John and Stuckey, Mary E. and Morris, Richard. "Rhetorical Exclusion: The Government's Case Against American Indian Activists, AIM, and Leonard Peltier." American Indian Culture and Research Journal. 23.2 (1999): 27-52.
Additional Recommended Works and Links
Baringer, Sandra K. "Indian Activism and the American Indian Movement: A Bibliographical Essay." American Indian Culture and Research Journal. 21.4 (1997) 217-250.
"Temporary Visibility: Deloria on Sovereignty and AIM," Genre 25 (Winter 1994): 365-375. Volume reprinted as Alan Velie, ed., Native American Perspectives on Literature and History, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1995
http://www.dickshovel.com/aimhis.html AIM History
http://www.dickshovel.com/Aim.Pine.html Pine Ridge Link
http://www.crazyhorse.org/crazy.htm Crazy Horse Sculpture site
http://www.yvwiiusdinvnohii.net/lpeltier.html AIM sanctioned links – FBI DOCUMENTS on trials after Wounded Knee
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jamarcus/aima.html AIM profile in Oglala timeline
http://www.dickshovel.com/lsa14.html A personal recollection by an AIM member
http://www.dickshovel.com/FBIAD.html FBI New York Times ad for its federal case against Leonard Peltier
http://www.dickshovel.com/Aim.Pine.html AIM and the incident at Pine Ridge
http://www.dickshovel.com/aim101.html South Dakota AIM guiding principles
http://www.dickshovel.com/AIMIntro.html Extensive links to more on AIM
http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/wpages/wpgs400/w4bigft.htm Original Wounded Knee details – Picture of Bigfoot
http://www.dickshovel.com/Edgewood.html AIM's Edgewood document
http://www.dickshovel.com/AIMUN94.html AIM's UN declaration, 1994
http://www.letsfindout.com/subjects/america/aim.html Cutesy substandard educational perspective
http://www.dickshovel.com/AIMIntro.html#Leonard Extensive Leonard Peltier links
http://www.mankato.msus.edu/depts/worldsot/deloria.htm Scholar Vine Deloria, Jr. link
http://www.planet-peace.org/trudell/index1.html John Trudell - prominent AIM activist - biography and music
http://www.aics.org/WK/index.html AIM and Wounded Knee documents
http://hometown.aol.com/tsalagi007/peltier.htm Excellent Leonard Peltier link
http://members.xoom.com/freepeltier/index.html Leonard Peltier Defense Fund
http://www.ipl.org/cgi/ref/native/browse.pl/A13 Dennis Banks profile, Internet Public Library
http://www.sonic.net/~doretk/Issues/97-02%20FEB/peltier.html Dennis Banks's thoughts on Leonard Peltier
http://www.ncccusa.org/assembly/peltier.htm National Council of Churches resolution supporting clemency for Peltier
http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointel.htm Paul Wolf’s page on COINTELPRO and related/effected subjects
http://www.defendsolis.org/COINTELPROMain.html Also COINTELPRO page
http://www.dickshovel.com/coin.html On COINTELPRO
http://www.dickshovel.com/martyr.html Peltier’s own words and Dino Butler interview
http://www.dickshovel.com/gao.html 5-3-96 GAO report on the BIA
http://www.dickshovel.com/Mr.X.html Matthieson’s interview with "real killer"
of FBI agents Peltier is accused of killing
http://www.dickshovel.com/peltierstmt.html Peltier’s pretrial statement of innocence
http://www.dickshovel.com/clark.html Ramsey Clark, former US attorney general, on Peltier’s case
http://www.dickshovel.com/bib.html Bibliography
http://www.doi.gov/bureau-indian-affairs.html BIA homepage
http://members.aol.com/buff2trail/aim-links.htm "Official" American Indian Movement Links
http://www.ncai.org/welcome.htm Home Page NCAI (National Congress of American Indians)