The American-Indian Movement

In the late 1800s, native tribes in America continued to lose their land to frontier settlers. The United States government often made and broke treaties protecting lands of American-Indians. Using the force of the United States Army, American-Indians were then forced to reside on reservations.

By the 1970s, half of the one million American-Indians lived on reservations. Living conditions, in most cases, were not good. Leaders of the American Indian Movement (AIM) began to get much needed national attention from Washington, D.C. Tribes began to sue for the rights promised to them under treaties originally signed as early as the 1800s but had never been granted.

The courts agreed with the mistreatment of the early American-Indians. For example, in South Dakota, the Sioux were given $100 million for land that had been taken from them in a disreputable treaty deal. Other tribes were also able to make changes. Some stopped large corporations from encroaching on their land and stripping the area of all its natural resources. To honor those early Americans, the American-Indian Day celebration happens each October. This holiday is the second Monday of October each year. The day is set aside to commemorate or remember the crimes committed against the early American-Indians and to learn about and respect the early American-Indian cultures.