1972 November 2

“Trail of Broken Treaties” – 500 Native-Americans Occupy BIA Offices

 

About 500 Native-American protesters occupied offices of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in Washington, DC, on this day and presented the manifesto, “Trail of Broken Treaties,”

The treaty had been adopted on October 31, 1972 at a meeting in Minneapolis. The sit-in at the BIA offices was to dramatize the manifesto and to demand immediate action on its demands.

For other Native-American protests, see the occupation of Alcatraz Island on November 20, 1969, and the protest at Plymouth Rock on Thanksgiving Day, November 26, 1970.

The Trail of Broken Treaties, Point #1:

“1. RESTORATION OF CONSTITUTIONAL TREATY-MAKING AUTHORITY:
The U.S. President should propose by executive message, and the Congress should consider and enact legislation, to repeal the provision in the 1871 Indian Appropriations Act which withdrew federal recognition from Indian Tribes and Nations as political entities, which could be contracted by treaties with the United States, in order that the President may resume the exercise of his full constitutional authority for acting in the matters of Indian Affairs – and in order that Indian Nations may represent their own interests in the manner and method envisioned and provided in the Federal Constitution.”

Learn more: Paul Smith and Robert Allen Warrior, Like a Hurricane: The Indian Movement from Alcatraz to Wounded Knee (1996)

Read the complete “Trail of Broken Treaties” Manifesto: http://www.aimovement.org/ggc/trailofbrokentreaties.html

Learn more at the Native American Rights Fund: http://www.narf.org/

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