The Future for Native Americans?
Although Native Americans eventually gained
citizenship, they received federal support for two more decades.
In the 1950s, however, the Bureau of Indian Affairs terminated
federal services and placed the responsibility for Native Americans
on state governments. Between 1952 and 1956, the bureau also sold
1.6 million acres of Native American land to developers.
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Political protests by organizations such as the American Indian
Movement (AIM) call attention to the chronic unemployment and
political disenfranchisement of Native Americans.
For example, twenty-five Native Americans
gathered in Plymouth, Massachusetts on Thanksgiving Day 1970.
The protesters wore traditional funeral clothes and convened in
front of a statue of Massassoit, the Wampanoag Chief who aided
colonists in 1621, and then buried Plymouth Rock under mounds
of sand.
In a more violent effort,
the American Indian Movement took control of South Dakotas
Wounded Knee in February 1973. The forceful occupation of the
reservation to protest local government lasted 71 days and resulted
in 2 deaths, 12 injuries, and more than 1,100 arrests.
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