The American Indian Movement

The American Indian Movement (AIM), founded in Minneapolis in 1968, was the most visible force in a broad Native rights awakening of the late twentieth century. Born among urban Native people, it confronted police mistreatment, poverty, and the long federal failure to honor treaties — and put Native grievances back on the national stage.

AIM and allied activists staged dramatic protests that drew the country's attention. The 1969 occupation of Alcatraz Island, the 1972 "Trail of Broken Treaties" march on Washington, and other actions demanded that the United States respect tribal sovereignty and the agreements it had signed.

In 1973, AIM members and Oglala Lakota occupied the village of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation — the site of the 1890 massacre — in a tense, armed, 71-day standoff with federal forces. It became the defining moment of the movement, broadcast around the world.

The activism of this era helped win real change: laws protecting Native religious freedom, tribal self-determination, and child welfare, and a lasting revival of Native pride and political power. AIM marked the moment Native America moved from survival to active reassertion of its rights.