Billie Jane Baguley Library and Archives Collection Spotlight for July 2018

July 11, 2018

Fifty years ago this July, the American Indian Movement (AIM) formally organized in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The organization was committed to Native American civil rights and the sovereignty of tribal communities. AIM formed with the idea of changing the course and tone of American Indian-United States government interaction while advocating for education reform, housing assistance, job training programs and an end to police brutality. The movement gained national media attention with their involvement in the Occupation of Alcatraz (1969-1971), their Trail of Broken Treaties march on Washington (1972) and their protests at Wounded Knee (1973). After tragic events on the Pine Ridge Reservation (1975) and subsequent arrests of key AIM figures, the movement lost energy and the organization splintered. Some efforts continue to this day although diminished from the scale and intensity of the national spotlight on their first decade.

Here are four selections from the Library collection that discuss the origins, the objectives, and the outcomes of this noteworthy national movement. These examples documenting AIM’s significant, if controversial, place in history are currently on display in the public reading area of the Library. Please feel free to visit the Library to review these or any other items of interest in the Library and Archives collections. For more details or additional collection information, visit our Library Catalog Search.

Banks, Dennis
Ojibwa warrior : Dennis Banks and the rise of the American Indian Movement
Norman : University of Oklahoma Press, [2004] Heard call number E99.C6 B258 2004

Hendricks, Steve
The unquiet grave : the FBI and the struggle for the soul of Indian Country
New York : Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2006
Heard call number E99.M6 A698 2006

Johansen, Bruce E.
Encyclopedia of the American Indian Movement
Santa Barbara, California : Greenwood, an imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC, c2013
Heard call number REF: E93 .J63 2013

Stern, Kenneth S.
Loud Hawk : the United States versus the American Indian Movement
Norman : University of Oklahoma Press, [1994] Heard call number E93.S8 1994