Government Mishandled Indian Militants
Government Mishandled Indian Militants
The Bureau of Indian Affairs building was gutted by several hundred of its most celebrated constituents recently in what the Nixon administration called a symbolic massacre, an orgy of violence. The cost: more than $2 million. Indian advancement: zero. Public reaction: small support, mostly outrage.
Typewriters and office machines smashed. Toilet fixtures shattered. Windows and mirrors broken. Paintings and art objects destroyed. Excretia everywhere. Valuable documents ripped, scattered, stolen. Finally, the vandals were given $66,000 by the government to leave town.
Action Is Explained
All this in the name of free speech and assembly, and during a week in which President Nixon spoke firmly of the end of "an era of permissiveness."
But the Nixon men in the White House and at BIA responsible for what looks like "permissiveness" now explain they acted this way to prevent killings and even more violence. The militant Indians who occupied BIA headquarters, they argue, had guns, knives, spears, and Molotov cocktails and were repared to fight to the death and burn the building down.
The administration made a series of errors in dealing with Indian affairs–Interior Secretary Rogers C. B. Morton, Indian Affairs Commissioner Louis R. Bruce, and White House advisor Leonard Garment–knew that the leadership of the "Trail of Broken Treaties" caravan was more interested in televised confrontation than peaceful petition. This protesting group gave the administration several weeks' notice they were on the way, so there was no excuse for not being prepared.
Next, the administration erred in allowing the Indians into the Interior Department auditorium with its access to the Bureau of Indian Affairs building. The caravan had scarcely arrived before it occupied the building, renaming it "The Native American Embassy." Very charming.
From then on, the Nixon administration acted in confused fashion. After stern warnings and a court order to remove the Indians, secured by U.S. marshals, BIA Commissioner Louis R. Bruce was still negotiating with the Indians to keep them inside. The Indian leadership used the excuse of the presence [but not the actions] of federal police to cut loose with violence.
Frantic negotiations followed, and the White House agreed not to prosecute the Indians for their illegal seizure of the building and to pay their way home. Fresh green money was given. Quite permissive. Radicals like Russell Means, Vernon Bellecourt, and Dennis Banks ["for all practical purposes, we have destroyed the BIA"] triumphed.
And yet, the caravan, and its principal catalyst, the American Indian Movement [A.I.M.] amounted to only several hundred of the 850,000 American Indians. At that, the militants only represent a segment of the 350,000 off-reservation Indians, the kind inclinded to militancy.
Leadership Was Dismayed
The leadership of the National Tribal Council and the larger National Congress of American Indians was dismayed with the havoc and loss of documents which might be needed to verify Indian holdings or substantiate new claims.
Moreover, the Nixon administration has surpassed previous administrations in taking actions on behalf of Indians. Indeed, administration-sponsored legislation for Indians lies fallow in congressional committees, namely, a proposal for HEW and BIA programs to be administered by leadership of Indian reservations and not the government; a tripling of funds for Indian grants and loans so that Indians can start their own businesses, and a proposal for an Indian Trust Council to argue for Indians' water and land rights.
The criminal actions of the militant Indians here do not reflect the corss-section of American Indians. If a bunch of Ku Klux Klanners or right-wing motorcycle thugs took over a government building here, it's doubtful they would have gotten off scot-free and been given traveling money in the bargain. The Nixon administration paid off for its mistakes on this one, and some officials should be red-faced over their mistakes with the redskins.