Indians Converging on D.C. for Rallies
Indians Converging on D.C. for Rallies
Proclaiming, "We come here in peace," leaders of a coalition of 250 of the nation's 300 American Indian tribes began converging in Washington yesterday for a week of activities aimed at dramatizing the traditions and the needs of their people.
Sixty-five Indians, the first contingent of what leaders of the "Trail of Broken Treaties" caravan say may swell to more than 5,000 Indians by the weekend, arrived after a cross-country trip that began Oct. 2 in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle and wound through reservations along the way.
"We want to meet with the people who represent us, and we want to show Americans what our culture is all about," said Robert Burnette, former tribal chairman of the Rosebud Sioux tribe in Mission, S.D., and "Trails" group co-chairman.
Burnette said Indian leaders had sought meetings with President Nixon and Sen. George McGovern. He said McGovern has agreed to a meeting, possibly today, and that the White House had ruled out a meeting with the President but was arranging for an Interior Department official to meet with the Indian leaders.
At the meetings--and in position papers to be aired during the week--the Indians are scheduled to call for fulfillment of all U.S. treaty obligations with Indian tribes and for protection of Indian rights to water, minerals and land.
There are about 840,000 Indians in the United States today. Approximately half of them live in reservations.
Another concern to be voiced is a continuing quest by Indian leaders to have the Interior Department's Bureau of Indian Affairs replaced with the federal Indian commission.
Indian activists have charged that the bureau of Indian affairs has become a dumping ground for incompetent government workers, while maintaining that the agency is "insensitive" to the concerns of Indians.
The demonstrators say they also plan to ask both presidential candidates for commitments for increased funds and a referendum of all Indian tribes each time the government wants to cut a tribe off from service.
"The caravan itself may lack the dramatic character that draws public attention at this stage," conceded Sid Mills, a 24-year-old Yakima Indian from Frank Landing, Wash., who is coordinating the car caravan.
"Nonetheless, we believe that it can be the beginning of an educational process among Indian people which can produce a reasoned, rational--revolutionary, if you will--manifesto for construction of an Indian future in America."
Indian activism--almost unheard of until the late 1960s--has been blossoming since 1969, when two apparently unrelated events occured, one quietly, the other under the glare of photographers' and television cameras.
Early in the year, the American Indian Movement, the organization that many leaders credit with awakening a then-dormant sense of pride among Indians, was quietly founded by Russell Means, an Ogalala Sioux from South Dakota.
And, on the night of Nov. 20, 1969, a group of 78 Indians from 30 tribes invaded the island of Alcatraz, a 21-acre rock a mile offshore in San Francisco. Their claim to ownership of the island was rejected by the U.S. government, and the squatters remained on the rock for several months before being rejected.
But their action triggered a series of similar "invasions" of disputed sites, some of which resulted in successes for the Indians.
That was the case with a surplus 640-acre Army site near Davis, Calif., which an Indian group wanted to use to establish a university for Indians and Mexican-Americans.
The government, although rejecting the Indians' claim to the property, issued a permit entrusting to them the "custody, protection and maintenance" of the site.
The caravan will be the latest rallying point for airing Indian grievances, Mills said.
"Current programs are not keeping pace with growing problems, and are eliminating virtually none," he said. "Obviously, prospects for change are not good unless the caravan insists upon new and different solutions than are presently being applied."
Burnette said a contingent of 800 participants will arrive in Washington today after a swing through Minnesota, Indiana, Ohio and North Carolina. Another 1,500 demonstrators are expected Wednesday and smaller groups will arrive during the rest of the week, he said.
The demonstrators, who will be housed at several area churches and private homes, will begin a series of meetings and religous services Thursday, Burnette said during a press conference at the Bureau of Indian Affairs auditorium yesterday morning.
Their activities will include a parade around the White House at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, and will conclude with a general assembly at the Sylvan Theater on the Washington Monument ground's at 10 a.m. Monday.
The group has been authorized by the U.S. Park Police to erect about 30 "symbolic" tee-pees in Potomac Park West, on the banks of the Potomac River.
The traditional Indian habitats will be occupied by "medicine men" from various tribes during the day, but will not be used as sleeping quarters, a police spokesman said. A group of trail representatives has been authorized to stand guard on the site at night.