AIM - American Indian Movement

After seeing the documentary in class, I was very interested in finding out if that was the end of the Indian's struggle for equality. So many great movements and ideas seemed to fizzle and fade with the dying glory of the sixties, but the American Indian Movement remained strong throughout the seventies and beyond. I was looking around the PBS website when I came across the AIM intials in a link, and was curious to see who I could contact through instant messenger. Then I realized I need to get off the computer for awhile.

AIM stands for the American Indian Movement, and is composed of many of the people who occupied Alcatraz Island. I don't know if I missed that during the documentary but now I know and am happy about that. After Alcatraz, AIM continued to seize and occupy federal buildings, and even small towns. According to that PBS website, "Its first protest action was on Thanksgiving Day 1970, when AIM members painted Plymouth Rock red and seized the Mayflower II replica in Plymouth, Massachusetts to challenge a celebration of colonial expansion".I think that is hilarious and great. Here is what the AIM is all about:

WHAT IS THE AMERICAN INDIAN MOVEMENT?

Things will never be same again and that is what the American Indian Movement is about ...
They are respected by many, hated by some, but they are never ignored ...
They are the catalyst for Indian Sovereignty ...
They intend to raise questions in the minds of all, questions that have gone to sleep in the minds of Indians and non-Indian alike ...
From the outside, AIM people are tough people, they had to be ...
AIM was born out of the dark violence of police brutality and voiceless despair of Indian people in the courts of Minneapolis, Minnesota ...
AIM was born because a few knew that it was enough, enough to endure for themselves and all others like them who were people without power or rights ...
AIM people have known the insides of jails; the long wait; the no appeal of the courts for Indians, because many of them were there ...
From the inside AIM people are cleansing themselves; many have returned to the old traditional religions of their tribes, away from the confused notions of a society that has made them slaves of their own unguided lives ...
AIM is first, a spiritual movement, a religious re-birth, and then the re-birth of dignity and pride in a people ...
AIM succeeds because they have beliefs to act upon ...
The American Indian Movement is attempting to connect the realities of the past with the promise of tomorrow ...
They are people in a hurry, because they know that the dignity of a person can be snuffed by despair and a belt in a cell of a city jail ...
They know that the deepest hopes of the old people could die with them ...
They know that the Indian way is not tolerated in White America, because it is not acknowledged as a decent way to be ...
Sovereignty, Land, and Culture cannot endure if a people is not left in peace ...
The American Indian Movement is then, the Warriors Class of this century, who are bound to the bond of the Drum, who vote with their bodies instead of their mouths ... THEIR BUSINESS IS HOPE.

Words and thoughts by Birgil Kills Straight,
Oglala Lakota Nation.
Author, Richard LaCourse, Director,
American Indian Press Association 1973

Much fighting occurred between AIM and the US government during a lot of the protests of the 1970s. It is always sad and disappointing to find out that some people, mostly Indians, died for causes like these. The PBS website also says the last, and most peaceful major event of AIM was The Longest Walk in 1978. Several hundred Native Americans and supporters walked from SF to Washington D.C. The walk "symbolize[d] the forced removal of American Indians from their homelands and to draw attention to the continuing problems plaguing the Indian community". With some research I found out that recently The Longest Walk 2 happened from February - July 2008. The walk had a north and south path to follow through the country from SF, and mostly promoted "saving Mother Earth". The website is decorated with drawings of Indians, but the mission statement had little to do with AIM and it's cause. HAHA, i remember now reading that General Motors donated 3 hybrid cars to the walk because "GM's General Manager agreed with the Environmental Concerns of The Longest Walk 2", so yeah...weird.

Question:
Is there a Native American club or outlet on campus?

Why do you think the Native American issues were not in the foreground at The Longest Walk 2? (this is the mission statement for 2008, if you are interested) Or, am I just craving a hardcore mission statement from these guys, like the one above?