500 Years of Indigenous resistanceSimilarly, the reclaiming
of traditional Indian lands
was also a primary focus of
struggle in North America.
One of the first of these oc-
cupations in this period was
the seizing of the Seaway In-
ternational Bridge in Ontario
by Mohawks, in December
- The action was to pro-
test the Canadian state’s de-
cision to levy customs duties
on goods carried across the
international border by Mo-
hawks, despite a treaty which
stipulated this right and the fact that the border area was on Mohawk land.
The occupation ended when RCMP and Ontario Provincial Police stormed
the bridge and arrested 48 Mohawks. However, the struggle of the Mo-
hawks was to precipitate occupations which were to follow as a “Red Na-
tionalism / Red Power” movement swept across both Canada and the U.S.,
alongside Black, Chicano, and Puerto Rican liberation movements.
In 1968, the American Indian Movement (AIM) was formed in Min-
neapolis-St. Paul. At first an organization modeled after Euro-American
Left groups and inspired in part by the Civil Rights struggles of the 1950s
and 60s, as well as the Black Panthers, AIM organized against police vio-
lence, racism, and poverty. Initially urban-based and predominantly cen-
tred in the Dakotas and Nebraska, AIM quickly became a widespread
movement represented in both urban ghettos and rural reserve areas.
Although AIM members would be involved in many of the struggles
that would develop—partly because AIM was an international movement
and not regional—AIM itself was only one part of the “Red Nationalist”
movement. In 1968, the National Alliance for Red Power had formed on
the West Coast, and the following year Indians occupied Alcatraz Island in
San Francisco harbour, claiming they had “discovered” it; the occupation
would last 19 months and would become known as the first major event
in the struggle for “Red Power”. Another aspect of this period was the con-
tinuing local and regional daily struggles, independent though not totally
unrelated from the emerging Native liberation movement, in communi-