Further Reading
Gardner, Martin R.Understanding Juvenile Law. New-
ark, N.J.: LexisNexis, 2003.
Pegram, Thomas R.Battling Demon Rum: The Struggle
for a Dr y America, 1800-1933. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee,
1998.
U.S. Congress. House. Committee on Public Works
and Transportation. Subcommittee on Investiga-
tions and Oversight.National Minimum Drinking
Age Law: Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Investi-
gations and Oversight of the Committee on Public Works
and Transportation, House of Representatives.99th
Congress, 2d session, September 18, 1986.
Scott A. Merriman
See also Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD);
Rehnquist, William H.; Supreme Court decisions.
Native Americans
Definition Members of any of the aboriginal
peoples of the United States
Despite continued protests instigated by the American In-
dian Movement and the flourishing of profitable casinos on
reservations, Native Americans remained one of the poor-
est, most disadvantaged segments of American society.
The 1970’s was a watershed decade for Native Ameri-
can protest in the United States. After its founding in
1968, the American Indian Movement (AIM) en-
gaged in a number of significant protests. In 1970,
various tribes occupied Alcatraz Island by “right of
discovery.” A year later, a group of protesters set up
camp on Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills (Paha
Sapa to the Sioux), near the famous national monu-
ment. The camp dramatized the broken treaty of
1868, in which the Sioux had been granted the Black
Hills in perpetuity. Since that time, gold had been
mined from those hills by white people and white in-
dustries, and the very face of the mountains prom-
ised to the Sioux had been carved in the likeness of
four American presidents. Finally, in November of
1972, a group of Native Americans marched on
Washington, D.C., in what was called the Trail of
Broken Treaties March. When neither the president
nor the vice president would meet with Native Amer-
ican leaders, the group occupied the Bureau of In-
dian Affairs offices for five days.
Native American Rights in the 1980’s Though the
protests of the 1980’s were not nearly as notorious as
those of the 1970’s, the work of AIM continued. In
1981, Native American protesters established a camp
near Rapid City, South Dakota, as a first step in re-
claiming the sacred Black Hills. Their claim for the
land on which they camped was based on three legal
documents: the 1868 treaty, the American Indian
Freedom of Religion Act of 1978, and a federal law
allowing the free use of wilderness sites for schools
and churches.
The protest highlighted again the bizarre history
of the Black Hills claim. Abrogated in 1877, the
treaty of 1868 was affirmed by the U.S. Court of
Claims in 1977, resulting in the Court’s conclusion
that the Sioux had never been compensated for the
land. The United States government made various
offers to what the court called the “Dakota Nation”
to compensate them for the loss of the Black Hills.
First, it offered to pay what the land was worth in
1877: $17.5 million. In 1979, the Court of Claims
added accumulated interest to the offer, holding the
United States government responsible for “the most
ripe and rank case of dishonorable dealing in our
history.” The new amount of $122 million was af-
firmed by the Supreme Court in 1980 and included
a $10,595,493 payment to the lawyer who repre-
sented the Dakota Nation. Many of the “traditionals”
among the Sioux did not want the money, however;
they wanted the land sacred to their religious tradi-
tions. Regrettably, though the 1868 treaty had prom-
ised them that land in perpetuity, they were not
given back their land.
Other protests in the 1980’s and later centered
upon the mascots of professional sports teams, par-
ticularly those of the Cleveland Indians and the At-
lanta Braves, as well as the display in museums of the
skeletal remains of Native Americans. Despite the
protest, these teams continued to use Native Ameri-
can figures as mascots, often depicting them in
cartoon form. However, a measure of respect was
granted to Native American grave sites and the re-
mains therein. In 1989, the Denver Museum of Natu-
ral History chose not to include skeletal remains in
its “Rio Azul: Lost City of the Maya.” A short time
later, the small museum located at the site of Etowah
Indian Mounds in Cartersville, Georgia, closed off
an open grave site that had been used as one of its
displays.
Probably the most significant event in the life ofThe Eighties in America Native Americans 695