1969Vine Deloria Jr.’s Custer Died for Your Sins is
published.
A Dakota lawyer, activist, and former executive
director of the National Congress of American
Indians (see entry for NOVEMBER 1944), Vine
Deloria Jr. writes with equal parts of wit and
venom a scathing account of the injustices com-
mitted against Indians throughout U.S. history,
in his first book, Custer Died for Your Sins. The
book finds a mass audience in non-Indian readers
looking to understand the roots and goals of the
growing Red Power Movement. Deloria’s follow-
up to Custer—We Talk, You Listen (1970)—will
also be a best-seller.
Floyd Westerman records Custer Died for
Your Sins.
Dakota activist Floyd Westerman emerges as cel-
ebrated folksinger-songwriter with his first album,
Custer Died for Your Sins. Like the book by Vine
Deloria Jr. of the same name, Westerman’s album
explores the lives of contemporary Indians and at-
tacks non-Indian efforts to dictate Indian conduct.
His songs include “Here Come the Anthros,”
“B.I.A.,” and “They Don’t Listen.” On the album
cover, Deloria calls Westerman’s work “the badly
needed war songs that thousands have waited to
hear.”
The Navajo Tribal Council is tried in
federal court.
In Dodge v. Nakai, a non-Indian lawyer brings
suit against Raymond Nakai, the chairman of the
Navajo (Dineh) tribal council, to settle a dispute
with the tribal government. The Navajo’s lawyers
assume the case has no basis because the Navajo
government is not subject to federal law. The
federal court, however, holds that the case can
be tried because the Indian Civil Rights Act
(see entry for APRIL 18, 1968) has given the court
jurisdiction over the matter. The court’s interpre-
tation of the act is derided as a threat to Indian
sovereignty.
The United Southeastern Tribes
is founded.
Leaders of the Eastern Cherokee of North Caro-
lina, the Choctaw of Mississippi, and the Seminole
and Miccosukee of Florida band together to form
the United Southeastern Tribes. The organization
is concerned about plans of the federal govern-
ment to transfer responsibility for some Indian
programs to the states. Because historically south-
eastern tribes have received little or no recognition
from state governments, the United Southeastern
Tribes lobbies for the federal government to re-
tain authority over programs organized for their
benefit.January 21The Navajo Community College begins
holding classes.
Founded and chartered by the Navajo Nation in
1968, the Navajo Community College (now Diné
College) opens its doors to Navajo (Dineh) stu-
dents. The institution is the first Indian-controlled
and reservation-based postsecondary school in the
United States. Its curriculum includes courses in
Navajo history, culture, and language.May 5N. Scott Momaday’s House Made of Dawn
wins the Pulitzer Prize.
An enormous critical success, House Made of
Dawn (1968) by Kiowa author N. Scott Moma-
day is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for literature,
becoming the first book by a Native American to
be so honored. The novel deals with the spiritual
crisis of Abel, a part-Indian, part-white World War
II veteran as he struggles to readjust to reserva-
tion life following the war. Through its nonlineal
structure, the book employs traditional Native
American styles of storytelling. The success of
Dawn will initiate a Native American literary re-
naissance by inspiring many young Indians to use
the non-Indian form of the novel to tell stories of
contemporary Indian life.