P
November
The National Indian Education Association is
founded.
In Minneapolis, Minnesota, during the first na-
tional conference of Indian education, the National
Indian Education Association is established to im-
prove the quality of schooling available to Indian
students. At the request of Senators Edward Ken-
nedy and Walter Mondale, representatives in the
association will be actively involved in the drafting
of the landmark Indian Education Act (see entry for
SPRING 1972).
November 3
The Senate issues the Kennedy Report on
Indian education.
Information gleaned during hearings of the Spe-
cial Senate Subcommittee on Indian Education
is summarized in Indian Education: A National
Tragedy—A National Challenge. The document
becomes informally known as the Kennedy Re-
port after the chairs of the subcommittee, Senators
Robert F. Kennedy and Edward Kennedy. The
Kennedy Report concludes that Indian students
are poorly served by Indian schools and rec-
ommends several changes, including teaching
Native American history and heritage as part of
the curriculum and allowing Indian parents more
involvement in their children’s schooling. (See also
entry for SPRING 1972.)
November 10
The American Indian Task Force meets with
Vice President Spiro Agnew.
The American Indian Task Force—an organiza-
tion composed of 42 prominent Indian leaders,
including Dennis Banks, D’Arcy McNickle, and
Peter McDonald—travels to Washington, D.C.,
to discuss Indian affairs with Vice President Spiro
Agnew and other Nixon administration officials.
The group’s primary goal is to promote more
Indian involvement in the formation of federal
Indian policy. The task force is an outgrowth of
Our Brother’s Keeper: The Indian in White Amer-
ica, a published study produced by Indian and
non-Indian researchers and writers funded by the
Citizens’ Advocate Center. Keeper condemned the
federal government, particularly the Bureau of
Indian Affairs, for failure to live up to its responsi-
bilities to Indian peoples.“1. It is isolated from modern
facilities, and without
adequate means of
trans-portation.- It has no fresh running
water. - It has inadequate sanita-
tion facilities. - There are no oil or min-
eral rights. - There is no industry, and
so unemployment is very
great. - There are no health care
facilities. - The soil is rocky and un-
productive; and the land
does not support game. - There are no educational
facilities. - The population has always
exceeded the land base. - The population has always
been held as prisoners
and kept dependent upon
others.”
—from a proclamation issued by
the Indians of All Tribes
occupying Alcatraz Island,
listing Alcatraz’s similarities
to an Indian reservation