1971), Indian supporters establish a camp at Four
Corners, near Burney, California. When they begin
cutting up felled trees to build cabins at the site, a
team of federal troops, U.S. marshals, and Forestry
Service officials storm the camp. The activists try
to defend themselves with sticks as the troops spray
them with mace and bludgeon them with clubs and
rifle butts. Thirty-eight Indians are arrested, but the
charges will later be dropped against all but five.
Those who stand trial for assault will be found not
guilty in 1972.
November 3
Indian protesters occupy University of
California land.
A group of Indian activists take over a 650-acre plot
of land near Davis, California, after the University
of California announces plans to establish a primate
research center on the site. The board of trustees of
the Deganawida-Quetzalcoatl University, planned
to be the first Indian-run college for Native Ameri-
cans of all tribes, had applied to the Department of
Health, Education, and Welfare to use the site—
formerly an army communications center—but the
request had been denied. Largely because of the
protest, the federal government will be persuaded to
award the university title to the land the following
January. (See also entry for JULY 7, 1971.)
November 26
American Indian Movement (AIM) activists
stage a protest at Plymouth Rock.
Declaring Thanksgiving “a national day of mourn-
ing,” members of the American Indian Movement
(AIM) led by Russell Means and Dennis Banks stage
a protest in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The activists
paint the historic Plymouth Rock red and take over
Mayflower II, a replica of the ship that transported
the Pilgrims to North America. Using the ship as
a podium, Means speaks out against the United
States’s treatment of Indians. The event is the first
AIM protest intended to focus the attention of the
public nationwide on contemporary Indian issues
and grievances.December 15The U.S. government returns the Blue Lake
area to the Taos Pueblo.
In the culmination of a 64-year legal battle, the people
of Taos Pueblo regain control over Blue Lake and the
surrounding area in New Mexico. The land was seized
by the United States in 1906, when it was incorpo-
rated into the Carson National Forest. The Indian
Claims Commission offered monetary compensation
for Blue Lake, a sacred site to the people of Taos, but
they refused the money and continued to fight for the
land’s return (see entry for SEPTEMBER 1965). A land-
mark in the history of Indian land claims, Congress’s
decision to give the 48,000-acre Blue Lake area back
to the Taos marks the first time the United States has
ever returned land to an Indian group.“I can only say that in signing the
bill I trust that this will mark one
of those periods in American
history where, after a very, very
long time, and at times a very
sad history of injustice, that we
started on a new road—a new
road which leads us to justice
in the treatment of those who
were the first Americans, of our
working together for the better
nation that we want this great
and good country of ours to
become.”
—President Richard M. Nixon,
upon signing the bill mandating the
return of Blue Lake
to the Taos IndiansP