Chronology of American Indian History

1971

Dee Brown’s Bury My Heart at Wounded
Knee is published.
Subtitled “An Indian History of the American
West,” Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, by Dee
Brown, documents the systematic destruction
of Indian nations and cultures in the latter half
of the 19th century. The book becomes an im-
mediate best-seller and will sell more than one
million copies in hardcover and four million in
paperback.
Bury My Heart also makes non-Indian read-
ers familiar with the tragedy of the Wounded Knee
Massacre, during which the U.S. Army murdered
nearly 300 unarmed Lakota Sioux men, women,
and children (see entry for DECEMBER 29, 1890).
Long a symbol for Indian people, Wounded Knee
now takes on similar meaning for non-Indian
Americans, thus inspiring the American Indian
Movement to chose the site two years later for its
most dramatic protest (see entry for FEBRUARY 28,
1973).

February

The American Indian Movement protests
the murder of Oglala Lakota Raymond
Yellow Thunder.
In a 200-car caravan, a group of activists orga-
nized by the American Indian Movement (AIM)
descends on the small town of Gordon, Nebraska.
The group means to pressure the local police to
press charges against two white men who beat
Raymond Yellow Thunder, an Oglala Sioux man
from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota,
and paraded his battered body through an Ameri-
can Legion dance hall. Yellow Thunder later died
of his injuries.
Confronted by the protesters, the police finally
arrest the accused, who will become the first whites
in Nebraska sentenced to a jail term for the mur-
der of an Indian. This victory for AIM will give the
organization new legitimacy in the eyes of many
reservation residents in the region.

February 19 to 20

The National Tribal Chairmen’s Association

is formed.

At a meeting in Billings, Montana, tribal leaders

from 50 reservations establish the National Tribal

Chairman’s Association. Formed with the support

of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the organization

is intended to help give tribal chairmen more of a

voice in federal Indian policy, which reservation lead-

ers fear is influenced too greatly by the demands of

urban Indian activists.

February 22

Chief Dan George is nominated for an

Academy Award.

When the 1970 Oscar nominations are announced,

71-year old Salish actor Chief Dan George becomes

the first Native American to compete for the award.

George is nominated for a Best Supporting Actor

Oscar for his portrayal of Old Lodge Skins, a wise

and witty Cheyenne elder in the comic western epic

Little Big Man. George will not win the Oscar, but

he will be honored as Best Supporting Actor by the

prestigious New York Film Critics Circle.

March 17

The Canadian government withdraws the

White Paper.

Under intense pressure from pan-Native organiza-

tions, the administration of Prime Minister Pierre

Trudeau officially disavows the White Paper (see

entry for JUNE 25, 1969), which recommended

the Termination of Canadian Natives. With the

withdrawal of this new policy, the Indian Act (see

entries for APRIL 12, 1876, and for JUNE 20, 1951)

resumes effect.

April 30

The James Bay Hydroelectric Project

threatens the lands of the Cree and Inuit.

Quebec announces plans to build the James Bay

Hydroelectric Project, which calls for rivers in