Indians,” it consists of five Native Americans, three
senators, and three congressmen. (See also entry for
MAY 17, 1977.)
January 4
Indian Self-Determination and Education
Assistance Act redirects funds for Indian
education.
By the 1970s, Indian groups increasingly voiced
concern that educational funds due to Indian stu-
dents under the Johnson-O’Malley Act (see entry
for APRIL 16, 1934) were being used for general
purposes by state-run schools. To address these
abuses, Congress passes the Indian Self-Determina-
tion and Education Assistance Act. The legislation
allows Indian groups to take an unprecedented
amount of control over educational programs and
other services they receive from the U.S. govern-
ment. Denouncing the paternalistic policies of
the past, the act recognizes that these services will
be “responsive to the needs and desires of [In-
dian] communities” only if Indians themselves
are given more say in determining how they are
administered.
February 25
Activists take over the Fairchild factory on
the Navajo reservation.
American Indian Movement (AIM) members led
by John Trudell take over the Fairchild Corpora-
tion’s electronics plant at Shiprock, New Mexico,
on the Navajo Indian Reservation (see entry for
SEPTEMBER 6, 1969). The activists are protesting
Fairchild’s firing of 140 Navajo employees who
were attempting to organize a union to demand
better wages.
The protest ends peaceably on March 3. Ten
days later, the Fairchild Corporation announces
that it will close the Shiprock plant because it
“couldn’t be reasonably assured that future disrup-
tions wouldn’t occur.” The factory closing will put
out of work hundreds of reservation residents and
cost AIM much of its support among the Navajo.
June 26One Indian and two FBI agents die in a
Pine Ridge Reservation shoot-out.
On South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation,
agents of the FBI stake out the Jumping Bull
camp, where several fugitives affiliated with the
American Indian Movement are rumored to be
staying. A firefight breaks out, during which two
FBI agents and one Indian activist are killed. The
incident is the culmination of months of tension
and violence between AIM and the reservation
police force. Supervised by tribal chairman Dick
Wilson and possibly funded and trained by the
FBI, the police were allegedly involved in more
than 60 murders of and 350 assaults on reserva-
tion residents.
Immediately after the shootings, swarms of
FBI agents, determined to find the killers, descend
on Pine Ridge. The agents begin arresting hun-
dreds of AIM members, often on dubious charges,
thereby escalating the atmosphere of suspicion and
hostility throughout the reservation. (See also en-
tries for JULY 16, 1976, and for APRIL 18, 1977.)July 19Northwest Territories Natives issue the
Dene Declaration.
Calling themselves the Dene Nation, the Indi-
ans and Métis of the Northwest Territories assert
their sovereignty with the Dene Declaration. The
document states, “We the Dene of the N.W.T. in-
sist on the right to be regarded by ourselves and
the world as a nation.” Minister of Indian Affairs
Judd Buchanan dismisses the declaration as “gob-
bledygook,” prompting the Dene to demand his
resignation.November 11Canada negotiates the James Bay and
Northern Quebec Agreement.
In response to Cree, Inuit, and Innu opposition
to the construction of the James Bay hydroelectric