Camp Yellow Thunder will remain in opera-
tion for four years. The peaceful protest will compel
the federal government to reexamine the Lakota’s
claims to the Black Hills region.
May 29
Montana v. United States denies the
Crow’s right to prohibit non-Indian hunting
and fishing.
In Montana v. United States, the Crow tribe of Mon-
tana seeks to stop non-Indians from hunting and
fishing within its reservation borders, even on land
non-Indians have purchased from the Crow. The Su-
preme Court, however, rules that the Crow have no
tribal jurisdiction over these non-Indians. The court
concedes that earlier cases have given tribes author-
ity over non-Indians on their reservations in some
matters but maintains that non-Indian hunting and
fishing does not “so threaten the Tribe’s political and
economic security as to justify tribal regulations.”
July 1
The Lakota Times begins publication.
The Lakota Times is founded by editor Tim Giago,
an Oglala Sioux, to report the news of the Pine Ridge
Reservation in South Dakota. As other reservations
request coverage, the weekly newspaper will broaden
its focus. In 1992 the Lakota Times will be renamed
Indian Country Today, to reflect its status as one of the
leading news sources about Indian affairs nationwide.
September 2
The United Nations condemns Canada’s
Indian status laws.
Sandra Lovelace, a Maliseet Indian, appears be-
fore the Human Rights Commission of the United
Nations to protest Canada’s laws for determining
Indian status. When Lovelace married a non-In-
dian man, by law she lost her Indian status and was
therefore barred from living on a reserve. If she had
been a man married to a non-Indian woman, how-
ever, she would still have been regarded as an Indian
by the Canadian government.
After hearing Lovelace’s testimony, the com-
mittee agrees that Canada’s actions constitute “an
unjustifiable denial of her rights” under the United
Nations’ Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Although the statement does nothing to change
Lovelace’s situation, it does bring attention to issue
of gender discrimination in the Canadian defini-
tion of Indian status.
Largely because of Lovelace’s activism, the Ca-
nadian government will revise the Indian Act in
1985, allowing Indian women married to non-In-
dians to retain their Indian status.1982The National Indian Brotherhood is
reorganized as the Assembly of First Nations.
Long the most prominent pan-Indian lobbying
group in Canada, the National Indian Brotherhood
(see entry for FEBRUARY 1968) is restructured as an
assembly of chiefs. With the shift from being an or-
ganization of “representatives from regions” to one
of “First Nations Government Leaders,” the group
declares that it will now be known as the Assembly
of First Nations.The U.S. Postal Service issues a Crazy
Horse stamp.
As part of its “Great Americans” series, the U.S.
Postal Service issues a 13¢ stamp bearing the face
of Crazy Horse, the famous Lakota Sioux war
leader who fought at the Battle of Little Bighorn
(see entry for JUNE 24 TO 25, 1876). Because Crazy
Horse refused to be photographed during his life-
time, the portrait is based on a design by Korczak
Ziolkowksi, whose massive Crazy Horse sculpture is
being carved into the Black Hills of South Dakota
(see entry for MAY 27, 1948).Congress passes legislation to protect tribal
energy resources income.
Largely through the lobbying of the Council of En-
ergy Resource Tribes (see entry for 1975), Congress
passes the Federal Oil and Gas Royalty Manage-