Chronology of American Indian History

March

Native leader J. J. Harper is killed by
non-Indian policemen.
J. J. Harper, the executive director of the Island
Lake Tribal Council in northeastern Manitoba, is
shot to death by policeman Robert Cross, who is
pursuing two Indian youths suspected of stealing
a car. Although Cross maintains that his gun went
off accidentally, the shooting prompts the provin-
cial government to launch a sweeping inquiry into
the treatment of Natives by the Manitoba justice
system.

March 26

Lumbee superior court judge candidate
Julian Pierce is murdered.
Lumbee attorney Julian Pierce is shot to death at
point-blank range at his home in Wakulla, North
Carolina. Within four days, the police investigation
concludes that Pierce was murdered in a domestic
dispute by the boyfriend of his fiancée’s daugh-
ter, who then killed himself. The speedy findings
breed anger and suspicion among the Lumbee, who
strongly supported Pierce in his campaign for a
superior court judgeship created the previous year
by the North Carolina legislature to provide better
representation for Lumbee County’s Indian and Af-
rican-American populations. Another candidate for
the position is Joe Freeman Britt, the white district
attorney, in charge of the prosecution of the Pierce
case.

April 19

The Supreme Court rules against the
preservation of sacred sites on federal land.
Representatives of the Yurok, Karok, and Tolowa
Indians formed the Northwest Indian Cemetery
Protective Association to protest the proposed con-
struction of a road through national forest lands in
northern California. The association maintained
that traffic along the road will disrupt the religious
practices their tribal members perform at sacred

sites within the forest. In the American Indian

Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA) (see entry for AU-

GUST 11, 1978) the federal government resolved to

protect and preserve Indian religions, but the U.S.

Forest Service decided to build the road anyway, to

improve access to timber resources and recreational

areas.

In a subsequent suit filed by the association—

Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemeteries Assn.—federal

and appellate courts prohibited the road’s con-

struction, maintaining that the negative impact

the road will have on the tribes’ religious freedom

outweighed the benefits it would provide the U.S.

government. The Supreme Court, however, reverses

the decisions of the lower courts and finds in favor

of the Forest Service. The Court ignores the policies

articulated in AIRFA—a law it says “has no teeth,”

in that it offers tribes no legal means of challenging

federal actions that violate American Indian reli-

gious sites.

April 28

The Termination resolution is repealed.

With Public Law 100-297, Congress formally

repeals House Concurrent Resolution 108 (see

entry for AUGUST 1, 1953), which allowed the

government to terminate Indian tribes. Through

Termination, the dominant federal Indian policy

of the 1950s, the U.S. government attempted to

sever its financial responsibilities to more than 100

tribes without their consent. Most terminated tribes

were plunged into poverty, causing the government

largely to disavow the policy by the late 1960s.

May 30

President Ronald Reagan disparages Indians

while visiting the USSR.

At a meeting with students at Moscow University,

President Ronald Reagan is questioned about the

suppression of dissent among American minority

groups. In his response, Reagan suggests that the

United States should not have “humored” Indi-

ans by letting them “live a primitive lifestyle.” His