Chronology of American Indian History

of the site, and they oppose the construction of a
visitor’s center and a new road to the site.
Many of the tribes’ concerns will be addressed
in the Medicine Wheel Historic Preservation Plan,
which will be completed in 1996. Its provisions ban
vehicular traffic to the site and allow tribes to use
the area for religious observances at certain times
of the year.

Canada amends the Indian Act.
The Indian Act (see entry for APRIL 12, 1876) is
amended by the Canadian parliament to address
several contemporary concerns of Canada’s Natives.
The amended act acknowledges band councils as
the only authorities having the right to assign to in-
dividuals specific tracts of land on reserves. It also
restricts the government’s right to appropriate re-
serve lands for such projects as roads and bridges,
and it requires Indian children to attend school up
to a certain age.

Michael Dorris’s The Broken Cord increases
public awareness of fetal alcohol syndrome.
An anthropologist of Modoc heritage and husband
of novelist Louise Erdrich (see entry for 1984),
Michael Dorris chronicles in The Broken Cord his
experiences as an adoptive father of a boy with fetal
alcohol syndrome (FAS). The syndrome, which is
linked to maternal drinking during pregnancy, im-
pairs a child’s ability to think abstractly and make
reasoned choices. The book, which will be made
into a television movie, draws attention to the prev-
alence of FAS on Indian reservations and in other
impoverished communities. (See also entry for
APRIL 10, 1997.)

Nebraska agrees to return Indian skeletal
remains.
With the Unmarked Human Burial Sites and
Skeletal Remains Protection Act, Nebraska be-
comes the first state to pass legislation calling
for the repatriation of human remains and burial
goods to Indian tribes. The law guarantees that
remains found in public sites will be returned
within one year of a tribal request and that un-

marked grave sites will be protected from looting

and destruction.

March 2

A Navajo Code Talker statue is dedicated.

In Phoenix, Arizona, a ceremony is held to dedi-

cate a monumental 14-foot statue of a Navajo Code

Talker—one of the elite corps of Navajo (Dineh)

marines who delivered messages in code dur-

ing World War II (see entry for APRIL 1942). The

statue, designed by Douglas Hyde and titled Trib-

ute to Navajo Code Talkers, depicts a young Navajo

holding a flute, traditionally an instrument used to

signal the coming of peace.

March 24

The Exxon Valdez oil spill destroys lands of

the Aleut.

In the early morning, the Exxon Valdez, an oil

tanker nearly a fifth of a mile long, runs aground on

Alaska’s Blight Reef. During the next two weeks, 11

million gallons of oil will spill out of a massive hole

in the supertanker and into Prince Island Sound

near the Aleut village of Tatiklek. As the oil spreads

onto the surrounding beaches, much of the area’s

sea life, on which the Aleut depend for sustenance,

will be killed.

Spring

Wisconsin whites harass Chippewa

fishermen.

The Chippewa of northern Wisconsin face grow-

ing resentment from area whites for exercising

their treaty right to spearfish walleyed pike out-

side of their reservations. Many are harassed by

whites throwing rocks, shooting guns in their di-

rection, and shouting racist slogans, such as “Save

a walleye. Spear a pregnant squaw.” Some white

protesters are members of Protect American Rights

and Resources. The group’s animosity toward

the Chippewa is largely triggered by the fear that