P
May
The Southwest Museum and Autry Museum
merge.
The Southwest Museum and the Autry Museum of
Western Heritage of Los Angeles decide to merge their
substantial collections. The existing museums will
stay open, but a third facility to be called the Autry
National Center will also be established. Despite its
fine collection of American Indian art and artifacts,
the Southwest Museum has received little attention in
the past and has often struggled to stay solvent. The
merger is seen as an opportunity for its collections to
receive wider public recognition than ever before.
June 25
Indian memorial at the Little Bighorn
battlefield is dedicated.
On the 127th anniversary of the Battle of Little Big-
horn, tribespeople and army veterans gather at the
site of the Battle of Little Bighorn (see entry for JUNE
25 to 26, 1876), during which Lakota and Cheyenne
warriors defeated the Seventh Cavalry led by Lieu-
tenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer. At the
site, the crowd celebrates the dedication of a new
memorial honoring the Indians who fought in the
battle. The memorial is the result of a decades-long
fight by Indian groups. In 1991, Congress passed
legislation calling for the memorial but the govern-
ment did not provide the needed funds until 2002.
(See also entries for NOVEMBER 26, 1991, and for
FEBRUARY 1997.)
July 9 to 13
The first Native American Basketball
Invitational is held in Phoenix, Arizona.
The Phoenix Suns sponsor the first Native Ameri-
can Basketball Invitational at Phoenix’s American
West Arena. There, 24 American Indian high school
basketball teams from Arizona will compete with
one another. All proceeds from the tournament will
be donated to programs for improving American
Indian education and health care. Organizers note
that basketball has long been the favorite sport in
Indian communities. Ray Artigue, senior vice presi-
dent of marketing communications for the Suns,
explains, “We are looking forward to watching
teenage Native Americans playing the game they
love and living out some of their childhood dreams
by actually playing on the same court as the greatest
basketball players in the world.”August 22A special master’s report claims oil firms
paid low prices for Indian land.
Appointed by U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lam-
berth, special master Alan L. Balaran reports that oil
and gas companies paid Indian landowners far less
than non-Indian landowners for the right to run
pipelines across their property. The Indians’ land was
managed by the U.S. government, and the deals were
approved by the Department of the Interior. The
report suggests that the judge order a full investiga-
tion into the department’s policies for leasing Indian
land. Officials at the Department of the Interior call
for Balaran’s dismissal, claiming he is biased toward
the Indian plaintiffs of Cobell v. Norton (see entry for
JUNE 10, 1996). (See also entries for NOVEMBER 15,
2005, and for DECEMBER 19, 2005.)“Why are Indians getting pennies
on the dollar for what others
get? These people are essentially
being robbed of their inheritance.
You have sweetheart deals with
oil and gas companies. And you
have the top people at Interior
saying it’s okay, and aiding this
corrupt practice.”
—Keith Harper, attorney with the
Native American Rights Fund, on
the Department of the Interior’s
oil-lease policies