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B.1.d. USA

The primary focus of this sub-section is on political protest and legal claims, but for a guide to the legal rights of Native Americans see Pever, The Rights of Indians and Tribes: The Basic ACLU Guide to Indian Tribal Rights (B.1.d. USA) , below. One notable victory was achieved by the Navajo in September 2014, when the Obama Administration agreed to pay $554 million in compensation for federal government mismanagement of Navajo resources for nearly 60 years, settling a lawsuit filed in 2006.

Cohen, Fay G., Treaties on Trial: The Continuing Controversy over Northwest Indian Fishing Rights, Seattle, University of Washington Press, 1986, pp. 229

Includes protest ‘fish-ins’

Deloria Jr, Vine Jr, Behind the Trail of Broken Treaties: An American Indian Declaration of Independence, Austin TX, University of Texas Press, 1985, pp. 296

Covers developing activism in the 1960s, the protest caravan of 1972 culminating in the occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and site occupations, including the 71 day occupation and siege at Wounded Knee, South Dakota in 1973.

Pever, Stephen L., The Rights of Indians and Tribes: The Basic ACLU Guide to Indian Tribal Rights, [1985], 4th edn. (first edition of this American Civil Liberties Union Guide published 1985 and 2nd 1992 by Southern Illinois University Press)., New York, Oxford University Press, 2012, pp. 540

Schragg, James L., Report from Wounded Knee, In Hare; Blumberg, Liberation without Violence: A Third Party Approach (A. 5. Nonviolent Intervention and Accompaniment), London, Rex Collings, pp. 117-124

On the spot account by pacifist during the occupation, noting the demands of the American Indian Movement protesters, that they had been invited by organizations representing many of the Sioux on the Pine Ridge Reservation angry about the conduct of the reservation government, and commenting on disparity between the light rifles of the protesters and the full military arsenal being deployed by the FBI.

Smith, Paul Chaat ; Warrior, Robert Allen, Like a Hurricane: The Indian Movement from Alcatraz to Wounded Knee, New York, New Press, 1996, pp. 384

Examines the militant American Indian Movement (AIM). from the seizure of Alcatraz in 1969 to Wounded Knee in 1973, assessing failures as well as successes.

Steiner, Stan, The New Indians, New York, Harper Row, 1968, pp. 220

On the development of the ‘Red Power’ movement rejecting white culture.

Treuer, David, The Heartbreak of Wounded Knee, New York, Riverhead Books, 2019, pp. 512

Examination of the history of how the US Federal Government mistreated the First Nations since the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee, brought right up to date, with an emphasis on the militancy of the 1970s and the subsequent improvements in the condition and role of Native Americans. The book ends with an account of the dramatic Standing Rock protest by a large gathering of different tribes over a proposed pipeline in 2016. This important history by a member of the Ojibwe, who is also a social anthropologist, appeared just after two Native American women were for the first time elected to Congress in 2018.

Weyler, Rex, Blood of the Land: The Government and Corporate War Against the American Indian Movement, [1982], New York, Random House/Vintage, 1984, pp. 304

Wilkinson, Charles, Blood Struggle: The Rise of Modern Indian Nations, New York, W.W. Norton, 2006, pp. 560

Part 1 ‘the Abyss’ examines the socio-economic conditions of many Native Americans in the 1950s, Part 2 the development of a movement, leadership on the reservations and ‘Red Power’, whilst Part 3 explores ‘the Foundations of Self-determination’.