American Indian

See also our page on Indian Boarding Schools, an example of cultural genocide perpetrated both in the United States and in Canada.

WOUNDED KNEE MASSACRE

In 1890, US soldiers, sent to stop a religious movement among Lakota people and other Plains Indians called the Ghost Dance, massacred hundreds of Lakota men, women and children at Wounded Knee. Read details in an article by Indian Country Today, "The Truth About the Wounded Knee Massacre." In 1990, Congress formally apologized to the Lakota 100 years after the massacre. Lakota people continue to seek justice and redress for many actions by the US government and others since 1890. Read more in the featured articles below.

For an interactive learning experience, check out Genocide Watch's Wounded Knee Timestream.

A Girl Called 'Lost Bird' Is Finally at Rest : History: Lakota infant survived Wounded Knee killing and was adopted by whites. Now she is buried among her people.Nobody knows her birth name. Zintkala Nuni, the Lakota call her. Lost Bird.

Native Americans Urge Scottish Museum to Return Artifacts From Wounded Knee MassacreThe Lakota tribe is in talks with the institution for the repatriation of a necklace, bonnet and moccasins taken from the dead following the 1890 atrocity

Tribes Want Medals Awarded for Wounded Knee Massacre RescindedNative Americans are stepping up efforts to pressure Congress to revoke Medals of Honor awarded for the killings of Sioux, including unarmed women and children, at Wounded Knee.

Inquiry urged into Wounded Knee Medals of HonorStephen GrovesAssociated Press PIERRE, S.D. — The South Dakota Senate on Monday unanimously supported a resolution urging the U.S. Congress to launch an

And here is a letter by US Senators pressing Biden to revoke the medals.

LEARNING, CONNECTING & MAKING AMENDS

One way to make amends and to help heal the wounds of horrors like the Wounded Knee Massacre is to learn more history, culture, terminology, and how to be an ally to Indigenous people. Explore the resources in this section, then look at the other sections on Land and Significant People.

Learn from the National Museum of the American Indian:

Learn about Native cultures and efforts to revive Native cultures:

- ChiNations Youth Council, their work on the First Nations Garden & a story about the garden from WBEZ
- Chicago American Indian Community Collaborative (CAICC)
- Evanston's Mitchell Museum of the American Indian
- the Potawatomi Nation Cultural Heritage Center

- Dr. Brenda Child has written a lot about the Jingle Dress (featured on the Google Doodle)
- See How Unangax Culture and Dance Resurrected, Despite WWII Internment Camps (& learn about Unangax̂ (Aleut) Evacuation and Internment during World War II)
- the importance of Indigenous language
  - - explained by Anton Treuer
    - examples: reviving Ojibwe and Cree languages using Tik Tok and the Ojibwe People's Dictionary
- "These Canoes Carry Culture"
- AIM (the American Indian Movement) Red School House, and Heart of the Earth Survival School
- Chicago as a center of Native urban culture: Over 140 Native nations are represented among the approximately 38,000 Native people who live in the Chicago area; read more starting on p. 17 of the report on The State of Racial Justice for American Indian Chicagoans from UIC. You can also watch a video exploring the ways "Chicago has always been Indian country."
- read about the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990, or NAGPRA

Other sources for healing and learning to be a good ally:

- Changing the Narrative About Native Americans
- National Congress of American Indians
- Native Now has helpful resources, including an Insights and Action Guide to help change the narrative and a Do and Do Not flier
- Attend a talk by the first Indigenous U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo at 4:30 pm Tuesday, April 26th (on Zoom)

LAND - removal, reservations, allotment

“They made us many promises, more than I can remember, but they never kept but one; they promised to take our land, and they took it.” - Red Cloud, Lakota

This is a map from Aaron Carapella's collection Tribal Nations Maps, used with permission. We encourage you to zoom in for details.

The Invasion of America is a time-elapsed video showing the encroachment of the United States through settlement and land acquisition through treaties and other US government actions between 1776 and 1887. You can also explore this in more detail at the website, where you can enter your zip code and see which nations ceded land and under what circumstances. The results will link to more resources, including primary source documents, helping you dive deeper into history.

We also encourage you to read about "How American Indian Reservations Came To Be" from PBS.

Indian Removal

Click on this interactive from the National Museum of the American Indian, which includes a fact sheet for easy reference.

How Did Six Different Nations Try to Avoid Removal? (includes the Potawatomi, who were removed from the northern IL area where our schools are; see also the related 1836 Treaty)

Explore the Diné/Navajo Long Walk 1868

Interactive Map

Native Land is an app to help map Indigenous territories, treaties, and languages. Type in your zip code and then explore and learn.

Native Land is an indigenous-led organization. You can read more about this project and its purpose here.

They also have a Teacher's Guide.

Allotment

The 1887 Dawes Act set up a system of "allotment" aimed at breaking up the cultural practice of community ownership of land in an attempt to assimilate American Indians into US society. The US government divided reservations into individual plots assigned to the head of household who accepted the terms. All "surplus" land was then sold to settlers, totaling over 90 million acres. See more details at the National Park Service.