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Great Wall Institute: The Process of the Great Wall of Los Angeles

Judy Baca Interviews Ken Wade

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1. 1960s - Uprooted The 1950s plan to erase Indian Country "Relocation worked to move Indian people into the urban core [while] white folks moved into suburban communities," Keeler said. "Relocation is about assimilation, but it's also very much about racism and who was entitled to what sort of housing and where." -In the 1950s, the United States came up with a plan to solve what it called the "Indian Problem." It would assimilate Native Americans by moving them to cities and eliminating reservations. The 20-year campaign failed to erase Native Americans, but its effects on Indian Country are still felt today.
2. 1968 American Indian Movement advocates for urban Indian rights The founding board of the American Indian Movement meets in Minneapolis. Left to right: Harold Goodsky, Charles Deegan, Dennis Banks, Clyde Bellecourt, Peggy Bellcourt, Mr. & Mrs. Barber, Rita Rogers (seated), George Mitchell, Mrs. Mellessy and daughter. A group of 200 Natives meet in Minneapolis to found the American Indian Movement, known as AIM. Growing out of the late 1960s civil rights era, its objective is to protect the rights of urban Indians. The U.S. government considers the group radical. “The American Indian Movement office was the place to stop by if you needed a ride, an emergency loan, leads on jobs, or a place to live. Social services and political action were integrated.”
3. 1965 Robert F. Kennedy and reporters with student as he works at Sherman Indian High School. In the fall of 1963 the ninth and tenth grades were revived. Sherman Indian High School re-opened enrollment to other tribes, including California Indian tribes. The school again moved in the direction of a high school program, adding a grade each year until the school began graduating classes in 1966. In 1967 eight buildings were deemed unable to withstand a major earthquake. One of the last buildings to be razed was the old school building in 1970. The old cornerstone from this building and its contents were saved and placed in Sherman Museum (old Administrative Building), the last of the original buildings. In 1971, Sherman was re-accredited as a high school, and became known as Sherman Indian High School. The museum houses records from the school’s early days to the present. Over 2,000 catalogued items or artifacts of American Indian origin are housed there. These items were acquired from friends of the school and museum. In 1974, the Sherman Indian Museum was designated as a Riverside Cultural Heritage Landmark. It was entered into the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. At present day Sherman, the school hosts an average of 300 to 500 students who come from reservations spanning the United States. Any student who is a tribal member of a federally-recognized tribe with at least one-fourth blood quantum may apply to attend. The school is funded entirely by the United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the Bureau of Indian Education. Attendance is free of charge. The reasoning behind leaving home to come to Sherman vary. Some students attend SIHS because they live too far away from school, back at home, to attend daily. Others attend SIHS because they had negative experiences attending non-Native schools, and more than a few attend SIHS simply due to it being a family tradition. Sherman enforced a Reduction In Force of employees in the spring of 2009, due to budget constraints. Approximately 34 employees were laid off. Despite this, Sherman faculty and staff still work to provide a safe, healthy and productive site for their Native American students.
4. 1968 Aim members In the summer of 1968, Native American activists Dennis Banks, George Mitchell, and Clyde Bellecourt gathered hundreds of like-minded individuals in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Armed with ultimate goal of forcing the United States to recognize Native American sovereignty, the activists formed the American Indian Movement group, or the AIM. As stated on AIM's official website, the American Indian Movement’s goals were: the recognition of Indian treaties by the United States government, among other goals such as sovereignty and the protection of Native Americans and their liberties. AIM has sought to accomplish these goals over the past five decades by bringing a multitude of successful lawsuits against the federal government with n the hopes of changing U.S. policy. Key events for the American Indian movement include the group’s formation in Minnesota in 1968, as well as the initial occupation of Alcatraz Island in 1969. The movement also organized the “Trail of Broken Treaties” March, where protesters marched on Washington, D.C. Following the 1973 occupation by AIM leader Russell Means and his supporters at Wounded Knee in South Dakota, the AIM became an internationally known and recognized civil rights group. The New York Times even ran a story that reported on the vanishing number of Indians, as well as to their unfair treatment by the United States Federal government. In an Atlanta newspaper in 1973, Russel Means said that if the Indian voice isn’t heard among the U.S. government officials, “the situation…will evolve into a bigger and larger Wounded Knee.” It seems that Means was indeed correct, as an FBI officer was killed in a shootout with AIM at the Pine Ridge Reservation two years later.
5. 1965 Robert F. Kennedy and reporters with student in woodshop at Sherman Indian High School. Robert F. Kennedy and reporters with student in woodshop at Sherman Indian High School. In the fall of 1963 the ninth and tenth grades were revived. Sherman Indian High School re-opened enrollment to other tribes, including California Indian tribes. The school again moved in the direction of a high school program, adding a grade each year until the school began graduating classes in 1966. In 1967 eight buildings were deemed unable to withstand a major earthquake. One of the last buildings to be razed was the old school building in 1970. The old cornerstone from this building and its contents were saved and placed in Sherman Museum (old Administrative Building), the last of the original buildings. In 1971, Sherman was re-accredited as a high school, and became known as Sherman Indian High School. The museum houses records from the school’s early days to the present. Over 2,000 catalogued items or artifacts of American Indian origin are housed there. These items were acquired from friends of the school and museum. In 1974, the Sherman Indian Museum was designated as a Riverside Cultural Heritage Landmark. It was entered into the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. At present day Sherman, the school hosts an average of 300 to 500 students who come from reservations spanning the United States. Any student who is a tribal member of a federally-recognized tribe with at least one-fourth blood quantum may apply to attend. The school is funded entirely by the United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the Bureau of Indian Education. Attendance is free of charge. The reasoning behind leaving home to come to Sherman vary. Some students attend SIHS because they live too far away from school, back at home, to attend daily. Others attend SIHS because they had negative experiences attending non-Native schools, and more than a few attend SIHS simply due to it being a family tradition. Sherman enforced a Reduction In Force of employees in the spring of 2009, due to budget constraints. Approximately 34 employees were laid off. Despite this, Sherman faculty and staff still work to provide a safe, healthy and productive site for their Native American students.