The Influence of Police Brutality on the American Indian Movement's Establishment in Minneapolis, 1968-69 Item Type text; Electronic Thesis Authors Birong, Christine Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 20/03/2019 21:39:24 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/193405 THE INFLUENCE OF POLICE BRUTALITY ON THE AMERICAN INDIAN MOVEMENT’S ESTABLISHMENT IN MINNEAPOLIS, 1968-1969 by Christine Birong _____________________ Copyright © Christine Birong 2009 A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the GRADUATE INTERDISCIPLINARY PROGRAM IN AMERICAN INDIAN STUDIES In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2009 2 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This thesis has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at the University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this thesis are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgment of source is made. 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SIGNED: Christine Birong APPROVAL BY THESIS DIRECTOR This thesis has been approved on the date shown below: ____________________________ April 6, 2009 Eileen Luna-Firebaugh Date Associate Professor of American Indian Studies 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………………….....4 INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………...5 CHAPTER 1: POLICE BRUTALITY & ITS CONTEXT IN LATE 1960S URBAN COMMUNITIES OF COLOR………………………………..18 CHAPTER 2: A BRIEF HISTORY OF AIM’S ESTABLISHMENT & THOUGHT PERTAINING TO POLICE BRUTALITY……………….31 CHAPTER 3: THE IMPLEMENTATION OF AIM PATROL & THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CHAIRMAN CLYDE BELLECOURT’S ARREST RECORD…………………………………………………….44 CHAPTER 4: MINNEAPOLIS TRIBUNE & MINNEAPOLIS STAR NEWSPAPER COVERAGE OF AIM & POLICE BRUTALITY……………………..69 CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………………..86 APPENDIX A: INITIAL GRIEVANCES OF AIM..…………………………………...93 REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………………..94 4 ABSTRACT The American Indian Movement (AIM) was established in Minneapolis, Minnesota in July of 1968. During this time, AIM organized around a variety of urban Indian community grievances, particularly police brutality and accountability issues. This thesis provides discussion of the nature of police brutality and police brutality’s context in 1960s communities of color. There is also examination and analysis of how AIM organized around the issue of police brutality, direct action tactics, how police brutality impacted specific group members (specifically Clyde Bellecourt), and newspaper coverage of AIM and the police. 5 INTRODUCTION AIM is a grassroots organization known for bringing attention to Native issues in the United States in the 1970s. The public perceived this organization in different ways. Some viewed it as a youth-driven forging of the self-determination era, others perceived AIM’s actions as reactionary and politically compromising to Native causes. Because AIM had so much attention given to them in the 1970s – a time of social reform and youth political activism – scholars have taken an interest in examining the organization. There are many publications that discuss AIM’s activities in the 1970s, such as the occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), the Trail of Broken Treaties, and the occupation of Wounded Knee. After taking a personal interest in learning about AIM, I began reading the available literature. What I noticed was a lack of concentrated literary attention regarding AIM in 1968-69 – the year the movement was founded. While scholars do provide readers with some basic information regarding the movement’s initial start-up, it is generally limited. As I continued researching, I began to understand what issues and grievances AIM focused on. One of their main targets was police brutality. In order to fully understand why and how AIM organized around police brutality, we must understand the social context from which the movement emerged and the characters involved in its establishment. This requires evaluating the literature that offers readers insight into the lives of 1960s Minneapolis urban Indians and biographical information about AIM’s founders. Donald L. Fixico’s article, “Witness to Change: Fifty Years of Indian Activism and Tribal Politics,” in the book, Beyond Red Power: American Indian Politics and 6 Activism since1900, discusses the origins of AIS and identifies George Mitchell, Clyde Bellecourt, and Dennis Banks as AIM’s original founders.1 However, William Keith Akard’s 1987 doctoral dissertation out of Ball State University, “Wocante Tinza: A History of the American Indian Movement,” identifies Bellecourt, Banks, and a man named Eddie Benton-Benei as AIM’s founders. In his dissertation, Akard gives limited, yet important, information regarding these men. Akard notes that the founders he identifies had distinctive personal experiences as Annishinabe in Minnesota. However, what Akard fails to do is elaborate on why and how their experiences were different, simply making a one sentence statement about how their experiences are “diverse.” He goes on to state that the only commonality threaded through their experiences until AIM’s establishment was serving time at Stillwater Prison in Minnesota at the same time.2 Another literary source that is revealing about the background of these three individuals is the Dennis Banks’ autobiography he co-authored with Richard Erdoes, Ojibwa Warrior: Dennis Banks and the Rise of the American Indian Movement. In this work, Banks reflects on the diverse backgrounds he, Benton-Benei, and Bellecourt had, informing readers about their education levels, careers, criminal records, social class, and 1 Donald L. Fixico, “Witness to Change: Fifty Years of Indian Activism and Tribal Politics,” in Beyond Red Power: American Indian Politics and Activism since 1900, ed. by Daniel M. Cobb and Loretta Fowler (Santa Fe: School for Advanced Research Press, 2007), 5. 2 Keith William Akard, “Wocante Tinza: A History of the American Indian Movement” (PhD diss., Ball State University, 1987) 13. 7 roles in Annishinabe life.3 Banks’ account of their lives before Stillwater Prision does, indeed, demonstrate how different their backgrounds are. This is an important work in providing a biographical context for these individuals, and in furthering an understanding of AIM’s founding. Paul Chaat Smith and Robert Allen Warrior’s book, Like a Hurricane: The Indian Movement from Alcatraz to Wounded Knee, adds to the discussion of how life at Stillwater shaped AIM’s founders. However, they provide much of the same information as Ojibwa Warrior regarding how the men met and their activities inside the prison.4 Though Like a Hurricane is a thorough investigation of Native empowerment and social movements in the 1960s and ‘70s, it does not provide readers the in-depth details about AIM’s founding. Information regarding the context from which AIM emerged is seen in Michaly D. Segal’s doctoral dissertation, “The American Indian Movement: The Potential of A Counter Narrative,” University of Pennsylvania in 2000. Segal’s dissertation is both a psychological and sociological analysis of the state of Indians and Indian affairs in the 1960 and ‘70s rooted in historical experiences. Segal examines historical social policy effects on Native Americans and how her findings link to AIM. Segal’s examination provides readers interested in AIM’s founding with historical background about how policies impacting Natives have shifted, and how such shifts have altered the lives of Native peoples. Segal discusses how Bellecourt, Benton-Benei, and Banks met in prison. For this pre-AIM biographical information, Segal cites a July 1973 Penthouse magazine 3 Dennis Banks and Richard Erdoes, Ojibwa Warrior: Dennis Banks and the Rise of the American Indian Movement (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2004), 62. 4 Ibid., 129, 60. 8 interview by Richard Ballad with Bellecourt.5 Banks and Erdoes’ 2004 autobiography provides further biographical sketches of AIM’s founders.6 To further our understanding of AIM’s foundation, we must understand the common grievances the Minneapolis urban Indian community shared. There is literature about this area, but, again, it is spread among many different sources. Larry R. Salomon’s piece, Roots of Justice: Stories of Organizing in Communities of Color is one such contribution, but only discusses one grievance the community held, which is police abuse and misconduct against Minneapolis Indians. Salomon cites Banks as being the one leader who regarded this issue as a general community grievance requiring attention.7 Though Salomon only identified police brutality as a community grievance, information from other literature expands upon the kinds of grievances Minneapolis Indians held, such as poverty. In Segal’s analysis of the social and historical context AIM emerged from, she briefly discussed the poverty facing the community. Segal identifies which geographical areas of Minneapolis (known as “Red Ghettos”) had noticeable Indian populations. Segal notes that these