Timeline of Indian Activisim

1961 - National Indian Youth Council (NIYC) is organized following the American Indian Charter Convention in Chicago to encourage greater self-sufficiency and autonomy.

1964 - Survival of American Indians (SAIA) forms and stages "fish-ins" to preserve off-reservation fishing rights in Washington state. Those who participate in the fish-ins later help the occupiers on Alcatraz. Fishing and land rights protests continue throughout the 1960s and early 1970s.

March 9, 1964 - First landing at Alcatraz. Five Sioux Indians claim the island under the Fort Laramie 1868 Sioux Treaty enabling Sioux Indians to take possession of surplus federal land. They occupy Alcatraz for four hours, calling for the island's transformation into a cultural center and an Indian university.

October 1966 - Senator George McGovern introduces a resolution highlighting increased desire of Indian people to participate in decisions concerning their people and property.

Summer 1968 - United Native Americans (UNA), a pan-Indian organization, is founded in the San Francisco Bay Area to promote self-determination through Indian control of Indian affairs at every level.

July 1968 - American Indian Movement (AIM) is founded in Minneapolis to protect the city's Native community from police abuse and to create job training and housing and education programs.

December 18, 1968 - Mohawk Indians form a blockade at the Cornwall International Bridge between the U.S. and Canada in protest of the U.S. restricting Native peoples' free movement between the two countries. Many protesters are arrested but the Canadian government dismisses the charges.

October 9, 1969 - American Indian Center in San Francisco burns down. It had been a meeting place that served 30,000 Indian people with social programs. The loss of the center focuses Indian attention on taking over Alcatraz for use as a new facility.

November 9, 1969 - Mohawk Indian Richard Oakes leads an attempt to occupy Alcatraz Island twice in one day. Fourteen Native Americans stay overnight and leave peacefully the following morning.

November 20, 1969 - The 19-month occupation of Alcatraz begins when approximately 80-90 American Indians - mostly college students - take over the island.

December 1969 - Members of the American Indian Movement, led by AIM co-founder Dennis Banks (Leech Lake Ojibwe), arrive at Alcatraz. After about two weeks, they return to Minneapolis bringing new ideas about confrontational activism and land seizure as a tool to confront the federal government's Indian policies.

July 8, 1970 - President Richard Nixon formally ends the termination policies established in the 1950s and announces a new policy of "self-determination without termination." The administration introduces 22 legislative proposals supporting Indian self-rule.

August 1970 - California governor Ronald Reagan announces a $50,000 planning grant to the Bay Area Native American Council for programs addressing the needs of urban Indians in the San Francisco Bay Area.

November 1970 - American Indian Movement (AIM) paints Plymouth Rock red and occupies the Mayflower replica on Thanksgiving Day.

1971 - After an 11-year effort, Alaska Native Claims Movement negotiates a large land claims settlement giving Alaska Natives 44 million acres of land and $962.5 million. This act becomes a model for struggling indigenous movements around the world.

June 11, 1971 - The 15 remaining Alcatraz occupiers are escorted off the island by U.S. marshals and FBI agents, officially ending the 19-month, nine-day long occupation.

July 4, 1971 - AIM stages a Fourth of July counter-celebration by occupying the Mount Rushmore National Monument.

September 21, 1972 - Richard Oakes dies of a gunshot wound in northern California at the age of 30. His killer, Michael Morgan, claims that Oakes had ambushed him. Although there is no evidence of a struggle, Morgan's attorneys argue self-defense before a jury of non-Native citizens. First Morgan is charged with murder then the charge is changed to involuntary manslaughter. In the end Morgan is freed, outraging the Indian community.

November 1972 - AIM organizes The Trail of Broken Treaties; more than 2,000 Indians go to Washington on the eve of the presidential election to present Nixon with a 20-point program. They occupy the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) headquarters for seven days, demanding that the U.S. recognize tribal self-determination.

February 27 - May 8, 1973 - Wounded Knee II - When members of the Lakota Sioux tribe on the Pine Ridge reservation attempt to have Dick Wilson, the BIA-backed head of the tribal administration, impeached, they receive resistance from the federal government, which wants to keep him in power. Led by leader Russell Means, AIM seizes control of Wounded Knee (site of the 1890 massacre) and the perimeter is placed under siege for 71 days. More than 500,000 rounds of ammunition are fired into AIM's bunkers. Two Indians and one FBI agent are killed. Nearly 1,200 people are arrested.

The end of the standoff is negotiated on May 7 with the federal government's promise that Native American grievances will be addressed. Native Americans attend one meeting with White House representatives and are promised congressional review of their concerns and a second meeting, but no further meetings occur.

1973-1976 - The three years following Wounded Knee II are referred to by Native Americans as the "Reign of Terror," as the FBI carries out intensive local surveillance, makes repeated arrests, harasses local tribal members and institutes legal proceedings against AIM leaders and supporters on the Pine Ridge reservation. The Guardians of the Oglala Nation (GOONs), affiliated with BIA-backed Dick Wilson, control the reservation with an iron fist and often shoot first, asking questions later. The FBI does not attempt to restrain them. During the period between 1973 and 1976, 61 homicides among AIM supporters are reported; many are never investigated.

June 26, 1975 - Two FBI agents enter Jumping Bull Ranch where a large number of AIM supporters, invited there for protection by the Jumping Bull elders, camp. A shootout ensues and the two FBI agents are killed. One of the AIM defenders, Leonard Peltier, is later captured in Canada, extradited and convicted for murder by an all-white jury. Activists continue to campaign for his exoneration and release while Peltier serves two consecutive life terms in federal prison.

1975 - The Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act gives Native Americans more control in administering federal programs and services to their communities.

1977 - AIM sponsors talks resulting in the 1977 International Treaty Conference with the U.N. in Geneva, Switzerland.

1977-78 - U.S. Congress passes approximately 50 laws that help redefine tribal issues regarding water rights, fishing rights and land acquisition. Some land is returned to the tribes, and issues of self-governance are further clarified.

February 11 to July 1978 - Indian participants embark on the "Longest Walk" from Alcatraz Island to Washington, D.C. to symbolize the forced removal of Indians from their homelands and to draw attention to continuing problems. The action challenges the backlash movement against Indian treaty rights. They present a manifesto to the Carter administration.

1980 - The Supreme Court rules that the U.S. owes the Lakota Sioux interest from an 1877 payment as compensation for taking the Black Hills, originally part of Indian lands. The Lakota reject the payment, hoping to reclaim the Black Hills from the U.S.

1985 - An AIM security camp is established on Navajo land near Big Mountain, Arizona, to support the traditional Dine elders in their resistance to forced relocation.

1989 - The National Museum of the American Indian Act orders the Smithsonian Institute to return Native American remains to American Indian tribes.

1990 - The Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act protects Indian gravesites on federal public lands against looting. The Indian Arts and Crafts Act, which goes into effect in 1996, finally protects the work of Indian artists, an effort that began in 1935.

1992 - The celebration of the 500th anniversary of the arrival of Christopher Columbus to the Americas prompts protests from many Native American tribes and supporters, prompting cities including Denver and San Francisco to stop their quincentenary celebrations.

February 11 - July 15, 1994 - AIM leaders undertake a nationwide "Walk for Justice" beginning on Alcatraz Island to bring attention to the continued unjust imprisonment of Leonard Peltier.

1997 - The Corporation for Public Broadcasting establishes Native American Public Telecommunications, Inc., (NAPT) to promote, produce and distribute Native American television and radio programming.

1999 - On March 22, Sioux people establish the Oceti Sakowin spiritual camp on La Framboise Island in the Missouri River near Pierre, South Dakota, in protest of the treaty-breaking Danklow Acts (Terrestrial Wildlife Habitat Restoration Act and Water Resources Development Authorization), which give 200,000 acres of tribal lands to the state of South Dakota.

July 7, 1999 - President Bill Clinton visits the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota for a "nation to nation" business meeting and tours the reservation's housing facilities. The president signs a pact with Oglala leaders establishing an empowerment zone and participates in a conference on home ownership and economic development for Native Americans.

October, 1999 - Nearly 2000 American Indians, Canadian First Nation peoples and Alaskan Natives return to Alcatraz, some for the first time since 1969, to mark the 30th anniversary of the occupation during a day of spiritual, cultural and musical celebration. John Trudell, former Occupation Council member and spokesman, performs with his band.

January 16, 2000 - The activist group Grass Roots Oyate begins its occupation of the Red Cloud Building at the Oglala Sioux Tribal Headquarters, Pine Ridge Reservation, in protest of what they deem the corrupt, oppressive and ineffective politics of tribal leadership. Federal officials remove financial records the following day, and the elected tribal president is suspended. The activists vow to continue the occupation until their demands are met.

August 2002 - The U.S. District Court of Oregon rules that bones of the 9,000 year-old human remains known as Kennewick Man, found in the Columbia River in Washington, be returned to the five Indian tribes that have claimed him as their ancient ancestor, as determined by the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990

This list was supplied by PBS as presented on their website.