American Indian Movement

The American Indian Movement (AIM) is a militant Native American civil rights organization, founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1968 by Ojibwe (self-name Anishinaabe) activists Dennis Banks, Clyde Bellecourt, Eddie Benton Banai, Pat Bellanger, and George Mitchell. Later, Russell Means, an activist of Oglala Lakota descent, became a prominent spokesperson for the group. AIM is most often associated with sometimes violent protests in the 1960s and 1970s, including a 71-day standoff at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, that drew international headlines.

AIM’s original purpose was to provide aid to Native people in cities who had been displaced by U.S. federal government programs. Many Native Americans had moved to urban areas during the 1950s and 1960s under federal relocation and termination policies, which sought to assimilate Indigenous peoples into mainstream American society and reduce federal responsibilities to tribes. AIM’s goals expanded over time to encompass the entire spectrum of Native demands: economic independence, revitalization of traditional culture, an end to racist practices, protection of legal rights, and, most especially, autonomy over tribal areas and the restoration of lands that they believed had been illegally seized.

AIM also emphasized tribal sovereignty and argued that the United States had violated treaties made with Native nations, particularly the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, which had guaranteed the Lakota control of the Black Hills of South Dakota. The United States broke the treaty less than a decade later when gold was discovered in the area.

Discover how ordinary objects work, and expand your understanding of the familiar.

SIGN UP

" height="20" alt="HEW Logo">

Thank you for signing up!"

Back to homepage

By clicking "Sign Up", you consent to the Britannica Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

AIM’s iconic protests

AIM’s rise to national prominence during the late 1960s and early 1970s coincided with broader movements for civil rights, ethnic self-determination, and opposition to the Vietnam War, as many Native American activists adopted protest strategies similar to those used by Black civil rights organizations, antiwar demonstrators, and other activist groups seeking expanded political and social rights.

AIM was involved in many highly publicized protests, but four largely defined the group’s most active period:

• Alcatraz Island takeover (1969–71): On November 9, 1969, Richard Oakes led a group of Native supporters to claim Alcatraz Island, which had imprisoned Native Americans in the 1800s and early 1900s. On November 20, the occupation escalated, and it lasted in a variety of forms until the second week of June 1971, when armed federal law enforcement officers forced the remaining occupants from the island.
• Trail of Broken Treaties demonstration (1972): Several caravans of Native American peoples traveled from the West Coast to Washington, D.C., where AIM hoped to present to U.S. Pres. Richard Nixon its Twenty-Points Position Paper, which included demands and a framework for a better relationship between Native groups and the federal government. When government officials canceled scheduled meetings with AIM, the demonstrators staged a weeklong sit-in at the Bureau of Indian Affairs office. It gained negative press because of vandalism, but organizer Dennis Banks later wrote that the demonstration marked a seminal moment for the movement: “For the first time ever, members of some two hundred tribes had acted together for a common cause. I was proud to have been a part of this. If nothing else, we had sent up one hell of a smoke signal.”

• 

• Wounded Knee occupation (1973): On February 27, 1973, members of AIM took over the town of Wounded Knee, the site of the 1890 massacre of as many as 300 Native Americans. The 1973 occupation lasted for 71 days, drew worldwide attention, and ultimately ended after the deaths of two AIM members and the wounding of several federal law enforcement officers.
• Longest Walk protest (1978): In February 1978 a small group of AIM protesters started out from Alcatraz Island with the goal of walking to Washington, D.C. Over the course of the five-month pilgrimage, the original group of two dozen grew to more than 2,000 when they entered the nation’s capital in July, where they were joined by comedian Dick Gregory and actor Marlon Brando, both longtime Native rights supporters. Unlike AIM’s 1972 trip to Washington, the activists were welcomed by the government this time, with the National Park Service providing support at a campsite. The weeklong trip was marked by educational workshops and peaceful protests and led to the passage by Congress of legislation codifying Native American rights.

An organization, but not a movement, ends

Despite the success of the Longest Walk, by the late 1970s AIM had been weakened by internal leadership disputes, financial problems, violent confrontations with federal authorities, and extensive FBI investigations and surveillance following events including the occupation of Wounded Knee. Several leaders faced criminal prosecutions, and divisions within the movement contributed to the dissolution of AIM’s national leadership structure in 1978, although local chapters continued to operate. In 1981 an AIM group occupied part of the Black Hills in South Dakota to demand that the area be returned to the control of Native peoples, and in 2020, as part of the protests related to the murder of George Floyd, AIM demonstrators in St. Paul, Minnesota, toppled a statue of Christopher Columbus.