The Element Encyclopedia of Native Americans: An A to Z of Tribes, Culture, and History. Adele Nozedar

been made in historical agreements. These 20 items were:

       Restore treaty-making (ended by Congress in 1871)

       Establish a treaty commission to make new treaties (with sovereign Native Nations)

       Provide opportunities for Indian leaders to address Congress directly

       Review treaty commitments and violations

       Have any unratified treaties reviewed by the Senate

       Ensure that all American Indians are governed by treaty relations

       Provide relief to Native Nations as compensation for treaty rights violations

       Recognize the right of Indians to interpret treaties

       Create a Joint Congressional Committee to reconstruct relations with Indians

       Restore 110 million acres of land taken away from Native Nations by the United States

       Restore terminated rights of Native Nations

       Repeal state jurisdiction on Native Nations

       Provide Federal protection for offenses against Indians

       Abolish the Bureau of Indian Affairs

       Create a new office of Federal Indian Relations

       Remedy breakdown in the constitutionally prescribed relationships between the United States and Native Nations

       Ensure immunity of Native Nations from state commerce regulation, taxes, and trade restrictions

       Protect Indian religious freedom and cultural integrity

       Establish national Indian voting with local options; free national Indian organizations from governmental controls

       Reclaim and affirm health, housing, employment, economic development, and education for all Indian people.

      Perhaps the most noteworthy piece of activism by AIM was “The Longest Walk.” Following a spiritual tradition with political aims in mind, The Longest Walk began in February 1978 with a ceremony on Alcatraz Island, where the Red Power movement had first drawn attention to the plight of Native Americans ten years earlier. The beginning of the Walk started with a pipe ceremony; this pipe was carried the entire length of the route, some 3,200 miles across the U.S.A., ending in Washington, D.C. in July of the same year.

      The walk highlighted many issues, such as the need for tribal sovereignty and the civil rights of the Native American people. Support was garnered from both within the Native community and outside of it; and from both inside the United States and from much further afield.

      Once in Washington, the pipe, which had been loaded with tobacco at the beginning of the journey, was smoked at the site of the Washington Monument. Thereafter, rallies were held to highlight all the issues that The Longest Walk had set out to address.

      AIM continues to fight on behalf of the Native American peoples.

      AMOS BAD HEART BULL

       1868-1913

      Also known as Eagle Bonnet, Amos Bad Heart Bull belonged to the Oglala Lakota branch of the Sioux Nation. The nephew of the chiefs He Dog and Red Cloud, and the son of Bad Heart Bull and his wife, Red Blanket, Amos grew up in the traditional way for a young Lakota boy, although his upbringing was disturbed by the growing unrest between the tribe and the European settlers. Amos was only eight years old when the Sioux defeated General Custer at the Battle of Little Big Horn; despite their victory, the Great Sioux War saw the tribe eventually overcome, and Amos’ family fled north to be with the great chief, Sitting Bull, in Canada, for a few years before returning south to the Standing Rock Reservation, and then to the Pine Ridge Reservation, in the early 1880s.

      Amos was interested in the history of his people and this, combined with an artistic skill, saw him start to draw pictures showing key events in the life of the tribe. His father Bad Heart Bull was responsible for keeping the Winter Count, a pictorial calendar, and it’s likely that the young Amos picked up these skills from his father.

      It was during his time serving as a scout for the U.S. Army that Amos bought a ledger book—intended for accounts, etc.—from a store, and began to draw in it. By chance, he adapted a traditional Indian technique of drawing on hide or skins to a modern medium: paper. This style became known as Ledger Art, and Amos became famous for it. Once he returned to the tribe after his time in the Army, he became the Winter Keeper of the tribe, following in the footsteps of his father before him.

      It wasn’t until after his death, though, that Amos’ art gained recognition. His sister, Dolly Pretty Cloud, had inherited the ledger book full of drawings, and she was contacted by a university student, Helen Blish, who wanted to study the drawings as part of her thesis. Her professor, Hartley Alexander, made photographs of the drawings to accompany his student’s text—which was fortunate, since when Dolly died the ledger book was buried with her. The text and drawings were subsequently published in 1938 by Professor Alexander as Sioux Indian Painting. Some 30 years later it was printed again, the content considered a very important record of the history and culture of the Lakota people, this time under the title A Photographic History of the Oglala Sioux, by Helen Blish’s alma mater, the University of Nebraska Press.

      ANASAZI

      Meaning “The Ancient Ones,” the Anasazi were among the first dwellers in the vast land that became the United States. Sometimes called the “Ancient Pueblo Peoples,” the Anasazi lived in the southwest. The Anasazi have been traced back as far as 6000 B.C., a hunter-gatherer people who had started to settle into agriculture (primarily growing maize as a crop) in the last two centuries B.C. The Anasazi also left behind a significant accumulation of archeological remains that have helped us to understand something of their culture and way of life.

      By A.D. 1200, horticulture had become a very important part of Anasazi economy, although prior to this they had still traveled in search