American Indian Women's Activism in the 1960s and 1970s (H.O)

The purpose of the 1953 Termination Act offered one-way bus fare and the promise of assistance in finding jobs and housing in urban areas for reservation Indians, usually younger tribal members with more employable skills. The BIA estimated that 200,000 Indians were relocated under this program while the Indian Removal Act of 1830 had forced less than half this number, 89,000, to relocate. The high point of termination policy occurred during the period from 1952 to 1962. The Alcatraz Occupation was a landmark occupation that began in November 1969 and ended nineteen months later, in June 1971.The Indian population in California was 82 percent urban in contrast to states such as Arizona, New Mexico, Alaska, and North Carolina, where Indians were more than 70 percent rural. Urban residents at this time had more education and lower rates of unemployment. The 1969 occupation of Alcatraz, which gained national and international media coverage, was led by students from California campuses and supported by community members of the San Francisco Indian Center. The important thing that happened from the Alcatraz movement was they raised so much political consciousness and because of the Education act they gained land back.
Fish-in protests began as a response to Washington state policy that tried to use state laws to restrict Indian fishing rights guaranteed by federal treaties. Women Led the Fish-In Movement. The fish-ins started out as nonviolent civil disobedience, but after violence from state and city law enforcement, game wardens and white vigilantes, including the use of tear gas, clubs, beatings, and shootings, Indians responded in self-defense. In most cases, it was women who carried the arms during the fish-ins. Women comprised the majority of protesters and half of those arrested. One of the first protests occurred in 1961: of twenty-seven protesters, only eight were men. When men were arrested, women ran the fishing boats. The Fish-in movement was to fight for reservations and wanted their treaty rights back. They constantly battled fishing laws with the government. Native American women very important during the Indian Rights Movements because the struggles were mostly lack of health care, no schooling, and no reliable resources so it was the women who stepped up and opened community health clinics, they opened schools and ran them so their kids can get schooling. They brang urbanization to the community.