Indian Ideology in The Warpath: Lehman Brightman’s Red Power Journalism

Abstract

The Warpath, the “angry Indian” newsletter founded by the militant but oft overlooked journalist Lehman Brightman, was one of several Red Power publications founded in the late 1960s as part of the social and cultural upheavals of that era. Brightman’s publication deployed several major themes as he argued for Native American rights and against the federal Indian bureaucracy, especially “America’s colonial office,” the Bureau of Indian Affairs. In The Warpath, Brightman demanded Indian liberation and self-determination, calling for direct political action at places like Alcatraz and Mount Rushmore, a place Brightman and other activists occupied in 1970. Brightman also celebrated Indian history and culture, criticized Indian stereotypes, excoriated moderate Indian leaders and, perhaps most significantly, investigated the appalling conditions at underfunded and understaffed Indian schools. His principal achievement was the articulation of a strident anti-racist and anti-colonial ideology that continues to resonate in Indian Country.