Native American Protest, 20th Century

Abstract

Native Americans form distinct political and cultural communities within the United States. Sometimes referred to as “nations within a nation,” native homelands or reservations are semi‐autonomous territorial enclaves located inside the United States. Today, many Native Americans have left reservations, living in nearby towns and large urban centers throughout the United States. Both on and off the reservation, Native Americans struggle to preserve their cultural identity and heritage, develop reservation economies, and maintain their semi‐autonomous sovereign political status. These struggles are set against an American society that historically has sought to eliminate native peoples as distinct political, cultural, and geographic communities. History shows us that Native Americans have engaged in armed resistance, protest occupations, demonstrations, legal activism, and political lobbying to avert the loss of land and natural resources, resist displacement from their homelands, and prevent the erosion of native cultures through government‐sponsored programs of reeducation and assimilation.