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Alcatraz and Wounded Knee 1973 have come to symbolize the revival of Indian fortunes in the late twentieth century, so we hesitate to discuss the realities of the time or to look critically at their actual place in modern Indian history. We conclude that it is better to wrap these events in romantic notions and broker that feeling in exchange for further concessions from the federal government; consequently, we fail to learn from them the hard lessons that will serve us well in leaner times.Activism in the 1950s was sporadic but intense. In 1957, Lumbee people surrounded a Ku Klux Klan gathering in North Carolina and escorted the hooded representatives of white supremacy back to their homes sans weapons and costumes. In 1961, a strange mixture of Six Nations people and non-Indian supporters attempted a citizens’ arrest of the secretary of the interior, and, sometime during this period, a band of “True Utes” briefly took over the agency offices at Fort Duchesne. The only context for these events was the long suffering of small groups of people bursting forth in an incident that illustrated oppression but suggested no answer to pressing problems. In 1964, the “fish-ins” in the Pacific Northwest produced the first activism with an avowed goal; continual agitation in that region eventually resulted in U.S. v. Washington, which affirmed once and for all the property rights of Northwest tribes for both subsistence and commercial fishing.Indians benefited substantially from the civil rights movement of the 1960s and the ensuing doctrines concerning the poor, which surfaced in the Economic Opportunity Act and more particularly in its administration. The civil rights movement had roots in a hundred small gatherings of concerned attorneys brought together by Jack Greenberg and Thurgood Marshall to determine the legal and philosophical basis for overturning Plessy v. Ferguson. Concentrating on the concept of equality, a series of test cases involving access to professional education in the border states cut away the unexamined assumption that separate facilities for higher education automatically meant equality of treatment and equality of the substance of education.

In 1978, Congress passed the American Indian Religious Freedom Resolution. At that time, most American Indians believed that the status of their right to practice their traditional religions was protected by that special legislation, even though in floor debate congressman Morris Udall had specifically stated that no major laws were being changed and no disruption of the existing state of affairs would take place. In the decade-and-a-half since then, Indian litigants have cited the religious freedom resolution as an indication on the part of Congress that it was federal policy, to be followed by all federal agencies, that the particular needs of traditional religious practitioners would be accommodated.In 1988, the Supreme Court turned aside the Indians of northern California, refusing to prohibit the building of a minor logging road that would ruin the high country where they held vision quests and gathered medicines (Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Assn., 485 U. S. 439 [1988]). In the spring of 1990, the Supreme Court ruled that the state of Oregon did not have to present a compelling interest in order to pass legislation that would have the effect of virtually eliminating a religion, in this instance the use of peyote for religious ritual purposes (Employment Div., Dept. of Human Resources of Oregon v. Smith, -U. S.-, 108 L. Ed. 2d 876 [1990]). The consternation that has arisen among American Indians since these decisions is genuine, and many people feel betrayed by both the Congress and the Supreme Court.

Anticipated the modern physics relativity theory, American Indians gained information about the natural world through careful observation based on the principle that all things are related. American Indian students could radically transform scientific knowledge by grounding themselves in traditional knowledge about the world and working this understanding into the Western scientific format. (SV)

Advocates for ethnosciences courses in higher education. Compares the epistemology of Western science and traditional tribal knowledge, including methods of information gathering, data interpretation, fragmented versus holistic approach, and world views. Discusses the expansion of some fields of scientific inquiry to include "ethnoscience," and the role of American Indian science students in furthering its acceptance. (SV)

Clifton's collection of essays attacks recent pro-Indian "fictions" (including Native spirituality and the relationship between the Iroquois League and the U.S. Constitution) as politically motivated romanticism and nonsense. The authors are struggling to maintain white intellectual authority over definitions of Indian identity and interpretations of Indian history. (SV)

Policymakers have assumed that higher education would generate Indian self-determination by acculturating future tribal leaders. Instead, frustrated by the fragmented Western worldview, the brightest Indian students are supplementing its deficiencies with tribal knowledge and traditions and thereby transcending 500 years of culture shock to find true self-determination. (SV)

Serious researchers of Indian communities should focus on actual community needs, be sensitive to community wishes and attitudes, and establish more precise identity with respect to communities with goals of distinguishing serious research from popular writing, minimizing useless research, and providing more leverage over funding sources and their agendas. (SV)

Discusses the dilemma of American Indian science students as they attempt to integrate the reductionist methodologies of modern science with the holistic approach of traditional beliefs and practices. Suggests that students look to traditional technologies to find the broader meaning underlying the mechanics of nature. (SV)

Historical and recent examples indicate that, in the areas of property ownership/use and tribal self-government, federal policy has frequently ignored complexities and abandoned Indians to learn from their experiences. Indian college students can substitute professional education for practical experience to ensure tribal survival and sensible land use. (SV)

The time is ripe to consider new interpretations about North American pre-history as the old, established paradigm is rapidly disappearing. A number of considerations including new information have made the development of a more valid model to understand the different civilizations that constituted pre-Columbian America a more compelling initiative. This effort should as much as possible involve the participation of thoughtful individuals within the historical and archeological community.