From the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 to the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876 to the Occupation of Wounded Knee of 1973 to the election of the first Native women to Congress in 2018 to recent struggles to protect salmon, we will never stop the long walk towards sovereignty and the fulfillment of our treaties. We have persevered during many attempts to eradicate and silence us, and we will continue to fulfill our ancestors’ hopes and dreams.
Please read a brief history of Native resistance to honor Native American Heritage Month and power our continued struggle for our lands, our cultures, our values, and for racial justice.
1680: The Pueblo Revolt
A collective rebellion against Spanish colonialism which kept Spanish settlers out of the area (now known as New Mexico) for over a decade, allowing the Pueblos to continue stewarding their land and practicing their traditional culture.
1876: Battle of the Greasy Grass (Battle of the Little Bighorn)
While wrongly popularized as ‘Custer’s Last Stand,’ the Battle of the Greasy Grass, also known as the Battle of Little Bighorn, took place in June 1876. Colonel George Custer had moved to the Plains to extract gold and control Tribes. Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull led an assembled group of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors who fought back against Custer, who was outnumbered and defeated.
1900: Native Hawaiians oppose U.S. illegal annexation
Since the first U.S. settlers in the 1820s, Native Hawaiians led organized resistance against U.S. attempts to annex their lands. When President McKinley signed a treaty of annexation in the 1890s, 95% of the Indigenous peoples in Hawai’i signed petitions which were delivered to Washington D.C., killing the annexation legislation.
1958: Lumbee drive off KKK in The Battle of Hayes Pond
A Ku Klux Klan meeting was set to take place near Maxton, North Carolina, but several hundred Lumbee men arrived at the cornfield near Hayes Pond during the KKK meeting. They circled around and while an altercation took place, the only damage was a single light bulb. The KKK member who had arranged the event was arrested and the Lumbee men were praised around the country. There has not been another attempt to hold a KKK meeting in that county since.
1961: Fish-ins
In the 1960s and 1970s, Native fishermen in the Pacific Northwest were inspired by the Civil Rights sit-ins, utilizing similar tactics with fishing in order to bring attention to treaty rights outlined in the 1854 Treaty of Medicine Creek. This led to a victory in 1974 when a court decision affirmed that, according to the treaty, Native fisherpeople must have an equal voice in the management of the fishery and have a right to take up to 50% of all potential fishing harvests.
1969: Occupation of Alcatraz Island
After the Alcatraz prison closed and the island had been deemed surplus federal lands, Natives cited a federal treaty that called to return out-of-use federal lands to Indigenous people. For nearly two years, hundreds of Native protesters lived on Alcatraz Island, running a popular radio station and working with groups like the Black Panthers and the Brown Berets on supplies and security. The land had been used by Natives since long before European settlers arrived, and its reclamation inspired people around the world.
1973: Occupation of Wounded Knee
Beginning in February 1973 and lasting 71 days, 2,000 Native activists joined AIM (American Indian Movement) protestors at the site of the 1890 Wounded Knee massacre in opposition to collusion with paramilitary federal police. Native participants faced federal charges, including Leonard Peltier, who is now the longest-serving political prisoner in the United States.
1996: Diné traditional activists win suit against multinational energy company and owner of Peabody Coal Company
In response to previous mines that had destroyed the health, land, and groundwater of the Diné people, 500 people successfully petitioned the federal government to deny a permanent operating permit for this multinational energy company. Their victory prevented further degradation of Native land.
2016: Protests at Standing Rock against the Dakota Access Pipeline
Thousands of people from around the United States joined the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to block construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Their efforts succeeded under the Obama administration until Trump took office in 2017, and the fight continues in the courts.
2017: Indigenous Women Rise: Women's March on Washington
On January 21, Indigenous women joined the largest single-day protest in U.S. history, led by LaDonna Harris (Comanche) who was appointed as an honorary co-chair for the Women’s March. While many women wore pink, Indigenous women wore turquoise scarves or shawls in a visual show of force.
2020: Deb Haaland becomes Secretary of the Interior
U.S. Representative Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) was nominated by President-elect Joe Biden to become the first Native member of a presidential cabinet. Haaland was later confirmed as the Secretary of the Interior, where she oversaw a record number of Tribal-federal co-stewardship agreements and an investigation into horrors perpetrated on Native children and families through boarding schools, which led to a history-making apology from President Biden.
2021: Biden restores protections for Bears Ears
After his predecessor Donald Trump reduced the size of the Bears Ears National Monument by 85%, President Biden restored protections for Bears Ears, re-establishing Tribal Nations as collaborative managers of this sacred landscape. Responding to the movement led by Tribal Nations, President Biden also rescinded the Keystone XL pipeline’s permit and designated monuments like the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tahttps Bh Kukveni National Monument.
Through time immemorial, Indigenous people have stood up for our rights, our lands, and our cultures. That struggle continues today, whether it is protecting against modern-day land grabs by the federal government or defending sacred places from corporate polluters.
Native Organizers Alliance Action Fund https://nativeorganizing.org/
