Native Americans
Deepak Patel
HIS/135-The American Experience Since 1945
October 6, 2012

The Native Americans who were native of the United States have suffered many injustices during the 1960s. Many negative stereotypes still existed about Indians, showing Native Americans in a bad light. Native Americans had the highest unemployment rates, the lowest average income, and suffered from poor health that they could not have fixed. Eisenhower also set up the policy of ‘termination.’ This policy was made to “end the status of Indians as wards of the government and grant them all the rights and prerogatives pertaining to American citizenship” (Eckholm, 1994). The results of this were disastrous, and many Native Americans remained poor. Still, Native Americans were constantly relocated to reservations that were supposed to preserve their societies, but actually left them powerless. Native Americans eventually started to get mobilized to challenge the government on water, fishing, and treaty rights. The Red Power was a political movement in the 1960's. The Native Americans were fighting to get back their land. They felt that they had to get violent in order to regain their civil rights. Most them were willing to break the laws and confront the government. Most of these Native Americans came from the urban ghettos and were not Indians from reservations. They were influenced by the African Americans. This movement lead up to a series of court cases granted Native American tribes the right to take up to fifty percent of the allowable fishing limits. The American Indian Movement had some success securing federal funds for Native American organizations. Since its start in the late 1960's, the American Indian Movement has successfully changed America's perception of Native Americans. Today, there are several reservations, and