The rhetoric of American Indian activism in the 1960s and 1970s¹

We intend “Indian activists” to refer to those who operated outside of tribal and federal governmental structures. There were also important efforts made by those who worked within those structures, but they fall outside the scope of this paper.

Abstract

Political rhetoric in a democracy is, in at least some sense, educative and constitutive even as it is instrumentally persuasive. For members of ethnic, racial, or cultural groups that lie outside of the dominant culture, the educative processes that underlie policy advocacy require attention to specific cultures, traditions, historical experiences, and group interests. Thus, even though all out‐groups share many common challenges, they all face unique situations as well. This essay explores these rhetorical challenges and some of the strategies designed to meet them through an examination of the political rhetoric of American Indian activists from the 1972 Trail of Broken Treaties through the 1973 siege at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. Particular attention is paid to the question of audience.

Key concepts:

• American Indians
• Native Americans
• social movements
• American Indian Movement

Notes

We intend “Indian activists” to refer to those who operated outside of tribal and federal governmental structures. There were also important efforts made by those who worked within those structures, but they fall outside the scope of this paper.