“We Are Not Free”: The Meaning of <Freedom> in American Indian Resistance to President Johnson's War on Poverty

Abstract

This essay examines how the ideograph <freedom> was crafted through dialectical struggles between Euro-Americans and American Indians over federal Indian policy between 1964 and 1968. For policymakers, <freedom> was historically sutured to the belief that assimilation was the only pathway to American Indian liberation. I explore the American Indian youth movement's response to President Johnson's War on Poverty to demonstrate how activists rhetorically realigned <freedom> in Indian policy with the Great Society's rhetoric of “community empowerment.” I illustrate how American Indians orchestrated counterhegemonic resistance by reframing the “Great Society” as an argument for a “Greater Indian American.” This analysis evinces the rhetorical significance of ideographic transformation in affecting policy change.

Keywords:

• Clyde Warrior
• Freedom
• Ideographs
• National Indian Youth Council
• War on Poverty

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Casey Ryan Kelly

Casey Ryan Kelly (Ph.D., University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, 2009) is an Associate Professor in the Program in Media, Rhetoric and Culture at Butler University.