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The Bureau of Indian Affairs building takeover occurred from November 3 to November 9, 1972. On November 3, a group of around 500 American Indians with the American Indian Movement (AIM) took over the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) building in Washington, D.C., the culmination of their participation in the Trail of Broken Treaties, intended to bring attention to American Indian issues such as living standards and treaty rights. They had arrived at the BIA to negotiate for better housing and other issues; the siege began when a government mistake was interpreted as a doublecross.〔Paul Smith and Robert Warrior, Like a Hurricane: The Indian Movement from Alcatraz to Wounded Knee. New York: The New Press, 1996〕 The incensed protesters then began to vandalize the building in protest. They were not evicted on the first night. The takover quickly gained national media attention. The demonstrators upturned large tables and desks against the windows of the building. Documents were destroyed by setting fires, literally, in the middle offices and lobbies of the building. The demonstrators started to run out of provisions after several days. They would not allow police or any government representative to approach the building, so two children of BIA employees were recruited to bring in provisions. After a week, the protesters left, having caused $700,000 in damages. Among the damage caused was loss, destruction, and theft of many records, including treaties, deeds, and water rights records, which some Indian officials said could set them back 50 to 100 years. == Preparation == AIM researched, organized and prepared in 1972 after the brief BIA takeover in 1971. Understanding the law was essential to bringing the just claims of Indian tribes and the urban populations forward to policy makers and the courts. Volunteer attorneys and other scholars researched the laws, Executive Orders, and BIA budgeting and practice to inform the AIM agenda of exposing government misdirection and illegal practice. There was one issue for nearly all Indians: land. Land had been stolen and the BIA was the instrument of the theft. Making do on smaller and smaller sovereign nations, tribal chairmen held onto their fiefdoms on with controls of association and small electoral bases. Smallness meant greater power but it also meant vulnerability to the federal government’s next termination tactic. There was nearly no one among them who would call the U.S. on its rough handling. Particularly among young Indians, tribal chairmen were nearly as incompetent as the BIA because for both it was not who they were precisely, but what they represented as the image of defeat and irresponsibility. Momentum and support grew for AIM. Unlike 1971, the groups were prepared and focused on their target. Sympathetic groups joined the planning: * The National Indian Brotherhood of Canada * Native American Rights Fund * National Indian Youth Council * National American Indian Council * National Council on Indian Work * National Indian Leadership Training * American Indian Committee on Alcohol and Drug Abuse 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Bureau of Indian Affairs building takeover」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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