Red Power Rising : The National Indian Youth Council and the Origins of Native Activism

Bradley G. Shreve

ISBN 10: 0806141786 / ISBN 13: 9780806141787

Published by University Of Oklahoma Press Apr 2011, 2011

About this Item

Neuware - Uncovers the origins of the Red Power movementDuring the 1960s, American Indian youth were swept up in a movement called Red Power-a civil rights struggle fueled by intertribal activism. While some define the movement as militant and others see it as peaceful, there is one common assumption about its history: Red Power began with the Indian takeover of Alcatraz in 1969. Or did it In this groundbreaking book, Bradley G. Shreve sets the record straight by tracing the origins of Red Power further back in time: to the student activism of the National Indian Youth Council (NIYC), founded in Gallup, New Mexico, in 1961. Unlike other 1960s and '70s activist groups that challenged the fundamental beliefs of their predecessors, the students who established the NIYC were determined to uphold the cultures and ideals of their elders, building on a tradition of pan-Indian organization dating back to the early twentieth century. Their cornerstone principles of tribal sovereignty, self determination, treaty rights, and cultural preservation helped ensure their survival, for in contrast to other activist groups that came and went, the NIYC is still in operation today. But Shreve also shows that the NIYC was very much a product of 1960s idealistic ferment and its leaders learned tactics from other contemporary leftist movements.By uncovering the origins of Red Power, Shreve writes an important new chapter in the history of American Indian activism. And by revealing the ideology and accomplishments of the NIYC, he ties the Red Power Movement to the larger struggle for human rights that continues to this day both in the United States and across the globe.Bradley G. Shreve is Chair of the Division of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Diné College in Tsaile, Arizona.Shirley Hill Witt was a founder and vice president of the National Indian Youth Council. A distinguished anthropologist and former foreign service officer, she is a member of the Akwesasne Mohawk Nation, Wolf Clan.

Seller Inventory # 9780806141787

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Red Power Rising : The National Indian Youth Council and the Origins of Native Activism
• Publisher: University Of Oklahoma Press Apr 2011
• Publication Date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0806141786
• ISBN 13: 9780806141787
• Binding: Buch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 229W x 152H x 27D millimeters 229 millimeters width by 152 millimeters height by 27 millimeters depth
• Weight: 645 grams

About this title

Synopsis

From the end of Pontiac’s War in 1763 through the War of 1812, fear—even paranoia—drove Anglo-American Indian policies. In Red Dreams, White Nightmares, Robert M. Owens views conflicts between whites and Natives in this era—invariably treated as discrete, regional affairs—as the inextricably related struggles they were. As this book makes clear, the Indian wars north of the Ohio River make sense only within the context of Indians’ efforts to recruit their southern cousins to their cause. The massive threat such alliances posed, recognized by contemporary whites from all walks of life, prompted a terror that proved a major factor in the formulation of Indian and military policy in North America. Indian unity, especially in the form of military alliance, was the most consistent, universal fear of Anglo-Americans in the late colonial, Revolutionary, and early national periods. This fear was so pervasive—and so useful for unifying whites—that Americans exploited it long after the threat of a general Indian alliance had passed. As the nineteenth century wore on, and as slavery became more widespread and crucial to the American South, fears shifted to Indian alliances with former slaves, and eventually to slave rebellion in general. The growing American nation needed and utilized a rhetorical threat from the other to justify the uglier aspects of empire building—a phenomenon that Owens tracks through a vast array of primary sources. Drawing on eighteen different archives, covering four nations and eleven states, and on more than six-dozen period newspapers—and incorporating the views of British and Spanish authorities as well as their American rivals—Red Dreams, White Nightmares is the most comprehensive account ever written of how fear, oftentimes resulting in “Indian-hating,” directly influenced national policy in early America.

About the Author

Bradley G. Shreve is Managing Editor of the Tribal College Journal, a publication of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium.

Shirley Hill Witt is a founder and former vice president of the National Indian Youth Council. A distinguished anthropologist and former foreign service officer, she is a member of the Akwesasne Mohawk Nation, Wolf Clan.