2003.78.8

During the Summer of 1968, two hundred members of the Indian community came together to discuss various issues and critical developments within the Native American community. From this meeting came the birth of the American Indian Movement (AIM)"Because of the slum housing conditions; the highest unemployment rate in the whole of this country; police brutality against our elders, women, and children; Native Warriors came together from the streets, prisons, jails and the urban ghettos of Minneapolis to form the American Indian Movement. They were tired of begging for welfare, tired of being scapegoats in America and decided to start building on the strengths of our own people; decided to build our own schools; our own job training programs; and our own destiny. That was our motivation to begin. That beginning is now being called 'the Era of Indian Power'." (Dennis Banks, 1992)