My favorite occupation is the occupation of the BIA building. I can't imagine the occupation of a government building in Washington, D.C. by protesters for any amount of time in today's society. The occupation of the BIA demonstrates how far Natives were willing to go to obtain better treatment from the government. This is what we need now, more radical protest, marches on Washington like the 60's and 70's. Or we can all just blog about it.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Occupation
The idea that Native groups were able to occupy government property in three instances during the Red Power movement fascinates me. The Natives used media exposure at Alcatraz, Wounded Knee and the BIA building to further their goals. Because Natives used the media in the manner they did represents to me that Natives are more than capable of being modern, while still being Native. The use of media brought National and International attention to the causes which, puts pressure on the government to handle the situations so as not to harm their image.
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1 comment:
Haha, I'm not quite sure we need such extreme protests today. I have a feeling that any situation we might be in is not near as bad as what the Indians had gone through. Now maybe if somebody comes over here, steals all our land, promises to help us live their way of life, and then basically ditches us for the next 100 years after, then I guess it would be ok to take a government building. Just maybe.
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