East L.A. Walk Out, Cesar Chavez and United Farm Workers, AIM, Wounded Knee, Occupation of Alcatraz

1. Chapter 23.2, pp. 771-776

2.  Latino-Person
whose family
origins are in
Spanish-speaking
Latin America
 Largest ethnic
group in U.S.
 History of being
denied equal
opportunities
Research from 2012

5.  Largest group of Latinos in
the U.S.=Chicanos
 Chicanos=Mexican
Americans
 # of Cuban immigrants grew
in 1960s after rise of Fidel
Castro
 One-party dictatorship
 Suppressed all political
dissent

6.  In the 1960s, Chicanos began to organize in order to
fight discrimination
 Education, employment legal system
 El Movimiento Chicano or Chicano movement
 Encouraged pride in Chicano culture
 Walk out at L.A. high schools in 1968 involved 10K
students
 Students followed elsewhere (CA, TX, CO)
 Wanted culturally sensitive courses, better facilities, & Latino
staff members

7. http://video.pbs.org/video/2365053309/

8.  Latino farm workers
struggled to unite
 Many Latinos in the
Southwest were migrant
farm workers
 Moved from farm to
farm, struggled to
survive
 Some of the most
exploited workers in the
U.S.
 Cesar Chavez became a
hero to these workers
 Est. United Farm
Workers in 1962
 Union for migrant
workers

9.  Chavez believed in non-
violent protests
 Targeted grape growers
of CA in 1967 when they
refused to grant better
pay & better conditions
 Organized a nationwide
boycott of grapes grown
on non-union farms
 Later targeted lettuce &
other crops

10.  In 1975, CA passed a law
requiring collective
bargaining between
grape growers & union
representatives
 Finally, workers had a
legal basis to ask for
better working
conditions

11.  Chavez died in 1993
 Focused on education
later in life
 Felt it was the “great
equalizer” & the best
way for Latinos to gain
more rights
 His birthday, March 31st,
is now a national holiday
 Has been celebrated in
CA since 1995

13.  Anti-Japanese sentiment reached a peak during WWII
 Pearl Harbor & fierce fighting in the Pacific
 Internment camps affected 120K
 Lost hundreds of millions of dollars in homes, farms,
businesses
 U.S. officially apologized in 1988
 Anti-Chinese feelings grew after the Communist
takeover in 1949

14.  In 1960 in CA:
 If a white man earned $51
 A Chinese man earned $43
 A Japanese man earned $38
 Yet, Asian American made economic gains faster than
other minorities
 When Hawaii became a state in 1959 they elected two
Asian Americans to Congress
 Daniel Inouye & Hiram Leong Fong
 In U.S. history there have been:
 7 Asian Americans in the Senate
 30 Asian Americans in the House

15.  Assimilation era
 Tribes were subdued by late 1800s
 Gov’t had plans to assimilate natives into American
society
 Boarding schools
 Children became pariahs when they came home
 Traditional culture, including language, suffered
 Dawes Act
 Reservation land often sold
 Natives no longer had power over their land

18.  By 1871 tribes were no longer recognized as
independent powers, but were also not considered full
citizens
 1924 Snyder Act finally granted citizenship to all Native
Americans born n the U.S.
 However, many states denied Native Americans the right
to vote
 NM & AZ didn’t allow suffrage until 1948

19.  Reorganization Era
 1934: Tribe’s “restored” and given opportunity to use
reservation land & create their own gov’t
 Nicknamed the “Indian New Deal”
 Reversed privatization of land from Dawes Act
 Return to local self-government on a tribal basis
 Restored to Indians the management of their assets (mainly
land)

20.  Termination Era:
 Late 1950s, US gov’t felt Indian would gain more by
living in cities
 Set up programs that lured reservation residents to urban
areas w/ promised jobs & places to live
 Tribes reduced in numbers eventually lost their status as being a
tribe
 Hence the term “termination”

21.  New organization in 1968, American Indian Movement
(AIM)
 Est. by Dennis Banks & George Mitchell
 “A new coalition that will fight for Indian treaty rights
and better conditions and opportunities for our
people”
 Followed the example of militant black groups like the
Black Panthers
 Fought for autonomy, or self-government

23.  Broken Treaties Caravan est. in 1972
 Traveled to Washington, DC & occupied the BIA
offices for 6 days
 In 1969, 75 natives landed on Alcatraz Island in San
Fran Bay
 They claimed the island was claimed the island was
theirs according to the Ft. Laramie Treaty from 1868
 The occupation eventually failed when federal marshals
removed the last of the protesters after 1.5 years

25.  AIM at Wounded Knee, SD in1973
 Led by Russell Means
 Site of massacre in 1890
 200 Sioux men, women, & children had been killed
 Pine Ridge Reservation was incredibly poor, one of the
poorest areas in the entire U.S.
 Means & AIM took over the village & refused to leave until the
gov’t investigated the treatment of Indians & poor conditions
in which they lived
 Marshals & FBI surrounded the village
 300 arrested, 2 killed, 12 injured
 Finally ended after 3 months, gov’t agreed to re-examine
Indian treaty rights

27.  Self-Determination Era—kicked off in mid-1970s
 More favorable treatment from U.S. gov’t
 More control over their own schools & programs
 Increased autonomy
 More wins in court rooms