![]() ![]() The approximately 200 attendees founded a group called the Concerned Indians of America. ![]() Among the problems addressed were poverty, substandard housing, the highest unemployment rate of any ethnic group, and police brutality. In the summer of 1968, George Mitchell, Dennis Banks, and Clyde Bellecourt organized a meeting to discuss the issues facing the Native American community of Minneapolis. The American Indian Movement emerged from social tumult of the late 1960s in Minneapolis, Minnesota, founded by activists who were determined to improve the lives of urban Native Americans. In recent years, the group has broken into factions, each claiming to represent the true spirit of AIM, with a western faction led by Russell Means and a Minnesota faction led by Clyde Bellecourt. Their major actions include the forceful takeover of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1972, followed swiftly by the dramatic, 71-day siege that came to be known as Wounded Knee II. Inspired by the 1969 occupation of Alcatraz Island, the group began to look beyond its original focus on urban Native American issues, and progressed to more radical and ambitious methods. The first actions of the group focused on documenting cases of police brutality, using police scanners and CB radios to arrive at the scene of arrests of Native Americans. The stated goal of AIM is to foster spiritual and cultural revival among native peoples in the hope of attaining native sovereignty and the re-establishment of the treaty system for dealing with the "colonialist" governments of North and South America. Actor Russell Means later became a prominent leader in the group. The American Indian Movement (AIM) was founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during the summer of 1968, when community activists George Mitchell, Dennis Banks, and Clyde Bellecourt organized a meeting attended by about 200 Native Americans from the surrounding area. USUAL AREA OF OPERATION: United States OVERVIEW LEADERS: George Mitchell, Dennis Banks, and Clyde Bellecourt
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