Rev Left Radio The American Indian Movement (AIM)
129 snips
Aug 23, 2020 
Historian Nick Estes joins Breht to discuss the history of the American Indian Movement (AIM), including indigenous resistance, the siege of Wounded Knee, FBI's COINTELPRO, and AIM's goals focused on child removal, police violence, and poverty. They also explore assimilation, AIM's ideology, activism in Rapid City, solidarity with global revolutionary movements, factional divisions within AIM, and collaboration with the Soviet bloc in advancing indigenous rights.
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AIM's Core Mission Origins
- AIM formed in Minneapolis (1968) to confront child removal, police violence, and urban poverty for off-reservation Indigenous people.
- Those community-focused roots explain AIM's mix of grassroots services and militant tactics.
AIM As Continuation Of Older Struggles
- AIM built on a long continuum of Indigenous resistance, not as an isolated phenomenon.
- 20th-century policies like allotment, boarding schools, and the Court of Indian Offenses institutionalized cultural suppression and child removal.
From Stillwater Prison To Survival Schools
- AIM began with community patrols and survival schools like Heart of the Earth to protect children and teach culture.
- Founders turned prison organizing and ceremonies into urban institutions addressing real needs in Minneapolis.