Introduction (Part 4)

Gerald One Feather

Particulary significant in the life of the Oglala Sioux has been the recent rise of young leadership of the tribe. Of all the plain tribes, the Oglala Sioux have been most highly influenced by their educated young people. In early 1967 the educated youth of the reservation formed the American Indian Leadership Conference, which continues to the present. In 1969 the Conference managed to elect its own candidates in three major tribal elections in South Dakota. The most spectacular climb to prominence was that Gerald One Feather, thirty-one years old: in the Oglala Sioux elections in January 1970 he became the youngest elected tribal leader in the history of the Sioux nation. One Feather promoted a progressive platform and swamped his older opponent by a wide margin, thus indicating that the young Sioux had finally completed the return to prominence forecast by Embree in his delineation of the return of Indian culture.

Wallace "Mad Bear" Anderson

The Iroquois also have experienced a great revival since the days of the Depression. Today they are one of the dominant forces in contemporary Indian affairs. Led by such men as Wallace "Mad Bear" Anderson, Oren Lyons, and Mike Mitchell, they have spearheaded the movement of Indian tribes back to traditional religion and ancient forms of government. In cooperation with the Hope prophet Tomas Banyaca, these men have traveled across the United States advocating Indian unity on a traditional treaty basis, which would supersede the formal tribal relationships that have grown up during the years the passage of the Indian Reorganization Act.

Today the Iroquois face great dangers. Now Canada rather than the United States poses the threat to their existence. The Canadian government is attempting to sever all of its treaty relationships with Canadian indian tribes. The Iroquois, of course, were allies of the British before the American Revolution; thus they hold the major treaties in Canada and face the most loss of lands and rights because of the new policy. Their lands now occupy the best industrial sites in southern Canada, and there is tremendous pressure on the Iroquois to sell or lease their reservations for industrial purposes.

Oren Lyons

Embree's understanding of the "Soul of a People" as outlined in his last chapter prefigures the meaning of the Indian revival of today. Spurred on by the sudden release from religious bondage, the native religions have shown amazing vitality. Nearly every tribe now celebrates its traditional festivals and ceremonies. The religious traditionalists have rapidly come to the fore as the strongest element in national Indian affairs and now dominate the activities of a number of tribes.  Under the leadership of such men as Oren Lyons of the Onondagas, Tom Porter and Mike Mitchell of the St. Regis Mohawks, Wallace "Mad Bear" Anderson of the Tuscaroras, Clifton Hill o the Creeks, Thomas Banyaca of the Hopis, and Alfred Gragne, the National Aboriginal Movement, which aims to reorganize Indian tribes along ancient and traditional forms of government, has made significant impact on the thinking of Indian people everywhere.