Native American activists speak about tribal self-determination

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Two Indigenous leaders spoke at the Payne Family Native American Center at the University of Montana on Feb. 21 about the lessons they learned over their careers in Native American advocacy.

Frank Ducheneaux (Cheyenne River Sioux) spoke about his time as a lawyer on Capitol Hill shaping Native American policy, and LaNada War Jack (Shoshone-Bannock) spoke about her activism, including helping lead the occupation of Alcatraz in 1969.

This talk came at a trying time for Indigenous tribes, as the current presidential administration has taken aim at their citizenship rights.

“We have faced adversity before, and as Indigenous people it is in our DNA to overcome these adversities,” said Kristina Lucero (Saanich First Nations), director of UM’s American Indian Governance and Policy Institute.

The panel was moderated by UM law student Sapphire Carter (Chippewa Cree).

Ducheneaux said he entered the law field as America was coming out of the termination era of Native American policy, when tribal policy was geared toward forcing assimilation. Through his work on Capitol Hill from 1973 to 1991, he advocated for laws that enabled self-determination for Native American tribes.

On the other side of the country, in 1968, War Jack entered UC Berkeley as its first Native American student. She said she tried to get other Indigenous people to come to the college, and ended up with about 14. From there, they started organizing for a proper Native American Studies department, she said, adding their activism was peaceful, but that didn’t stop California from responding with violence.

“They had helicopters overhead and dropping tear gas,” War Jack said.

But the protests worked, and UC Berkeley established the country’s first Native American Studies department. San Francisco State University followed suit two weeks later, thanks to its own protests.

War Jack stressed that none of her activism was done alone — the key was effectively organizing with others.
“The greater unifier was the spirituality that was involved,” War Jack said.

After the university protests, War Jack got involved in the 19-month occupation of Alcatraz to bring awareness to broken treaties. She said she hitchhiked and took ferries back and forth from the island to the mainland, juggling an occupation and schoolwork, and raising her child.

Ducheneaux and War Jack were on opposite coasts during the self-determination era of Native American activism and policy, and their tactics were far different. But Ducheneaux said that the Native American activism across the country at the time gave him and legislators the political power and leverage necessary to get laws passed, such as the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.

“Political activism is extremely important,” Ducheneaux told the audience.

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