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POLITICAL ACTION BY NATIVE AMERICANS, 1890-1997 Background We chose the period from the end of the frontier era to the present for two reasons. First, the time period from 1890 to the mid-1960s has been characterized as politically dormant relative to the frontier and AIM time periods (Cornell 1988). This remains an empirical question. While Native Americans may have been less active in this period, analysis of New York Times articles on Native American protest has identified nearly 100 events before 1970, suggesting some level of protest mobilization by Native American groups. Furthermore, other scholars have identified high levels of institutional political activity and litigation activity at particular times during this period. Thus, while there is a large body of scholarship that deals with the frontier and AIM, and while there are case studies of particular groups at particular times in this period, there is no systematic accounting of political activity in its various forms by all Native American groups from 1890 to the present. Second, this time period encompasses four distinct policy periods at the federal level: the Reservation period of the 1890s, the Indian New Deal of the 1930s, and the Assimilation period of the 1950s and the Self-Determination period beginning in the 1970s. Therefore, studying this time period provided the opportunity to examine differential response by Native American groups to four distinct policy initiatives by the federal government.
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