* In August 1970, AIM and other groups began a prayer vigil at Mt. Rushmore in the Black Hills to protest the Federal government's purchase of 150,000 acres during World War II for a gunnery range. The militant groups claimed that the U.S. promised to return the acreage after the war.
* Over 1000 Indians gathered at Gordon, Neb., in March 1972 to protest the death of Raymond Yellow Thunder. Yellow Thunder, a resident of the Pine Ridge reservation, was found dead in Gordon on February 20. The autopsy showed Yellow Thunder died of a cerebral hemorrhage, but AIM requested, and obtained, a Federal grand jury to investigate the death. Reliable reports said a few white youths had harrassed Yellow Thunder, forced him to dance in front of others, and threw him out in the cold. This incident occurred a week before he was found dead.
* Four days after AIM arrived in Gordon, 300 Indians left Gordon and headed for Wounded Knee, 40 miles north. The demonstrators stormed the museum at the historic site, causing $50,000 damage. The militants claimed that James Czywczynski, owner of the museum, touched off the incident when he allegedly roughed up an 11-year-old Sioux boy. Czywczynski, like most Pine Ridge residents who own businesses, is white.
AIM's Washington battle came to a climax just five months ago, when 500 Indians took over the BIA building on 19th St. and Constitution Ave., three blocks from the White House. The militant group held the BIA for six days, leaving after President Nixon established a Federal study group to examine the effectiveness of the BIA.
The Federal government made no move to evict the occupiers during the six-day takeover, although The New York Times reported that the Interior Department wanted to forcibly remove the militants from the building.
On December 1, 1972, one month after the BIA takeover, the Interior Department called for the resignations of Louis R. Bruce, commissioner of Indian Affairs, and John O. Crow, the deputy commissioner.
Bruce, a full-blooded Indian, came under fire from the Nixon administration for remaining in the BIA building during the takeover. AIM leaders respect Bruce, but they think Crow is an Interior Department bureaucrat appointed to "watch" Bruce.
AIM demanded that Rogers C.B. Morton, Secretary of the Interior, return full control of the BIA to Bruce. Morton responded by relieving Bruce of his post as Indian Commissioner. AIM considers Morton's action a direct slap in the face.
After Washington, AIM shifted from a political setting to a symbolical one. On February 27, the militant group seized Wounded Knee. During the long takeover, the Interior Department had little input into the situation. Interior spokesmen refused to take part in the negotiations unless the Indians put aside their guns.
In Interior's absence, the Justice Department assumed the bulk of the negotiating work, in addition to its efforts to maintain peace through the use of Federal marshals.
Kent Frizzell, an assistant attorney general, negotiated the pact to set up Washington talks. Although no one can predict with any certainly the consequences of the events at Wounded Knee, a shakeup at Interior and the BIA seems inevitable.