Why was the 1970s and onwards significant to Native American Civil Rights

The Nixon Presidency

One Historian has argued that Nixon had 'probably done more for them, in a short space of time, than any other President' 

Already there had been slight shifts in attitudes for Native Americans especially the Meriam Report (1928) that declared the allotment policy or otherwise known as Dawes Act unfair treatment to the Native Americans as it went entirely against their beliefs on land ownership. The American society was also starting to realise that Native Americans were the worse hit group. In 1968, Lyndon B Johnson who had made radical changes for African Americans, had remarked that Native Americans were the 'Forgotten Americans'. July 1970, Nixon sent out his own message to Congress stating that 'American Indians have been oppressed and brutalized, deprived of their ancestral lands and denied the opportunity to control their own destiny.' Nixon attacked the federal programmes, the policy of termination, and instead introduced his own reforms:

Legislations passed under Nixon

• Indian Education 1972- Increased federal funding for Native American schools…