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The "AIM Song" is the name given to a Native American intertribal song. Although the song originally did not have a name, it gained its current alias through association with the American Indian Movement. During the takeover of Wounded Knee, it was used as the anthem of the "Independent Oglala Nation."
The origins of the song itself are uncertain, and there are various theories attributing the song to various locations across North America and various points in history. For many tribes, the origins of the song have been legendized. The song was song by a young Lakota man, 17years of age at the time, he goes by the name Quincy. He’s from the Oglala Lakota Tribe of Pine Ridge, South Dakota. It was sung and taught by Quincy for AIM, just before The [1973 Wounded Knee Occupation]. He sang since he could walk and is well known in his community for his singing. His voice is one that can not be compared to modern singers. The day he taught it to the AIM members, he was taken to the Calico Community Center to teach them. His Elderly brother and sisters, whom were present, talk about this day and are very proud of their brother.He deserves all the credit for creating such a powerful song. [ citation needed ]
Edward Benton-Banai, from the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Ojibwe Indians, co-founded the movement in 1972, and is rumoured as the songwriter. The song could have been inspired by a traditional Ojibwe honoring song, known as the Airforce Song.[ citation needed ]
Severt Young Bear, an Oglala Lakota from Porcupine, South Dakota, was also involved in AIM. As the lead singer of the Porcupine Singers, he made the song popular in the early 1970s. Although he admits he did not write it, collaboration between himself and Benton-Banai could have helped the song to develop. Although Severt does give credit to Drury Cook (A Mnicoujou Lakota and a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe) for possibly making the AIM song, which at time of selecting a song, other songs were brought to AIM leaders as possible songs, Porcupine Singers performed the song for AIM leaders and the song was accepted by the Leaders at that time as the AIM Song or Anthem (Severt quoted this in his book "Standing in the Light"). It may have been written as a victory song after the AIM protest in Gordon, Nebraska regarding the murder of Raymond Yellow Thunder resulted in criminal charges and the dismissal of the Chief of Police [1]
Several Ktunaxa Elders (Marianne Michel, Leo Williams, Wilfred Jacobs, and Joe Skookum) were tape recorded at a powwow in 1981 at the Lower Kootenay Band at Creston British Columbia and stated that the song people are using in association with AIM and the Constitutional Express Constitution Express in 1980 which went from Vancouver to Ottawa is a Ktunaxa warrior song. Two of the Elders stated, "It is very important to me". The Ktunaxa songs are almost all melodic [2] and most do not include the Ktunaxa language, which is in the same style as the "AIM Song".
The song comprises non-lexical vocables (abstract sounds rather than semantic words). This involves the heavy use of vowels and semi-vowels, as consonants would bias the song towards a particular tribe (whose language uses those consonants). The song is intended as an intertribal, therefore it is deliberately not language-specific.[ citation needed ]
As is characteristic of many Native American songs, the song involves vocal harmony. The men are backed up by around twice the number of women. The female vocal line becomes particularly prominent in this repeated motif:
The song is usually accompanied with a steady beat on a traditional man’s drum. It has also been heard with the accompaniment of a water drum, which suggests the song originated amongst the Plains tribes.
This song was sung by Omaha leader Nathan Phillips at an Indigenous People's March in Washington DC in a viral video incident to defuse a tense situation between a group of 200 Catholic high school boys and a group of four Black Israelites on January 18, 2019. [3] [4] [5]
The Lakota are a Native American people. Also known as the Teton Sioux, they are one of the three prominent subcultures of the Sioux people, with the Eastern Dakota (Santee) and Western Dakota (Wičhíyena). Their current lands are in North and South Dakota. They speak Lakȟótiyapi—the Lakota language, the westernmost of three closely related languages that belong to the Siouan language family.
The Sioux or Oceti Sakowin are groups of Native American tribes and First Nations people from the Great Plains of North America. The Sioux have two major linguistic divisions: the Dakota and Lakota peoples. Collectively, they are the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ, or "Seven Council Fires". The term "Sioux", an exonym from a French transcription ("Nadouessioux") of the Ojibwe term "Nadowessi", can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or to any of the nation's many language dialects.
The American Indian Movement (AIM) is an American Indian grassroots movement which was founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota in July 1968, initially centered in urban areas in order to address systemic issues of poverty, discrimination, and police brutality against American Indians. AIM soon widened its focus from urban issues to many Indigenous Tribal issues that American Indian groups have faced due to settler colonialism in the Americas. These issues have included treaty rights, high rates of unemployment, the lack of American Indian subjects in education, and the preservation of Indigenous cultures.
The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, also called Pine Ridge Agency, is an Oglala Lakota Indian reservation located in the U.S. state of South Dakota, with a small portion of it extending into Nebraska. Originally included within the territory of the Great Sioux Reservation, Pine Ridge was created by the Act of March 2, 1889, 25 Stat. 888. in the southwest corner of South Dakota on the Nebraska border. It consists of 3,468.85 sq mi (8,984 km2) of land area and is one of the largest reservations in the United States.
Lakota, also referred to as Lakhota, Teton or Teton Sioux, is a Siouan language spoken by the Lakota people of the Sioux tribes. Lakota is mutually intelligible with the two dialects of the Dakota language, especially Western Dakota, and is one of the three major varieties of the Sioux language.
Ojibwe, also known as Ojibwa, Ojibway, Otchipwe, Ojibwemowin, or Anishinaabemowin, is an indigenous language of North America of the Algonquian language family. The language is characterized by a series of dialects that have local names and frequently local writing systems. There is no single dialect that is considered the most prestigious or most prominent, and no standard writing system that covers all dialects.
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Clyde Howard Bellecourt was a Native American civil rights organizer. His Ojibwe name is Nee-gon-we-way-we-dun, which means "Thunder Before the Storm". He founded the American Indian Movement (AIM) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1968 with Dennis Banks, Eddie Benton-Banai, and George Mitchell. His elder brother, Vernon Bellecourt, was also active in the movement.
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The Oglala are one of the seven subtribes of the Lakota people who, along with the Dakota, make up the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ. A majority of the Oglala live on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, the eighth-largest Native American reservation in the United States.
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Edward Benton-Banai was an American civil rights activist, one of the founders of the American Indian Movement (AIM).
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Alicia Mousseau is the Vice President of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, whose lands include the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. This is her second term in this position. She is reportedly the first lesbian to hold a position on her tribe's executive council.