The idea for a Trail of Broken Treaties began at the Soiux Rosebud
Reservation in 1972.  American Indian Movement (AIM) activist Robert
Burnette conceived the project, in which a caravan of Indians from all
over the country planned to converge on Washing ton, D.C., in a protest
just before the presidential elections.  Those coming from the Southwest
followed the Cherokee Trail of Tears; the Sioux passed by Wounded Knee. 
When they got to Washington and found that the accommodations promised
them were not available, the group decided to take over the Bureau of
Indian Affairs.  Six to eight hundred Indians barricaded the building and
formulated twenty civil rights demands.  The Indians, many of whom wore
upside-down American flags, took over the buildings f or seven days, while
sympathetic civil rights groups donated food.  Eventually, the government
promised to negotiate the demands, refrain from making arrests, and pay
the Indians' expense home.  The occupation was a great moral victory for
the Indians, who for the first time faced white America as a united
people.  Shown here is Floyd Young Horse, a Sioux from Cherry Creek, who
was one of the participants in the occupation.