National Indian Youth Council
The National Indian Youth Council (NIYC) is an organization established in August 1961 by a group of ten Native American college students in Gallup, New Mexico. These students, motivated by discussions on self-determination and the need for advocacy within their communities, aimed to amplify the voices of Native American youth. The NIYC differentiates itself from other Native American organizations by adopting a more aggressive activist approach to address issues such as education disparities and discrimination faced by Native peoples. Throughout its early years, the council made significant strides, including publishing influential newspapers, organizing protests like the "fish-ins" to assert treaty rights, and engaging in political advocacy.
Under the leadership of founding members, the NIYC expanded rapidly, opening chapters across college campuses and reservations and growing its membership to over 47,000 by 1994. The organization has also been involved in legal actions to protect indigenous lands from exploitation and has been recognized by the United Nations for its efforts to preserve native rights and rituals. With a focus on networking and community empowerment, the NIYC continues to host conferences and initiatives aimed at fostering indigenous perspectives and rights on both national and international stages.
National Indian Youth Council
Ten Native American college students gathered to form the National Indian Youth Council (NIYC) in August 1961 at Gallup, New Mexico. Two months earlier, these students had met at the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) conference at the University of Chicago. After hearing the discussions encouraging self-determination and denouncing termination, the students decided to start their own group.
The foundation for the NIYC had been laid in 1953 when Herbert Blatchford (Navajo) initiated the first intertribal student group, the Kiva Club, at the University of New Mexico. Blatchford was also the founding director of the NIYC. At the August meeting, Mel Thom (Paiute) was elected the chairperson; Clyde Warrior (Ponca), president; and Shirley Witt (Mohawk), vice president. The NIYC’s founding members came from different tribes and interests, but they had a common bond: a spirit to recover native rights and respect. Differing from the NCAI, the NIYC focused on the voices of the youth and employed strategies that were more aggressive and activist.
During its first decade, NIYC targeted problems with Native American education and discrimination. Members editorialized their opinions through NIYC’s first publication, American Aborigine, edited by Blatchford. In 1963, the NIYC began publishing its long-running newspaper, ABC: Americans Before Columbus. The following year, the NIYC went to Washington State to hold a series of fish-ins. Members defied state law by fishing in rivers that had been closed to native fishing even though treaty language had reserved for the tribes permanent fishing rights. Other activist groups banded together to assist NIYC’s “Washington Project.”
With national support, NIYC members stepped into the political arena. Thom encouraged a 1964 Washington, DC, audience to stand up for self-determination. At a Memphis, Tennessee, poverty conference in 1967, Warrior delivered his passionate speech, “We Are Not Free.” When Warrior died the following year, the NIYC initiated the education-based Clyde Warrior Institute in American Indian Studies. A 1967 Carnegie Foundation program researched educational methodology and addressed acculturation. With this growth, the NIYC in 1970 had opened chapters on several college campuses and reservations to serve more than two thousand members.
The NIYC also undertook lawsuits against irresponsible mining companies on reservation lands and instituted native employment and training programs. Other NIYC projects range from conducting voting surveys to creating an all-native film company, Circle Film. To help preserve native sacred lands and to protect native rituals, the group appealed to the United Nations and was granted recognition as an “official and non-governmental organization.”
From its headquarters in Albuquerque, and field offices in Albuquerque, Farmington, and Gallup New Mexico, the NIYC hosts international native conferences that create strong networks of indigenous views. With its broadened vision, NIYC’s nationwide membership had grown to more than forty-seven thousand in 1994.
Bibliography
Britten, Thomas A. The National Council on Indian Opportunity: Quiet Champion of Self-Determination. Albuquerque: U of New Mexico P, 2014. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 11 May. 2015.
McKenzie-Jones, Paul. Clyde Warrior: Tradition, Community, and Red Power. Norman: U of Oklahoma P, 2015. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 11 May. 2015.
McKenzie-Jones, Paul. “Evolving Voices of Dissent: The Workshops on American Indian Affairs, 1956–1972.” Amer. Indian Quarterly 2 (2014): 207. Print.
Shreve, Bradley Glenn. Red Power Rising: The National Indian Youth Council and the Origins of Native Activism. Norman: U of Oklahoma P, 2011. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 11 May. 2015.
Shreve, Bradley Glenn. “Up Against Giants: The National Indian Youth Council, the Navajo Nation, and Coal Gasification, 1974–77.” Amer. Indian Culture and Research Jour. 30.2 (2006): 17–18. Print.