List and discuss some of the political and social reasons why, during the 1960s, Native performers in contemporary popular musical idioms began to self-identify and promote themselves as “Native American musicians.”

What will be an ideal response?

• There was a series of American federal policies enacted in the 1950s that altered the social conditions of Native communities and individuals. Post WWII federal Indian policy in the U.S. featured a strong push toward the urbanization of the Native population. "Lured by government programs and the promise of funding and job training and placement, close to 100,000 Native Americans were relocated to certain targeted cities in the United States, resulting in major demographic shifts in the Native population. A similar demographic shift occurred in Canada a decade later. This new urban Native population began to participate in mainstream North American popular culture and activist politics, which in turn gave rise to the Red Power movement, a politically radical social movement that sought greater public recognition for the political and social issues facing Native Americans."
• Indian centers, intertribal social clubs, athletic leagues, powwow dance groups, Indian newspapers and newsletters, and political organizations were created.
• In 1969 a group called the Indians of All Tribes occupied Alcatraz Island. This occupation sparked national interest in Native American culture. "Alcatraz became a symbolic cornerstone for the political reawakening of American Indians."
• Red Power activists engaged in occupations and protests that called attention to the injustices experienced by Native peoples across America. For example, the Trail of Broken Treatise and the takeover and occupation of the town of Wounded Knee.
• The American Indian Movement (AIM) became one of the most militant wings of the Red Power movement.