WOMEN IN THE INDIGENOUS RACIAL POWER MOVEMENT
SURVIVAL SCHOOLS
Survival schools were created in order to combat the high dropout rate among Indian teens. The first school, named Heart of the Earth, was founded in Minnesota in 1972. It was followed soon after by the establishment of Red School House in Saint Paul. These survival schools helped Indian teens steer clear of predominantly white institutions, and receive a culturally-relevant education.
THE BATTLE FOR FUNDING
The creation of survival schools was not an easy feat. In 1970, AIM occupied an abandoned property on a naval base in MN, in order to gain attention and grants from the government. Notwithstanding, those funds were cut following the Trail of Broken Treaties. However, after a legal battle in the US District Court, AIM had the survival schools' money returned.
EDUCATION IN PRISON
In 1978, AIM chartered the first ever system for educating incarcerated Indians at Stillwater Prison, Minnesota. Due to a lack of proper work, many Indians in urban communities could not afford lawyers, so they were locked up for petty crimes. The educational program initiated at Stillwater would serve as a framework for numerous prisons nationwide.
