Rising: The American Indian Movement and the Third Space of Sovereignty

"People were beaten down and afraid to speak out, so something had to be done.”
- Clyde Bellecourt, a founding member of AIM.

Responding to concerns about arrests and beatings by the police, the “AIM Patrol” was organized to serve as a bulwark between Indians and the police by using unarmed AIM members with citizens band radios, driving their own vehicles, to patrol the streets. The AIM Patrol enlisted volunteer attorneys to represent incarcerated Indians and helped create a court monitoring program.

The initiative grew and by 1970 the Legal Rights Center, the Minneapolis American Indian Center, the Minneapolis Indian Health Board and two community schools for Native youths were all up and running.