NIYC
Clyde Warrior (Ponca), along with Mel Thom (Piaute), Shirley Witt (Iroquois), Herbert Blatchford (Navaho) and others created the National Indian Youth Council in 1961. NIYC is viewed as the first national Indian militant group in the United States.
One must view NIYC in terms of generations of membership. Each person became important in their own right within different time frames.
I must state for the record that the goals and purposes of NIYC and the emerging American Indian Movement, were different. This would lead to a political division between the organizations. Dennis Banks had attempted to seek an alliance between the organizations at a NIYC meeting in Norman, Oklahoma. But, NIYC members decided that the organization's had different political philosophies.
Again, for the record, I must state the importance of NIYC's alliance with Tillie Walker's United Scholarship Service. Tillie provided the necessary resources for NIYC to have meetings and office support.
There are several papers written by the NIYC members and I hope to place them on this site.
Hank Adams and Bob Dumont provided an extra intellectual direction of NIYC at various times. Hank Adams and Bob Dumont wrote several of the positions documents of the early NIYC. Unfortunately, I do not have any of their documents. During our meetings, these papers were dissected by the members and it was a challenge for Hank and Bob to defend their ideas. These meetings were an amazing experience.
As the older folks left NIYC, Bill Pensoneau and others begin to provide the intellectual course of NIYC.
Robert K. Thomas, Cherokee Anthropologist
Also, Known as "Uncle Bob." A very good friend who I last saw before his death at San Francisco State University. We spent a nice time talking for over three hours about the good old days on a nice warm day.
Here is a 1960's famous lecture/paper of his concerning: "Colonialism: Domestic and Foreign."
This is a rare piece by Bob. Lecture on Nationalism November 8, 1960 Because of the times, Bob kept his authorship of this lecture secret. However, the circulation of this lecture made a major impact for a number of years. It is interesting that currently some idiots are stating that Bob was a Whiteman pretending to be a Cherokee and that Bob got all his ideas from Vine Deloria. These are certainly misconceptions which are personal attempts to diminish Bob's importance in American Indian History. As seen by this lecture, Bob talks about his young life and growing awareness within the tribal world.
Clyde Warrior
Clyde Warrior was a very good friend and I was known as "little Clyde." I have always believed that the reason for this identification was that Clyde and I had the same big nose. We were at a meeting with the Northwest Educational Lab in Portland, Oregon when Clyde told me that he was dying in either late 1966 or early 1967. We flew back to Denver together. Clyde going back to Oklahoma and I was returning to Boulder. We sat in the Stapleton Airport main bar in Denver. Clyde and I were drinking straight double shots. Naturally, Clyde missed two flights back to Oklahoma.
Here is a 1965's famous lecture/paper of Clyde's: "Poverty, Community, and Power"
This paper has an interesting history. Clyde was asked to speak in January 1965 at a "War on Poverty" conference of HEW (I believe in Albuquerque). But, the organizers wanted to review Clyde's speech. They rejected his speech and so Clyde gave a different version at the conference. Later, the American Indian Development (AID) of Boulder, published the rejected and approved versions of this paper in their American Indian Reader in 1965. This AID version is what I have on this site.
However, somewhere in my files, I have (or had) the original version of the rejected speech. It is the same as the Reader version, but, the last sentence of the original version is excluded from the Reader version. In the original speech, Clyde makes the ending statement: "Lets go raise some Hell!."
John Tomson, A Legend
There are so many stories of John. He worked very hard to support the efforts of American Indian Development, the National Indian Youth Council and many other organizations. He founded Catalyst Complex and other groups.
We spent a lot of time plotting the overthrow of the Universe. John was the original thinker and his home was the site of many, many debates of Robert (Bob) Thomas, Rolland (Bud) Wright, D'Arcy McNickel, Clyde Warrior, Browning Pipestem, Albert Wahrhaftig, Sol Tax, Edward Spicer, Ed ward Dozier, etc. After several drinks, cigarettes, etc., the debates would become physical.
John wrote the proposal which funded the "The Clyde Warrior Memorial Institute of American Indian Studies" for the National Indian Youth Council. Jerry Wilkinson, Browning Pipestem, I and others review John's proposal, but we made only a few minor changes.
I hope to have some writings of John's in the future. But here are two pictures of John. Picture 1 and Picture 2
Rolland Wright, Another Legend
Also, Known as "Bud." And, it is rumored that Budville, New Mexico was named after him.
A very good friend of everyone who had a connection with the American Indian Development, NIYC, the Canadian Indian Youth Council (CIYC) and other groups. He, along with Bob Thomas were the main Professors of the AID Workshops and the Clyde Warrior Institutes. I hope to have his very important papers on Urban Identity on this site.
He is still living in Michigan and still thinking those crazy thoughts.
Bill Pensoneau
A young Indian intellectual who served as the Vice-President of NIYC in 1969. Here is his Testimony before the Senate Subcommittee on Indian Education in February 24, 1969. This copy has corrections of Bill's testimony and has student notes.
