Islamic fundamentalism

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_fundamentalism

Islamic fundamentalism has been defined as a puritanical, revivalist, and reform movement of Muslims who aim to return to the founding scriptures of Islam. The term has been used interchangeably with similar terms such as Islamism, Islamic revivalism, Qutbism, Islamic extremism, Islamic activism, but also criticized as pejorative, a term used by outsiders who instead ought to be using Islamic activism, Islamic revivalism, or one of the other terms given above.

Some of the beliefs attributed to Islamic fundamentalists are that Muslim-majority countries should return to the fundamentals of an Islamic state that truly shows the essence of the system of Islam, in terms of its socio-politico-economic system, that the primary sources of Islam (the Quran, Hadith, and Sunnah) should be interpreted in a literal and originalist way, and that corrupting non-Islamic influences should be eliminated from every part of a Muslims' life.

Definitions and descriptions

The term fundamentalism has been deemed misleading by those who suggest that all mainstream Muslims believe in the literal divine origin and perfection of the Quran and are therefore "fundamentalists", and others who believe it is a term that is used by outsiders in order to describe perceived trends within Islam. A professor of religious studies at Georgetown University, John L. Esposito, criticized the usage of the term "Islamic Fundamentalism" due to its ambiguous nature; asserting that the linguistic deployment of the term has been heavily influenced through Western-centric lens of Christian presuppositions. According to him, the more appropriate terms would be "Islamic revivalism" and "Islamic activism", since the traditions of Tajdid (revival) and Islah (reform) are rooted within the Islamic religious history, from the early Islamic centuries to the contemporary times. During the 1990s, the post-Soviet states used "Islamic fundamentalism" as a synonym for "Wahhabism".

Some 20th century preachers and writers sometimes dubbed Islamic fundamentalist include Sayyid Qutb, Ibn Saud, Abul Ala Mawdudi, and Israr Ahmed. The Wahhabi movement and its funding by Saudi Arabia is often described as being responsible for the popularity of contemporary Islamic fundamentalism.

Definitions vary as to what Islamic fundamentalism exactly is and how it differs from Islamism (or political Islam) or Islamic revivalism.

• Form of Islamism – Graham Fuller believes that Islamic fundamentalism is a subset of Islamism rather than a distinctive form of it, and to him, Islamic fundamentalists are "the most conservative element among Islamists". Its "strictest form" includes "Wahhabism, which is sometimes referred to as salafiyya. ... For fundamentalists the law is the most essential component of Islam, and it leads to an overwhelming emphasis upon jurisprudence, usually narrowly conceived." Author Olivier Roy takes a similar line, describing "neo-fundamentalists", (i.e. contemporary fundamentalists) as being more passionate than earlier Islamists in their opposition to the perceived "corrupting influence of Western culture", avoiding Western dress, "neckties, laughter, the use of Western forms of salutation, handshakes, applause", discouraging but not forbidding other activities such as sports, ideally limiting the Muslim public space to "the family and the mosque". In this fundamentalists have "drifted" away from the stand of the Islamists of the 1970s and 1980s, such as [Abul A'la Maududi] who:

...didn't hesitate to attend Hindu ceremonies. Khomeini never proposed giving Iranian Christians and Jews the status of dhimmi (protected communities) as provided for in the sharia: the Armenians of Iran have remained Iranian citizens, are required to perform military service and pay the same taxes as Muslims, and have the right to vote (with separate electoral colleges). Similarly, the Afghan Jamaat, in its statutes, has declared it legal to employ non-Muslims as experts in the eyes of Islam.

• Umbrella term – Another American observer, Robert Pelletreau, Jr., Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, believes it the other way around, Islamism being the subset of Muslims "with political goals ... within" the "broader fundamentalist revival". American historian Ira Lapidus sees Islamic fundamentalism as "an umbrella designation for a very wide variety of movements, some intolerant and exclusivist, some pluralistic; some favourable to science, some anti-scientific; some primarily devotional and some primarily political; some democratic, some authoritarian; some pacific, some violent."
• Synonym – Still another, Martin Kramer, sees little difference between the two terms (at least in usage in one country): "To all intents and purposes, Islamic fundamentalism and Islamism have become synonyms in contemporary American usage."
• Scriptural literalism – According to another academic, Natana J. Delong-Bas, the contemporary use of the term Islamic fundamentalism applies to Muslims who seek not just "to return to the primary sources", but who use "a literal interpretation of those sources". Use of ijtihad in Islamic law – According to academic John Esposito, one of the most defining features of Islamic fundamentalism is belief in the "reopening" of the gates of ijtihad ("independent reasoning" used in reaching a legal decision in Sunni law).

Differences with Islamism

According to Roy distinctions between Fundamentalism and Islamism (or at least pre-1990 Islamism) are in the fields of:

• Politics and economics. Islamists often talk of "revolution" and they believe "that the society will only be Islamized through social and political action: it is necessary to leave the mosque ..." Fundamentalists are primarily interested in Islamic practice, less interested in "modernity or Western models of politics or economics", and less willing to associate with non-Muslims.
• Sharia. While both Islamists and fundamentalists are committed to implementing Sharia law, Islamists "tend to consider it more a project than a corpus."
• Issue of women. "Islamists generally tend to favour the education of women and their participation in social and political life: the Islamist woman militates, studies, and has the right to work, but in a chador. Islamist groups include women's associations." While the fundamentalist preaches that women should return to their homes, Islamism believes that it is sufficient if "the sexes are separated in public".
• Variety and diversity within Islamic social movements has been highlighted by Husnul Amin in his work by referring to plurality within these movements.

Curiously, historian Ervand Abrahamian (who essentially devoted a book -- Khomeinism : Essays on the Islamic Republic—to why Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini leader of the Iranian Revolution was not a fundamentalist but a populist, and calls the term "Islamic fundamentalism" in general "not only confusing but also misleading and even downright wrong"), notes that in the Islamic Republic of Iran, supporters of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini "finding no equivalent in Persian or Arabic" for fundamentalist, "have proudly coined a new word, bonyadegar, by translating literally the English term fundamental-ist."

Differences with Christian fundamentalism

Differences between Christian fundamentalism and Islamic fundamentalism include (according to Bernard Lewis):

"In western usage, these words [Revivalism and Fundamentalism] have a rather specific connotation; they suggest a certain type of religiosity- emotional indeed sentimental; not intellectual, perhaps even anti-intellectual; and in general apolitical and even anti-political. Fundamentalists are against liberal theology and biblical criticism and in favor of a return to fundamentals-i.e. to the divine inerrant text of the scriptures. For the so call fundamentalists of Islam these are not and never have been the issues. Liberal theology have not hitherto made much headway in Islam, and the divinity and inerrancy of the Quran are still central dogmas of the faith ... Unlike their Christian namesakes, the Islamic fundamentalists do not set aside but on the contrary embrace much of the post-scriptural scholastic tradition of their faith, in both its theological and its legal aspects."

Types

Islamic fundamentalism (at least among Sunni Muslims) traditionally tends to fall into "traditionalist" and "reformist" tendencies:

• Traditionalists accept "the continuity" between the founding Islamic "texts"—the Quran and the Sunnah—and their commentaries. Traditionalists take "imitation" (taqlid), accepting what was said before and refusing to innovate (bidah), as a "basic principle, They follow one of the great schools of religious jurisprudence (Shafi'i, Maliki, Hanafi, Hanbali). Their vision of the sharia is essentially legalistic and used to determine what is religiously right or wrong for Enjoining good and forbidding wrong. Traditionalists are sometimes connected to the popular forms of Sufism such as the Barelvi school in Pakistan)."
• "Reformist" fundamentalism, in contrast, "criticizes the tradition, the commentaries, popular religious practices" (Maraboutism, the cult of saints), "deviations, and superstitions"; it aims to purify Islam by returning to the Quran and the Sunnah. 18th-century examples are Shah Waliullah Dehlawi in India and Ibn Abdul Wahhab in the Arabian Peninsula. This reformism is often "developed in response to an external threat" such as "the influence of Hinduism on Islam". In the late 19th century, the salafiyya movement spread throughout the Arab countries; "marking a phase between Fundamentalism and Islamism". Sayyid Rashid Rida (1865–1935), a major scholar of the early Salafiyya, believed that the triumphs of early generations of Muslims (Salaf) were God's reward for them being faithful followers and blamed contemporary decline of Muslims on four major factors: i) European imperialism ii) Western philosophy iii) neglect of the correct practice of Islam iv) Raafidi doctrines.

Controversy

Criticism of the term

The term "Islamic fundamentalism" has been criticized by Bernard Lewis, Khaled Abou El Fadl, Eli Berman, and John Esposito, among others. Many have proposed replacing it with another term, such as "puritanical", "Islamic revivalism" or "activism", and "radical Islam".

Lewis, a leading historian of Islam, believes that although "the use of this term is established and must be accepted":

It remains unfortunate and can be misleading. "Fundamentalist" is a Christian term. It seems to have come into use in the early years of the last century, and it denotes certain Protestant churches and organizations, more particularly, those that maintain the literal divine origin and inerrancy of the Bible. In this, they oppose the liberal and modernist theologians, who tend to have a more critical, historical view of Scripture. Among Muslim theologians, there is as yet no such liberal or modernist approach to the Qur'an, and all Muslims, in their attitude to the text of the Qur'an, are in principle at least fundamentalists. Where the so-called Muslim fundamentalists differ from other Muslims and indeed from Christian fundamentalists is in their scholasticism and their legalism. They base themselves not only on the Qur'an, but also on the Traditions of the Prophet, and on the corpus of transmitted theological and legal learning.

John Esposito has attacked the term for its association "with political activism, extremism, fanaticism, terrorism, and anti-Americanism", saying "I prefer to speak of Islamic revivalism and Islamic activism."

Khaled Abou El Fadl of UCLA, a critic of those who are called Islamic fundamentalists, also finds fault with the term because:

[M]any liberal, progressive, or moderate Muslims would describe themselves as usulis, or fundamentalist, without thinking that this carries a negative connotation. In the Islamic context, it makes much more sense to describe the fanatical reductionism and narrow-minded literalism of some groups as puritanical (a term that in the West invokes a particular historical experience)

Eli Berman argues that "radical Islam" is a better term for many post-1920s movements starting with the Muslim Brotherhood, because these movements are seen as practicling "unprecedented extremism", thus, they do not qualify as movements which are returning to the practice of historic fundamentals.

Defense

In contrast, American author Anthony J. Dennis accepts the widespread usage and relevance of the term and calls Islamic fundamentalism "more than a religion today, it is a worldwide movement." He notes the intertwining of social, religious and political goals found within the movement and states that Islamic fundamentalism "deserves to be seriously studied and debated from a secular perspective as a revolutionary ideology."

At least two Muslim academics, Syrian philosopher Sadiq Jalal al-Azm and Egyptian philosopher Hassan Hanafi, have defended the use of the phrase. Surveying the doctrines of the new Islamic movements, Al-Azm found them to consist of "an immediate return to Islamic 'basics' and 'fundamentals'. ... It seems to me quite reasonable that calling these Islamic movements 'Fundamentalist' (and in the strong sense of the term) is adequate, accurate, and correct."

Hassan Hanafi reached the same conclusion: "It is difficult to find a more appropriate term than the one recently used in the West, 'fundamentalism,' to cover the meaning of what we name Islamic awakening or revival."

Study

In 1988, the University of Chicago, backed by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, launched The Fundamentalism Project, devoted to researching fundamentalism in the worlds major religions, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism. It defined fundamentalism as "approach, or set of strategies, by which beleaguered believers attempt to preserve their distinctive identity as a people or group ... by a selective retrieval of doctrines, beliefs, and practices from a sacred past." A 2013 study by Wissenschaftszentrums Berlin für Sozialforschung finds that Islamic fundamentalism is widespread among European Muslims with the majority saying religious rules are more important than civil laws and three quarters rejecting religious pluralism within Islam. A recent study shows that some European Muslims perceive Western governments as inherently hostile towards Islam as a source of identity. This perception, however, declined significantly after the emergence of ISIS, especially among young and educated European Muslims.

Origins

The modern Islamic fundamentalist movements have their origins in the late 19th century. According to the Arab poet Adunis, the Islamic World experienced an influx of European ideas, values and thoughts during the late nineteenth century. The thinkers in the Muslim world reacted to modernity in three major ways. Secularists like Mirza Aqa Khan Kermani, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, etc. considered Islam to be responsible for the backwardness of Muslims; gradually abandoning religion and adopted Western ideas. Meanwhile, Modernists like Muhammad Abduh in Egypt advocated reforms to reconcile with modernity; while emphasizing adherence to basic Islamic ideals. A third current; widely known as Islamic fundamentalism, pioneered by Rashid Rida across the Arab world and Abul A'ala Mawdudi (1903–1979 CE) in South Asia, asserted that Islam is relevant for all times and must reign supreme. They idealised the era of Prophet Muhammad and his companions, and sought to revive its "purity" and early Islamic power. For them, the economic, political and military problems of the Islamic World are due to Muslim negligence in strictly adhering to the tenets of sharia.

The trajectory of Islamic fundamentalism was marked by four phases. The first phase of proto-fundamentalism emerged during the late 19th century in wake of backlash against the Western colonial onslaught. Its main representatives were the ulema of Ahl-i Hadith movement in South Asia and religious revivalists of the Arab Salafiyya and various anti-colonial trends. The anti-colonial religious activists were consisted of two factions: the reformists who kept to scriptural religious discourse, and modernists who campaigned to adopt Western ideals and institutions. The religious endeavours of the Syrian-Egyptian Salafi scholar Rashid Rida (1865–1935 CE) marks the transition from proto-fundamentalism to the second phase of Islamic fundamentalism. Rida became the first major theologian to comprehensively elucidate the foundational principles of an Islamic state in its modern iteration, and these doctrines would be readily adopted by later Islamic fundamentalists. The Wahhabi movement, an Arabian fundamentalist movement that began in the 18th century, had also gained traction and spread during the 19th and 20th centuries.

After the First World War, Rashid Rida would be highly influenced by the Hanbali puritanical and revivalist doctrines of the 13th century Hanbalite theologian Ibn Taymiyya and the Wahhabi movement; and began to ardently campaign against Western influence and modernist ideas. The ideas of Rashid Rida, who is widely regarded as the spiritual father of the Salafiyya movement, marks the rise of Islamic fundamentalist movements. He advocated fundamentalist causes through the early Islamic journal Al-Manar that operated for about thirty-five years and popularised his political theory of Islamic state after the First World War; as an alternative model against rising currents of secularism and nationalism. Influenced by Rida's ideals that campaigned for the establishment of an Islamic state in the aftermath of the abolition of the Ottoman Caliphate, popular Islamist movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood and Jamaat-e Islami carried the banner of fundamentalism during the interwar period. The Brothers incorporated the Salafiyya message into a comprehensive political programme, while the Jamaʿat envisioned an all-out battle against Western influence and culture. The combination of religion and politics offered by these movements established contemporary Islamic fundamentalism.

The emergence of the next phase occurred in the context of the de-colonialisation era following the Second World War, during which Islamic fundamentalists were persecuted by authoritarian regimes and became radicalized. The radical new teachings were epitomized in the treatises of Egyptian Islamist scholar Sayyid Qutb, which elucidated notions such as the return of the Jahiliyya (pre-Islamic barbarity). Influenced by Qutb, a number of vanguard groups sprang up which turned to violence and terror in their struggle against "apostate" regimes. In Iran, a radical Shiʿa combination of Khomeini's doctrine of wilayat-i faqih (guardianship of the jurist) and ʿAli Shariʿati's modernist social reinterpretations of the Qur’an would form the ideological basis of the 1979 Iranian revolution.

During the Cold War following World War II, some NATO governments, particularly those of the United States and the United Kingdom, launched covert and overt campaigns to encourage and strengthen fundamentalist groups in the Middle East and southern Asia. These groups were seen as a hedge against potential expansion by the Soviet Union, and as a means to prevent the growth of nationalistic movements that were not necessarily favorable toward the interests of the Western nations. By the 1970s, the Islamists had become important allies in supporting governments, such as Egypt, which were friendly to U.S. interests. By the late 1970s, however, some fundamentalist groups had become militaristic leading to threats and changes to existing regimes. The overthrow of the Shah in Iran and rise of the Ayatollah Khomeini was one of the most significant signs of this shift. Subsequently, fundamentalist forces in Algeria caused a civil war, caused a near-civil war in Egypt, and caused the downfall of the Soviet occupation in Afghanistan.

In the contemporary era, the term "fundamentalism" is usually applied to denote these militant Islamist vanguards; although historians like Itzchak Weismann argue that it is more accurate to describe them as its radical offshoots. Osama b. Ladin and Al-Qaʾida belong to a fourth phase of Islamic fundamentalism, known as Salafi-jihadism, a movement that strives to move the battle against "infidelity" on an international scale; since the turn of the twenty-first century.

Muslim critics of Islamic fundamentalism often draw a parallel between the modern fundamentalist movement and the 7th century Khawarij sect. From their essentially political position, the Kharijites developed extreme doctrines that set them apart from both mainstream Sunni and Shia Muslims. The Kharijites were particularly noted for adopting a radical approach to Takfir, whereby they declared other Muslims to be unbelievers and therefore deemed them worthy of death.

Goals

Interpretation of texts

Islamic fundamentalists, or at least "reformist" fundamentalists, believe that Islam is based on the Qur'an, Hadith and Sunnah and "criticize the tradition, the commentaries, popular religious practices (maraboutism, the cult of saints), deviations, and superstitions. They aim to return to the founding texts." Examples of individuals who adhere to this tendency are the 18th-century Shah Waliullah in India and Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab in the Arabian Peninsula. This view is commonly associated with Salafism today.

Social and political

Along with adherents of other fundamentalist movements, Islamic fundamentalists hold the view that the problems of the world stem from secular influences.

Some scholars of Islam, such as Bassam Tibi, believe that, contrary to their own message, Islamic fundamentalists are not actually traditionalists. He refers to fatwahs which have been issued by fundamentalists such as the fatwa which states that "every Muslim who pleads for the suspension of the shari'a is an apostate and can be killed. The killing of those apostates cannot be prosecuted under Islamic law because this killing is justified" as going beyond, and unsupported by, the Qur'an. Tibi asserts, "The command to slay reasoning Muslims is un-Islamic, an invention of Islamic fundamentalists".

Conflicts with the secular state

Islamic fundamentalism's push for sharia and an Islamic state has come into conflict with conceptions of the secular, democratic state, such as the internationally supported Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Anthony J. Dennis notes that "Western and Islamic visions of the state, the individual and society are not only divergent, they are often totally at odds." Among human rights fundamentalist Muslims oppose are:

• Freedom from religious police
• Equality issues between men and women
• Separation of religion and state
• Freedom of speech
• Freedom of religion

Islamic fundamentalist states

The 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran is seen by some scholars as a success of Islamic fundamentalism. Some scholars argue that Saudi Arabia is also largely governed by fundamentalist principles (see Wahhabi movement) but Johannes J.G. Jansen disagrees, arguing that it is more akin to a traditional Muslim state, where a power separation exists between "princes" (umarā) and "scholars" (ulama). In contrast, Jansen argues that Khomeini came to power by advocating the formation of a system of Islamic government where the highest level of authority is in the hands of the ulamā (see Wilayat al Faqih).

Islamic fundamentalist groups

Islamic fundamentalist groups include Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Abu Sayyaf, Ansar al-Islam, Armed Islamic Group of Algeria, Army of Islam, Boko Haram, Egyptian Islamic Jihad, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Jemaah Islamiyah, Hamas, Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, Indian Mujahideen, Islamic State, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, Tahrir al-Sham, Hizb-ut Tahrir among many others.

ISIL/ISIS/Daesh

Main article: Islamic State

Further information: Ideology of the Islamic State

Caucasus Emirate

Main article: Caucasus Emirate

Caucasus Emirate is a fundamentalist Islamic terrorist group residing primarily in the North Caucasus of Russia. Created from the remnants of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (ChRI) in October 2007, it adheres to an ideology of Salafist-takfiri jihad that seeks to establish an Islamic caliphate within the North Caucasus and Volga region (primarily the republics of Tatarstan and Bashkortostan). Many of their fighters are also present in jihadist battlegrounds such as Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, and throughout Central Asia. Many plots involving Chechen and other indigenous ethnic groups of the North Caucasus have also been thwarted in Europe over the recent years.

Al-Shabaab

Main article: Al-Shabaab (militant group)

Al-Shabaab, meaning "the Youth", is a Somalia-based cell of the militant Islamist group al-Qaeda, formally recognized in 2012. Al-Shabaab is designated as a terrorist group by countries including Australia, Canada, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Boko Haram

Main article: Boko Haram

Congregation of the People of Tradition for Proselytism and Jihad (Arabic: جماعة اهل السنة للدعوة والجهاد Jamā'a Ahl al-sunnah li-da'wa wa al-jihād), better known by its Hausa name Boko Haram (pronounced [bōːkòː hàrâm], "Western education is sinful"), is a jihadist militant organization based in the northeast of Nigeria. It is an Islamist movement which strongly opposes man-made laws and westernization. Founded by Mohammed Yusuf in 2001, the organization seeks to establish sharia law in the country. The group is also known for attacking Christians and bombing Mosques and churches.

The movement is divided into three factions. In 2011, Boko Haram was responsible for at least 450 killings in Nigeria. It was also reported that they had been responsible for over 620 deaths over the first 6 months of 2012. Since its founding in 2001, the jihadists have been responsible for between 3,000 and 10,000 deaths.

The group became known internationally following sectarian violence in Nigeria in July 2009, which left over 1000 people dead. They do not have a clear structure or evident chain of command. Moreover, it is still a matter of debate whether Boko Haram has links to terror outfits outside Nigeria and its fighters have frequently clashed with Nigeria's central government. A US commander stated that Boko Haram is likely linked to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), although professor Paul Lubeck points out that no evidence is presented for any claims of material international support.

Ansar Dine

Main article: Ansar Dine

Ansar Dine is an Islamist militant group in the country of Mali that wants Shariah law in Mali. It opposes Sufi shrines. Its main support comes from the Ifora tribe of Tuaregs. The group is connected to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

It took part in the 2012 Tuareg Rebellion. They destroyed the tomb of a Sufi saint which was a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It managed to take control of Northern Mali, and they formed a pact with the MNLA forming the Islamic Republic of Azawad.

It is designated a terrorist group by the United States Department of State and the United Nations Security Council.

Ansar al-Sharia

Further information: Ansar al-Sharia

Ansar al-Sharia or Ansar al-Shariah is a name used by a collection of radical or militant Islamist groups or militias, in at least eight countries. While they share names and ideology, they lack a unified command structure. The eight countries in which the groups have operated are Pakistan, Yemen, Libya, Tunisia, Mali, Egypt, Mauritania, and Syria.

Human rights controversy

Further information: Sharia § Contemporary issues

Some states and movements that are perceived or claimed to be Islamic fundamentalists have been criticized for their human rights record by international organizations. The acceptance of international law on human rights has been somewhat limited even in Muslim countries that are not seen as fundamentalist. Ann Elizabeth Mayer writes that states with a predominantly Muslim population, even when they adopt laws along European lines, are influenced by Islamic rules and precepts of sharia, which cause conflict with international law on human rights. According to Mayer, features found in conflict include severe deficiencies in criminal procedure, harsh criminal penalties causing great suffering, discrimination against women and non-Muslims, and prohibition against abandoning the Islamic religion. In 1990, under Saudi leadership, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, a group representing all Muslim majority nations, adopted the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam, which substantially diverges from the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The Cairo declaration lacks provisions for democratic principles, protection for religious freedom, freedom of association and freedom of the press, as well as equality in rights and equal protection under the law. Further it stipulates that "all the rights and freedoms stipulated in this Declaration are subject to the Islamic shari'a".

The Cairo declaration followed years of limited acceptance of the Universal declaration by predominantly Muslim states. As an example, in 1984, Iran's UN representative, Said Raja'i Khorasani, said the following amid allegations of human rights violations, "[Iran] recognized no authority ... apart from Islamic law.... Conventions, declarations and resolutions or decisions of international organizations, which were contrary to Islam, had no validity in the Islamic Republic of Iran.... The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which represented secular understanding of the Judaeo-Christian tradition, could not be implemented by Muslims and did not accord with the system of values recognized by the Islamic Republic of Iran; this country would therefore not hesitate to violate its provisions." These departures, both theoretical and practical, have resulted in a multitude of practices and cases criticized by international human rights groups. See human rights in Iran, human rights in Saudi Arabia, and Taliban treatment of women for specific examples.

Opinion polling

Main article: Opinion polling and analysis about Islamic fundamentalism

In a 2005 Lowy Institute for International Policy Poll 57% of Australians indicated they are worried about the rise of Islamic fundamentalism. Amos N. Guiora noted that this is equivalent to the number of Australians who perceived American Foreign Policy as a threat, he further noted that not just Muslim countries have an unfavourable opinion of the United States but a large number of western countries such as: France, Germany, Great Britain and Spain and concluded that Australia was not an outlier on this regard. The Lowly Institute claimed that the result "raised eyebrows".

• A New York Times poll found that 33% of Americans think that Muslim Americans were more "sympathetic to terrorists than other Citizens" Rik Coolsaet analysed this as indicating a high level of distrust directed at the American Muslim community. The Times did this survey during the Park51 Ground Zero Mosque incident. The Times called the findings "appalling" and also analysed the data as showing a very high level of distrust of Muslim Americans and robust disapproval of the Park51 Mosque proposal. The New Republic stated that it does not trust the poll carried out by the New York Times and that the figures would be higher than 33%. They further claimed that New York residents are tolerant and if the figures were 33% in New York then "non-New Yorker fellow citizens are far more deeply biased and warped than the Gotham locals".

Freshwater biology

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Oxsjön, a lake in Sweden. Freshwater biology focuses on environments like lakes.

A pond in the Oconee River Floodplain in Georgia, whose surface is covered in duckweed but still contains fish.

Freshwater biology is the scientific biological study of freshwater ecosystems and is a branch of limnology. This field seeks to understand the relationships between living organisms in their physical environment. These physical environments may include rivers, lakes, streams, ponds, lakes, reservoirs, or wetlands. Knowledge from this discipline is also widely used in industrial processes to make use of biological processes involved with sewage treatment and water purification. Water presence and flow is an essential aspect to species distribution and influences when and where species interact in freshwater environments.

In the UK, the Freshwater Biological Association based near Windermere in Cumbria was one of the early institutions to research the biology of freshwater and promote the concepts of trophism in lakes and demonstrated the process of migration from oligotrophic water through mesotrophic to marsh.

Freshwater biology is also used to study the effects of climate change and increased human impact on both aquatic systems and wider ecosystems. Freshwater organisms, vertebrates especially, appear to be at a higher extinction risk from climate change than terrestrial or marine organisms. 

Freshwater habitats

Freshwater habitats support a wide variety of organisms with habitats including rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, and wetlands.

Rivers and streams

Running water is a type of freshwater habitat that mainly consists of rivers and streams. Running, fast-moving waters have a higher oxygen content, allowing different species to thrive and making pollution easier to combat. Running water is an open system, meaning it is not isolate and exchanges matter and energy with other systems. Being an open system, a lot of organic matter found in running water is from land runoff or further sediment upstream and this matter is an important source of food for many species. Flowing bodies of water begin at the headwaters, which include springs, lakes, and snowmelt,  and travel to their mouths, typically another moving water channel or the ocean. The characteristics of the streams and rivers change throughout their journey from the source to the mouth. For example, the water at the source is clearer, has a higher oxygen content, lower temperatures, and heterotrophs common species. In the middle, the width usually expands and the species diversity increases due to temperature and oxygen content changes, including aquatic green plants and algae. The water at the mouth has a lower oxygen concentration and is murkier due to the sediment that has been collected and traveled along the length of the river or stream. This increased sediment decreases the amount of light that is able to penetrate the water and there is less diversity of flora and the lower oxygen lowers the diversity of fauna.

The riparian zone is the area along a riverbank or streambank that is home to vital, high moisture plants. These plants create a buffer between the land and the running water system, protecting it from pollution and flooding. Additionally, these plants provide a large habitat for many wetland species, a large number of which are endangered or threatened. Lastly, riparian plants shade the water from sunlight, reducing the heat stress on the water and aquatic life, while also providing nutrients in the form of organic matter.

Lakes and ponds

Standing water is a type of freshwater habitat that mainly consists of lakes and ponds. This habitat has limited species diversity because they are isolated from one another and other water systems, unlike running water. Standing water experiences the process of stratification, which is when water is layered due to the oxygen content. Stratification does not occur in running water because of the fast moving water that mixes water with varying oxygen content together. The topmost layer has the most oxygen and as depth increases, the oxygen decreases. Stratification can be physically felt in the temperature of the water, as the uppermost layer of water is warmer than deeper water because it has been heated by the sun.

Standing water can be divided into three zones based on depth and distance from shore. The littoral zone is the uppermost layer and the warmest water found in lakes and ponds, as the sun directly heats is. This zone hosts the most biodiversity in standing water, with a wide variety of organisms found here, vital to the health of the ecosystem and an important aspect of the diet of organisms in the habitat, like algae, aquatic plants, clams, insects, fish, crustaceans, and amphibians. The limnetic zone is found below the littoral zone. This zone has lower temperatures, is fairly well-lit, and is occupied by a smaller variety of organisms, including phytoplankton, zooplankton, and fish. The plankton found in this zone play a crucial role in the food web of the habitat and support the diet of many important organisms. The deepest zone is the profundal zone, with very little light, colder temperatures, and higher density than the previous layers. When plankton die they fall into this layer and provide nutrients to the fauna that live in this layer. These faunas are called heterotrophs, meaning they eat dead organisms and use oxygen for cellular respiration, resulting in lower oxygen content in the profundal zone.

The thermocline is the transitionary zone between the warm, surface water and the deeper water at a cooler temperature. The limited mixing and movement of water that occurs in standing water occurs at the thermocline. The mixing of the layers of water in standing water mostly comes from seasonal overturn. During the fall and spring, there is a mixing of layers usually due to wind that circulates oxygen and creates a more uniform temperature throughout the water system. The shore zone is the transitional zone between the water systems and land, similar to the riparian zone seen in running water systems. This area functions in much the same way as the riparian zone, the plants protecting the water from pollution, flooding, and heat stress, while also providing nutrients and habitats for aquatic and wetland species.

Wetlands

Wetlands are a specific type of standing water habitats that include marshes, swamps, and bogs. Due to the waterlogged and submerged nature of the land, the anaerobic conditions of wetlands are unique and support the highest species diversity of all ecosystems. Wetlands slow the decomposition of organic matter, creating layers of rich organic material that provides important nutrients for species in the system. The fauna that reside in wetlands are called hydrophytes, meaning they are adapted to very moist and humid conditions. Wetlands are the home to a large number of bird, amphibian, insect, reptile, grass, and tree species that cannot inhabit any other system, making them at risk to endangerment, as wetlands are being destroyed for urban development and agriculture. Wetlands help combat pollution and climate change, as they filter pollutants and store a large amount of carbon from the biosphere in their moist soil and still water, despite the small amount of land they occupy. Additionally, wetlands provide flood and storm protection, as the system can absorb large amounts of excess water. Wetland's ability to absorb water also assists groundwater recharge, which is very important for human water use, as usable freshwater sources are dwindling. Wetlands are not only freshwater habitats and systems, as there are salt marshes and bogs that support different species.

Freshwater organisms

Freshwater organisms are generally divided into the categories of benthic and pelagic organisms, as these are the two zones of life found in the freshwater biome. Freshwater organism can include invertebrates, insects, fish, amphibians, mammals, birds, aquatic plants, and planktons.

Threats

The most common cause of water pollution is stormwater runoff from developed areas, like pavement and rooftops. Stormwater runoff is moving rain and snowmelt that has not been absorbed. The impervious surfaces used in domestic and urban construction replace soil that used to absorb stormwater, increasing the amount of runoff traveling farther distances. This excess runoff can collect pollutants as it eventually makes its way into streams, rivers, lakes, wetlands, and even aquifers, polluting important freshwater ecosystems and usable water. Additionally, increased flooding and erosion can be caused by the increased stormwater runoff.

Pollution of flowing water

Rivers and streams drain water that falls on upland areas, and this moving water dissolves pollutants at a faster rate than standing water. However, due to the high production and placement of pollutants in these moving waters, the waters become polluted faster than the pollutant dilution rate, leading to over polluted rivers and streams. All three of the major contributors to pollution – industry, agriculture, and cities – are commonly found along moving waters, adding to the over-pollution of rivers and streams. Just the knowledge that fast moving waters can dilute pollutants has encouraged even more pollution, further adding to the pollution issue. Another issue contributing to the destruction of rivers and streams is the physical alteration of these moving waters, mainly in the form of dams, diversion of water, channel alteration, and land development. These alterations affect water temperature, water flow patterns, and increase sediment, destroying important habitat conditions for many aquatic organisms and reducing water quality.

An area of contention regarding the pollution of streams and rivers is the concept that the pollution upstream affects the people downstream. A factory’s waste upstream may contaminate someone’s drinking water downstream. This especially becomes an issue with bodies of moving water that border multiple countries or states, as what one country or state does upstream can drastically affect what the downstream country or state is able to do. 

Pollution of standing water

Lakes and ponds experience much of the same pollution as rivers and streams, but are polluted at a quicker rate due to slower moving waters, no water flow outlets, and amount of water. Standing water circulates much less than moving waters, with the deeper water layers only moving during seasonal changes twice a year. Lakes and ponds are basins into which running water usually flows and accumulates, meaning that the pollutants also accumulate with no outlet. Lakes and ponds contain less water than most rivers and streams, meaning smaller lakes and ponds are polluted at faster rates.

Eutrophication is the process of abundant plant growth, a dominating threat to standing waters. If chemical nutrients for aquatic plant growth that were previously limited become available, plant populations will increase rapidly. This excessive plant population growth decreases the oxygen content of the water, and other aquatic life suffocates. Human waste often contains these chemical nutrients, like phosphorus in fertilizers, and in combination with the poor water circulation in standing waters, causes pollution and organism depletion. Much of the pollution issues that affect ponds and lakes also affect wetlands, as the water circulation of wetlands is also slow.

Groundwater pollution and depletion

Surface water is where groundwater is being expressed, with wetlands being the largest examples of the water table being near or at the surface. The water found in freshwater habitats are the combination of surface flow, precipitation, and groundwater expression. This relationship between groundwater and surface water means that groundwater pollution affects surface freshwater pollution as well.

According to an Environmental Protection Agency survey, about a quarter of the United States’ usable groundwater is contaminated. Groundwater is the only source of drinking water for about half of the United States. As human populations increase and industrialize, the demand for groundwater is increasing, but the pollution of groundwater is also increasing. The pollution of groundwater is easy to achieve due to the slow circulation of water, even slower than that of lakes and ponds. The water must navigate through small holes in the aquifer rock, moving on average only a couple of inches each day. The rate of groundwater recharge is the time it takes for groundwater to replenish itself and extremely slow, leading to water shortages, as humans remove water from aquifers faster than the rate of recharge. Due to such slow circulation of water, groundwater can remain polluted for decades, as the natural purification processes are so slow.

 

Lake Hawea, New Zealand

Limnology (/lɪmˈnɒlədʒi/ lim-NOL-ə-jee; from Ancient Greek λίμνη (límnē) 'lake', and -λογία (-logía) 'study of') is the study of inland aquatic ecosystems. The study of limnology includes aspects of the biological, chemical, physical, and geological characteristics of fresh and saline, natural and man-made bodies of water. This includes the study of lakes, reservoirs, ponds, rivers, springs, streams, wetlands, and groundwater. Water systems are often categorized as either running (lotic) or standing (lentic).

Limnology includes the study of the drainage basin, movement of water through the basin and biogeochemical changes that occur en route. A more recent sub-discipline of limnology, termed landscape limnology, studies, manages, and seeks to conserve these ecosystems using a landscape perspective, by explicitly examining connections between an aquatic ecosystem and its drainage basin. Recently, the need to understand global inland waters as part of the Earth system created a sub-discipline called global limnology. This approach considers processes in inland waters on a global scale, like the role of inland aquatic ecosystems in global biogeochemical cycles.

Limnology is closely related to aquatic ecology and hydrobiology, which study aquatic organisms and their interactions with the abiotic (non-living) environment. While limnology has substantial overlap with freshwater-focused disciplines (e.g., freshwater biology), it also includes the study of inland salt lakes.

History

The term limnology was coined by François-Alphonse Forel (1841–1912) who established the field with his studies of Lake Geneva. Interest in the discipline rapidly expanded, and in 1922 August Thienemann (a German zoologist) and Einar Naumann (a Swedish botanist) co-founded the International Society of Limnology (SIL, from Societas Internationalis Limnologiae). Forel's original definition of limnology, "the oceanography of lakes", was expanded to encompass the study of all inland waters, and influenced Benedykt Dybowski's work on Lake Baikal.

Prominent early American limnologists included G. Evelyn Hutchinson and Ed Deevey. At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Edward A. Birge, Chancey Juday, Charles R. Goldman, and Arthur D. Hasler contributed to the development of the Center for Limnology.

General limnology

Physical properties

Physical properties of aquatic ecosystems are determined by a combination of heat, currents, waves and other seasonal distributions of environmental conditions. The morphometry of a body of water depends on the type of feature (such as a lake, river, stream, wetland, estuary etc.) and the structure of the earth surrounding the body of water. Lakes, for instance, are classified by their formation, and zones of lakes are defined by water depth. River and stream system morphometry is driven by underlying geology of the area as well as the general velocity of the water. Stream morphometry is also influenced by topography (especially slope) as well as precipitation patterns and other factors such as vegetation and land development. Connectivity between streams and lakes relates to the landscape drainage density, lake surface area and lake shape.

Other types of aquatic systems which fall within the study of limnology are estuaries. Estuaries are bodies of water classified by the interaction of a river and the ocean or sea. Wetlands vary in size, shape, and pattern however the most common types, marshes, bogs and swamps, often fluctuate between containing shallow, freshwater and being dry depending on the time of year. The volume and quality of water in underground aquifers rely on the vegetation cover, which fosters recharge and aids in maintaining water quality.

Light interactions

Light zonation is the concept of how the amount of sunlight penetration into water influences the structure of a body of water. These zones define various levels of productivity within an aquatic ecosystems such as a lake. For instance, the depth of the water column which sunlight is able to penetrate and where most plant life is able to grow is known as the photic or euphotic zone. The rest of the water column which is deeper and does not receive sufficient amounts of sunlight for plant growth is known as the aphotic zone. The amount of solar energy present underwater and the spectral quality of the light that are present at various depths have a significant impact on the behavior of many aquatic organisms. For example, zooplankton's vertical migration is influenced by solar energy levels.

Thermal stratification

Similar to light zonation, thermal stratification or thermal zonation is a way of grouping parts of the water body within an aquatic system based on the temperature of different lake layers. The less turbid the water, the more light is able to penetrate, and thus heat is conveyed deeper in the water. Heating declines exponentially with depth in the water column, so the water will be warmest near the surface but progressively cooler as moving downwards. There are three main sections that define thermal stratification in a lake. The epilimnion is closest to the water surface and absorbs long- and shortwave radiation to warm the water surface. During cooler months, wind shear can contribute to cooling of the water surface. The thermocline is an area within the water column where water temperatures rapidly decrease. The bottom layer is the hypolimnion, which tends to have the coldest water because its depth restricts sunlight from reaching it. In temperate lakes, fall-season cooling of surface water results in turnover of the water column, where the thermocline is disrupted, and the lake temperature profile becomes more uniform. In cold climates, when water cools below 4^oC (the temperature of maximum density) many lakes can experience an inverse thermal stratification in winter. These lakes are often dimictic, with a brief spring overturn in addition to longer fall overturn. The relative thermal resistance is the energy needed to mix these strata of different temperatures.

Lake Heat Budget

An annual heat budget, also shown as θ_a, is the total amount of heat needed to raise the water from its minimum winter temperature to its maximum summer temperature. This can be calculated by integrating the area of the lake at each depth interval (A_z) multiplied by the difference between the summer (θ_sz) and winter (θ_wz) temperatures or ${\displaystyle {\displaystyle \int }}$A_z(θ_sz-θ_wz)

Chemical properties

The chemical composition of water in aquatic ecosystems is influenced by natural characteristics and processes including precipitation, underlying soil and bedrock in the drainage basin, erosion, evaporation, and sedimentation. All bodies of water have a certain composition of both organic and inorganic elements and compounds. Biological reactions also affect the chemical properties of water. In addition to natural processes, human activities strongly influence the chemical composition of aquatic systems and their water quality.

Allochthonous sources of carbon or nutrients come from outside the aquatic system (such as plant and soil material). Carbon sources from within the system, such as algae and the microbial breakdown of aquatic particulate organic carbon, are autochthonous. In aquatic food webs, the portion of biomass derived from allochthonous material is then named "allochthony". In streams and small lakes, allochthonous sources of carbon are dominant while in large lakes and the ocean, autochthonous sources dominate.

Oxygen and carbon dioxide

Dissolved oxygen and dissolved carbon dioxide are often discussed together due their coupled role in respiration and photosynthesis. Dissolved oxygen concentrations can be altered by physical, chemical, and biological processes and reaction. Physical processes including wind mixing can increase dissolved oxygen concentrations, particularly in surface waters of aquatic ecosystems. Because dissolved oxygen solubility is linked to water temperatures, changes in temperature affect dissolved oxygen concentrations as warmer water has a lower capacity to "hold" oxygen as colder water. Biologically, both photosynthesis and aerobic respiration affect dissolved oxygen concentrations. Photosynthesis by autotrophic organisms, such as phytoplankton and aquatic algae, increases dissolved oxygen concentrations while simultaneously reducing carbon dioxide concentrations, since carbon dioxide is taken up during photosynthesis. All aerobic organisms in the aquatic environment take up dissolved oxygen during aerobic respiration, while carbon dioxide is released as a byproduct of this reaction. Because photosynthesis is light-limited, both photosynthesis and respiration occur during the daylight hours, while only respiration occurs during dark hours or in dark portions of an ecosystem. The balance between dissolved oxygen production and consumption is calculated as the aquatic metabolism rate.

Lake cross-sectional diagram of the factors influencing lake metabolic rates and concentration of dissolved gases within lakes. Processes in gold text consume oxygen and produce carbon dioxide while processes in green text produce oxygen and consume carbon dioxide.

Vertical changes in the concentrations of dissolved oxygen are affected by both wind mixing of surface waters and the balance between photosynthesis and respiration of organic matter. These vertical changes, known as profiles, are based on similar principles as thermal stratification and light penetration. As light availability decreases deeper in the water column, photosynthesis rates also decrease, and less dissolved oxygen is produced. This means that dissolved oxygen concentrations generally decrease as you move deeper into the body of water because of photosynthesis is not replenishing dissolved oxygen that is being taken up through respiration. During periods of thermal stratification, water density gradients prevent oxygen-rich surface waters from mixing with deeper waters. Prolonged periods of stratification can result in the depletion of bottom-water dissolved oxygen; when dissolved oxygen concentrations are below 2 milligrams per liter, waters are considered hypoxic. When dissolved oxygen concentrations are approximately 0 milligrams per liter, conditions are anoxic. Both hypoxic and anoxic waters reduce available habitat for organisms that respire oxygen, and contribute to changes in other chemical reactions in the water.

Nitrogen and phosphorus

Nitrogen and phosphorus are ecologically significant nutrients in aquatic systems. Nitrogen is generally present as a gas in aquatic ecosystems however most water quality studies tend to focus on nitrate, nitrite and ammonia levels. Most of these dissolved nitrogen compounds follow a seasonal pattern with greater concentrations in the fall and winter months compared to the spring and summer. Phosphorus has a different role in aquatic ecosystems as it is a limiting factor in the growth of phytoplankton because of generally low concentrations in the water. Dissolved phosphorus is also crucial to all living things, is often very limiting to primary productivity in freshwater, and has its own distinctive ecosystem cycling.

Biological properties

Lake George, New York, United States, an oligotrophic lake

Role in ecology

Lakes "are relatively easy to sample, because they have clear-cut boundaries (compared to terrestrial ecosystems) and because field experiments are relatively easy to perform.", which make then especially useful for ecologists who try to understand ecological dynamics.

Lake trophic classification

One way to classify lakes (or other bodies of water) is with the trophic state index. An oligotrophic lake is characterized by relatively low levels of primary production and low levels of nutrients. A eutrophic lake has high levels of primary productivity due to very high nutrient levels. Eutrophication of a lake can lead to algal blooms. Dystrophic lakes have high levels of humic matter and typically have yellow-brown, tea-coloured waters. These categories do not have rigid specifications; the classification system can be seen as more of a spectrum encompassing the various levels of aquatic productivity.

Tropical limnology

Tropical limnology is a unique and important subfield of limnology that focuses on the distinct physical, chemical, biological, and cultural aspects of freshwater systems in tropical regions. The physical and chemical properties of tropical aquatic environments are different from those in temperate regions, with warmer and more stable temperatures, higher nutrient levels, and more complex ecological interactions. Moreover, the biodiversity of tropical freshwater systems is typically higher, human impacts are often more severe, and there are important cultural and socioeconomic factors that influence the use and management of these systems.

Professional organizations

People who study limnology are called limnologists. These scientists largely study the characteristics of inland fresh-water systems such as lakes, rivers, streams, ponds and wetlands. They may also study non-oceanic bodies of salt water, such as the Great Salt Lake. There are many professional organizations related to limnology and other aspects of the aquatic science, including the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography, the Asociación Ibérica de Limnología, the International Society of Limnology, the Polish Limnological Society, the Society of Canadian Limnologists, and the Freshwater Biological Association.

Native American self-determination

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_American_self-determination 

 

See also: Native American civil rights and Tribal sovereignty in the United States

Native American self-determination refers to the social movements, legislation and beliefs by which the Native American tribes in the United States exercise self-governance and decision-making on issues that affect their own people.

Conceptual origin

Flag of the Haudenosaunee

Self-determination is defined as the movement by which the Native Americans sought to achieve restoration of tribal community, self-government, cultural renewal, reservation development, educational control and equal or controlling input into federal government decisions concerning policies and programs. The beginnings of the federal policy favoring self-determination dates back to the 1930s. In 1933 John Collier, a social worker and reformer who had long worked in American Indian affairs, was appointed commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was likely the most knowledgeable person about American Indians appointed to this position up until then. He respected tribal cultures and values.

The U.S. Congress passed Collier's legislation, the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, although with numerous changes. It was to enable tribes to reorganize their governments and strengthen their communities. It ended the allotment of Indian lands to individual households, which had led to loss of control over their territories. The law was intended to decrease the paternalistic power of the BIA which extended to their running numerous Indian boarding schools where American Indian children were forced to give up native languages and cultural practices. Four years before the passage of the Indian Reorganization Act, the government acknowledged that the paternalism was unfair to the Indian tribes and their people. The IRA was called the Indian "New Deal" by the Roosevelt administration. The IRA enabled the restoration of tribal governments but Congress made many changes in response to outcries from lobbyists and the bill fell short of the policy of "Indian self-determination without termination."

During the 1950s government policy toward American Indians changed and politicians recommended termination of many of the tribes' special relationships with the government under federal recognition of their status in favor of assimilation. Over 100 tribes were terminated: those that weren't suffered increased governmental paternalism. Activism for civil rights and American Indian rights increased during and after the 1960s and strengthened the movement for self-determination.

Post-1960

Self-determination was not official federal government policy until 1970 when President Richard M. Nixon addressed the issue in his July 8 congressional message of "Recommendations for Indian Policy." He discussed his goal of policy changes that supported Indian self-determination.

It is long-past time that the Indian policies of the Federal government began to recognize and build upon the capacities and insights of the Indian people. Both as a matter of Justice, and as a matter of enlightened social policy, we must begin to act on the basis of what the Indians themselves have long been telling us. The time has come to break decisively with the past, and to create the conditions for a new era in which the Indian future is determined by Indian acts and Indian decisions.

In 1968 Congress passed the Indian Civil Rights Act after recognizing that the Indian termination policies of the mid-1940s to mid-1960s had failed. American Indians had successfully kept their cultures and religions alive, and the government recognized that the goal of assimilation was wrong. The bill was to grant the provisions of the Bill of Rights to the tribal peoples. In the following years, Congress passed more legislation to carry out Nixon's programs to develop a stronger relationship of trust between the federal government and the tribes, and to allow the tribes to manage their own affairs.

Another example is the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975. This act enabled the federal government to make direct contracts with the Indian tribes just as it does with the states, for implementation of programs and distribution of funds. Rather than the BIA administering programs directly, the government would contract with tribes to manage health care, for instance, or educational benefits.

The Indian Child Welfare Act (1978) "... recognized tribal courts as the primary and ultimate forum for welfare and custody cases concerning Native children. "By promising to look after the tribes' children, the ICWA contributed to the economic and cultural welfare of each tribe's future.

The American Indian Religious Freedom Act (1978) "...recognized the integrity of native cultures." It ended the persecution of American Indians for such practices as the use of peyote in religion ceremony.

Since 1980, administrations have issued Presidential Memoranda on Indian affairs to indicate direction for increased tribal sovereignty. A 1994 Presidential Memorandum issued by Bill Clinton changed the way the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development supported housing programs. The Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act of 1996 consolidated grant programs for housing funding into a single block grant specifically available to recognized governments of American Indians and Alaska Natives.

Leaders

A renewal of Indian activism since the 1960s saw the rise of a new generation of leaders. Public protests created publicity for their cause, such as the occupation of Alcatraz and Mount Rushmore, the Wounded Knee Incident, and other examples of American Indians uniting to change their relationship with the United States government. Strong Indian leaders traveled across America to try to add unification to the Indian cause. The leaders arose in different fields, starting independent newspapers, promoting educational independence, working to reclaim lands, and to enforce treaty rights. Another campaign occurred in the Pacific Northwest as Billy Frank, Jr. and Hank Adams fought for native treaty fishing rights. The result was a Native American force which fought for change throughout a wide variety of interconnected social spheres.

Education

Allan Yazzie

For decades since the late 19th century, Native Americans were forced to send their children to boarding schools where they were made to speak and write in English only, and to learn the majority culture and Christian religion. Native Americans wanted to teach their children their own values and cultures. In the 1960s, Allan Yazzie (Navajo) proposed creation of a Navajo school to be built on the tribe's land in Arizona and operated by the tribe. The project was called the Rough Rock Demonstration School, and it was to administered solely by the Navajo Indians (without BIA oversight.) Although many politicians thought that the school would fail immediately, it prevailed. It became a strong sign of Indian self-determination and success. In 1968, the Navajo established the first tribal college, to be followed by other tribes developing similar tribal colleges on their own reservations.

Land reclamation and anti-termination

Paul Bernal

Paul Bernal (also known as Sherry Beni) fought for the Taos Pueblo tribe of New Mexico, who wanted to reclaim their sacred religious site, Blue Lake. It had been taken by the Forest Service at the start of the twentieth century for inclusion in a national forest. Throughout the 1960s, Bernal and the Pueblo had little success in regaining the lake. The administration of Richard Nixon supported self-determination for American Indians. After Senate hearings (where Bernal was harassed by senators who thought that the Indians wanted the land for other than religious purposes), Nixon signed a bill to return the lake to the Taos Pueblo.

Ada Deer

Ada Deer

Ada Deer (b. 1935) is a leader of the Menominee tribe, which has a reservation in Wisconsin. In the 1960s, Deer helped mobilize her tribe to oppose the government's proposed termination of its relationship with the federal government. By 1972, Deer had gained support for her tribe's movement, and many governors, senators, and congressman gave her and the Menominee tribe their full-fledged approval. Deer fought against the Interior Committee chairman (Wayne Aspinall), who supported the tribe's termination, and their loss of 250,000 acres (1,000 km²) of communal land under termination policies. Ada Deer continued to lobby for the Menominee Restoration Act. After Aspinall failed to win an election, the tribe prevailed and the act was signed by President Nixon. Ada Deer (along with such people as Lucy Covington) is one of the early examples of self-determination in tribal members; her efforts helped restore all the terminated lands back to the Menominee tribe.

D'Arcy McNickle

D'Arcy McNickle (Cree and Salish-Kootenai) was a member of the Flathead reservation. He served as the chair of a committee of Indian leaders at the 1961 American Indian Chicago Conference, and crafted an Indian policy called "Declaration of Indian purpose." The policy outlined many solutions to the problems of termination. It was a sign of change in the 1960s and 1970s when the termination era ended. The "Declaration of Indian purpose" was given to President John F. Kennedy by the National Congress of American Indians. The tribal governments started to bypass the BIA and focus on self-determination plans.

Legal activism

John Echohawk

John Echohawk (Pawnee) is a founder and leader of the Native American Rights Fund (NARF). He is a lawyer who has worked to protect Indian land and sovereignty. In 1970 Echohawk was the first Native American to graduate from the University of New Mexico's school of law. After law school, Echohawk worked for some time with California Indian Legal Services. Echohawk joined together with other lawyers and tribal members to form the NARF, which was similar to the NAACP (both were formed to organize civil rights activism). Under Echohawk, NARF's focused on preserving tribes, protecting tribal resources, protecting human rights, ensuring government responsibility, expanding Indian law, and educating people about Indian issues. Through NARF, Echohawk has gained government recognition of tribal sovereignty and participated in drafting the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act signed into law by President George H. W. Bush in 1990.

Rosalind McClanahan

Rosalind McClanahan (Navajo) opposed Arizona's imposing a state income tax on members of her tribe who lived and worked within the Navajo Reservation, which she considered an issue of tribal sovereignty. McClanahan lived and worked in the reservation, and was taxed. She enlisted the help of DNA (a group of Native American rights attorneys), and appealed the case to the United States Supreme Court in 1973 after the state court had ruled in favor of the state's ability to require that tax. The resulting U.S. Supreme Court ruling was in favor of McClanahan, and tribal rights of members to be excluded from state taxes within tribal sovereign land. She helped establish stronger self-rule for the Navajo as well as other Native American tribes.

Organizations

Several Native American organizations provided an immense amount of support that either helped set the precedent for the self-determination movement or further strengthen the policy. These organizations can be divided mainly into two levels: associations that were nationally operated and those groups that were organized for local action.

National

In 1944, the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) was founded "in response to termination and assimilation policies that the United States forced upon the tribal governments in contradiction of their treaty rights and status as sovereigns. NCAI stressed the need for unity and cooperation among tribal governments for the protection of their treaty and sovereign rights". "Recognizing the threat posed by termination, [NCAI] fought to maintain Indians' legal rights and cultural identity." Indian policy has been federalized since colonial times; however, "until the 1940s, in spite of such major national initiatives as allotment and the Indian Reorganization Act, Indians had never been able to organize on a national basis". Groups such as the Friends of the Indians in the late nineteenth century and the Association on American Indian Affairs (est. 1922) had nearly all-white membership. The NCAI was an Indian-only organization with membership based on tribes, not individuals. Although the "NCAI's fortunes would ebb and flow … the return of Indian veterans at the end of World War II" gave the organization and the Indian people an unexpected boost. "Whether they settled in Indian country or in the cities, these veterans realized expectations and bred a much-needed impatience and assertiveness." According to Helen Peterson, later executive director of NCAI, "World War Two revived the Indians' capacity to act on their own behalf." With the NCAI, Native American people relied on their own people to organize and affect national policy. The NCAI was one of the first major steps in halting termination and giving life to the Self-Determination era.

The Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO), a result of President Lyndon B. Johnson's War on Poverty legislation and the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, provided grants and other funds directly to tribal governments rather than only state and federal agencies. The War on Poverty Grants "empowered tribes by building tribal capacities, creating independence from the BIA, and knitting tribes together with other tribes and the country as a whole." As Philip S. Deloria explains, the OEO helped the Indian people become more independent and powerful: for the first time "… Indian tribal governments had money and were not beholden for it to the Bureau of Indian Affairs … Tribes could, to some degree, set their own priorities." Renewed self-determination by tribes "altered the nature of the [BIA] and the relationship between tribes and the federal government". The independence gained by tribes from dealing with the Office of Economic Opportunity helped change the dynamic of Indian affairs in relation to the federal government.

The Native American Rights Fund (NARF) is a national legal-advocacy and nonprofit organization founded by Indians in 1970 to assist Indians in their legal battles. It has become the primary national advocacy group for Native Americans. "It is funded largely by grants from private foundations and (despite its adversarial relationship) the Federal Government." NARF's legal, policy, and public education work is concentrated in five key areas: preservation of tribes; protection of tribal natural resources; promotion of Native American human rights; accountability of governments to Native Americans; and development of Indian law and educating the public about Indian rights, laws, and issues. "NARF focuses on applying existing laws and treaties to guarantee that national and state governments live up to their legal obligations [and] … works with religious, civil rights, and other Native American organizations to shape the laws that will help assure the civil and religious rights of all Native Americans." Since its inception, NARF has provided legal expertise at the national level. NARF has trained many young attorneys, both Indians and non-Indians, who intend to specialize in Native American legal issues. "NARF has successfully argued every Supreme Court case involving Native Americans since 1973." NARF has affected tens of thousands of Indian people in its work for more than 250 tribes in all fifty states to develop strong self-governance, sound economic development, prudent natural resources management and positive social development. It continues to handle civil rights cases for the Native American community in the United States.

Regional

Accomplishments and progress of Native American organizations on the national level inspired change on the local level. It did not take too long for local tribes to begin to establish their own organizations that would benefit them directly. One of the earliest of such organizations was the Determination of Rights and Unity for Menominee Shareholders (DRUMS) – a citizens' group founded in 1970. It focused on stopping the Legend Lake sales, establishing Menominee control over the Menominee Enterprises, Inc. (MEI), and, eventually, even reversing termination, which was the main purpose of self-determination. DRUMS made an immediate impact. Within months of establishment, the Menominee organized a series of well-planned and smoothly executed demonstrations. In an effort to interrupt the Legend Lake land development, DRUMS picketed Legend Lake's Menominee County sales office and promotional events in nearby cities, such as Milwaukee, Green Bay, and Appleton. In October 1971, DRUMS led an impressive 12-day, 220-mile (350 km) from Menominee County, to the state capitol in Madison. Like the other DRUMS protests, the march to Madison, was non-violent but sharp-edged nonetheless. Minnesota Governor Patrick Lucey met with DRUMS leaders and discussed prevalent issues in the Menominee community. Within a month of the march, Governor Lucey visited Menominee County, and consistently supported the Menominee movement. In addition, DRUMS managed to produce a first draft of the Menominee restoration bill by the end of 1971 and by early 1972 the tribe had already obtained an astounding level of support, including the support of Democratic Presidential nominee Henry Jackson. Though it took a prodigious amount of work, the Menominee Restoration Act moved through Congress with rare speed. In April 1975, MEI was dissolved and all Menominee lands were transferred back to the tribe, to be held in trust by the United States of America and governed by the sovereign Menominee Tribe of Wisconsin. Although DRUMS set its sights on improving the status of the local Menominee people, it was a big step toward the nationwide self-determination movement. The success of DRUMS let other Indians know that they too could make an impact, if only on a local level, and motivated other tribes to fight for their rights. On the national scope, DRUMS allowed Native American leaders to assume prominent positions. For instance, Ada Deer was catapulted to the top of the federal government; In 1993, Deer was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Interior by President Bill Clinton and served as head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs from 1993–1997.

Institutional capacity

The new policy of the Office of Economic Opportunity, which sought to directly involve the recipients of its aid, provided further impetus for self-determination in education. The success of the OEO Head Start preschool program was attributed primarily to the fact that Indians were "allowed to operate programs." For the first time in history, Deloria commented, "Indian parents have become excited about education for their children. … For the last 100 years, the Government has been doing things for us and telling us what is best for Indians … of course there has been no progress … ." Progress in education was just one area in which Native Americans were gaining more independence. As tribes began to have more control over their own affairs and have more infrastructure entitled to them, they were able to be in much more command of their space, make more money, which led to power and progress.