1 CHAPTER 1: AMERICAN INDIAN SELF-DETERMINATION AND ...

cultures was necessary for tribal governments to operate and
exercise meaningful self-determination and thus is part of
the United States' responsibilities as part of the trust
relationship. 30
As can be seen, the components of the AICC's vision of
self-determination are interconnected. The preservation of
tribal cultural values required preservation of Indian lands
and resources, which in turn required the maintenance of
trust protection for those lands and resources. The trust
relationship provided tribes with the right to federal
economic and social assistance. This assistance helped
insure that American Indians would remain in their homelands
to shape and administer programs in a way consistent with
tribal cultural values.
The Context and Evolution of Self-Determination, 1945-1975
Just as it is important to understand the interrelations
between the Declaration's components of self-determination,
it is also important to understand that the conference's
conception of self-determination did not emerge in a vacuum.
It stood out as the product of--and had an impact on--the
history of Native peoples in the three decades after the
Second World War. The period from 1945-1975 saw some of the
most significant shifts in federal Indian policy. These
30 Vine Deloria Jr., "Self-Determination and the Concept
of Sovereignty," in Economic Development in American Indian
Reservations, ed. Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz (Albuquerque:
University of New Mexico Native American Studies, 1979), 27;
Deloria and Lytle, Nations Within, 250-254.
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