Give It Back to the Indians!

A visual celebration of the American Indian Movement in the United States.

This unusual representation of the continental United States was published as the centerfold print in the June 12, 1970, issue of Good Times, a popular San Francisco-based counterculture magazine. The image represents the height of the American Indian Movement (AIM), culminating in the nearly two-year long occupation of Alcatraz Island (classified as surplus federal land) by people of indigenous descent.

An outline of America encourages to Give It Back, presumably by returning unused federal lands via the terms of the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie. The ongoing Alcatraz Occupation is prominently shown, with the island labeled ‘For Keeps.’ Interestingly, the Salish Sea and Cape Cod are among the only features that are distinctly identifiable amidst the heavily stylized outline. The word ‘IT’ is contained within an oil gusher, a not-so-subtle reminder of the value of the original inhabitants’ claims. A ‘typical’ 1970s Native American, toking a roach clip, is caricatured in the lower left (appropriately, in the Southwest).