A series of events led to the Wounded Knee occupation, one of the most significant being the Trail of Broken Treaties. The American Indian Movement organized caravans of activists from the West Coast and across the country to travel to Washington D.C. Their objectives were to bring attention to issues such as treaty rights, the abolition of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, federal investment in jobs, housing, and education, and reinstatement of terminated tribes to federally recognized status.
To accomplish this, AIM planned to present the Nixon administration with a list of 20 demands that addressed treaty responsibility. When they arrived in Washington D.C., AIM took over the U.S. Department of the Interior building that houses the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and occupied it from November 3 to November 9, 1972. AIM only agreed to leave the building with the assurance that the White House would address almost all their concerns. An interagency task force was created, to be co-chaired by representatives of the Nixon administration and a promise to involve dozens of Indian organizations. After the BIA takeover, President Richard Nixon signed a law to restore the Menominee Tribe to federally recognized status and supported legislation that offered tribes control over their own operations.
A few months later, February 6, 1973, there was a Lakota (Sioux) protest in front of the courthouse in Custer, South Dakota, over the killing of tribal people and the unbalanced prosecution practices toward Lakota compared to non-Native assailants. The Lakota protesters were met by police resulting in a violent confrontation.
At the same time in Minneapolis, Minnesota, “Slum conditions eventually became the primary purpose for the birth of the American Indian Movement (AIM) along with high unemployment and the police brutality,” said Dennis Banks, co-founder of AIM and a Minneapolis resident at the time. These two groups would eventually join forces to set the stage for the showdown at Wounded Knee. Further confrontations led by AIM resulted in protests following racial killings that occurred in South Dakota and Nebraska border towns surrounding the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
Following the BIA takeover in Washington D.C., AIM leaders announced a major celebration of victory that would take place on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. In response, then Oglala Sioux Tribal Chairman Richard Wilson proclaimed a state of emergency for the Pine Ridge Reservation and prohibited all AIM gatherings on the reservation. He called in support from United States Marshals to aid his state of emergency. During that time, Chairman Wilson was already at odds with members and supporters of the grassroots Oglala Sioux Civil Rights Organization (OSCRO).