The American Indian Defense Association, headed by John Collier, was established to oppose the Bursum and the Leavitt Bills, both of which sought to end Pueblo ties to their lands and outlaw cultural practices.
Additionally, the Association collaborates with Tribes and traditional Indian religious petitioners to protect sacred lands such as the Bighorn Medicine Wheel in Wyoming.
The United States Congress passed ICWA in 1978 in response to the alarmingly high number of Indian children being removed from their homes by both public and private agencies.
AAIA's initial activities were to represent Indian parents whose children had been wrongfully removed from them, beginning with a case involving the Devils Lake Sioux Tribe.
Without these agreements, important communication between state and tribal officials may not occur, potentially undermining the provisions provided by ICWA and putting Indian children unnecessarily at risk.
AAIA joined 56 Tribal organizations, 325 Indian Nations, 21 state attorneys general, 20 law schools, and 30 child welfare organizations to file an amicus curiae ("friend of the court") brief in support of the Indian Child Welfare Act, drawing attention to the numerous abuses that led to the bill’s passage in the first place.
This often led to underreporting of the number of Native youths within these systems since many individuals did not want to alert their home communities to these situations due to feelings of embarrassment or shame.
These recommendations are as follows: Since the publication of this report, AAIA has worked to raise awareness of the problem and facilitate discussion between Tribes, states, and localities on the effectiveness of juvenile detention policies and possible improvements.
These scholarships are meant to support Native Americans who are strongly connected to their Tribal Nation and Indian Country, regardless of how long they have been in college or their age.
[20] AAIA provides funding for summer camps that connect Native youth with cultural experiences while teaching a variety of subjects related to physical and emotional well-being.
The program is designed to assist these children in developing better physical and mental health and stronger cultural and political connections to their Tribe and to Indian Country.
The director of the Native Language Program for AAIA, Tammy Decoteau, explained that the project aimed to enable "an entire generation of young people" to hear Dakotah being used.
This work has included efforts to protect sites such as Devils Tower and the Medicine Wheel in Wyoming and Bear Butte in South Dakota.
With AAIA's support, the Coalition negotiated and signed in 1996 a landmark Historic Preservation Plan (HPP) with the Forest Service and state and local government agencies.
The amicus brief identified sites and objects within Bears Ears that were not named in the original case but were of significant cultural, historical, and spiritual importance.
[29] The Association has also worked to protect many other locations, such as Medicine Lake in California, Rainbow Bridge in Utah, Cave Rock in Nevada, Indian Pass in California, Petroglyph National Monument in New Mexico, Black Creek in New Jersey, Mount Graham in Arizona, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge [ANWR] in Alaska, and Otter Creek in Montana.
[31] The Association works to affect national policy regarding sacred lands and to provide legal training to tribal advocates, attorneys, and federal officials on the laws that protect these areas.
[33] Due in large part to this Act, museums and federal agencies across the United States have inventoried and repatriated thousands of remains and objects held in their collections.
The Association is dedicated to aiding in the return of sacred ceremonial material to the appropriate American Indian nation, clan, or family and to educating the public about the importance of repatriation.
This conference brings together people from multiple backgrounds, including individuals from Indian Country, institutions, museums, federal agencies, academics, attorneys, and many more.
These inconsistencies often complicate the repatriation process and make it more difficult for tribes to reclaim items of significant spiritual, cultural, and historical importance.
As part of this commitment, the Association also developed the article "A Guide to International Repatriation: Starting An Initiative in Your Community" to help Tribes and concerned individuals work to return cultural items to their rightful place, regardless of the borders between them.