Robideau, Robert E.

Arlene Hopkins and Steve Robideau as they enter the historic meeting with the United Nations discussing the case of Leonard Peltier. (Box 6, Folder 27).

Robert Robideau joined the American Indian Movement (AIM) in 1973. Indian inmates, Clyde Bellecourt, Dennis Banks, and Edward Benton-Banai founded AIM in 1968 in the Stillwater State Penitentiary. The organizers endeavored to teach the many Indian inmates about their spiritual history and how to stay out of jail once paroled. The movement aimed to revitalize a sense of pride in traditional Indian values and to correct the conditions under which Indians lived: 70-80% unemployment; inadequate housing, education, and health care; and the highest infant mortality rate and the lowest life expectancy in the nation. By the time Robideau joined in 1972, AIM added to their objectives the need for tribal sovereignty and began its quest to restore it.

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