In the 1960's, NIYC was an Indian civil rights organization, spearheading the movement for the preservation of treaty rights to fishing in the Northwest. In 1968, we were the Indian coordinator for the Poor People's Campaign. In the 1970's, NIYC was chiefly an Indian environmental organization filing massive lawsuits for Indian communities that did not want coal strip mining and uranium mining and milling on their land. We achieved international recognition for halting the $6 billion coal gasification plants on the Navajo Reservation. NIYC is still concerned with these matters, but our activities today reflect a changing world.

The National Indian Youth Council, Inc. (NIYC) is the nation's second oldest national Indian organization. Founded in 1961 in Gallup, New Mexico, it has thousands of members nationwide. As an Indian rights organization, NIYC works not only in this country but also throughout the Western Hemisphere to preserve and establish the rights of Indian people. For a quarter of a century NIYC has been in the forefront of the struggle for Indian rights and the brotherhood of all people. NIYC has directly affected the lives of tens of thousands of Indian people. We are a vital and dynamic part of the Indian community. NIYC is Indian conceived, Indian controlled, and Indian operated. Our goal is the survival of Indian people. We meet this goal through our work, which includes:

INDIAN FREEDOM OF RELIGION: Traditional religious practice is the heart that pumps life into the Indian community. Indian churches are not buildings but rather natural sites. NIYC filed lawsuits seeking to preserve these sites from tourists and economic development projects that threaten them.

INDIAN POLITICAL PARTICIPATION PROJECT: Indians were not made citizens until 1924 and could not vote by law in Arizona and New Mexico until 1948. Since then there have been many barriers to full Indian political participation as citizens. On a non-partisan basis, NIYC does voter registration and has conducted political behavior polling, litigates to attack unfair voting practices, is a national resource database for Indian political information, and has published an Indian Elected Officials Directory.

PROTECTION OF INDIAN VOTING RIGHTS: NIYC has been highly instrumental in protecting the voting rights of Indian people. We have done extensive litigation to force school boards and county commissions to go from at large voting schemes to single member districts that are equitable to the Indian electorate.

PUBLIC EDUCATION: A major goal is to inform the public about the nature of Indian people and their concerns for the present and future. Towards this end, we publish "Americans Before Columbus", the oldest published Indian newspaper in the country; and has produced reports on Indian political behavior and current issues.

INTERNATIONAL WORK: Indian people in our country are only 5% of the 60 million Indians in the Western Hemisphere. NIYC's international work is not only important to Indian people but to the course of world peace as well. NIYC has had Non-Governmental Organization status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. We work directly with Indian communities across the Hemisphere to establish projects and defend their rights. We participated in and organized many international conferences and congresses where we presented Indian concerns, and worked for the recognition of Indians as full human beings.

PROTECTION OF TREATY RIGHTS: A chief concern of NIYC is to protect those rights that were governed through treaties with the U.S. Government. We were active in representing tribes in their defense of ancestral lands. The protection of hunting and fishing rights, and the right of Indians to exercise these rights is salient in our work.

JOB TRAINING AND PLACEMENT: NIYC has continued to successfully operate its employment and training project in New Mexico for off-reservation Indians. The project has continually been rated in the top five of the 180 + Native American grantees. We maintain field offices in Albuquerque, Farmington, and Gallup, New Mexico.

NIYC believes that the Indian way of life is valid and that Indians have a right to their culture. Through NIYC, Indians and non-Indians join hands to create a more just and humane world.