National Indian Youth Council Inc.

The National Indian Youth Council, Inc., founded in 1961 in Gallup, NM, is the nation’s second oldest national American Indian organization. For over 50 years, the NIYC has advocated diligently and continuously to ensure that all American Indians have equitable access to educational opportunities, health, social services, employment, and human and civil rights. In the early 1960s, NIYC was primarily an Indian civil rights organization. It lead the movement for the preservation of treaty rights for fishing in the Northwest. In 1968, NIYC served as the Indian coordinator for the Poor People's Campaign. In the 1970s, NIYC worked chiefly as an Indian environmental organization and filed lawsuits on behalf of Indian communities that did not want coal strip mining, uranium mining and milling on their land. It achieved international recognition for halting the $6 billion coal gasification plants on the Navajo Nation. NIYC continues its legacy as a civil rights leader through its commitment to national and intern