[News] The FBI Is An Enemy Of Indigenous Liberation

Tue Oct 11 11:29:25 EDT 2022

popularresistance.org
<https://popularresistance.org/the-fbi-is-an-enemy-of-indigenous-liberation/>
The FBI Is An Enemy Of Indigenous Liberation
By Cody Bloomfield - October 10, 2022
------------------------------
[image: image.png]

Above Photo: On Indigenous Peoples’ Day, we remember how the FBI surveilled
and repressed AIM and other indigenous liberation movements.

In 1969, American Indian Movement (AIM) activists occupied Alcatraz
Island, invoking
the Sioux Treaty of 1868
<https://digilab.libs.uga.edu/exhibits/exhibits/show/civil-rights-digital-history-p/american-indian-movement>,
which grants unused federal lands to indigenous groups. Over the next
several years, AIM also occupied the Mayflower. And Mount Rushmore. And the
Bureau of Indian Affairs. And Wounded Knee. And other sites across the
United States emblematic of the ongoing refusal of the American government
to fulfill treaty obligations.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, AIM became the vanguard of indigenous
liberation. They fought back against police violence, illegal seizure of
land, and the economic marginalization of indigenous people. Through direct
action, formation of patrols documenting police abuses, and other
confrontational tactics, AIM brought media attention to long-neglected
issues relating to indigenous sovereignty and abuses at the hands of the
state. Their activism emboldened
<https://www.se.edu/native-american/wp-content/uploads/sites/49/2019/09/NAS-2007-Proceedings-Baylor.pdf>
less
confrontational indigenous advocacy groups, including the National Congress
of American Indians and the National Tribal Chairman’s Association, to
become more emphatic in their demands. AIM awakened Americans to the
realities of indigenous suffering in the United States and invigorated a
nascent indigenous liberation mass protest movement.

Predictably, AIM also caught the attention of the FBI and law enforcement.

Law enforcement continually reacted disproportionately to AIM’s
confrontational tactics, bringing the brunt of state power down upon
activists. At the end of the Trail of Broken Treaties caravan, churches
planning to host AIM activists in Washington DC revoked
<https://boundarystones.weta.org/2021/10/29/remembering-american-indian-movements-occupation-bureau-indian-affairs>
offers
of housing. Reasoning that the Bureau of Indian Affairs should belong to
indigenous people, AIM activists decided to occupy
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/01/24/native-americans-occupied-bureau-indian-afffairs-nixon/>
the
building. As AIM leaders held a press conference outside, police in riot
gear attacked
<https://boundarystones.weta.org/2021/10/29/remembering-american-indian-movements-occupation-bureau-indian-affairs>
the
activists inside. What started as an impromptu occupation escalated to a
siege. Trapped inside the building, AIM members dropped a banner
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/01/24/native-americans-occupied-bureau-indian-afffairs-nixon/>
rechristening
the Bureau of Indian Affairs the “Native American Embassy.” They also liberated
documents
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/01/24/native-americans-occupied-bureau-indian-afffairs-nixon/>,
which they would use to argue that the Bureau of Indian Affairs engaged in
rampant fraud, theft, and abuse. The media attention this occupation
received, combined with the severity of the law enforcement response, set
the tone for future confrontations between authorities and AIM activists.
Escalations between law enforcement and AIM continued. The Secret Service came
to categorize
<https://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2017/jul/13/john-trudell-fbi-file/> AIM
members as “potentially dangerous because of…activity in groups engaged in
activities inimical to [the] US.”

Behind the scenes, emboldened by AIM’s militancy, the FBI conducted an
elaborate surveillance campaign. Using confidential sources and secret
agents, the FBI spied
<https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3216216-1360476-0-File-01-Section-01-pdf>
on
AIM meetings, internal deliberations, and demonstrations. In addition to
scrabbling for evidence of illegal behavior, FBI files include extensive
notes
<https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3216216-1360476-0-File-01-Section-01-pdf>
about
speeches relating to matters of policy and public concern. At one point,
the FBI instructed its Los Angeles office to conduct a criminal background
check on someone to determine whether they were a possible AIM sympathizer.
The FBI further attempted to discredit
<https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/62428542.pdf> AIM through affiliations
with other militant groups and communist influences, going so far as to
label the guns AIM members carried as “Communist automatic assault rifles
<http://www.noparolepeltier.com/letters.html>.” FBI analysts tried to link
<https://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2017/jul/13/john-trudell-fbi-file/> AIM
Press Secretary George Christopher Robers to Mexican-American militant
groups and Symbionese Liberation Army (which kidnapped Patty Hearst) with
little success.

In addition to surveilling AIM, the FBI also attempted to jail its members.
In a publicity stunt, AIM activist John Trudell held up the Duck Valley
Trading Post. Trudell shot a bullet into the wall behind the trading post
clerk before demanding receipts from the till. Trudell tore up the receipts
and demanded that the trading post lower prices within thirty days so that
indigenous elders could afford food. Despite concluding
<https://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2017/jul/13/john-trudell-fbi-file/>
that
Trudell likely staged the stunt by intentionally tipping off members of the
media, the FBI recommended that Trudell be charged with assault with a
deadly weapon.

Infamously, the FBI targeted AIM leader Leonard Peltier Peltier was
convicted in the death of two FBI agents during a shoot out on the Pine
Ridge Reservation that also left an AIM member dead. The FBI had been
engaged in a ruthless war on AIM, similar in intensity as its violent
campaign against the Black Panthers. Four men were originally charged in
the deaths of the two FBI agents (no one was ever charged over the death of
the AIM member). One had all charges against him dropped due to lack of
evidence. The other two, who were tried separately from Peltier, were
acquitted when a jury found they had acted in self-defense.

The FBI, which long had Peltier in its sights, directed U.S. attorneys
<https://www.huffpost.com/entry/leonard-peltier-prison-clemency-biden_n_618049f3e4b059d0bfc19e5c>
to
pour resources into prosecuting Peltier. Peltier was convicted of the
murders and sentenced to two consecutive life sentences, despite the
intimidation of key witnesses
<https://www.huffpost.com/entry/leonard-peltier-prison-clemency-biden_n_618049f3e4b059d0bfc19e5c>
(three
of whom later retracted their testimony) and withholding of ballistic
evidence
<https://www.amnestyusa.org/press-releases/after-38-years-time-to-release-indigenous-leader-leonard-peltier/>
failing
to link the bullets fired to Peltier’s gun. Even one of the prosecutors who
helped put Peltier behind bars later called
<https://www.huffpost.com/entry/leonard-peltier-prison-clemency-biden_n_618049f3e4b059d0bfc19e5c>
for
his release. Eventually, with many of its leaders in prison, AIM disbanded
in 1978.

Unfortunately, surveillance of indigenous protesters lives on. During the
Dakota Access Pipeline protests at Standing Rock, law enforcement
contracted with a security firm to pilfer through activists’ social media
<https://www.rightsanddissent.org/news/repression-continues-standing-rock/> and
surveil protesters using drones
<https://www.stopspying.org/latest-news/2020/10/21/for-indigenous-peoples-surveillance-is-nothing-new>.
Predictably, the FBI defaulted to allegations of terrorism, sending Joint
Terrorism Task Forces
<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/10/standing-rock-fbi-investigation-dakota-access>
after
Water Protectors. An FBI agent showed up in the hospital room
<https://drive.google.com/file/d/1z-i_XCoZub8ISKEe5DzjoMh0bPS5u1Xm/view> of
one protester as she was about to be wheeled into surgery and confiscated
evidence needed in a lawsuit against police. Another protestor pleaded
guilty to charges relating to the firing of a gun owned by an FBI informant
<https://theintercept.com/2017/12/11/standing-rock-dakota-access-pipeline-fbi-informant-red-fawn-fallis/>
infiltrating
Standing Rock.

Law enforcement crackdowns and FBI surveillance of indigenous liberation
movements are continuous constraints upon the power of organizers. It
remains a black mark upon our history – and present.
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