[News] The 50th anniversary of Wounded Knee ‘73 Occupation

[Anti-Imperialist News]

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For the 71 day occupation, Native warriors joined this act of defiance 
that reaffirmed Indigenous identity and solidarity from across Turtle 
Island, many of whom in the following 50 years have now passed onto the 
spirit world. 
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*IEN Honors the 50th anniversary of Wounded Knee ‘73 Occupation*

*This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Wounded Knee Occupation*, 
where members of the Oglala Lakota Nation and the American Indian 
Movement (AIM) occupied the town of Wounded Knee, South Dakota for 71 
days from Feb 27, 1973 – May 8, 1973. In the years leading up to the 
occupation, members of the Oglala Lakota Nation had endured years of 
hardship at the hands of the tribal council and chairman’s misuse of 
government funding that resulted in even more economic and social 
hardship for the people. For months before the siege, community meetings 
were conducted led by the Oglala Sioux Civil Rights Organization (OSCRO) 
in secret to address the graft, corruption, and to protect themselves 
from the violent intimidation tactics used by the tribal chairman 
Richard “Dickey” Wilson. His orders were carried out on anyone who dared 
hold him accountable for his crimes against his people by the 
self-proclaimed Guardians of the Oglala Nation (GOON Squad.) This time 
period became known as the Reign of Terror.

*On February 27th, at a tribal council meetin*g, and another attempt to 
impeach Wilson, all the tensions, anger, and grief over murdered and 
missing relatives came to a head. The meeting spilled out onto the 
street where the Oglala community members, chiefs, and leaders of AIM 
went into action and headed to Wounded Knee, SD on the Pine Ridge 
reservation to begin the “The Wounded Knee Occupation.” This would 
become a ‘last stand’ type of event as the days turned into weeks, and 
law enforcement agencies and military units were dispatched to the site. 
National and international media networks, journalists, and human rights 
leaders gathered at the blockaide in an effort to report what was 
happening inside and bear witness to the actions of the government. The 
US government brought in federal armored personnel, snipers and even put 
up roadblocks to prevent food coming in and to starve the warriors. 
Despite the blockade to prevent supplies from getting to the 
approximately 200 people who were hunkered down in the church and store 
on the site, there are stories and reports of the bravery and fortitude 
that helped to sustain the siege for the 71 day occupation.

*There were government representatives* dispatched by President Nixon to 
negotiate a settlement that would peacefully put an end to the siege. 
However, the US government wanted to end the occupation without agreeing 
to the demands even though what the People were asking for was already 
written in the treaties. The treaties, as written, provide the rights 
for Indigenous Peoples to speak for themselves in all matters related to 
Indigenous sovereignty, self-determination, and self-governance. 
Ultimately, the people wanted nothing more than for the US government to 
stop violating the provisions outlined and codified in the Ft. Laramie 
Treaty of 1868 
<http://report.mnb.email/t.js?s=63fe40392f6c4b3e3332ec60&u=48018277&v=3&key=e162&skey=e83fdc6a7a&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.archives.gov%2Fmilestone-documents%2Ffort-laramie-treaty>. 
Soon after this treaty was signed it was broken when gold was found in 
the Black Hills. These lands were set aside in that treaty as exclusive 
to the Lakota Peoples. These are still the sacred lands of the Lakota 
Peoples, where ancestors were laid to rest and ancient ceremonies and 
rites were observed for countless generations before the colonizers 
arrived on Turtle Island. Native warriors at Wounded Knee also took a 
firm stance to convey to all that Indigenous Peoples’ traditional ways 
of living and being must not be forgotten because it is the traditional 
spiritual ways that provide guidance and direction in our lives - then 
and now. The companion rally-cry during the weeks of the occupation and 
beyond is that we’re still here and we’re here to stay.

*The first occupation occurred at Wounded Knee in 1890* where over 400 
women, children and elders were brutally shot, tortured, and are now 
buried in a mass grave, known as the Wounded Knee Massacre. Again in 
1973, there was bloodshed that took place at the second Wounded Knee 
occupation. Two Lakota men were shot and killed and several more were 
wounded by US federal agents.

*For the 71 day occupation, Native warriors joined this act of defiance* 
that reaffirmed Indigenous identity and solidarity from across Turtle 
Island, many of whom in the following 50 years have now passed onto the 
spirit world. One of the original Wounded Knee warriors, Leonard “Lenny” 
Foster (Diné), Board member of the International Indian Treaty Council, 
and spiritual advisor to Leonard Peltier, shared this, in a recent phone 
interview with IEN, “There was a lot of frustration and anger by the 
Indian People towards the United States government and the local law 
enforcement officials in these border towns. Indian People were being 
oppressed, there was a lot of racism and discrimination towards Indian 
People throughout this country. The takeover of this particular 
historical site demonstrated the seriousness and commitment of the 
American Indian movement.”

*The occupation of Wounded Knee ‘73 was not an isolated incident* for 
American Indian people taking a stance to assert their sovereignty. In 
fact there were many other occupations and demonstrations that led up to 
Wounded Knee, including the almost 2-year long standoff at the old 
federal prison on Alcatraz island, known now as the Alcatraz Occupation 
<http://report.mnb.email/t.js?s=63fe40392f6c4b3e3332ec60&u=48018279&v=3&key=65b4&skey=e83fdc6a7a&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DU9sBk8Stms4>, 
stand off at Big Mountain 
<http://report.mnb.email/t.js?s=63fe40392f6c4b3e3332ec60&u=48018281&v=3&key=6e42&skey=e83fdc6a7a&url=https%3A%2F%2Fsocialism.com%2Ffs-article%2Fstandoff-at-big-mountain%2F>, 
and United Indians of All Tribes retakes Fort Lawton/Discovery Park 
<http://report.mnb.email/t.js?s=63fe40392f6c4b3e3332ec60&u=48018283&v=3&key=c0cb&skey=e83fdc6a7a&url=https%3A%2F%2Fdepts.washington.edu%2Fcivilr%2FFtLawton_takeover.htm>to 
protest the declining state of Native reservations, and others.

*Another demonstration of Indigenous resistance leading up to Wounded 
Knee ‘73,* included the 1972 Trail of Broken Treaties 
<http://report.mnb.email/t.js?s=63fe40392f6c4b3e3332ec60&u=48018285&v=3&key=31aa&skey=e83fdc6a7a&url=https%3A%2F%2Fabolitionnotes.org%2Ftrail-of-broken-treaties-20point-plat>which 
brought caravans of Native activists to Washington DC to meet with the 
Nixon administration and BIA Director. The people were ready for this 
meeting with a 20-point position paper that included critical analyses 
of the issues they faced to include outlining very clear solutions. 
Despite this and the powerful resurgence of American Indian resistance 
that resulted in the BIA takeover, the US government did not make any 
significant American Indian policy change.

*Manny Pino (Acoma Pueblo), IEN Board President and Native Scholar* 
described Wounded Knee as a pivotal moment in contemporary Indigenous 
history because it /“created awareness of the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty, 
and Treaty rights in general. It’s really the first time that grassroots 
Native people took an initiative to really do a content analysis of the 
[Fort Laramie] Treaty. One of the major things that emerged from the 
research back then was the impact of gold mining in the late 1800s, and 
the forced displacement and relocation of the Oglala Lakota people to 
confinement on reservations. It was gold that was found in the Black 
Hills that precipitated the United States government to break the 
initial 1851 Treaty. When the 1851 treaty was rewritten and then 
renegotiated the 1868 Treaty changed the boundaries and reduced the size 
of the reservation from the initial borders and boundaries of the 1851 
Treaty. The stimulus of gold created for the federal government a 
process of priority to create Indian reservations. That is one of the 
major outcomes of that research analysis of the treaty, that it became 
more public information at the time.”/

*/This timeline of Indigenous resistance and resurgence with the start 
of the American Indian Movement emerging out of Alcatraz, it is said 
that the concept of “Red Power” was born from the occupation of Wounded 
Knee ‘73. Red Power gave Indigenous Peoples new momentum to take on the 
US colonial system of oppression./*

*IEN’s Executive Director, Tom BK Goldtooth (Diné/Dakota) shares*,/“For 
me, the Wounded Knee occupation was a beginning to find the need to 
change the US system that did not recognize who we are, to confront the 
extreme racism in the border towns of our reservations, and the failures 
of the US government to recognize our Treaties. We knew what the issues 
were, and how it not only involved the US government’s Bureau of Indian 
Affairs, and other agencies, but was internalized within our Navajo 
Nation whose elected governmental leadership were singled out and often 
compromised in supporting coal mining development (and oil.) The 
standing up of the Oglala Lakota and other Lakota/Dakota/Nakota and 
Indigenous Peoples from other Tribes helped me and many others feel we 
had a role to seek a better tomorrow within our reservations and 
communities. Seeing the grassroots Ikce Wicasa at Pine Ridge, in their 
historical location of Wounded Knee to stand up against their chairman 
Dickie Wilson and his goons gave me strength– it gave many Indigenous 
Peoples strength, it was called Red Power. I saw this was what the 
colonial government did not want, including the extraction corporations. 
They wanted to continue to use the tactics of divide-and-conquer. It was 
a wakeup call for us, our generation at the time. Wounded Knee ‘73 in my 
mind was about reclaiming our Indigenous lands, our sovereignty, our 
rights, our dignity - and the rights of the common people (Ikce Wicasa) 
of the Oglala Lakota people at Pine Ridge. ”/

*The armed standoff at Wounded Knee laid a course for American Indian* 
advocacy that continues to the present day. The political ideology 
during this time was not that of other liberation movements because it 
was at Wounded Knee that leaders exclaimed that our traditional 
spiritual ways are what provides us with guidance and direction. At the 
time this was unprecedented. Reviving the warrior spirit was also 
important, so much so that people were willing to give their lives for 
the struggle. During this time period, Indigenous resistance was focused 
on protecting lands and the Peoples connected to that land, and 
ultimately to take a stand against assimilation and fighting for 
cultural and spiritual revival.

*Lenny Foster shared*, /“Wounded Knee provided that pride and dignity, 
it provided that experience where a whole change, or renaissance 
occurred as a result. Up until that point in 1969-1970, a lot of Indian 
people were ashamed of being Indian. They didn’t have long hair. It was 
a real down time, until AIM came onto the political landscape and the 
leadership that I became acquainted with was very special… people that 
we may never see like that again. The experience of Wounded Knee brought 
forth pride, dignity and awareness, and every effort to raise the level 
of our consciousness was done through direct action and confrontation. 
It would've been much easier to just sit down and negotiate, but the 
[US] government was not willing to do that. They are still introducing 
legislation to do away with Indian people. Indian rights are serious 
business, and that is what Wounded Knee ‘73 is about. We must never 
forget it.”/

*Manny Pino also shared*,/“Wounded Knee made people aware of these 
historical events that were interpreted from the side of the colonizers, 
[otherwise known as] U.S history. After that, AIM and actions like 
Wounded Knee stimulated Indian educators to say ‘we need Native American 
Studies being taught in colleges and universities; we need American 
Indian Studies being taught in high school and middle school curriculum. 
It really stimulated that institutional reaction that we have today like 
getting a Bachelors, Masters, and PhD degree in American Indian Studies. 
That didn’t exist before these actions and so-called radical movements 
that initiated this type of thinking that we have today– not only in 
scholarship but in mainstream grassroots societies.”/

*Lenny Foster emphasized*, /“The new generation must understand this 
history. Respect this history. Research this and discuss it.” Foster 
reminds us that during this time, practicing Native cultures, 
traditions, and ceremonies was outlawed. “Sundance went underground for 
many years. It was illegal to participate in your own ceremonies… Indian 
religion was outlawed, Wounded Knee ‘73 and the American Indian Movement 
revived a lot of that. That is why it is important to remember 
sacrifices that were made, commitments that were made, the vows that 
were made at Wounded Knee.”/

*The fight for Indigenous rights, sovereignty, and self-determination 
still persists today*, as does the need for Indigenous resistance too. 
Our lands, sacred sites, cultures, languages, and utter existence remain 
under attack, however, the elders and leaders from Wounded Knee ‘73 
remind us that our traditional ways of being and knowing– our 
traditional spiritual ways– is what empowers us to be warriors, 
protectors and defenders of not only our people and our lands, but all 
living things.


	

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