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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://popularresistance.org/the-fbi-is-an-enemy-of-indigenous-liberation/">popularresistance.org</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">The FBI Is An Enemy Of Indigenous Liberation <br></h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">By Cody Bloomfield - October 10, 2022 </div></div>
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<img src="cid:ii_l94cyuo30" alt="image.png" width="438" height="246"><br><p><font size="1">Above Photo: On Indigenous Peoples’ Day, we remember how the FBI
surveilled and repressed AIM and other indigenous liberation movements.</font></p>
<p>In 1969, American Indian Movement (AIM) activists occupied Alcatraz Island, <a href="https://digilab.libs.uga.edu/exhibits/exhibits/show/civil-rights-digital-history-p/american-indian-movement">invoking the Sioux Treaty of 1868</a>,
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.</p>
<p>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 <a href="https://www.se.edu/native-american/wp-content/uploads/sites/49/2019/09/NAS-2007-Proceedings-Baylor.pdf">emboldened</a> 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.</p>
<p>Predictably, AIM also caught the attention of the FBI and law enforcement.</p>
<p>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 <a href="https://boundarystones.weta.org/2021/10/29/remembering-american-indian-movements-occupation-bureau-indian-affairs">revoked</a> offers of housing. Reasoning that the Bureau of Indian Affairs should belong to indigenous people, AIM activists <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/01/24/native-americans-occupied-bureau-indian-afffairs-nixon/">decided to occupy</a> the building. As AIM leaders held a press conference outside, police in riot gear <a href="https://boundarystones.weta.org/2021/10/29/remembering-american-indian-movements-occupation-bureau-indian-affairs">attacked</a> the activists inside. What started as an impromptu occupation escalated to a siege. Trapped inside the building, AIM members <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/01/24/native-americans-occupied-bureau-indian-afffairs-nixon/">dropped a banner</a> rechristening the Bureau of Indian Affairs the “Native American Embassy.” They also <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/01/24/native-americans-occupied-bureau-indian-afffairs-nixon/">liberated documents</a>,
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 <a href="https://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2017/jul/13/john-trudell-fbi-file/">came to categorize</a> AIM members as “potentially dangerous because of…activity in groups engaged in activities inimical to [the] US.”</p>
<p>Behind the scenes, emboldened by AIM’s militancy, the FBI conducted
an elaborate surveillance campaign. Using confidential sources and
secret agents, the FBI <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3216216-1360476-0-File-01-Section-01-pdf">spied</a> on
AIM meetings, internal deliberations, and demonstrations. In addition
to scrabbling for evidence of illegal behavior, FBI files <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3216216-1360476-0-File-01-Section-01-pdf">include extensive notes</a> 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 <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/62428542.pdf">attempted to discredit</a> AIM
through affiliations with other militant groups and communist
influences, going so far as to label the guns AIM members carried as “<a href="http://www.noparolepeltier.com/letters.html">Communist automatic assault rifles</a>.” FBI analysts <a href="https://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2017/jul/13/john-trudell-fbi-file/">tried to link</a> AIM
Press Secretary George Christopher Robers to Mexican-American militant
groups and Symbionese Liberation Army (which kidnapped Patty Hearst)
with little success.</p>
<p>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. <a href="https://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2017/jul/13/john-trudell-fbi-file/">Despite concluding</a> 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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>The FBI, which long had Peltier in its sights, <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/leonard-peltier-prison-clemency-biden_n_618049f3e4b059d0bfc19e5c">directed U.S. attorneys</a> to
pour resources into prosecuting Peltier. Peltier was convicted of the
murders and sentenced to two consecutive life sentences, <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/leonard-peltier-prison-clemency-biden_n_618049f3e4b059d0bfc19e5c">despite the intimidation of key witnesses</a> (three of whom later retracted their testimony) and <a href="https://www.amnestyusa.org/press-releases/after-38-years-time-to-release-indigenous-leader-leonard-peltier/">withholding of ballistic evidence</a> failing to link the bullets fired to Peltier’s gun. Even one of the prosecutors who helped put Peltier behind bars <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/leonard-peltier-prison-clemency-biden_n_618049f3e4b059d0bfc19e5c">later called</a> for his release. Eventually, with many of its leaders in prison, AIM disbanded in 1978.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, surveillance of indigenous protesters lives on. During
the Dakota Access Pipeline protests at Standing Rock, law enforcement
contracted with a security firm to <a href="https://www.rightsanddissent.org/news/repression-continues-standing-rock/">pilfer through activists’ social media</a> and surveil protesters <a href="https://www.stopspying.org/latest-news/2020/10/21/for-indigenous-peoples-surveillance-is-nothing-new">using drones</a>. Predictably, the FBI defaulted to allegations of terrorism, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/10/standing-rock-fbi-investigation-dakota-access">sending Joint Terrorism Task Forces</a> after Water Protectors. An FBI agent <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1z-i_XCoZub8ISKEe5DzjoMh0bPS5u1Xm/view">showed up in the hospital room</a> 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 <a href="https://theintercept.com/2017/12/11/standing-rock-dakota-access-pipeline-fbi-informant-red-fawn-fallis/">owned by an FBI informant</a> infiltrating Standing Rock.</p>
<p>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.</p>
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