[Ppnews] Case Reopens On Dozens Of Pine Ridge Res. Deaths

[Political Prisoner News]

*Case Reopens On Dozens Of Pine Ridge Res. Deaths*

by CHARLES MICHAEL RAY 
<http://sdpb.drupal.publicbroadcasting.net/node/10159>

http://www.npr.org/2012/08/18/159058219/near-wounded-knee-years-of-alleged-injustice 


August 18, 2012 from SDPB <http://www.sdpb.org/radio/>

In the late 1960s, Native Americans fed up with what they called years 
of mistreatment by the federal government formed an organization known 
as the American Indian Movement, or AIM.

Founded in Minnesota, the group followed in the footsteps of the civil 
rights movement and took up protests across the country. One of those 
protests took place in 1973, when some AIM members occupied the town of 
Wounded Knee, S.D., located on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

Their protest followed the murder of an Oglala Lakota man and the failed 
impeachment of a tribal president that AIM members accused of 
corruption. The protests escalated into a violent standoff with federal 
authorities.

The 71-day siege was only the beginning of the turmoil on Pine Ridge. 
Local residents, like AIM member Milo Yellowhair, say the violence 
continued for years.

"There had been a tremendous amount of carnage on the reservation [and] 
it was almost a daily occurrence, when people were disappearing or died 
or were found dead," Yellowhair says. "We always called it a 'reign of 
terror.'"

*Federal Authority Distrusted*

Yellowhair says the violence in the 1970s left behind a festering wound. 
Many on the Pine Ridge Reservation believe that FBI officials backed the 
tribal police in carrying out assaults and murders against AIM supporters.

Today, widespread mistrust of the federal government continues, so much 
so that recently the Oglala Sioux Tribal Government asked U.S Attorney 
Brendan Johnson to look at 45 deaths that tribal officials believe have 
not seen justice. The cases include two unsolved execution-style murders 
in 1998. Johnson says he agreed to re-examine all 45 cases in question.

"Recognizing that it's very unusual for a U.S. attorney to go back and 
to agree to look at historic cases, it's nonetheless important because 
it's part of the journey that we're on to continue to build trust in 
these communities," Johnson says.

Johnson says FBI officials are also dedicated to keeping Indian country 
safe and he doesn't wish to tarnish the agency's reputation or current 
work with this new investigation. FBI officials have said they're 
cooperating fully with the review, but deny any involvement in crimes on 
Pine Ridge. The FBI refused to comment for this story.

*Skepticism On Both Sides*

John Trimback is the son of a former Pine Ridge FBI agent and 
co-authored the book, /American Indian Mafia/. He says allegations of 
wrongdoing on Pine Ridge against the FBI are false and perpetrated by 
suspicious sources.

"It's from the people who were involved in the rapes and the murders and 
the assaults on the Pine Ridge Reservation during that period," Trimback 
says. "I'm talking about, in general, the AIM leaders."

For their part, AIM leaders adamantly deny they were involved in crimes 
on Pine Ridge. AIM members like 72-year-old Madonna Thunderhawk welcome 
the U.S attorney's review of these old cases, but doubts justice will be 
served.

"I mean come on, the U.S. government investigating itself, again ... I'm 
skeptical," Thunderhawk says. "I'm glad it's happening [and] I'm going 
to sit here and watch."

*New Generation Carries The Wounds*

It's not only older AIM members who are watching.

On a recent day, a drum group on Pine Ridge played at the annual 
commemoration of the firefight that occurred in 1975 known as the 
Incident at Oglala. It left two FBI agents and an AIM member dead. Most 
of the young men around the large drum are the grandchildren of those 
who were here in the 1970s. Among them is Robert Watters.

"Now their time is over and now it's our time to be doing these things," 
Watters says. "It's just history repeating itself; I'm following in my 
grandma's footsteps, what she taught me all these years growing up."

U.S. Attorney Johnson says he has no timeline for the results of the 
review. It's doubtful, though, that the findings will calm the debate 
over just who is responsible for actions on the Pine Ridge Reservation. 
Regardless of fault, many here share in the U.S. attorney's hope that at 
the very least some sort of closure can be found.

Jan Susler
People's Law Office
1180 N. Milwaukee
Chicago, IL 60642
773/235-0070 x 118
jsusler at gmail.com <mailto:jsusler at gmail.com>

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/ppnews_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20120818/576375da/attachment.htm>