Tribal Shame: Murder At Pine Ridge Reservation

It is not a secret that the tribal government at Pine Ridge reservation is corrupt. The case of Anna Mae Aquash, a Mi’kmaq from Nova Scotia is just one story about corruption. 33 years ago she was murdered. The man accused will be facing a jury this year.

A long time ago my father told me what his father had told him, that there was once a Lakota holy man, called “Drinks Water”, who dreamed what was to be… He dreamed that the four-leggeds were going back to the Earth, and that a strange race would weave a web all around the Lakotas. He said, “You shall live in square gray houses, in a barren land…” Sometimes dreams are wiser than waking. Black Elk (1932)

At Pine Ridge Reservation speaking out against the corruption in the tribal counsel can be a way to end your life early. Anna Mae Aquash was one who died while trying to improve conditions at the poorest place in the United States. Aquast was an activist working with the American Indian Movement (AIM). Arlo Looking Cloud and John Boy Graham were part of the group that silenced her in November 1975. According to those that live in and near the reservation the corruption of that time period remains today. Looking Cloud was a free man until 2003 when he was finally charged with her murder and put behind bars. But Looking Cloud was not the one who pulled the trigger that took Anna Mae’s life. The finger allegedly belonged to Graham. The U.S. charged him in 2003 also but “John Boy” had fled to Canada where he was a citizen. He has fought for against being extradited since. As of September 25, 2007 had yet again appealed for the order for extradition to the Canadian Supreme Court. Graham was finally returned to South Dakota on December 7, 2007. The now 52 year old plead not guilty to the charges of murder. After 33 years he will face a court room for the charges.

“I’m Indian all the way and always will be. I’m not going to stop fighting until I die, and I hope I’m a good example of a human being and of my tribe.”-Anna Mae Aquash

The case of Anna Mae is chilling. She was accused of being an informant to the FBI in 1975. She was brutally beaten, raped and shoot execution style by the organization she herself belonged to. AIM was filled with members who were corrupt and those who were not.

Anna Mae was from Canada. Nova Scotia to be exact. She was involved in the Teaching and Research in Bicultural Education School Project in Maine. The program is designed to teach young natives their heritage. She was at Pine Ridge with her husband Nogeeshik Aquash during the 71 day armed re-occupation of Wounded Knee happened in 1973. The couple was married by Wallace Black Elk during that period. She also marched in Washington during the 1972 Trail of Broken Treaties marich. In short the woman was a born activist. By the spring of 1975 her role in AIM was increasing. She was close to leaders Leonard Peltier and Dennis Banks. She worked for the Elders and Lakota people of Pine Ridge until her death.

She was found by the side of the road on February 24,1976. She had been there near Wanblee, South Dakota for about ten days. When the first medical practitioner, W.O. Brown examined her body he missed the bullet wound in her skull and listed her death as a result of exposure.

Because she was a Jane Doe her hands were cut off and sent to the Washington, D.C. bureau of the FBI for fingerprinting. There were agents present who knew who she was but they said nothing. She was buried as a Jane Doe. On March 10, 1976 her body was exhumed and a second autopsy conducted. This time the bullet wound showed that the young mother had been killed execution style.

There have been many theories behind the murder of Anna Mae but the one that stands out the most is the thought she was an FBI informant. To this day there has been no evidence that she worked for the FBI. Indeed at times she angered the FBI that were about the reservation after Wounded Knee. She spoke like a militant at times. In 1975 she is quoted as saying:

“These white people think this country belongs to them. They don’t realize that they are only in charge right now because there’s more of them than there are of us. The whole country changed with only a handful of raggedy-ass pilgrims that came over here in the 1500s. And it can take a handful of raggedy-ass Indians to do the same, and I intend to be one of those raggedy-ass Indians.”

The last 36 hours of Anna Mae’s life were filled with the modern ways of many not the tradition ones. She endured violence against women, mental, physical and sexual abuse that many indigenous now face. She was a proud woman. She was a First Nations woman. She was Canadian. She was murdered. For 33 years one who may have been the trigger man has walked free.

I have to admit when I started this article it was to be a broad topic but the story of Anna Mae knocked too loudly. As her daughter stated she was a woman, she was a mother, she was Canadian. It’s time for justice to finally visit her grave.