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[BEATING DRUMS] [NON-ENGLISH SINGING]

SPEAKER 1: From the perspective of the American Indian Movement and the Oglala Sioux civil rights organization, Wounded Knee, 1973, followed a year long campaign against the Bureau of Indian Affairs tribal chairman Dick Wilson. The seizure of the trading post and other buildings in Wounded Knee on the night of February 27, 1973, by the Civil Rights organization and by its invitees, the American Indian Movement, was one of the many forms of opposition to Wilson. Opposition, which had included in the year previous unsuccessful impeachment proceedings.

But in the eyes of the occupiers, Wounded Knee, 1973, was a forum for a larger issue, a larger issue than the alleged tribal corruption on the local reservation level. The issue was the violated Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, a treaty which had been made with all eight Teton Sioux nations, signed by their traditional Chiefs and headmen, and ratified by the American Congress.

Among other pledges, the Treaty of 1868 guaranteed that peace would exist between the United States and the Indians, that the US would punish anyone, Indian or White, who violated the treaty, and reimburse the injured person for the loss. It provided that the Sioux and Arapaho would have a reservation of everything West of the Missouri River in present South Dakota, the area North of Northern Platte River and East of the Bighorn Mountains in Wyoming. And these would be unceded Indian territory where no other Whites would settle or pass through. And the Indians agreed to give up claims to other lands.

It provided that the reservation, if it yielded less than 160 acres of farming land per person, that the government would provide nearby land. That anyone living on the reservation might take land for his own or his family and own it privately. Otherwise, the land was held in common by the tribe. It provided that the United States could pass laws about passing down land to descendants.

It provided that the government would provide educational and economic buildings. An agent who would live on the reservation and who could forward complaints of treaty violations for prosecution. It provided that assistance for farming, clothing, and necessities for 30 years, food for four years, oxen and a cow for every family that farmed. And it provided that the treaty could be changed only by a vote of 3/4 of the adult members of the tribe.

The self government by traditional Chiefs and headsmen, [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] in the Lakota language, was replaced in 1934 after the narrow passage of the Indian Reorganization Act by a referendum of the Oglala voters. Many traditional Sioux, in particular, full bloods, ' did not understand or were not interested in that election. But the advent of the new parliamentary form of government would come to have serious effects on their lives.

The system has been unpopular in many quarters of Pine Ridge since its inception. One indication of political instability on the reservation during the last 40 years is evidenced by the fact that there have been 20 two-year administrations. If incumbent Richard Wilson succeeds himself tomorrow, he will be the first tribal chairman in history to have done so.

[BEATING DRUMS]

[NON-ENGLISH SINGING]

In today's program, part 2 of Voices From The Reservation, we will hear from many Oglala Indians who live under the Indian Reorganization Act today. They will be voting Thursday in the 21st tribal election, perhaps the most controversial and sensational election on any Indian reservation since 1934. And the outcome may decide, in many minds, at least, the validity of the 71-day occupation last spring. The shooting war has come to the ballot boxes.

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Before the January 22 primary election for tribal chairman, Russell Means, the only American Indian Movement spokesman ever to run for tribal office on a reservation, appeared at a campaign rally in the small village of Batesland, about 35 miles from his hometown of Porcupine. Although Means is often referred to as a treaty candidate, his platform also includes such pledges as the promise to set up customs houses on all incoming reservation roads. These are excerpts from our conversation.

RUSSELL MEANS: --on all the roads leading into the reservation, primarily to stop liquor, which is against the law both tribally and governmentally, from liquor going and coming on the reservation. This way, we'll stop the bootleggers. This way we'll also stop all most crimes. In fact, every crime committed on the Pine Ridge Reservation is alcohol related. Every crime. And also to select persons that are worthy of coming into the Oglala nation.

I, or more specifically, my campaign team, has been trying their best, along with my attorneys, to ensure that the tribal election here on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation will be honest and fair. As of now, as you know, prior to December, there were no election laws on the reservation. And it is up to the incumbent administration to set those election laws, and then, in fact, appoint the election board.

Dickie Wilson has appointed an election board. One member of the election board is the biggest bootlegger on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. He's been convicted twice of bootlegging, which is against the federal law and against tribal law. Another is a convicted felon, Musso. And this is not a pun, but the one who has been convicted twice of bootlegging, his name is Dave Brewer. The other is Bunko Musso. He's called Bunko because in 1970, he was convicted of embezzling from the Oglala Sioux tribe and their sacred Sundance.

There is another one on the election, it's a three man election board, all appointed by Dick Wilson, who is a chronic alcoholic by the name of Rock. His last name, Mr Rock. These three are going to ascertain and count the votes once they have been collected by, again, a Wilson appointee who goes around to the different polling places, collects the ballot boxes, and brings them back, by himself, without any monitors, to be counted by this alleged election board.

Now in an attempt to ensure a fair and honest election, my attorneys and my campaign supporters have went to the federal judge, Andrew Bogue, in Rapid City, South Dakota. As you know, or may not know, Andrew Bogue recused himself from trying Dennis Banks and my case on the Wounded Knee charges because he was prejudiced. He admitted it.

And now we went before him in an attempt to get the federal judicial system to use their authority and their discretion in ensuring under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 a fair and honest election. This is what he has decided. Last week, when we submitted these two motions to him, he dismissed one motion.

The other motion was he allowed the government two weeks to respond, and then two weeks further for the defense, us, or the plaintiffs, in other words, us who made the motion, to respond to the government's response. And then he would hold a hearing. That would take it almost into March, if not March. And the elections would be all over.

So you see, once again, just as in prior to Wounded Knee, here, the Oglala people-- By the way, we're submitting a petition from the Oglala people on the reservation, demanding and asking from the United States of America, the Oglala Sioux tribal council, and the Oglala Sioux election board that fair, impartial, and unbiased observers be allowed to monitor every polling place, the counting of the votes at the polling places, and the counting of the votes in Pine Ridge by the election board.

Again, we are going to the Eighth Circuit court of Appeals in an attempt to once again reverse that racist judge Bogue and one last gap. You see, another thing is, is we went the 18-year-old vote. The government already ruled during Wounded Knee that we could have the 18-year-old vote and then reversed itself come time for elections. Because they know who the 18-year-olds are going to vote for, me.

At any rate, here we go. Here we have a conspiracy by the United States of America, the judicial branch, the Bureau of Indian affairs, and its puppet tribal government in an effort to keep us from ensuring the people here on Pine Ridge an honest and fair election.

SPEAKER 1: In other words, there's an attempt to enjoin or stop the election because 18-year-olds could not vote here. Weren't they guaranteed that right to vote by the 26th Amendment that was passed just recently and ratified by all the states and became the law of the land?

RUSSELL MEANS: Yes, but if you remember, in the previous election, there was an electorate of approximately 2,800 people. No, I take that back, 2,600 people, in the last election. During Wounded Knee, over 1,400 eligible Oglala people submitted a petition to the Department of Interior demanding that the tribal government, the existing tribal government that was here during Wounded Knee, Dickie Wilson and his bunch, and the Indian Reorganization Act be struck, gotten rid of.

And according to the laws that we are governed under now, that was a legitimate request. But the government came back and said, no, 18-year-olds are eligible to vote now, and so are Indians that live off the reservation, they're allowed to vote. So therefore, the petition is invalid with not enough signatures.

Now comes time for election and they use the sovereignty bit to their whims, the government does. In other words, now they're saying, well, the tribe has self-determination and self-government, so we can't impose the year old vote on the tribe. See, only when it befits the government and it's to their benefit do they bring in these types of decisions.

So here we are, once again, knocking on all doors of the government, of the tribe, of the US attorney, the Justice Department. And again, once again, the door is being slammed in our faces. If it is, in fact, an honest and fair election, hopefully we can force it to be so through the legitimate means now available to us with the United States of America. Providing its fair and honest, I will overwhelmingly be the next president of the Oglala Sioux tribe.

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SPEAKER 1: Pine Ridge Village is the largest town on the Pine Ridge Reservation. It is counted last in the nine voting districts. Votes are cast there in Billy Mills Hall, a building named after the Sioux track star who won the Olympic gold medal for his people in the 1960s. Just before the polls closed January 22, I spoke with Del Eastman in Billy Mills Hall as voters came in, voted, and went out. Eastman was appointed as chief of the BIA police on the reservation by current tribal chairman, Richard Wilson.

Several candidates have mentioned that they feel that there might be tampering with the ballot boxes. Do you feel there's any substance to that claim at all?

DEL EASTMAN: None at all. I feel extremely confident in the capabilities of members of the election board that have been appointed. And we have been given no reason to doubt their capabilities.

SPEAKER 1: How will the monitoring take place this evening when the final votes are counted?

DEL EASTMAN: As I understand it, the ballot boxes will be brought in by the voting judges. And they'll be in their care all the way in until they're brought into the office. And at that time, they'll be counted. Now I also understand that there will be a preliminary count made at the polling place when the polls close and then an official tally will be made here at the office with the full election board.

SPEAKER 1: What time do you expect the results to be in?

DEL EASTMAN: Well, the polls close at 7:00, and probably approximately 9:00 or 10:00, there should be an unofficial result should be made then. I don't just how many counts they officially make, and how long this will take.

SPEAKER 1: What role is your department, the Bureau of Indian Affairs police department, taking in the election?

DEL EASTMAN: None at all. The only role that we're playing is the role that we've always played, and that's to maintain law and order.

SPEAKER 1: In other words, they won't be helping with the monitoring or anything like that, that is, the BIA policemen?

DEL EASTMAN: Absolutely not. This is not a function of a police officer, and it's not the role that we're going to play.

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SPEAKER 1: Gladys Bissonette is a grandmother, a resident of Pine Ridge Village, and one of the many Oglalas who occupied Wounded Knee last spring. As a founder of the Oglala Sioux civil rights organization, she recently reflected on the coming election.

GLADYS BISSONETTE: I think the pressure is a lot worse now with the BIA police and the goons threatening, intimidating people into voting for Richard Wilson. I've had quite a few Indian people talk to me yesterday stating that even before the primary, they had been picked up by the BIA police and beaten about the back with saps, stating that if they didn't vote for Dick Wilson, it would be a lot worse.

SPEAKER 1: Do you think that intimidation will continue now as the general election approaches in February?

GLADYS BISSONETTE: I think this is one system that Dick Wilson is using. Won't help him any among the Indian people. The Indian people scare easy, but they also have a stubbornness handed down from our ancestors, that when you try to force an Indian, a full blood, at least, he will stand up, he will get that much stronger, and he gets so stubborn that he would just will not go for any enforcement like Dick Wilson is putting upon them today.

I think that the men, Indian people that he is trying to intimidate and threaten, has driven them away from Dick Wilson more than bringing them to him.

SPEAKER 1: Gladys, do you feel that there's going to be a problem now with Russell Means's candidacy in view of the fact that he's now on trial in St Paul, Minnesota? Do many people on the reservation feel that if he's convicted there, he can't be tribal chairman even if elected?

GLADYS BISSONETTE: That is the propaganda that the Wilson goons and the BIA clan are putting out right today. They are trying to scare the Indians that Russell Means is now on trial. And if he won the general election in February, that the Indian people would not have a leader when Russell Means gets convicted.

But I, as an Indian, have stood up for my Indian rights and stood up for the Indian people. And I am going to stress this in all the campaign talks that I am going to put out from now on till February 7. And I predict that there will be no convictions out of that Wounded Knee occupation.

If the government had listened to us in the first place, there wouldn't have to be no Wounded Knee. There wouldn't have to be no goon squads. There wouldn't have to be a Dick Wilson. And there wouldn't have to be a fascism on the reservation, trying to force all Indians to crawl. We were on our knees, but they're trying to force us to crawl. But we have stood up and we're going to stand up on our two feet and be proud that we are Indian.

SPEAKER 1: Do you still think that there's a problem, or are some people not going to vote for Russell because he's on trial?

GLADYS BISSONETTE: I don't really think so anymore. All the Indians that I have talked to within the last couple of days, I think I made them understand. And being Indian as they are, same as I, we work with the great spirit. And we know that he is watching each and every one of his people throughout the world. And he knows what corruption is, he knows right from wrong.

And he says that when this shoe is worn on the other foot, it's going to really turn out bad for the people that are trying to corrupt this whole world. And with our tribal and BIA leaders trying to put the Indians down, and each time one of us stand up and say, we're Indian, we either take a beating or we get killed, the great father sees all of that, and I think he will correct it soon.

SPEAKER 1: Are ceremony is being held on the reservation now for the coming election?

GLADYS BISSONETTE: Yes, we have been holding ceremonies ever since August. We were misled when we first came out of Wounded Knee into the back to the bottle. But a lot of us have come to our senses, and we must carry on with the struggle. This bottle is the way the government has bought the Indians off, and in fact, put us down to where we don't have a voice.

But now that we are getting back up to where some of the people that know right from wrong are standing up and listening to us now, I think these ceremonies are the only thing that have taken us into Wounded Knee, brought us out of Wounded Knee, and they are the only spiritual help we get. The only help we get is the spiritualism from these ceremonies.

This ceremony is so sacred that we just can't afford to allow any drunken people in there. Some do. And of course, there are some medicine men that are being bought off on the wrong side. But right up until today, I could see the medicine men that are using their powers wrongfully, helping the fascist government, are losing their powers now. And there are very few that have the real powers now. And I can almost name all of them. There are not very many.

SPEAKER 1: What kind of an atmosphere do you anticipate will be around the voting boxes, around the ballot places on February 7 in the general election?

GLADYS BISSONETTE: Well, according to my feelings and the way I see things today, I am pretty sure it's not going to go like this primary. We were being harassed by drunks. We were being harassed by police. I think this general election is going to mean a lot to the Indian people.

If Russell Means had Gerald One Feather as a competitor, there would have been some competition there. But with Dick Wilson as running with Russ Means at the general, I hardly think there would be any harassment or any police brutality, because this is their last chance.

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SPEAKER 1: Mrs. Pretty Bird Good Weasel is a 75-year-old Oglala who works part time in the old age home in the village of Pine Ridge. Her mother was a teenager when she witnessed the 1890 massacre in Wounded Knee.

PRETTY BIRD GOOD WEASEL: We can be enemies from the White people, or the White people could be enemies from us. No, we have to be friends. Isn't that right? Yes, that's the way it's supposed to be.

SPEAKER 1: Who would make a good tribal president?

PRETTY BIRD GOOD WEASEL: Well, I've got to see. There's different presidents that went by. A good president should do something. They do it other places, but they don't do it here. They don't help the old peoples. Now this tribal council should have somebody to cut wood and issue wood to old people, let's burn wood. That's what they're doing in [INAUDIBLE]. Just to the old people. So they don't have to--

Then there are retired people, you know. That's what they do up there. Some other places are good like that. But here there's nothing like that. That's the way I have seen it and know it. They should help the old people. They know where the old peoples live. But they don't. Look like they're a president for themselves, for their own selves. Get the benefit out of it for their own selves.

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SPEAKER 1: The following is a random conversation recorded in a traveling automobile on Pine Ridge. The speakers asked not to be named.

SPEAKER 2: But hell like old Dick. And I'm sure--

SPEAKER 3: He's buying drinks again, but--

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

SPEAKER 2: On his last campaign, used to go to Rushville and White Clay and Martin and [INAUDIBLE], all over. And by the end of it, it's drinks, you know.

SPEAKER 4: They really loved him.

SPEAKER 3: Oh, Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER 2: Well, they all liked him right off. I mean, you know, last election, she never really liked him because we figured he was getting a change.

SPEAKER 4: You know, I didn't vote for him.

SPEAKER 2: And we god damn sure got a change, you know what.

SPEAKER 4: I thought there'd be some happenings, you know. Both young guys.

SPEAKER 2: But he's actually turning around doing the same goddamn thing this election as he did last time, you know.

SPEAKER 3: He didn't mean any--

SPEAKER 4: Yeah.

SPEAKER 2: I see it after he--

SPEAKER 5: Where's our papers? Where's our papers?

SPEAKER 2: After he got in office, some Indian walked up to him in Rushville and asked him to buy him a beer, and he said, oh, shit on you. Go buy your own beer. I got what I want now. That's the attitude he took as soon as he took office, you know.

SPEAKER 4: Tomorrow, you're not laying around the house, you sort them out.

SPEAKER 3: Tomorrow I'll be at the polls.

SPEAKER 2: So me and him got a little cash right off. I just told him, I said, yeah, you ain't proving shit to me.

SPEAKER 4: I'll come and check [INAUDIBLE].

SPEAKER 3: The three stars come [INAUDIBLE].

SPEAKER 2: I told his number one campaign manager, you better start doing some of these things to straighten this reservation out. Ah, give him time. He just got in. And that's--

SPEAKER 4: And the fallen fuckers stood down--

SPEAKER 2: I said, he's been in three months. I said, well, that's plenty of time to get started.

SPEAKER 3: I'll stick right by.

SPEAKER 2: So back and forth like that all the way through.

SPEAKER 4: Joe, should we shell all these ballot boxes in?

SPEAKER 2: Might as well.

SPEAKER 4: Go right down the hall, let's go down the fucking election board?

SPEAKER 2: Yeah.

SPEAKER 4: When they [INAUDIBLE]?

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

SPEAKER 3: This really warms you up.

SPEAKER 2: What is it?

SPEAKER 5: But actually, Joe. Joe. Joe, I won't be able to fart around close to the ballot boxes.

SPEAKER 4: I will.

SPEAKER 5: They'll knock me out of the running.

SPEAKER 4: Now Harry, you'll take--

SPEAKER 5: I'll sit right by that ballot box. I don't care. Get somebody else too, you know. But I'm not going to leave it tomorrow morning. I'll be right there.

SPEAKER 4: Especially Pine Ridge. That's--

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SPEAKER 1: Hobart Keith is a 51-year-old professional artist who for the last two years has been one of the 20 tribal council representatives on Pine Ridge. Keith compares the polarity now existing on the reservation with the warlike conditions of Belfast and Derry, Northern Ireland. He was one of 11 other candidates for tribal chairman eliminated in the January 22 run-off.

How did you get in trouble with the AIM camp?

HOBART KEITH: Well, with the AIM camp, when I disagreed with them about destroying the White man's property, that just aggravates him. Why antagonize somebody. It's like you're a little boy and you go up to a cage and you poke a bear, or you're out in the wilderness and that bear is eating cherries and he's bothering nobody and you got a sharp stick. And, well, you're a grown man. And you can poke that bear, you're going to make him mad. And he's bigger than you are, and he'll tear you up, you see. How the hell can 4/10 of a majority of over 200 million declare war against those odds.

SPEAKER 1: But the bear in the woods picking cherries, you said, is bothering no one. Do you think the White man is bothering no one.

HOBART KEITH: No, I was just using that as a comparison of the strength of the 200 and some million people against the 4/10 percent of the Indian. Oh, hell, the White man, he's bothering hell, he bothers himself. Look at the most heinous crime I ever heard of, selling young teenage boys to sex deviants into Houston, some guy from California, for $200. That's put on the back page.

But an Indian commits a crime around here, it's announced over TV for four or five days. And maybe it's just having components to make a Molotov cocktail. Or he has defended himself. One guy went to penitentiary because he was shot at and he shot back at the White man, killed a White man, so he went, the Indian went to penitentiary. Oh, hell, this justice here, it's not a two way street.

Never before in the history of this reservation has there been such a stranglehold on these people as right now. We're right in the middle of it, suspended in a sort of a state of limbo. I don't know which way to jump, you see. Not Wilson forces in particular, but the establishment, meaning the White rancher, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the Catholic church, the Jesuit Order, the shock troops of the papacy, and other lesser religions, you see.

[NON-ENGLISH SINGING]

SPEAKER 1: Poker Joe Moreville was one of a number of those vying for a spot in the race for tribal chairman. He too was defeated in the recent primary.

POKER JOE MOREVILE: It's an awful funny election coming up this time. Because people make indications they don't want Wilson. They're scared of Means. And then you go out and talk to them and it goes right back to the indications that Means did actually open up the world's eyes to the people. And you can talk to some other ones and they say that Wilson had guts enough to stand up to them, you know.

But you talk to other different people and there's different ideas that diff-- Like someone would come up and say that if it wasn't actually for Means and Wilson, none of this fighting would go on, you know. A lot of neutral people that didn't want to take either side interests. There's some people that was forced to take either side. And they made a lot of indications that they want some neutral candidate in there.

SPEAKER 1: What do you feel yourself? Do you feel that the takeover of Wounded Knee was good?

POKER JOE MOREVILE: In a sense, it was good. But it was wrong at the time because the people didn't really know what was going on. And they call them a bunch of militants that took it over. But after it's all over with and everything and it's all the people are all over the country, the eyes are starting to open up, like I said before, that the people's eyes are opening up to what actually is going on down here, [INAUDIBLE] getting harassed and harangued.

SPEAKER 1: And you feel that without the occupation of Wounded knee, the people around the country would not know of the problems of Indians on Pine Ridge?

POKER JOE MOREVILE: Yeah, I feel it took something like this to open up their eyes now. Just like any other place, like colored people, they've got a lot of done since that what's right down there. It opened up the eyes that what would happen if they didn't get what they felt was right for them.

[NON-ENGLISH SINGING]

SPEAKER 1: Following the January 22 primary election, I spoke with tribal chairman Richard Wilson in his Pine Ridge office. Wilson had placed third in the eight rural districts, but his strength in the village of Pine Ridge was so great that he edged out Gerald One Feather to place second in the election, and thus join the runoff against Russell Means. I asked Wilson what he saw as the main issue in the February 7 election.

RICHARD WILSON: Well, it's going to be between tribal government and apparently the treaties. Means is advocating doing away with tribal government and going back to the 1868 treaty type of law. And I think that's going to be the big issue. And of course, I'm a Constitution and bylaws man. I firmly believe in tribal government. I'm also a law and order man. I believe in law and order.

SPEAKER 1: You're talking now about the 1934 Reorganization Act, which is set up the tribal elective system here on the reservation as against the 1868 treaty, which existed, as I understand it, in a form of self-government before 1934?

RICHARD WILSON: Yes, I am. As far as I'm concerned, and I think if Means would sit down and read our Constitution and bylaws, the way I interpret it is these 1868 treaties are incorporated into our Constitution and bylaws in that we are authorized to deal with federal, state, and local agencies on behalf of Indian people.

SPEAKER 1: Do you feel that the occupation at Wounded Knee last year is still going to be a major issue in the coming election?

RICHARD WILSON: No, I don't think so. I think Means got all the votes he's going to get. It's quite a tragedy, but I don't think it's going to be a major issue.

SPEAKER 1: Do you feel that the reservation at this time is polarized along the lines that Oh, you might say between your supporters and those of the American Indian Movement?

RICHARD WILSON: Well, like I said, I don't think Means is going to get too many more votes. I think he's got what he's going to get. If the other votes were going to vote for Means, they's have done it and this go around.

SPEAKER 1: This was a large primary slate, as I understand it, 13 candidates. Now there are only two left, you and Russell Means. What do you feel the other people were voting for. Were they voting against both of you or now do you think those votes will swing to one side or the other?

RICHARD WILSON: I look for the majority of them other 11 candidates' votes to swing to my side. Basically, the Oglala Sioux people are law and order oriented, and I don't think that they're going to vote for the type of violence and destruction that Means would bring to this reservation.

SPEAKER 1: Is his constituency the full bloods here on the reservation?

RICHARD WILSON: No, not all of his constituents are. We're finding now that he had a lot of outside votes that come in Rapid City all around here, non-reservation votes.

SPEAKER 1: As the tribal council is set up, its bylaws and so forth, who is eligible to vote? Are you indicating that his votes were not eligible?

RICHARD WILSON: Yes, I am. Because in our election ordinance, we have a residency clause, and it's also in the Constitution and bylaws, of one year. Now, these people that came in from the outside and signed affidavits were lying. We know they don't live here. We don't know what we can do about it. Judges are going to have to watch the polls a whole lot closer. These people are going to have to be able to prove that they're residents of this reservation.

SPEAKER 1: Do you plan to have some sort of monitoring done at the general election on the 7th of February.

RICHARD WILSON: No, I don't. I don't think that the American Indian Movement should have been allowed to monitor this one because it caused a lot of our people to leave and not even vote. I don't think the news media ought to be allowed in there either. I don't think the cameras should be allowed in there. Indian people do not like to have this stuff going on while they're voting. This is their constitutional right to vote. And I don't plan on having anybody there. And I'm also going to see that they don't have anybody there.

SPEAKER 1: Are you planning on banning the news media from the reservation during the general election?

RICHARD WILSON: No, not from the reservation, but from the polling places, yes.

SPEAKER 1: From inside?

RICHARD WILSON: From actually being inside. I stood there for 20, 30 minutes the day that the primary there, and my heck, they was scaring more Indians away than was getting in there to vote.

SPEAKER 1: Means has said recently that the fact that he was the highest vote getter in the tribal election is an indication of the approval of the Wounded Knee occupation by the Oglala people.

RICHARD WILSON: I don't think that the outcome of this primary is that significant, that I may have a large group of Oglalas that have turned AIM, so to speak. Primary election merely gets us down to two candidates. I remember when Mr One Feather beat me by several hundred votes in a primary, and I come back to beat him by 600 or 700 votes in the general. I don't think it's significant. All it does is weed us down to two candidates.

SPEAKER 1: At one time, as I understand it, several months ago, perhaps last summer, the tribal council here under your administration banned the activities of the American Indian Movement on the reservation. If you are re-elected tribal chairman, will that ban be reinstituted?

RICHARD WILSON: If I remember right, it's still in effect. And if I'm re-elected, you better know it's going to be reinstituted if it's not already. Because I won't tolerate them. And I won't call in the Marshals this time either. We'll handle them ourselves. We have one of the finest BIA police forces in the country. When we put them together, they'll be able to take care of whatever needs to be taken care of.

SPEAKER 1: Was that ban by the tribal court here overturned by a federal judge in South Dakota? And if so, could that happen again, Mr Wilson?

RICHARD WILSON: No, the only thing that the federal judge done was allow the people of Wounded Knee the legal counseling that they needed. And of course, the way our ban was written, it meant all non-residents, you know, off of here. So we had to concede to that and allow the lawyers to come in.

SPEAKER 1: Those who were gathering evidence for the Wounded Knee defendants and some of whom are now on trial?

RICHARD WILSON: Yes.

SPEAKER 1: But if you are re-elected, you are saying that the American Indian Movement will be outlawed?

RICHARD WILSON: Yeah, as far as I'm concerned, yes. They're not even recognized by this tribe as a legally constituted group. All they are is rabble rousers. We don't have time for them. There's a lot of constructive things that we as the council would like to be doing and other than having to defend ourselves constantly from outside threats.

SPEAKER 1: Is the Wounded Knee occupation still a very divisive factor here among the people?

RICHARD WILSON: I think that can better be answered on February 7 when I win.

SPEAKER 1: The issue of Indian religion and a return to a traditional spiritual way of life, is that an issue in the coming election here?

RICHARD WILSON: Yeah, I think it's going to be because the churches, the organized churches, are supporting AIM.

SPEAKER 1: Means and others have said they want to turn away from Christianity, that they want to turn back to the old religion of their forefathers, of the medicine men, of the sweat lodges, of the Indian spiritual ceremonies, and so forth.

RICHARD WILSON: Well, that's their prerogative. They ought to go back to their city jungles and do it.

SPEAKER 1: Do you feel there's anything that you'd like to say about the coming election which I haven't covered?

RICHARD WILSON: Yes, I'm going to beat him something terrible.

SPEAKER 1: Are you going to make any prediction at this time?

RICHARD WILSON: Yeah, I'd like to get about 1,500 votes, maybe a little better. And I figured him for about 7.

SPEAKER 1: Do you anticipate any violence on the reservation surrounding that election?

RICHARD WILSON: No, as long as we keep the news media away from the polling places and the hippies and potheads and dope fiends and what have you, you know, I don't expect no violence.

SPEAKER 1: Do you put the news media in the same category with those?

RICHARD WILSON: Well, you being one, you can speak for yourself.

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SPEAKER 1: Like other Indians, the Oglala Sioux people were declared American citizens some 52 years ago. Until only 40 years ago, they maintained their own political system of self-government by traditional Chiefs and headsmen. And then in 1934, Congress passed the Howard Wheeler Act, commonly known as the Indian Reorganization Act. This created a tribal representative system modeled after the centralized power of the American states and the federal government. It did away with Washington's dealings with traditional Sioux leaders, whom the government had dealt with under several treaties, including the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868.

The future of tribal government on Pine Ridge may well be known with the outcome of the general election. If Russell Means again outpolls incumbent Richard Wilson, the continued acceptance of the Indian Reorganization Act legislation which set up the machinery for elections like that tomorrow may well be in doubt.

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