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SPEAKER: Perhaps the most publicized tribal election on any reservation took place February 7 on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. A record voter turnout of almost 3,300 of the 4,600 registered Oglalas eclipsed even the record primary turnout two weeks earlier.

The primary had seen 13 candidates in the race for tribal chairman. That number was reduced to two for the February 7 runoff, 39-year-old incumbent, Richard Wilson, and 34-year-old Russell Means, the American Indian Movement challenger who outpolled Wilson in the primary.

Wilson campaigned in the reservation voting districts in the newspapers and over television. Means, on trial 600 miles away in Saint Paul, on charges stemming from the '73 takeover of Wounded Knee, appeared on the reservation only on weekends or during other tribal recesses.

It was an election in which the very elective process was an issue. Since congressional passage of the Indian Reorganization Act in 1934, Oglala Sioux had governed themselves through a parliamentary system of representation, comprised of a 20-man tribal council, and at its head, the Office of Tribal Chairman, or president.

At best, the Indian Reorganization Act had a history of controversy. In the 40 years since its inception, there had been 20 separate administrations. No tribal chairman had ever succeeded himself. It was a spoils system in which every two years, it seemed that only the names of those in control would change.

Means favored the abolition of the Indian Reorganization Act and a gradual return to government by [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH], the Lakota designation for the kinship bands of traditional Chiefs who govern the Oglalas through the treaty council prior to 1934. The treaty council was derived from the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty. The treaty, which AIM has contended, form the basis of the Wounded Knee seizure.

Wilson campaigned on the allegation that a vote for Means was a vote for termination of all federal assistance to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Wilson's campaign literature charged that if Means were elected, Oglalas would ceasefire to receive any Bureau of Indian Affairs funds. This would result, he said, in a termination of health care, land tax allowances, ADC checks, free education, and all other welfare assistance to the indigent.

Of course, the issue which had polarized the reservation long before any argument over termination was the very occupation of Wounded Knee. Voters were split according to loyalties which that crisis had surfaced almost one full year before. Wilson and his supporters had charged that Wounded Knee was taken over by a band of, quote, "outside agitators and criminal renegades," unquote, who had no backing within the tribe. Means hoped that a victory, or at least a good showing in the election would prove that the reservation discontent was home grown.

The night of February 6, on the eve of the election, Means was back in his home town of Porcupine, about 35 miles from Wilson's residence in the tribal village headquarters of Pine Ridge. Means appeared at a last minute campaign rally in the Porcupine community hall. With him was his AIM colleague and co-defendant in the Saint Paul trials, Dennis Banks, a Chippewa from the Leach Lake Reservation in Northern Minnesota. Means spoke first, responding to the issue of termination, and then defending his controversial platform pledge to enforce the liquor prohibition laws, which exist now without much enforcement on the reservation.

RUSSELL MEANS: There are rumors to the effect that I want termination. And they're right. I do want termination. Termination of liquor. Termination of white people. Termination of theft from Indian people. Termination of poor housing. Termination of no Law and order. I want law and order. Termination of all the evil things that have infected us and caused us to sometimes go down to our knees. I sincerely believe the Oglala have a mission and that it is time that the Oglala once again stand up and lead the world like we did before.

[APPLAUSE]

I'm talking in the spirit of Red Cloud and Crazy Horse and the other fine leaders that the Oglala are famous for. But I want to also at the same time that if I'm elected, I will issue a challenge to the Oglala, is that one man cannot change things or solve half the problems that are here on the reservation.

So it is my idea to form a cabinet that will be paid from outside funds. Once again, it will not cost the Oglala Sioux tribe a penny. A cabinet that will be concerned with health. A person that's concerned with health, a person that's concerned with education, a person that is concerned-- Everyone in Oglala. Everyone in Oglala.

Now, I understand there have also been rumors out, and I'll tell you, I told Dennis Banks today, I don't care if he marries an Oglala. I don't care if he's adopted by an Oglala family. I'm still not going to hire you.

[LAUGHTER]

[BEATING DRUM]

You can try anything. At any rate, this position, one on business. A position in the cabinet on business. Now, I have gotten consent already from a few people who said they will work as hard or harder than myself for the Oglala. And one of them is a past tribal president, that's Gerald One Feather. He will be working with me.

Hopefully, we can get Ed McGarvey, a lawyer, as you know, a sun dancer. A traditional man and a lawyer is willing to come back home and work as attorney general for the Oglala people to improve our court system, our law and order, and also work behalf of the treaty issue.

We hope to get other-- a certified public accountant who is also an Oglala, Francis Lynn Killer. We hope he will come back to take care of the financial mess that we are in. These peoples will be paid again, as I said, with outside money.

We need Oglalas who are knowledgeable in each field to work for the Oglala people. So at the same time, you have to understand what has been happening. One man, when he gets into that office, is forced only to think of tribal problems and not people problems. And that is what's been wrong with this reservation. It is a very known fact that first you think of the people because they make up the tribe. And we've been working in reverse all this time, been working like the wasichu.

You know, the wasichu has taught us to think backwards and to act backwards. Now, I know a lot of people say that I hate white people. But let me tell you this, all my life, until I joined the American Indian Movement, I never had a white friend.

Now I have so many white friends. Some of them are bishops. Some of them are ministers and priests. Some of them are lawyers. Some of them are congressmen and senators. Some of them are press people. All kinds of white friends I now have.

I do not hate white people, but I hate the way they think and they act, the majority of them. Because I believe in the traditional vision of respect. Respect for your brother's vision. And how can you have respect for your brother's vision when you're continually being hammered into the ground.

I do know that the Indian landowners, they're not going to lose their land. But I have known that they are now being taxed and assessed and some of the money is taken away from the Indian landowners to finance-- And it amounts to-- All the Indian landowners are assessed tax on the acreage, assessed tax on lease money, assessed other types of taxes.

I just found this out. I was flabbergasted. My land has been taken out of a unit, so I don't get any money anyway. But the Indian landowners are taxed and the wasichus are not taxed on this reservation. Well, that's going to flip-flop. We're going to do away with the tax against the Indian landowners.

Do you know how much tax they put into the tribe? $200,000. And the wasichus, I just found out from Washington DC, the white ranchers that just lease Indian land, not their own land, just the Indian land that they lease, they grossed $12 million last year from our land. And we're the only ones paying taxes. Can you believe it? Something's wrong.

[BEATING DRUM]

[APPLAUSE]

Also, the white traders on this reservation are going to have to start living up to the laws that they've been breaking for all these years. They're also going to be taxed and assessed. As a nation, as the Oglala nation, we have this treaty right and a sovereign right. We have to understand what a treaty is. What it means to the wasichu, I mean, the white man. He's the one that made the laws.

The treaty, our treaty is on par and equal to it's equal to the Constitution of the United States of America. It is just as powerful as the Constitution. And that when the white man breaks the treaty, he breaks his own Constitution. And you see at this trial, if we lose our treaty rights, we lose all our rights. We don't even have constitutional rights then. We're slaves. Worse than slaves, we're in a zoo then.

It is my belief that the responsibility of the Oglala, as we were put down here for, was responsibility to our unborn. Responsibility to our unborn. Now, I've been asked to clarify the liquor issue that I have been talking about. You see, again, investigating in Washington DC, every crime that has been committed on this reservation, every crime is alcohol related. If we can stem the flow of alcohol to a trickle or until it's nothing, then we can stop the crime, up to 80% of the crime or more.

Also, the car wrecks. 9 out of every 10 deaths on the Pine Ridge Reservation is due to alcohol. Did you know that? Every time an Oglala is sent to prison in the last 15 years is because of alcohol. We have a responsibility not only to our unborn, but to our children. And we have to act like Oglalas, because I do know that we are the most beautiful people in the Western hemisphere and we should act like it.

[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]

DENNIS BANKS: Tonight and tomorrow morning is very important, probably more important than the trial itself. And I certainly hope that tomorrow will begin the end of the tyranny here on this reservation. I hope that when Russell Means is finally elected tomorrow, elected by, we predict, a 67% vote, we know that it will end the violence that is found here on this reservation and become a threat to other reservations across this country. A threat to those non-Indians on those other reservations, a threat to those tribal chairmen who are abusing treaty rights, who are abusing their power.

But tomorrow will end the corruption that is found in the administration of councils, not only on the Oglala Sioux reservation, but that the wind tomorrow will end the BIA domination on all reservations. This has to come about. And I am proud that I played at least a small part, a small part in answering a call to a very great nation, the Oglala Sioux Nation. But that the Oglala Sioux themselves are the real victors, they are the real heroes of this story.

And victorious tomorrow also in spelling out a clear message, a clear message not only to this violent administrator that we have now on the Oglala Sioux, but to the violence that is administered in Washington DC not only on this reservation, but on the Leach Lake Reservation, on every reservation. A clear message pointing out that Indian people are sick and tired of the BIA. We're sick and tired of the oppression. Let tomorrow be a clear example to Indian people all across this country, not only across the country, but across this world, that we're not tolerating any of it anymore. Thank you.

[APPLAUSE AND BEATING DRUMS]

SPEAKER: The next morning, in the Oglala tribal office in Pine Ridge, current chairman, Richard Wilson, responded to questions.

SPEAKER: You said that if Means were to win and become tribal chairman of Pine Ridge, this would mean jurisdiction by the state of South Dakota rather than the federal government. What does that mean?

RICHARD WILSON: Means is advocating doing away with the Constitution and bylaws as established by Congress in 1934. And when that happens, the state of South Dakota then will take over the Oglala Sioux reservation. There's no provisions in any federal law to allow a tribe to live in their own private domain, so to speak, without any jurisdiction from the federal government.

SPEAKER: Where would the resources then come to support the reservation?

RICHARD WILSON: There would be none if they'd done away with the BIA services and the government trust responsibility. The resources then would have to come from the state of South Dakota.

SPEAKER: What exactly, then, does termination mean for Indian people?

RICHARD WILSON: It means they wouldn't have no reservation. They wouldn't enjoy the tax-free status that they do.

SPEAKER: How many services would this affect?

RICHARD WILSON: Just every service that Indian people get.

SPEAKER: On Pine Ridge, I mean, what does that mean in particular?

RICHARD WILSON: Well, they enjoy the trust responsibility that the government has on their land. It's not taxed. The state of South Dakota would tax it, and people that couldn't pay that tax would eventually lose it.

SPEAKER: How does Means then intend to support the people if he is elected tribal Chairman?

RICHARD WILSON: Well, apparently he's got a few herds of Buffalo somewhere that we don't know about, because that would be the only way.

SPEAKER: What about the-- I've seen some of the campaign literature. What about the outside sources that he speaks about, some other countries that are interested in supporting the reservation?

RICHARD WILSON: [CHUCKLES] That's probably the most ridiculous thing that there is, established relationship with Sweden and Japan and all of these places. Japan would own this reservation then.

SPEAKER: Would this be similar to something like during the American Civil War of a state seceding from the Union?

RICHARD WILSON: I think it's impossible. Under the United States Constitution and bylaws, it's impossible to do that. He's talking through his hat. He's off in the head. It can't be done. This is the United States. He might be able to do it in Russia, but not here.

SPEAKER: Would you look for a greater presence of the American Indian Movement on the reservation if he were elected?

RICHARD WILSON: If he were elected, yes. And [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] from all over would move in here and take over. The Chippewas would be running this place.

SPEAKER: Why do you say that?

RICHARD WILSON: Well, he don't have a very large Oglala Sioux following. I think he got to maximum amount of support in the primary election. I don't think he's going to get too many more votes than that. And that's a very small percentage of 12,000 people.

SPEAKER: How large is the electorate here?

RICHARD WILSON: There's about 4,100 eligible voters. I look for around 3,000 to vote today.

SPEAKER: Would that be the largest number who have voted in a tribal election?

RICHARD WILSON: Yes, it would be the largest ever.

SPEAKER: This is probably the most interesting or most sensational election that's come to Pine Ridge.

RICHARD WILSON: Yes, it is. The whole Oglala Sioux Nation is at stake right now, you might say. Not only that, I think Indians clear across the nation, they're at stake, too, right now.

SPEAKER: If you were to win, you would become the first tribal chairman in history to succeed yourself, would you not?

RICHARD WILSON: Yes, that's right. The Oglalas, that is. There's been a chairman of the reservation to succeed theirself, but there's never been one here in Pine Ridge.

SPEAKER: With so many administrations since 1934, when the elective system was set up, doesn't that make for a tremendous instability politically on the reservation?

RICHARD WILSON: Yeah, it does. When I win tonight, though, I intend to stabilize it.

SPEAKER: Would you lengthen the term of office for chairman, then?

RICHARD WILSON: That would be up to the voters. It would have to be put on a referendum vote. And if they chose to give the chairman a four-year term, then it has to be done by referendum vote.

SPEAKER: One of the things that's confusing is the fact that 18-year-olds don't vote on the reservation.

RICHARD WILSON: Yes, that's one of the requirements in our Constitution and bylaws, is that they must be 21. And that has to be changed by a referendum vote, too.

SPEAKER: Wouldn't the 26th Amendment guaranteeing 18-year-olds the right to vote automatically apply to the reservation.

RICHARD WILSON: Not when it's included in your Constitution and bylaws.

SPEAKER: So in other words, your tribal Constitution bylaws supersede the Constitution in this respect.

RICHARD WILSON: Yes, they do. Until such time as we change it, it remains 21 years old.

SPEAKER: If you do take a second term, what are the major changes you intend to make here on Pine Ridge?

RICHARD WILSON: That's a loaded question. Well, that's probably one of them. There's many changes that we're going to have to make in our Constitution and bylaws. It's completely outdated. It's adopted in 1934, and this is 1974. It's 40 years old, and it's got to be updated. I think the whole thing does. Particularly the land leasing policies and whatnot.

SPEAKER: What do you mean by that?

RICHARD WILSON: Well, as it stands now, the Bureau of Indian Affairs is telling us what, when, who, and why, and how much to lease our land for. And I think we have got to have something in our Constitution and bylaws that allows the tribe or individuals to do that. The tribe is the largest landholder on this reservation. We should have something to say about our land.

SPEAKER: In the primary election, in the rural districts, I believe you play second, and then you were an overwhelming winner here in the village of Pine Ridge. Do you look for a repetition of that pattern, that is you would take the village of Pine Ridge and then lose in the rural districts?

RICHARD WILSON: No, I don't look for that to happen. I look to win in the rural districts and also in Pine Ridge.

SPEAKER: What kind of vote spread do you look for?

RICHARD WILSON: Oh, I'll beat him by 500.

SPEAKER: Later election morning, Wilson arrived at the Pine Ridge voting hall to cast his own ballot. He was angered at the presence of news cameras and recorders.

RICHARD WILSON: The ones that cooperated with you all the way. I don't know, 50 feet away from there.

SPEAKER: You know, whatever you say.

RICHARD WILSON: I went along with you guys on everything. I think this is our right here.

SPEAKER: Well, we haven't made a shot yet till you came here. You know--

RICHARD WILSON: I told you guys can do anything you want to outside.

SPEAKER: Well, you know, this is just a---

SPEAKER: Yeah.

RICHARD WILSON: You're keeping them away from here by just being here. You guys are subject to arrest. Yes. You're violating a federal law. The hell you ain't.

SPEAKER: Now, I don't want anymore trouble.

SPEAKER: Once outside the polls, Wilson consented to speak with newsmen.

RICHARD WILSON: I think I'm going to beat him 2 to 1.

SPEAKER: You do?

RICHARD WILSON: I feel very confident.

SPEAKER: What time do you think the results will be known?

RICHARD WILSON: Oh, they should be known around 10:30 or 11:00 tonight. But we'll have a good idea of the trend that it's taking then.

SPEAKER: Do you anticipate any trouble around the voting boxes today?

RICHARD WILSON: No, only with the press. [CHUCKLES]

SPEAKER: What effect do you think, overall, a victory by you today would have on the American Indian Movement?

RICHARD WILSON: Well, I think the AIM organization would just fade out of the picture then. They're just a bunch of hoodlums.

SPEAKER: Not just on Pine Ridge, but totally?

RICHARD WILSON: Totally all over.

SPEAKER: Wilson was quoted in the Rapid City Journal to the effect that if he were re-elected, he would give the American Indian Movement 10 days to get off the reservation "or else," quote, unquote. After Russell Means came out of the voting hall in Porcupine, election morning, I asked him about Wilson's remarks.

RUSSELL MEANS: I can't dignify anything Wilson says by a response. This is my home. This is where I was born. This is where I live. The only ones I can run me off the reservation are the people with guns. And they couldn't do that at Wounded Knee. So I doubt very seriously if I'll ever leave this reservation under any threat from anyone.

SPEAKER: A lot of people don't understand the charges with respect to termination. Wilson is saying that the state will have jurisdiction over this reservation if you're elected. How do you respond to that?

RUSSELL MEANS: I have offered my life for the Oglala people. I will continue to do so. And in no way, shape, or form is the state or the federal government ever going to have complete control of this reservation as long as I am alive. What I'm saying is that sovereignty is the issue and not termination, but our sovereignty as a nation, independent.

SPEAKER: This, in other words, will not mean the termination of Bureau of Indian Affairs services on the reservation?

Well, hopefully, we can work towards that end through contracting, through negotiations with the White house, through legislation on Capitol Hill, with support from foreign nations, and especially in the United Nations. It's going to be a long, hard pull, but this is the aim of my candidacy, of my presidency if I am elected, is that we will look forward to the day when we can enter as a nation into the international community.

SPEAKER: During election day voting February 7, attorneys from the US Justice Department were carrying on an investigation of the circumstances surrounding the shotgun killing of Pedro Bissonnette. Bissonnette, one of the seven occupation leaders at Wounded knee, was killed by BIA policeman, Joe Clifford, last October. Against the wishes of the Bissonnette family, the dead man's body was taken out of state for an autopsy ordered by the government. AIM attorneys are hopeful that a South Dakota grand jury will bring a murder indictment against that policeman when it goes into session February 19.

Some of Bissonnette's relatives were contacted at the Pine Ridge voting Hall February 7 Their skepticism about the government's intention to fully investigate the killing provided one of the many examples of the tense atmosphere on the reservation surrounding the election.

SPEAKER: Nobody--

SPEAKER: --Discrimination.

SPEAKER: They asked us from the hospital to come forward and tell how they stole Pedro's body in the middle of the night and never told us.

SPEAKER: But the people we asked to testify didn't tell us that you knew. No one told us either.

SPEAKER: Yes, we did.

SPEAKER: We have-- All right--

SPEAKER: As charging--

SPEAKER: You want to find out?

SPEAKER: --that's charging us that hospital, nobody told me the body was being taken. I went down there and found it gone.

SPEAKER: We didn't learn until recently that you were even involved.

SPEAKER: How come you didn't learn?

SPEAKER: You have to ask a single--

SPEAKER: Because I didn't know who the people were.

SPEAKER: Why was it said in the paper? Why couldn't you go in the hospital an ask--

SPEAKER: We do now. And we've asked you to--

SPEAKER: Why is everybody getting all excited now in February? Why didn't they get excited when they murdered Pedro in October?

SPEAKER: We did.

SPEAKER: Well, why didn't you see us then?

SPEAKER: Because I didn't know you were involved.

SPEAKER: Old Joe Clifford's still running the streets.

SPEAKER: I was up at your house last night trying to--

SPEAKER: And he assaulted two federal officers. He's still running the streets.

SPEAKER: No, I knocked on the door, though.

SPEAKER: Poker Joe--

SPEAKER: Why didn't you ring it?

SPEAKER: When Poker Joe was just accused?

SPEAKER: And white people claim they got a doorbell to ring. They ring it. Why don't you ring it in Atlanta?

SPEAKER: The polls closed at 7:00 PM. The process of hand counting the long paper ballots was tedious, but by nearly midnight, the outcome was already clear. Richard Wilson had carried the village of Pine Ridge and had pulled an overall 1,700 votes. Means won in the rural districts, but received only about 1,500 votes in all. A victory celebration was in progress at the tribal office in Pine Ridge. Just before appearing outside to address his followers, Wilson met inside with newsmen and supporters to deliver a prepared statement.

RICHARD WILSON: This has been a historic occasion. We have been under the scrutiny of the world. The issues came down to whether the Oglala Sioux, serving as a weather vane for the world, would endorse government by violence, threat and destruction, or whether we would pursue progress through the imperfect system of democracy. We have allowed the people to speak through the ballot box. Our work will continue in accordance with the established law of the land. There are many things we must do to improve our system, but we will work through the system.

I have no further comments on the details of our specific actions for the immediate future. But you can be assured that the near future will see new initiatives by the Oglala Sioux tribe, which will forge a new destiny for American Indians, both on the Pine Ridge Reservation and all other Indian reservations. Thank you.

SPEAKER: Do you plan to reinstitute your ban on the American Indian Movement?

RICHARD WILSON: I'd rather not comment on that right now.

SPEAKER: You feel any different about Russell Means after having defeated him?

RICHARD WILSON: No, not a bit. I'd like to challenge him to a fistfight now.

[LAUGHTER]

SPEAKER: You said something the other day about giving him about 10 days to get out of town.

RICHARD WILSON: That was talk. That was political talk. Which, by the way, worked.

SPEAKER: What do you view of the American Indian Movement's role now on the reservation?

RICHARD WILSON: Zero.

SPEAKER: We don't have too many questions for you. They thought they were going to ask Russ questions.

[LAUGHTER]

RICHARD WILSON: All the questions are slanted the other way, huh?

SPEAKER: Mr. Wilson, if there was a key to victory, what was it?

RICHARD WILSON: Well, I think it was the hard work that my campaign people put in for me. You hear Dr. Jim Wilson telling me what to say here. He's the man. Mr. Richards, Mr. Lee, Mr. Cornelius, it's been many of them. Hard work. A lot of hours put into this.

I think one other thing is that we told it like it was. We didn't get out and lie to our people, tell them they're going to get their Black Hills back and all of Nebraska, and all of Montana and stuff like that, like AIM did. [? AIM's ?] would have kept you going for an hour, wouldn't he?

[LAUGHTER]

SPEAKER: You disappoint a lot of people, Dick.

RICHARD WILSON: I'm anxious to get to this party. I know there's some booze there.

SPEAKER: Where's the party?

RICHARD WILSON: We won't tell the news media.

[LAUGHTER]

We're going to all go about 15 different directions, see. Then when we ditch you guys, then we'll all gather.

SPEAKER: What time do you expect Pine Ridge returns to you?

RICHARD WILSON: They should be in around midnight now.

SPEAKER: What are you going to do tomorrow?

RICHARD WILSON: Celebrate. It's a tribal holiday tomorrow, with pay.

[LAUGHTER]

SPEAKER: What would happen if you lost?

RICHARD WILSON: There'd still been a party.

SPEAKER: Fun holiday.

SPEAKER: Farewell party.

[LAUGHTER]

SPEAKER: Plan on any formal business tomorrow?

RICHARD WILSON: No. I'll be in condition that I will not be able to give any statements tomorrow.

SPEAKER: You want to say anything more about Wounded Knee or the polarity here on the reservation, or anything like that?

RICHARD WILSON: No. There'll be no more wounded knees for the next two years, that's all I'll say.

SPEAKER: Thank you, Mr. President.

RICHARD WILSON: Thank you. [LAUGHS]

[CHATTERING]

SPEAKER: How do you feel about the election?

SPEAKER: I'm glad Dick won.

SPEAKER: Oh, yeah, we're glad Dick won. Why do you think we're standing here?

SPEAKER: We'll run all the AIMers off the reservation.

SPEAKER: I think it's going to make a difference here.

SPEAKER: Oh yeah. Right. It will. AIM's nothing but a bunch of lazy bums that don't want to work. We all work for a living. Everybody that's standing here. We work for everything we have. And they want to come and take everything away and destroy everything and-- Ain't that right, Mark?

[CHEERING]

RICHARD WILSON: OK, if I can have your attention for a few moments.

SPEAKER: Hold it.

SPEAKER: Don't dramatize it. Just get it on.

RICHARD WILSON: OK. Boy, my-- Everything's right up here in my mouth. I can't say much.

[LAUGHTER]

This is a real happy occasion. I want to thank all of you goons for really doing your thing.

[CHEERING]

Tomorrow is a tribal holiday with pay.

[CHEERING]

SPEAKER: Come on, big shout.

[LAUGHTER]

RICHARD WILSON: And tonight, the party's at the Moxon factory. We'll all go up there.

[CHEERING]

Everybody, bring your jug.

[CHEERING]

SPEAKER: Must be the women.

RICHARD WILSON: We'll do something about that. Be cool tonight, though. Everybody, be cool tonight.

SPEAKER: OK.

RICHARD WILSON: We'll get right on that. But I don't--

SPEAKER: Is he getting long OK?

SPEAKER: --Moxon Factory, Mickey have given every Indian a free pair of moccasins.

[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]

SPEAKER: Russell Means waited in Porcupine until about 3:00 AM the next morning before commenting to newsmen on the election outcome.

RUSSELL MEANS: Once again, irregularities and illegal acts have been reported on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, and more specifically in regards to the election process here on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. I'd like to point out just a few, where a judge appointed by the tribal election board took unmarked ballots out to homes in the Kyle district and had them marked out there and brought them back and put them in the ballot box.

Also, that Tote Richards, a bodyguard for Mr. Wilson, counted votes and took out ballots from the ballot box in Martin, South Dakota, before the polling place was closed. Also, that in Wanblee, illegal votes were cast by white ranchers and white women and non-enrollees of the Pine Ridge Sioux on behalf of Mr. Wilson.

One other example is in Potato Creek, where there are approximately 30 to 40 eligible voters, over 80 voted in this general election. There are many, many other irregularities that will be reported, and we hope that the federal court under Andrew Bogue, will step in for a recount.

We are, and I am going to demand a recount of the election process, and the registration votes and the affidavit signed by people enabling them to vote. And also a recounting of the ballots. Because I feel an honest election did not take place, even after we went to Senator Abourezk, the Justice Department's civil rights division, Indian Civil Rights division, and the Justice Department's community relations service, asking, and I personally spoke and sent a telegram to the commissioner of Indian Affairs and the Department of Interior to ensure some kind of fair and impartial election here on the Pine Ridge. And they all refused.

Once again, the door was slammed in our face by the federal government. And naturally, the result has been terror on the reservation. Tonight during the election, three people have been shot in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, a little boy, a young girl, and a young man who was shot in Pine Ridge tonight.

Also, shootings took place, and this can all be verified by the police reports, unless they have falsified them again, the BIA police, there have been shootings of homes in Wounded Knee and in Manderson, South Dakota. The terrorist activities of the goon squad continues unabated. And, of course, no response from the federal government, once again. We are hoping that the federal judge will see fit to enable us for a fair and honest recount of the election results that have been turned in tonight.

SPEAKER: What if your call for a recount fails?

RUSSELL MEANS: It will actually be status quo for our experience and for the real Indians experience throughout America, and more specifically, the horrendous activities that have been happening here on Pine Ridge to the people in the districts. I do want to say that those people that did vote for me, I thank them very sincerely, and that I would ask them to continue to pressure their councilmen for fair representation in Pine Ridge Village when the new council takes place so that some kind of justice, maybe just a one degree improvement could take place for the total people on my reservation.

SPEAKER: Do you think we're going to see a Wounded Knee in '74?

RUSSELL MEANS: If there is a Wounded Knee in '74, I would be greatly saddened. I do not believe that Indians should fight Indians. And that's what the federal government would have us do if there is violence in South Dakota again. I would be completely against another Wounded Knee. Because Wounded Knee '73 isn't over with yet. We're still in the courts on our treaty rights, and we will win there.

SPEAKER: Two days after the election, Mrs. Celia Martin talked about the atmosphere at the tribal offices in Pine Ridge where vote tallies were posted election night.

CELIA MARTIN: Well, I went back and I'll say about 10:30, I came through-- I was walking-- I parked my car on the side and I was walking. And I tried to go-- I went over there to find out who was ahead. And when I went in there, there is no Sioux in there but me. And then I went into the other room where they had all the names and I asked them who was ahead. Just then, that Tote was coming along, so I asked him. And he told me to get out.

SPEAKER: Who is Tote?

CELIA MARTIN: Ben and Richards, they call him Tote. Well, he's the one that told me to get out. So I told him--

SPEAKER: What does he do for a living?

CELIA MARTIN: He's a police, I guess, there. But at the time when I went in there, he didn't have no uniform on. He was standing there talking.

SPEAKER: This was in the tribal office when they were counting votes on election night.

CELIA MARTIN: So I went in there and he told me to get out. There is no Sioux in there, but nothing but half-breeds in there. And they were moving around in there and just all by myself there. And then he told me to get out. So I came outside, he pushed me out.

And then I was standing there, and then I went on to see my aunt Agnes Lamont, but she's not home. So I came through there and that's where I met all these goons. They were standing outside and they had a pick up, a cream colored pickup. And the box end was open. They had all kinds of beer in there. And they were drinking there. And the police went by, they didn't even stop or anything. He went on.

And so I came on and they said, I'm an AIM. Here comes mama AIM. And they used that f word, but I didn't say anything. I came on. And then they tried to gang me. So I stopped and I said, go ahead and hit me, but hit me one by one. And Oh, they called me down. They called me down and they said-- Someone said, knock her down, knock her down. But they didn't. I went back to my car.

And another guy was standing there. He's a Sioux. I can't go near that place because they're going to hit me. And you know what? That's supposed to be an Indian office. Now we can't go near that place. When we go near that place, they threaten us. We can't do nothing. What are we going to do from now on? Are we going to stay here and suffer for Dick Wilson?

Sure, well, as it is, we're suffering for him. Wherever we go, they had gunpoint. Wherever we go, there's gun. We can't do nothing. We have to do something for this man. And if he's going to stay in there, we might as well kill us all if that's what he wanted.

SPEAKER: What did you see this morning, Saturday, February 9, with the Bureau of Indian Affairs policemen?

CELIA MARTIN: Well, I came out to go see my niece. I was going to Wounded Knee to see my nephew. Just as I came out, a police car, a green one, it had an aerial on, stopped at Vasu's Place. And he had a machine gun. They put it in their car and they headed for East. And so I knew then what's going to happen again. They're going to roadblock. And that's where they're heading for East.

SPEAKER: Are they going to roadblock Wounded Knee?

CELIA MARTIN: That's what I heard, but I'm not too sure. But that's what they're going to do, because they already threaten us Indian people. And that's what they're trying to do now. So they're probably at Wounded knee, but I'm heading for out that way anyway.

SPEAKER: Why do they want to roadblock Wounded Knee?

CELIA MARTIN: Because they don't want the Indian people. They don't want the AIM to come into Pine Ridge. And that's what Dick Wilson don't want the AIM. And he said like this, too, in a newspaper this morning. I bought a paper this morning and it says on there, if I'm elected as a tribal chairman, in 10 days, all the Indian and the American Indian people are moved out, out of reservation.

SPEAKER: All the AIMs?

CELIA MARTIN: All the AIMs, it's going to move out from reservation. We Indian people, we ain't got no voice. We even can't go no place too near that tribal office. And then they threaten us. What are we going to do from now on.

SPEAKER: Do you think that Wilson will do something to the people who voted for Russell Means?

CELIA MARTIN: Oh, yes. And he's after them right now. Because the ones that are for Russell Means, he threatened them already. Not himself, but his goons. And his goons are fighting right now against the Sioux people. Our boys. Our boys, they've got rights to live in this reservation, too. But he thinks we ain't got nothing to do in this reservation. He thinks he owns this whole reservation. And us people, poor people, us, poor Indians, we have to suffer for him.

SPEAKER: Do you really think that you would have to move now that Richard Wilson is President?

CELIA MARTIN: I don't have to. I'd rather stay here. And I'll fight for my rights. If I had rights, I'll show him. I'm a woman and all by myself. I ain't got no husband, but my boys. And my boys were in service. And when my boy came back from Vietnam where he wasn't even discharged, they beat him up on the road. And they took him to VA hospital-- to Fitzsimmons.

SPEAKER: Who beat him up?

CELIA MARTIN: The goons did. And I could name them, but I forgot some of them. But those are his goons that beat up my son. And I signed a complaint. And my complaint is gone. I don't know where it's at. I went over there and there is no complaint for me.

SPEAKER: The police lost the complaint?

CELIA MARTIN: I guess so. I don't know who lost it, but they said, I ain't got no complaint there.

SPEAKER: Has any trouble come to your house here in Pine Ridge?

CELIA MARTIN: Yes, this is back in September. And somebody broke my windows. All them windows are broken. Right now they're still-- it isn't fixed because I'm an AIM. They said I was with the AIM. Sure, I'm an Indian, and I'm for Russell Means. I don't care what, I'm for him. And my brother, my younger brother was in Wounded Knee, all the way through. And I don't know, they took him here and there, but he's still alive, and I'm pretty sure the rest of them are still alive. And I'm so glad that they come out of there alive.

Before that, wherever we go, they had gun pointed at us. And that's a sickening. Wherever I go, I see a gun. Now, I'm not scared of gun. If they point at me, I'm not scared. But before that, I had chills. But now I'm not that way.

SPEAKER: Clifford and Nellie Blackhorse manage a husky gasoline station across from the Bureau of Indian Affairs building in the village of Pine Ridge. Clifford Blackhorse did not vote in the election, maintaining that the run off choices had put him in, quote, "a state of depression," unquote. Mrs. Blackhorse did vote. Both, however, were interested in the outcome of the election.

CLIFFORD BLACKHORSE: I think it would have made a kind of a change for the Indian people to realize what really Russell wanted to do, you know, like trying to get he doesn't want the BIA out, he just wants the treaty back, is all what he wants. And to me, I think if he got the 1868 treaty, I think the people would realize that for the last 20 or, what is it, 40 years, what they were missing, and not enough help. That's what I think he would have kind of, you know, he wouldn't have brought it back in two years, but he would have had the people to probably understand what they were missing for the many years.

SPEAKER: What would be the advantages of the 1868 treaty? What are people missing under the Tribal government system now?

CLIFFORD BLACKHORSE: Like, I lived through part of that. Like, the younger generation, there's nothing for them to look forward to I did when I was a kid. I looked forward to for the Sioux benefit and the predecessor, see. It was a promise that was given to me and the promise was fulfilled when I got to be 18 years old.

SPEAKER: This is a land promise?

CLIFFORD BLACKHORSE: Well, it wasn't a land promise, it was a promise at least to get me started on a business maybe in the future, you know, like after I grew up and got married, I bought me a house with it, and I bought me a couple cows and some chickens. And at the time, I was too-- You know, a person when he's 18 years old, he's not fully matured anyway. But it still it was a promise to-- Like, if they had that law-- that government in them now like it was in my days, I think my children and anybody else's children would have something to look forward to.

SPEAKER: Your children don't have the security now that you felt when you were a child?

CLIFFORD BLACKHORSE: No, they don't have the security like I had. All they have the security they have now is what I could provide for them. But in my days, I had a Sioux benefit to look forward to when I got 18 years old, when I might say when I got out on my own, you know.

SPEAKER: In your day, was there a feeling of a tribe, like a family that would take care of each other?

CLIFFORD BLACKHORSE: Yes, they were. Like if a neighbor got sick or he couldn't get anywhere, if the neighbor had a car or wagon or something, he was glad to take them anywhere, like to the hospital, or-- Like, when I got sick when I was a kid, well, these people that I live by, these Indian people, neighbors, when I got sick, well, they carried me all the way up to the hospital.

[BELL RINGING]

And they waited for me till I got treated and they carried me all the way back. Well, that ain't too long ago. That's just 20 or 30 years ago. And I'd like to have dances. And we had they call the White Clay Dam over here. They had a beach and like us kids would go play there, and we'd play along the Creek. And they had a gymnasium here. They took up boxing and basketball or anything they wanted to do. There was everything going on in them days.

NELLIE BLACKHORSE: Harmony, harmony.

CLIFFORD BLACKHORSE: You know, like just like a harmony together, you know.

NELLIE BLACKHORSE: We loved each other.

CLIFFORD BLACKHORSE: And everybody was glad to see somebody on the street. But since the New Deal come in, well, that's slowly demolished. Most of them want power. And it slowly knocked that away.

SPEAKER: Is that change more because the 1868 treaty is gone, or is it because times have changed?

CLIFFORD BLACKHORSE: Well, anyway, I think it'd be that. I think it's mostly the New Deal that came in.

SPEAKER: Roosevelt's New Deal or the Indian Reorganization Act?

CLIFFORD BLACKHORSE: I think it was through the Indian Reorganization Act that we're tricked into this New Deal. I don't know who put it up because I was too young in them days. But over the years that I-- like now, when I think back, I could see the changes that was made since the self-government themselves, you might say, that the tribal councils.

Maybe it is a good deal for somebody that really needs it. But to me, I think the full blood don't need that anymore. I think they need the old deal back where, you know, like a kid would look ahead for the Sioux benefit and a private share and you know, like the money that was promised to them. To me, I think that should come back.

Now of course, an Indian he lives on a dream for you might say for centuries. Like, the government promised him so much that nowadays it's just a dream. Like, when I was a kid, got it, well, my dream was fulfilled. Because I was told that when you got 18, you're going to get Sioux benefit and private share.

SPEAKER: What would have happened in this election if the 18-year-olds were allowed to vote?

NELLIE BLACKHORSE: Overwhelmingly Russell Means would have taken it.

SPEAKER: Why do you say that?

NELLIE BLACKHORSE: Because the younger generation have-- at 18, an Indian is fully lived. He's fully lived his life. He has been raised in a drunken home, raised by going over to the bootleggers at 14 years of age, 12 years of age, and getting the next door neighbor is always a bootlegger on every block. He can go over there, he can get liquor at 14, 12 years old. They'll sell it to him. Then he grows up. He lives fast, young and fast. As he grows up, when he's 16 and 18 years of age, he becomes a full adult. He knows the situation, and he knows he's fully lived and he's ready to die. He has nothing further to-- no promise to live forward to.

And we're promised this-- We've never heard of the American Indian Movement until people were crying for justice. They were crying for help. The white people and the BIA here, they wouldn't listen to their cries. So then we reached out for another power, and which happened to be AIM. They were available to help. And then I don't know where they lost their foothold, but somewhere along the way, I guess, they misinterpreted it, have been slandered, propaganda against, and therefore caused the Wounded Knee.

But Wounded Knee would have never occurred if men were man enough to go and negotiate. If they had negotiated with the AIM leaders, there wouldn't have been no Wounded Knee. It wouldn't have had to be necessary. They had just talked.

SPEAKER: Most of the people in the Oglala Sioux civil rights organization were women, weren't they?

NELLIE BLACKHORSE: Yes, they were. It isn't because we hold up the AIM leaders. It's just that we finally found someone-- Like, we cry in the dark and pleading for someone to listen to our problems. And the Indian women are the strongest. They're much stronger than the men. You see, well, after the wars and after men went to the army and women began to live alone, a lot of widows-- A lot of Indian men went to the wars, and there became a lot of widows. And then the widows-- And there was less Indian men, so the women began to get power. And now that they have power, they reach out and try to take leadership among their men.

SPEAKER: Is it mostly women who oppose Richard Wilson?

NELLIE BLACKHORSE: Yes, for him to be in there for the next two years. It's going to bring a lot of hardship, which I see. I see that.

SPEAKER: Many people off the reservation don't believe that there's such a thing as the goon squad.

NELLIE BLACKHORSE: Well, there is. Because I've had a taste of it in my own personal life. Some children that claim to be goon, their parents seem to be goon, and then they caught my daughter out in Rushville, Nebraska, 25 miles from here, and beat her face in so I couldn't recognize her. They kicked her in the stomach and severely injured her. And she has been ill ever since. She had to run away to Sacramento, California, because there was constant threats that they would kill me and my kids, my husband, and it would kill all my boys. And the boys, the children that were in there had said that this was a message from Dick Wilson.

SPEAKER: Do you think the American Indian Movement will survive on the reservation in the next two years?

NELLIE BLACKHORSE: Within two years I think if they could probably be more meaningful, you know, campaign-- if there was a campaign like literature could come to people's homes like through the news media, if Russell Means and the AIMs leaders could explain what AIM is, what really stands for, and what it could bring, the promise it could bring, or what they have to offer.

SPEAKER: So you think one of the problems has been simply that they haven't communicated their objectives well enough?

NELLIE BLACKHORSE: Yes, they haven't really fully acknowledged to the people what they really stand for. And well, now the children that are growing up, they think AIM is power, a source of power. It isn't. It's a source of understanding, a source of this injustice done to the Indians. Because all we've got to look for on this reservation for the next 20, 30 years without a change is poverty, sickness, disease, everything bad. There's no future unless we leave.

CLIFFORD BLACKHORSE: The AIM leaders, they never explain who is the AIM, you know. Like I explained to my children, I'd say, as long as you have Indian blood in you, you're part of the American Indian Movement. There's no two parts about it. If you're an Indian, you're an AIM. And like these leaders should tell what an American Indian Movement is for, it's for the Indians, not just-- Like you and me. Like it's for me, not for you, even though you're an Indian.

But like these leaders never did explain what the American Indian Movement was for. It was for everyone. Because we were born AIMs, you might say. Like all these speeches that I've heard for the last past three years on the Indian Movement, I have never heard any of the American Indian Movement leaders say, well, this belongs to the Indians, all the Indians, I don't care who you are, your child, your baby that's just been born. But see, they never explained that.

So like this young generation don't understand that. They think it's a two-party system, you know, like a mafia. They're making it sound like a mafia, you know, like you're going to get beat up for it because you're an AIM or, you know, even though that's what's this town is. Like, if you say, well, I'm an AIM, well, next thing you know, you're going to have a busted window, see. But they never tell what it's all about.

Like, I tell my children that as long as we're Indians, we got our blood flows full of Indian, we're part of the American Movement. And I said, there's no way about it. I said, the only way you cannot be an AIM, if you're a white man or a Negro or a Chicano or Mexican. That's what I tell my children.

SPEAKER: The week after the tribal election, federal Judge Andrew Bogue of South Dakota granted Russell Means's request to bring a temporary restraining order against the certification of the February 7 outcome. Federal Marshals then impounded the tribal ballot boxes and took them off the reservation pending an investigation of alleged voting irregularities.

Whether a new general election will be called is at best speculative. But if it is and the outcome proves different, it is still doubtful, then, that the reservation divisiveness would soon subside. The atmosphere on Pine Ridge contains the tension of a time bomb. The shooting war, which was Wounded Knee in 1973, came this month in a more peaceful form to the ballot boxes nearly one year later. But now if the collision course of the two factions, represented by the 52% to 48% voting split, is not diverted and diverted soon, that time bomb will go off.

Many Oglalas feel the explosion may be set for February 27 of this month. That's the date of the first anniversary of the Wounded Knee occupation. The American Indian Movement has called for a Memorial service the 27th of February in Wounded Knee to commemorate the Indians slain there by the government last spring and in the original 1890 massacre. Tribal Chairman Richard Wilson has vowed to keep the American Indian Movement out of Wounded Knee. A more classic formula for confrontation could hardly exist. This is Kevin McKiernan.