Transcripts

KEVIN MCKIERNAN: For the third day this week, government witness Louis Hanson took the stand to testify on charges facing the defendants that Wounded Knee occupants erected blockades in defiance of federal agents who surrounded the Siege village. Hanson, a white resident of the Pine Ridge Reservation, told the jury that he and another man were held as temporary prisoners of war in Wounded Knee after they drove to an Indian roadblock around the village, and guards there found one rifle and two automatic pistols in their car.

Working from copies of written FBI interviews taken from Hanson, defense attorneys this morning tried to impeach the witness's credibility. The issue was conflicting claims of his ability to identify individuals he had allegedly seen in Wounded Knee when he was a hostage there.

According to one FBI interview, Hanson said that it was aim leader Clyde Bellecourt, who advised him of his prisoner of war status in the village. Hanson told federal agents he could identify Bellecourt from a photograph. However, today the witness told the jury that on another occasion, he informed the FBI he could not identify Bellecourt. In fact, he admitted to agents that, quote, "all Indians look alike to me," unquote. At the St. Paul Federal Courthouse, this is Kevin McKiernan.