Dino Butler testimony from recent hearings held by the Minnesota Citizens' Review Commission on the FBI. The commission, a coalition of some 20 Minnesota organizations put together an independent hearing panel including DFL chairpersons Rick Scott and Ruth Caine. Union leaders, representatives of church and community groups as well as private citizens also participated. The panel took testimony on alleged FBI abuses in the area supervised by the Minneapolis office - Minnesota and the Dakotas.
Much of the testimony centered around alleged FBI violations on South Dakota Indian reservations. One whole day was devoted to testimony concerning the Pine Ridge shootout in June 1975. The shootings resulted in the deaths of two FBI agents and one Indian, Joe Stuntz. No one has yet been charged with Stuntz's death. Two Indians, Dino Butler and Robert Robideau, were charged with the murder of the FBI agents, but they were acquitted last fall. One other man charged was never indicted for lack of evidence, and another, Leonard Peltier, will go on trial in Fargo, North Dakota this month.
Read the Text Transcription of the Audio.
Today we present highlights from the testimony of Dino Butler Butler referred several times to Anna Mae aquash a Native American woman active with the American Indian movement in South Dakota aquawash was allegedly threatened by FBI special agent David Price and was found dead 3 months later on a ranch and one blue South Dakota, although the initial autopsy pronounce doc wash dead of exposure a subsequent independent autopsy concluded that anime had died from a bullet fired into her head at close range. The bullet was still lodged in her head at the time of the autopsy the FBI denies threatening aquawash and it denies Butler's charge of harrasment Butler's testimony begins with a description of his activities and Pine Ridge before the shootout, February 1975.I was asked to go to Pine Ridge. To live there with these people and help them. Set the goons are. We're drinking in the streets and throwing their beer cans and beer bottles at cars passing by that they were beating people up pretty bad out there really getting out of hand. Said they want to people there. American Indian movement that would be willing to go there and live there with these people and help them any way they could I went up there with my brother Peltier. And we stay there at Oglala. People brought us food out there in April goddess. Money gas money and stuff to go around several times. In the middle of the night people would come to our house where we were staying and asked us to go down to their house at their house, which is shot up. But they were scared that the people might who shot that house up my comeback. They wanted somebody from our house to go down there and stay with him the rest of the night. We would go down there. And we would take guns down there. I'm not denying that you know. the coolest go down without guns several times I have happened. We were there we met a man by the name of Frances Heathrow. He had some good ideas and he talked to us and wanted us to help him to organize in the community there white clay District. located he said that he wanted to organize the landowners there in the white clay District to break away from the Bia to break away from the United States government. Does he seek help from other countries and other people? The dark Throne business are in the white clay. But it would be self-supporting but it would have to depend on a Bia and outs. We sat down with talked quite a few times with this man never other people came around and they supported his ideal want to do this. We had meetings at Oglala. What some traditional people around their land owners at first the paperwork on? Larry of doing it because it was done at Wounded Knee and it's been done before in the government has come in and wash these ideas bees. These things that they want it. I knew that. It wasn't much chance of us. But when it's off, I guess. But we kept talking. We kept meeting with these people. and finding we had about 60 or 70% of the land owners that traditional land owners have people who live on their own land out there in the country. They said they would be willing to do this and we're going to have another meeting at summer. Dennis Banks was down there. We had a sweat lodge in in our camp. We went to ceremonies anime was there Joseph stunts was there? Jimmy little was there a lot of people were there that whenever be there in the morning other dead now, I don't say they're dead. They're gone. 2 in in person, there's no such thing as death. when we pass over into the spirit world our body returns to the sacred Mother Earth and becomes a part of her we don't believe in our bodies being buried and casket the steel stuff like this because our body returns to the Mother Earth and becomes part of her again that way our body lives and our spirit. Go to the spirit world to me with all of our ancestors. There's no death for Indian people who believe in pipe. Another sacred ways. The people are gone now. Uno Attack Federal Bureau of Investigation knew that we were there on the morning of the shootout. We got evidence from their police radio logs that they knew that there was a lame camp south of Ogallala NE for all their police officers to go there. So we know that they knew we were in the area and I knew that Dennis Banks was living there and that he had supporters there or not. We were trying to organize these people to break away from the government. That was doing them. No good. South Dakota on three of the reservations there. There's a bigger oil field located. Under these land that's bigger oilfield there than there is in the Alaskan oil field today. The United States government knows this and that's why all this is happening out there. They do this before wounded need the noodles before the Bia take over at the end of people didn't know what yet The doors that go out from these reservation, you know, it looks like Indian versus in Dungeon all Dick Wilson and his goons versus the American Indian movement. Are we finally know now that is different, you know, it's the Federal Bureau of Investigation that CIA and the Bia and all these different organizations working for the government are the ones causing all the trouble is not in and fighting and it looks that way the federal bureau I go in there and ate. Give Dick Wilson and his goons. I give him money given booze. They buy their booze and nobody invited. Truck loads and take it down there and I'll give these people all this booze up in the American Indian movement goes down there and they're there to honor somebody that died. I got angel angel funeral at awake there. They busted on truck load of beer. I don't know where it was coming in was coming into South Dakota and when a dick Wilson goons with driving his truck they busted it was accidentally busted by State Police who didn't know what was going on and he busted the truck. The guy was never charged. We don't know what happened to the booze. Nobody. Nobody seems to know what happened to the truckload of beer and all. Things like this happen all the time. I named gathers down there. The FBI buy ammunition and booze and stuff. What is Goons? Why did humans start drinking that's how they get their courage and bravery. They have to have this white man's poison in them before they can act like white people. I'm going to come down and I start shooting and everything. People shot people's houses up old people's houses. I seen a little girl at the Sundance her arm half of her arm was shot at the Forum. A lot of people walking around with gunshot wounds and burns on their bodies because their houses they were in the houses where these things happened. Can just sit around or not do nothing. We had to help these people some way and all because we're all related. When I was arrested the FBI, they told me that I'm not. They told me I was a scumbag that I didn't deserve to live with white folks and I got to thinking about that. I got to agree with that FBI agent and all of them. Cuz I got to look and see. What are white folks and all? And I see are they are they are the FBI agents, you know, are they? CIA are in are they the police that we see out here in the streets? Are they these are these white folks and I say yeah, they're white folks and all these other white folks that I don't deserve to live to what I don't want to live with him. people act like this, you know. I don't want to live with him. June 26th Came around me and my wife was living in a teepee. We weren't bothering nobody will be there helping the people and the people wanted us there. We went there to force ourselves on these people these people supported us and help us in many ways. They helped us spiritually. We were invited to their ceremonies. We went to their ceremonies and start learning. their ways I danced in the sun dance with him and I'll wait anime was there Joe stuntz was learning the spiritual ways. He wanted to be a spirit of a spiritual man someday. Joe starts with a very quiet man. I never had much to say. Had a lot of respect for him. I still have a lot of respect for him. A lot of people down there. I know you're going to jail. They call him Little Joe. It was a big man now, but they call him Billy Joel because you never seem to want to be out in front to know he's Waze. We're quiet. He was always there when trouble starting was never afraid to face up to trouble when it happened. I used to go for walks with anime. We still walk out in the hills and we used to talk about the mother earth. She used to talk about her children up in Canada. We talked a lot about a lot of things. When I was in jail. She came to me a couple times in my dreams, you know, and I know she still watching she still taking care of us, you know, she's still around. He'll start the still around the people in Olga. Every once in awhile a spirit comes. I know he's hungry and he makes a little noise and tell people put food out for him. Tobacco offerings and he is quiet no more. There's no more noise in. This happens a lot of times lot of lot of the spirits of our ancestors come back and let us know that they're they're helping us. You know we are right. We're just as right as all of our ancestors who stood up against the United States government against these white folks and fought for what they believed in what they knew was right? We know we're just as right as our ancestors are FBI agent I don't mourn a death of those two FBI agents. I don't say they had it coming to him, but I've been running over people down here for too long. I've been killing to too many people. They're part of a system that has killed a lot of our people. And maybe that's the way it was supposed to be. Maybe that's if you believe in a God if you believe in a creator and you know that these people are supposed to act that way. They're not supposed to come into homes. Charlie's Homes apartment threatened little babies and all sorts of little babies and make little kids get on the ground is going after head shot guns and stuff. All the things ain't right. And if you believe in a God if you believe in a Creator, you know in your heart that this ain't right to and you know that this stuff is going to be stop these people got to be punished. It will be punished not by us, but not by anybody on this Earth man would be doubly punished by the Creator. That's why I'm here today. That's why I'm walking here. And that's why I'm talking to you, you know because we were right that day. We were under attack. Like I said, I was in a teepee with my wife just getting up. When I heard the firing starting up there. Norman Brown came down uses Shooting up there we got to get up there and there's women and children up there. So I grabbed my gun. I told my wife I said take Janie and the other girls and try to get out of here. I went running up there with my brothers. Got up there with receive fire real heavy Fire coming. There were two cars out in the field and there were two cars down in a gully and there was cars all around us already by the time I got up there only took me five minutes or so to get up there and yet we were already surrounded by the time I got up there. I seen ivis and Angie and their three children run out of their house running toward our camp in the direction of our camp. your grandma Grandma and Grandpa were up there. I thought because that's where most of the firing with me and concentrated up there. I told my brother Peltier. I want to go up there and see if Grandma and Grandpa are up there and it said I don't try and get him out of there. He told me to go ahead and I went up to the house there and there was nobody in the house. There was nobody in our other house with Rondo assist and they want her. She's got two or three kids to there's nobody there. So I went back down. I told my brother Peltier Leonard it says Hey, so there's nobody up there at the house when we go back to our camp now try to get out of here ourselves. So we withdrew from there and we went back down to our camp. Got ready to leave another brother came back. Set a Jostens was dead. So we all knelt down we pray there. We pray for my brother. Brady would have a safe and good journey up to the spirit world and that someday we would be there with him. Then we left. On the way out. We met my wife knee lock and Genie and a girl named Lynn. They couldn't get out. They said they went all over. We were surrounded it said there was no way to get out everywhere. They went they said there was there was a road box and there was a policeman all around it so they couldn't get out. That's why they came back. 12 figures Now that's no way to get out notice. If there were they couldn't get out when we didn't know how we were going to get out, you know. Play it again and all for the women, you know, we were thankful that Angie and her children were out of there and I listen them. I did not see it. But Norman Brown told me that there was an eagle He Saw an Eagle come down while we were praying. For some reason when we left there goes our Creek really like a snake really whines around like that. You know how to quick calls like that? No, but when we got done playing at the end we left we went in a straight line. We walk to that Creek. Several times we didn't know what we were going or anything. We were just going that way my wife lost lost her moccasins in the mud. She was barefooted. We're trying to come to this one spot that's Road the car with that would crawl underneath a car and went through there and we went up the hill. Got up there safely. People said we were going up that hill like there was an eagle flying over us to the Indian people that you go is sacred and it's when I was in jail. I Heard a Voice tell me that the eagle is my helper. He will help you whenever you need help. He represents me. Always respected angle because you are respecting me. I heard this voice tell me that when I was in jail. May that there's a voice of the grandfather great spirit talking to me telling me about the eagle. And your stance was buried it was an eagle flying above him above the ceremony. And it came down circle like that over and it took off. A lot of times when Indian people have gathered together. To Worship in some way that the Eagles have appeared. When will it appear in November of 1974? Fortera bad heart bull who was in prison then? It was an eagle appeared over the capitol at Pier. Where's a good sign and will not too long after that terrible adorable got out of jail? all the time that the Eagles to take with we know that you go let it out that day. If we were wrong. If we were in the wrong if we done something wrong that day these sacred things wouldn't have helped us. We would not have been taken care of. I know Joe stuntz died there. Play the Indian way. They have to be sacrifices that is a part of our religion. We always sacrifice and we are stronger afterwards if we survive. When we go out to the hills, we pray for four days. We thought we sacrifice we don't eat or drink water for four days just makes us stronger. We have to suffer before we can become stronger. We have to know what it is to suffer. This is the Indian way, I believe this is why Joe? It was time for him to go. I could have been any one of us know it's time when it's time. I hope that I can go like Joe. I hope that my desk I'm passing. Will give life to others if we were wrong. We would all died there today. They had it completely surrounded yet. Somehow we got through all those people going up that hill there were bullets flying all around us. I could feel the bullets going through me like going by and I can feel the air and I can hear the Whistling noise. Yet none of these bullets touch me and I was praying going up that hill. I just knew that somebody was going to get shot because there was too many bullets flying around at all around us. I thought about the women, you know, and I pray for them all that's going up that hill. When I got up there and we all met up there, you know, I knew then you know that whatever happens we were right that we would be taken care of. There would be no harm to us Butler went on to accuse the FBI of Harrison Native Americans by destroying objects of religious significance. Pipes and stuff like that. They violate these things. And make fun of them. Call are tobacco cowshit. Things like this that are sacred to the Indian people. They make fun of the doneness for 200 years longer. That is why those agents died wasn't because we killed him or nothing. Because all those FBI agents were being punished they walk around in a cry about me and Bob being acquitted. I say that we shouldn't be a quitter to know that we're evil that were cold-blooded killers. And they cry to the said that there was the agent walking down the courthouse after I quit walking in the Halls on the courthouse federal courthouse in Cedar Rapids are tears in his eyes now, they are known a little bit about what it is to suffer in the face. If they learn from their suffering if they learn what they're doing is wrong and they learn. How to respect people and everything then they need to be no more suffering among them like that. They don't need to be no more agents die. Are no more Indians people die. Direct me on the rosebud Indian Reservation September 1975. I gave him a false name and I was sitting in that back into this car. How's that Al running home? There are about 20 or 30 agents their underwear more up at Crow dog's place the rate at the two places at the same time. I heard a bunch of cars pulling into the yard and I jumped up. I looked out the window. I told my wife to get up. I picked up this pissed when I walked out. Three men were coming toward me and I have done asking what the hell is going on Subway after I against get on the ground. So I got on the ground. He came up to me and asked me if anybody else was in the house. I told you as my wife is in there. So they told me to call her out. So I called her out. She came down and made her get on the ground. I showed him the driver's license. I had said Robert Noble on it. but the rest of me there for having a firearm with an altered serial number on it it put me in a back into this FBI car. Later that all the other agents they were they were from the South Dakota area. They've been working on this case. They ever since it happened. I suppose they came down there and this one walk by the car and it looked in the back of the car. Like I looked that mean you walked over to the other agent and it stays as you know, who they got. We got there at 1:18 till now that's Robert Noble said no because that's a fucking Dino Butler. That's why you taking a live agent came over and looked in the car and he walked back over to the funeral parlor. They have a gun on him to 45 load it you should have shot son of a bitch. And they all came over there and start looking at me and pretty soon as one. came over there by himself and he stuck his head in a car and he says you son of a bitch is one of those days that you killed with a good friend of mine is if I ever get you alone because I'm a blow your head off turn around and walked off. retarded leave free agents got in the car start up the car and a couple agents came over and it says you leaving now and it said yeah, I'm going up to Pier One to take him up to pair of there, but don't be surprised if only three of us show up. Another one came over and said you guys are leaving on the side yard cuz I don't leave no bruises on the body. Accept the fact that I was going to die. And I didn't matter no more, you know. And I wasn't going to Snoop when I wasn't going to cry to these people, you know. I made that up to in my mind we started out. Malaysia Visa. You know this. You know what happened? Pretty much what happened, June 26th. There's a few blind spots in it. We're in the position. Do you know to help you if you help us telling us blind spots? I don't know. What do you mean? Start seeing a little hope there and I think I might go get the pier live if I play it right to know. What do you mean? Why you know, you know what happened that day, you know, if you help us and tell us what happened. We're in a position where we can give you a new identification. You know what can send you to another location give you a good job in the car you and your wife. If you just tell us what happened to fill in the blank spots for us now. If you don't do it tonight, or you going to spend the rest of your life behind bars will do everything in our power to see that you spend the rest of your life Behind Bars riding away. Or I'm going to kill you. Classical how do I know I'm going to be safe. How do I know that you guys can protect me? He says we've done it before we got people living like this and other places now that it's helped us. We gave him a new identity, you know, we sent them up set them up in another spot. All you have to do it when we do this this mind your own business, you know. I don't go out and raise a bunch of heck and stuff gets out picked up. Don't bring no attention to you and you'll be alright. So, how do I know you know, where you going to send me in so we can send you anywhere near, Florida? Any word back used to know? flight as well I don't know, you know, I kept it up all the way to Pier when I got the pier. They took me up to the fourth floor in the Federal Building took me into this room. I knew then that I was pretty safe that they wouldn't be shooting me there in the Federal Building. That's what I told him that I didn't want to talk to me no more. I want to call my lawyer. I got nasty with me and start pushing me around. Cussing me out a scumbag thought there was a scumbag is it at all he did was come bags and he didn't my people weren't going to help me. Why am I protected nothing wrong? Start telling me about Wounded Knee future cash it in his went to London and laid in the grass and shot from a long ways at Federal forces. They weren't Braves whatever chickenshit they want to come out and fight in the open a lady baby on bunkers and stuff like this fighting. Tell me how I was chickenshit because I laid behind the bunker at Oglala and shoppies agents. But I wasn't Brave I wasn't tough for nothing. I was just a little bitty nobody scumbag. You know, I didn't deserve to live. Nobody else. I was there that day. I don't do everything in their power to see that these people were dead. They promised me that they would kill me if I didn't spend the rest of my life rotten Behind Bars. I wouldn't say anything to him. Tell him I want to call my lawyer to get this up for 6 hours. Finally got mad mad or something on the last thing they told me when he walked out the dino Butler you're nothing but a worthless. scumbag and I promise you that someday I'm going to shoot you my bro your fucking head off and turn around. They walked out of the room. Took me out a scene anime. She was sitting out there. She smiled at me. No smile back at her and it to me in the holding tank Roy dog was here the other people that they arrested down there with her. I thought I thought that I would never. Before you I knew that. I knew that they were going to Railroad me and all they said that there was talk that there was an ambush stock that we do those agents in there. And I we executed them you heard on the news there that we dug them out of their cars and shot him repeatedly. I knew that if they wanted to they could do they can railroad me on these charges like that to know because they've done it to other people before you know, and I didn't do that. I didn't have much hope of ever being out again free. I was feeling pretty low down when I went in there and grow tall was there. He told me not to worry you nephew. Everything's going to be alright, I just remain strong. he wrote up a Cigarette he says I want you to pray with me. So I want all my brothers in here to pray with us. So we all sat down and we smoke that cigarette together and we prayed. Happy birthday tickets all over to the jail and was it to us all in the same tank to describe several incidents of harrasment that took place while he was in jail, including not being able to mail more than two letters a week not being able to receive presents of food having religious objects confiscated and being repeatedly threatened with solitary confinement later. He said the harrasment took him more dangerous turn when he was not allowed to see his lawyer who I am. Allison, I know this man, what's the problem? It says no problem. I don't believe none of the identification. He's got to know. Sabrosas Y. What would it take to get him in there and on? how to say about how about if I got a court order from the judge to come in here and swell if you got a court order says I have to honor that snow, so he left to come back 15 minutes later at a court order to visit paying on It sure was all mad. He left and on Molly sat down and it says Jesus. Oh. Cuz if this is a sign of what you going through in the tail is cuz I sure don't want to be in here and you know with you. So what. I took that. one time call us all out of our cells like that. It took us all downstairs and put it in this one holding tank like that everybody in the Cell Block. Turn on the FBI agents around when I took. so first one day they come back and they call one guy out like that, you know, and he went out like that about 15-20 minutes later. Come back call another one out, you know. Person, I was only one left in there and I was in about half hour came and call me and it took me out told me going back up to my cell. So I walked upstairs and they lock the back up and everybody was in there. They move two guys out of there, but two more guys. And his brothers that were left there and all they told me, you know, that that the FBI had called him out of there and called him into his room. Set up a new Butler and honestly, yeah, we know him, you know, we're locked up with him as well. You know that Butler killed two of our agents, don't you? It's a no, I don't know what I want to know what I did, you know? I want information on if you can give us information and we don't know what you what the charges are anything. But if you help us at all. Give us information if you know anything if your butler say anything, or if you're willing to testify or some like that we can help you out and I'll get you a job charge this job and I'll give you no idea or whatever. You need to know. I know I don't know nothing, you know, and they all got out until they got up and walked out. I didn't know nothing that they told me that I'd known I got affidavit from those guys saying that you know, they did the same thing to Bob is he said that they dropped everybody off as hell, you know on lock them all up and call them out one by one. Temperature is only one that's been told him go back to his house. We went back there and they all told him they done the same thing down there called everybody out question about Bob me and I wanted information any kind of information is then that would help. couple days later then they call me and Bob out and put it in that little bit of Hell by ourselves. And I start moving everybody out of all of the jails and I'm moving to different jails around there and kept me and Bob & Sons. And one morning to come in and woke us up real early and just come on you guys are leaving, you know. So we didn't know what was going on. It took us took it from there. And it was clear over to the Sioux Falls and took us to the South Dakota State Penitentiary there and What is an isolation room? Lieutenant that is what are you? How come we're here? You know, what's going on? I said, I don't know. What can we have our legal material reading stuff and property. I don't know what's going on. Is this because I don't know I know who would I ask you tell him that I'd like to talk and Warden you say y'all not tell the word so worn them come down to that day. So the next morning. wrote a letter to the warden, you know, and I told him that I like to know what's going on. And I don't know why I'm here. I don't know why we can't have our legal papers, you know cording to the law. We can have our legal papers and our legal books in it anytime. We are arranged a or no. I want to know why you know, what can have is toughness I said, there's nothing I can do about it. That's cuz I'm here in the whole it says they ain't nothing I can do about this until I get some information. That's what I want to do. I just want to eat or drink no more, you know until you come down here and tell me what's going on. So the next day you come down here and he brought this piece of paper and he told me that judge Bowl get ordered us transferred to the State Penitentiary for our own protection. You know that we were being trying that our trial has been postponed for two weeks and are being transferred to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. That's the reason why we were in when we were how old are you know, how come we can't have our legal papers? You know, I don't know. How come we can't call her lawyers. Cuz I got trials coming up real soon and all we got to keep in touch with our lawyers. You know, I'm fucking you know, it's important to know that we do in this is what I'll talk to them and that the time Tennyson sent word back. You know, I'm that we weren't to make no phone calls. We were to have our legal papers and stuff that we were being moved right away and there's no sense bringing in a property in and have to load it all up and everything again, you know. I said, okay well for being moved by the way, it sounds reasonable two weeks later. They moved us how to get to Cedar Rapids. Got to Cedar Rapids Fair. the next morning they call Bob out to fingerprinting just happened before all our lawyers were out of town one time and judge bolt signed a paper saying that we had to be fingerprinted loved and I'll pictures were they supposed to be taken? Somehow our lawyer in them. St. Louis heard about a Bruce Alice and I called him and said they can't do that. You know that's illegal. You guys don't have to do that, you know. And I got a hold of the judge and everything. They got that motion court order that got it. You got to Cedar Rapids. The first thing I did was call Bob out in this is why we're going to fingerprint you were going to take your pictures and all for only records here at the jail while says I'm a federal prisoner. If I don't matter is this phone records here at the jail and says you have no right to fingerprint man. Take my picture that says if you do it says I want to have my lawyer present. I have the right to have my lawyer here. I know you don't need it for the lawyer. I like to call my lawyers. Now you call your lawyer after we get done taking your picture. I want to call now. He left Bob said he come back a little later. Tell Bobby said you were going to take your finger from going to take your fingerprint one way or another right now and says you either going to do it willingly or sister or I'm a force you to Bob's as I want to call my lawyer and grab bar. But then threw up against the wall need him in the crotch like that. Threw it down on the floor. And Bob not one time did Bob do anything to resist cuz he knew that if he resisted resisted, then they could you know that you're could justify, you know that it was kind of self-defense or something cuz it happened a lot of times before. So anyway, Bob submitted to the fingerprints and the pictures and Arnold got a hold of my lawyers. hand An investigation was ordered by the judge down there said the judge down. There was a hell of a lot different than in judge bulb in South Dakota catch bulk. was really how do you spell will call Peg and awl? Give me the wallet in in filton and dirt and Ani had no respect in all. We just kind of Georgia's guy is down in South Dakota, you know, and he had a lot of lot of cases down there, you know all the American Indian movement. FBI they do anything on that reservation and get away with it because whenever complaints are made to the justice department or something to go through bull go down there and bulges never no never does nothing about it. That's why the FBI didn't get away with a lot of stuff, you know illegal subpoena is either go grand juries and stuff like this in South Dakota because it's all taken care of. And low don't know what the law is done. And you know, he has his own. Meaning of law of Law & Order is done or not. He had ministers in his courtroom down there to the Indian people, you know. Was George in Cedar Rapids a little bit more understanding little bit more sympathetic and Ani order to investigation into what happened to Bob rabideau. Why isn't tail down and why Bob was beat up to know. found out that I sure it was totally in the wrong for doing that that that that that that kind of force was not needed to be used against Bob. You know what the fingerprint stuff? and Criminal charges have been filed against this year. And there's no pending down there. I guess they let the gation come up and come up with facts, you know that at the Sheriff Deputy that use excessive force and he denied Bob is basic ride to know to call his lawyer and stuff like this. He had no right to fingerprint Bob in the first place and all and divorce him this way to do it to no. And I was all brought out in this investigation Donner try not to that the same trip has beaten up a lot of people down there in that jail and all while I was in jail or I've had people come in there and I want to hear about Bobby beat up second day. We were there, you know how they come in there and they would tell me you know that they know that the guy done that because he's done that to them and all he's done that before and you know, I just said the sky and stalk he's going to kill somebody pretty soon cuz he's being up some people for the bad to know. so anyway Charges were brought against him in the jail down there being soon everything. How can I try on this over with they took me and Bob out the next morning real early they call us out and it took us down to the jail in. Wichita, Kansas City, Missouri She was in there Friday evening. We would have to spend the weekend in their. Took away our clothes and give us their own clothes and they give us a brand new sheets and brand new pillow cases and towel. Give it up to this big sale box. Really a big one. Who was in the area known? I will lock the door. Like I loved, you know, we walked to all these tears about 5 or 6 hours and there was about six man's house. Watching out looking all these house and it was no mattresses in there, you know, no pillows or nothing like that. So we found it on the wall. No mattress. No, no pillows. How to summon there somewheres look around on walked off and on. We call him back with on there. Ain't none in here. You know, it's why I will get you some as it don't worry about it tonight when they left. Monday morning Nicholas house and I'll take us to Leavenworth federal prison and all. sellbot A3000 they said they must have had some fish to these people that were in there before. I don't know. I must be about a week or so before it was way it smells and everything Fishbones Orlando garbage piled. I was about to feed her all kinds of garbage laying all over the floor and everything going on. Tronix Tronix in a Cell Block stain work or nothing really stunk in a really bad and everything. We are square mop and broom in a we want to clean up a little bit in the area. It would bring us no mop and broom. Don't want us some stationary want to make phone call and it wouldn't make no phone calls and nothing will tell me why you know, so while you're in transit now and we have orders, you know that you can't do it on this stuff, you know. So we didn't do anything. We cleaned up best we could and got rid of all that stuff. Took us to Leavenworth nephew was in isolation there. When we walked in there and you when you first go in there, they take you down to this receiving a discharge room address you in there. To give us these clothes and take a shower and put these clothes on and getting ready to take a shower and a guard comes over to me. Cuz you know what, you know why you're here. It says I do to you know, it says this is a reservation to and it said we run the reservation here and it's if you don't follow the orders here, so I'm going to bury you here. I just smiled at him and I went took my shower and come back out. He kept trying to get me mad. I took us up to the cell block. No man locks up. lieutenant in a couple of each car that's one particular one room in Again, I said that we know why you're here, you know when you know why you're here, you know, you guys don't. God don't follow the rules here. You know, we're going to bury you right here is all you ain't leaving. So is it okay? I told him I said well no cuz I want to hear only here. Do our time I said, whatever come here to cause no trouble. I just want to be left alone. And I said we're going to follow your rules and we're going to do what you say, you know. because we didn't live with me and Bobby both in jail before and you know, you can there's no way you can beat them people in there any because I got the total control over you and to try and fight with these people tied up change the rules in their eyes just not going to be done. Now. We both know this we know, you know, we know we're going to jail before we know what goes on in these tales. And so I said, okay if you got that attitude, just keep that attitude. It wouldn't tell everybody else up there in the whole. I got an oscillation. I don't go out to the yard and stuff like that. Nobody would let me and Bob out. Our cells were locked remotely come up here like that their control while Locking System up there open and close the doors up there. Come down to my Sony but a great big chain around my door like that put a big padlock on it and all laughed at me and turn on walked off and all I got was kind of funny. 2 weeks later they call me out and talk told me I was leaving, you know, they put me on this bus. Was quite an experience as bus. I put me on the found out that they can keep about. Five thousand people in transit what they call in transit mostly the people, you know are in there for political reasons, you know. Are there peeling are Katie's car the fighting, no matter where they have to keep in touch with lawyers and stuff like this. So what they do is they put these people on a bus. And if you put them in transit and the Chipmunks all over the country and all. Plan on escaping all or anything like that didn't they refuse to let these people make any contact with the lawyers or anybody? You know, they can't call no phone like no phone calls and can't have no letters and you can't write no letters while you're in transit. Just the day before I left there. I got to my lawyer, John Lowe from Virginia called me and he told me that I'm going to call you back tomorrow as what kind of waiting word from the judge send you and we should have a word like tomorrow. That's what I'll keep in touch with you as much as I can. You know, I said it's because we went two weeks man to transfer me all over this country. I went from Leavenworth. I went down to Oklahoma from Oklahoma. I went to Texas Texas. I went to Arizona, New Mexico, California and I went to Oregon and went up into Washington all this was happening. My mother back in Oregon was trying to see was really concerned about my safety cuz Testimony brought out. No trial, you know, what about the threats made against my life and everything, you know that I wasn't going to live very long and on threats were made against Fannie Mae that you would not live over a year, you know, and she died five months later in all with a bullet in her head and a happy. I tried to cover it up and Mom learned a lot of things to write registered but he's no longer here are you know? She done this two or three times and pretty soon. She really got worried and I'll start getting sick and she contacted the governor in Oregon and I told the governor, you know about my case. You don't know I just was acquitted and Cedar Rapids call about the threats that were made against my life by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. You known that she was concerned and I'll try to find out where I was at some time and I said, okay so you checked at 11 working on. And it said that I was in transit you known that I was on a bus, you know on. Fight my mother be able to contact me and also wouldn't make her feel better, you know. So when you gonna start showing a girl attention on my cat my in my case, and I will they settle me down and and and Mcneil Island. And they let me have my letter to give me all my letter to give me horse tack for the letters like that, you know on. I got to call my lawyer and everything, you know on. And I'll probably still be intransitive wasn't for my mom or somebody, you know, the tuna Texas this morning and always heading for California or somewhere, you know any tried to Call of Duty now, he's not here yet to know. It's somewhere between here and Texas and how kind of crap, you know, they kept telling my lawyers, lawyers couldn't contract me down. You don't nobody can track me down. finally landed in McNeil Island wasn't too long after I was there. They call me down. I got a caseworker called me down. If it's Riley says appeals court overturn your conviction, you know where you've been acquitted so I don't know. What am I getting out right away cuz we're just waiting for the papers now, so you should be out of here pretty soon though. So I said, okay, so I'm going back to my cell and I waited waited. Two weeks. I waited there, you know. it wouldn't tell me nothing at all on my wife kept calling up, you know and asking when I was getting out and everything and This is why we can't release him that we ain't got the papers yet. And also my wife call back to the lawyers ask him. How come he knows not out yet, you know and it said well, he's supposed to be out without he was all to know the lawyers work. I guess they were kind of wondering why I never called anyone why I never contacted them and you know, I'm because you know, they don't have the right to I guess because I've done a lot of work for me and Bobby. And didn't much respected mnlf. I was out to know I didn't call him or anything, you know, so they kind of upset about that and you know, they could figure out why I was in Mcneil Island yet, you know, when a court order to release two weeks before I found out the court order was sent from the from the judge's office sent to South Dakota to the Marshal's office back there at the Marshall had the papers there and they were just sitting out on me know if they never mailed them out or keep them there. for the job got mad and ordered that I be released right away and on. Call me down couple weeks later, and then we got priority on you Butler your to get out on the next boat. Get your stuff together and get back down there as soon as you can until you leave at 2:45. I said, okay. I went up there and you're not on. I can imagine when they told me. You know, what I was supposed to be a couple weeks before that, you know, so. Receiving discharge after he seemed pretty pretty excited about getting me out of there as soon as possible, you know. I just took my time. I went up there right now to my cell and I'll talk to you when I drink some coffee and talking to him and all I kept calling my name over there and I'll call my number to report to R&D immediately. lightning Girardi also told me so go down to the clothing shop clothing shop and get you a pair of shoes. You want to get out and wait around for about an hour and my telenor walk down and I found it on that door real hard to get that man down there. I cannot tell you what the hell you want. What time are we supposed to get some shoes and come back later and somehow I got orders here to get you and I showed him the slip of paper from the R&D room lights as well. Come on in and so is it when you getting out I said, I don't know you probably getting out Monday, I guess that's why I said just a minute. He walked in the back like that. I never backed up about an hour ago has finally come out there as well. We ain't got no shoes open up the door. It's okay if I walked out again about 2/4 afternoon and honest aren't they? Also, it's really getting upset, you know, cuz I wasn't there yet all I come walking down and he starred in the hell you been you know, it's God damn. I told you to be down here one. I didn't say nothing. You don't want to give me my clothes and then took me out there to the front desk like that. Get out of prison like that supposed to give you some money to get to be discharged. You know, I'll help you get started again. I didn't give me no money. I didn't give me the only give me one set of clothes are supposed to give you a work clothes and four sets of clothing anyway, and give me none of that stuff, you know, kick me out and I had to bum a quarter to make a phone call. I got over on main island 6 days after I was out. I stopped at my uncle's place. Insurance department run a Lincoln Lincoln City Police Department Lincoln County Sheriff's Department. They all know my uncle they know where he lives and his son been in trouble a couple of times. I've been down there looking for people several occasions, you know, it's okay, so I'm staying up there. My little brother is 14 years old comes sneaking in there, you know any ask my uncle where I'm at. So I comes up there any FBI agents what they want to know, so they were looking for you. Set up the side that are looking for you for Xscape. So you escaped out of Mcneil Island. Don't tell my uncle out that I escaped out of Mcneil Island. Alec didn't tell him you know, they couldn't tell him how I just got orders from South Dakota. You know agency, South Dakota is going to order to pick me up over there. That I escaped that I was an escaped. And so this piece of paper to my mom is a teletype kind of seem like my mom said that she wanted for attempted Escape or something like that knowing that I was armed and dangerous. So that's 20 FBI agents come down around my mom and dad's place early in the morning. Mom said she was sitting up in bed. She heard someone knock on the door real loud like that, you know on open up FBI agent. She walked in there like that. And just when I thought I was like that my little brother said he was sleeping like that. He said someone slapped him awake, but then he looked up like that. He said his agent had a pistol like that one. My little brother just looked at him cuz I don't know, you know. Play search the house. Down everything. Before they left. I told my mom, you know. You tell your son that we're going to Hound him. I'm going to keep after and we're going to get him someday, you know. I'm pretty sure they knew where I was at today. They were looking for me know. I know I know they knew where I was at. Why did they search it? My mama's house and do that and I'll put a little terrorist act on them and put a gun to my little brother's head and all and I tell my mom that they were going to have them and they're going to keep after me until they got me someday, you know that there's nothing that I could hide and ending I want to do it, but they will end up getting me in a while. They do all this, you know, and I know it. The charges that they they said they were looking for me so that I attempted to escape while I was in jail in Rapid City. And I turned myself in Yunnan. I look at that now. I know that. I thought at first that they were down here to kill me and I'll come down there and that if I was there they were going to kill me that morning. I knew that I wasn't there they knew where I was they never come up to my uncle's place where I was at that didn't bother that place at the only place and that whole town that they didn't bother. You know, I was the most logical place to look at I didn't find me at my mom's place and I want to cuz my uncle, you know, he's coming out while I'm self, you know his house before, you know, So now I know I can see why they didn't come up come up there, you know because they were just trying to get a message across to me, you know. Trying to tell me, you know that I better butt out and on and leave things as they are else. I was going to get you all to know. Traveling at time. It really made me mad and I'm glad now that I got back with Mom and I was really trying to lean and I'll be happy to stay home and on and behave myself and on not getting involved. You know, why should I go out there? But my life online cuz they're going to kill me if I got involved, you know, and that's what the FBI agent for doing that morning. That's why they came down there and put that message across to my mom and dad and I like it when you get me. And I can see now that that was a message. I think if they wanted me they could have got me. It could have got me that morning. They didn't you know, they just came down and scared all my family and everything. phenomenal. I think about that now and I'm glad now you know because it really pissed me off when they put a gun to my little brother said, you know, and that's why Mom, they still want me home and all my family wants me to home or they want me up in Canada or some safe place. You know, it ain't going to do that. Now, you know, I told Mom and I can't do that after this too many people been killed and it's going to be more people killed. You know, what I'm not going to live over here and hide, you know from the people, you know, because if they want to kill me they're going to kill me. Anyway, no matter where I go or what I do, you know. So I must do what's right what I know is right in my heart and if I have to die for it, and that's good to you know, cuz I'll go to a better place anyway. I'm back over here. You know what? I'm helping out the best way I can you know. I ran into John trudell down in Pine Ridge me and my wife are staying down there or Galaxy come down there. We talked it over, you know. Meet him we entered into a conspiracy. I admit it right now. We went into a conspiracy against United States government United States government is corrupt, you know, and it's bad. It's no kill people. They ransacked people's houses take property illegally and hold it for evidence, you know, I'll never give it back and all stuff like this happens all the time. Do you know Butler game later charged with the death of two FBI agents in the Pine Ridge shootout and acquitted on a peel this fall tomorrow on midday. We presented testimony of Native Americans who say they were harassed by FBI agents wanted to pressure them into appearing for the prosecution at Butler Cedar Rapids trial. I'm Neal st. Anthony
Transcripts
text | pdf |
NEAL ST. ANTHONY: Today, we present highlights from the testimony of Dino Butler. Butler refers several times to Anna Mae Aquash, a Native American woman active with the American Indian Movement in South Dakota. Aquash was allegedly threatened by FBI Special Agent David Price and was found dead three months later on a ranch in Wanblee, South Dakota.
Although the initial autopsy pronounced Aquash dead of exposure, a subsequent independent autopsy concluded that Anna Mae had died from a bullet fired into her head at close range. The bullet was still lodged in her head at the time of the autopsy. The FBI denies threatening Aquash, and it denies Butler's charge of harassment. Butler's testimony begins with a description of his activities in Pine Ridge before the shootout.
DINO BUTLER: In February 1975, I was asked to go to Pine Ridge and to live there with these people and to help them. They said the goons were drinking in the streets and throwing their beer cans and beer bottles at cars passing by, that they were beating people up pretty bad out there, really getting out of hand.
They said they wanted people there from the American Indian Movement that would be willing to go there and live there with these people and help them any way they could. So I went up there with my brother Peltier, and we stayed there at Oglala. People brought us food out there and people brought us gas, money, and stuff to go around.
Several times in the middle of the night, people would come to our house where we were staying and asked us to go down to their house, which was shot up, and that they were scared that the people who shot that house up might come back. They wanted somebody from our house to go down there and stay with them the rest of the night. So we would go down there and we would take guns down there.
I'm not denying this, you know? It would be foolish to go down there without guns. Several times that has happened. We were there when a man by the name of Francis Heathrow, he had some good ideas. And he talked to us and wanted us to help him to organize in the community there in White Clay district, where Oglala is located.
He said that he wanted to organize the landowners there in the white clay district to break away from the BIA, to break away from the United States government. And to seek help from other countries and other people-- to start their own business there in White Clay where they would be self-supporting, but they wouldn't have to depend on the BIA handouts.
We sat down and we talked quite a few times with this man, and there were other people who came around. And they supported this idea and wanted to do this. We had meetings at Oglala with some traditional people around and landowners. At first, the people were kind of leery of doing this because it was done at Wounded Knee and it has been done before. And the government had come in and squashed these ideas, these things that they wanted.
And they knew that there wasn't much chance of us pulling this off, I guess. But we kept talking and we kept meeting with these people. And finally, we had about 60% or 70% of the landowners. The traditional landowners, people who live on their own land out there in the country, they said they would be willing to do this. And we were going to have another meeting that summer. Dennis Banks was down there.
We had a sweat lodge in our camp. We went to ceremonies. Anna Mae was there. Joseph Stuntz was there. Jimmy Little was there. A lot of people were there that will never be there no more. They're dead now. I don't say they're dead. They're gone. To Indian person, there's no such thing as death. When we pass over into the spirit world, our body returns to the sacred Mother Earth and becomes a part of her.
We don't believe in our bodies being buried in caskets of steel and stuff like this because our body returns to the Mother Earth and becomes part of her again. That way, our body lives and our spirit goes to the spirit world to be with all of our ancestors. There's no death for Indian people who believe in the pipe and other sacred ways. These people are gone now.
We know that the Federal Bureau of Investigation knew that we were there on the morning of the shootout. We got evidence from the police radio logs that they knew that there was an AIM camp south of Oglala. And they told all their police officers to go there. So we know that they knew we were in the area. And they knew that Dennis Banks was living there and that he had supporters there, and that we were trying to organize these people to break away from the government that was doing them no good.
In South Dakota, on three of the reservations there, there's a bigger oil field located under these lands. There's a bigger oil field there than there is in the Alaskan oil fields today. The United States government knows this. And that's why all this is happening out there. They knew this before Wounded Knee. They knew this before the BIA takeover. But the Indian people didn't know it yet.
The stories that go out from these reservations, it looks like Indian versus Indian, Dick Wilson and his goons versus the American Indian Movement. But we know now that it's different. It's the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the CIA, and the BIA and all these different organizations working for the government. They're the ones causing all this trouble. It's not Indian fighting Indian. It looks that way.
But the federal bureau, they go in there and they give Dick Wilson and his goons money, give them booze. They buy their booze by the truckloads and take it down there. And they give these people all this booze, like when the American Indian Movement goes down there and they're there to honor somebody that died, like at Angel's funeral. They had a wake there.
They busted a truckload of beer. I don't know where it was coming in. It was coming into South Dakota. And one of Dick Wilson's goons was driving this truck. They busted it. It was accidentally busted by a state police who didn't know what was going on. And he busted this truck. The guy was never charged. We don't know what happened to the booze. Nobody seems to know what happened to the truckload of beer.
Things like this happen all the time. When AIM gathers down there, the FBI buys ammunition and booze and stuff for these goons, so that these goons will start drinking. That's how they get their courage, their bravery. They have to have this white man's poison in them before they can act like white people. And then they come down and they start shooting and everything.
They shot people's houses up, old people's houses. I've seen a little girl at the Sun Dance. Half of her arm was shot up, deformed. I see a lot of people walking around with gunshot wounds and burns on their bodies because they were in the houses where these things happened. Couldn't just sit around there and not do nothing. We had to help these people some way because we're all related.
When I was arrested, the FBI, they told me I was a scumbag and that I didn't deserve to live with white folks. And I got to thinking about that. And I got to agree with that FBI agent and all of them because I got to look and see what are white folks. And I see. Are they FBI agents? Are they CIA or what? Are they the police that we see out here in the streets or are these white folks?
And I say, yeah, they're white folks. These are the white folks that I don't deserve to live with. And I don't want to live with them. People act like this. I don't want to live with them. When June 26 came around, me and my wife was living in a tepee. We weren't bothering nobody. We were there helping the people. And the people wanted us there. We went there to force ourselves on these people.
These people supported us and helped us in many ways. They helped us spiritually. We were invited to their ceremonies. We went to their ceremonies and start learning their ways. I danced in the Sun Dance with them. Anna Mae was there. Joe Stuntz was learning the spiritual ways. He wanted to be a spiritual man someday.
Joe Stuntz was a very quiet man. He never had much to say. I had a lot of respect for him. I still have a lot of respect for him. I know a lot of people down there that know Little Joe. They call him Little Joe. He was a big man, though. But they called him Little Joe because he never seemed to want to be out in front. His ways were quiet. And he was always there when trouble started. He was never afraid to face up to trouble when it happened.
I used to go for walks with Anna Mae. We used to walk out in the hills and we used to talk about the Mother Earth. She used to talk about her children up in Canada. We used to talk a lot about a lot of things. And when I was in jail, she came to me a couple of times in my dreams. And I know she's still watching. She's still taking care of us. She's still around. Joe Stuntz is still around the people in Oglala.
Every once in a while, a spirit comes by and he's hungry. And he makes a little noise and stuff. People put food out for him, tobacco offerings. And it's quiet now. There's no more noise. And this happens a lot of times. A lot of the spirits of our ancestors come back and let us know that they're there helping us. We know we are right.
We're just as right as all of our ancestors who stood up against the United States government, against these white folks, and fought for what they believed in, what they knew was right. We know we're just as right as our ancestors are. I don't mourn the death of those two FBI agents. I don't say they had it coming to them, but they've been running over people down there for too long. They've been killing too many people.
They're part of a system that has killed a lot of our people. And maybe that's the way it was supposed to be. Maybe if you believe in a god, if you believe in a creator, then you know that these people aren't supposed to act that way. They're not supposed to come into homes and tear these homes apart and threaten little babies, search little babies and make little kids get on the ground with M16s pointed at their heads and shotguns and stuff.
All of these things ain't right. And if you believe in a god, if you believe in a creator, you know in your heart that this ain't right, too. And you know that this stuff is going to be stopped, and that these people got to be punished. They will be punished not by us or not by anybody on this earth, man. They'll be punished by the creator. And that's why I'm here today. That's why I'm walking here. And that's why I'm talking here because we were right that day. We were under attack.
Like I say, I was in a tepee with my wife just getting up when I heard the firing starting up there. Norman Brown came down. He says, shooting up there. We got to get up there. There's women and children up there. So I grabbed my gun. And I told my wife, I said, take Jennie and the other girls and try to get out of here. I went running up there with my brothers. We got up there. We received fire. Real heavy fire coming.
There was two cars out in the field and there were two cars down in the gully. And there was cars all around us already by the time I got up there. It only took me five minutes or so to get up there. And yet, we were already surrounded by the time I got up there. I've seen Ivis and Angie and their three children run out of their house, running toward in the direction of our camp.
I knew grandma. Grandma and grandpa were up there, I thought, because most of the firing was being concentrated up there. I told my brother Peltier, I'm going to go up there and see if grandma and grandpa are up there. And if they are, I'll try and get him out of there. He told me to go ahead. And I went up to the house there, and there was nobody in the house.
There was nobody in the other house where Wanda-- a sister named Wanda. And she's got two or three kids, too. There was nobody there. So I went back down and I told my brother Peltier Leonard. I said, hey. I said, there's nobody up there at them houses. Why don't we go back to our camp now, try to get out of here ourselves? So we withdrew from there and we went back down to our camp.
We got ready to leave. And another brother came back. He said that Joe Stuntz was dead. So we all knelt down and we prayed there. And we prayed for our brother. I prayed that he would have a safe and good journey up to the spirit world, and that someday we would be there with him. And then we left. On the way out, we met my wife, Nilak, and Jennie and a girl named Lynn. They couldn't get out. They said they went all over.
We were surrounded. They said there was no way to get out. Everywhere they went, they said, there was a roadblock and there were policemen all around. They said they couldn't get out. And that's why they came back. So we all figured, there's no way to get out. If they couldn't get out, we didn't know how we were going to get out. We prayed again for the women. We were thankful that Angie and her children were out of there and Ivis with them.
I did not see it. But Norman Brown told me that there was an eagle. He saw an eagle come down while we were praying. And for some reason, when we left there, there was a creek. It's really like a snake, really winds around like that. We know how the creek goes like that. But when we got done praying that day and we left, we went in a straight line. We walked through that creek several times and we didn't know where we were going or anything. We were just going that way.
My wife lost her moccasins in the mud. She was barefooted. We finally come to this one spot. There's a culvert there. And we crawled underneath that culvert and went through there. And we went up the hill. And we got up there safely. People said when we were going up that hill that there was an eagle flying over us. To the Indian people, the eagle is sacred.
When I was in jail, I heard a voice tell me that the eagle is my helper. He will help you whenever you need help. He represents me. Always respect this eagle because you are respecting me. I heard this voice tell me that when I was in jail. To me, that is the voice of the grandfather, the great spirit talking to me, telling me about the eagle.
When Joe Stuntz was buried, there was an eagle flying above him, above the ceremony. And it came down, circled like that over, then it took off. A lot of times, when Indian people have gathered together to worship in some way, the eagles have appeared. When we went to Pierre in November of 1974 for Sarah Bad Heart Bull, who was in prison then, there was an eagle appeared over the capital at Pierre.
It was a good sign. And not too long after that, Sarah Bad Heart Bull got out of jail. All the time, the eagle is sacred. We know that the eagle let us out that day. If we were in the wrong, if we'd done something wrong that day, these sacred things wouldn't have helped us. We would not have been taken care of. I know Joe Stuntz died there. But in the Indian way, there has to be sacrifices.
That is a part of our religion. We always sacrifice, then we are stronger afterwards if we survive. When we go out into the hills, we pray for four days. We sacrificed. We don't eat or drink water for four days. This makes us stronger. We have to suffer before we can become stronger. We have to know what it is to suffer. This is the Indian way. And I believe that this is why, Joe, it was time for him to go. It could have been any one of us.
When it's time, I hope that I can go like Joe. I hope that my death, my passing, will give life to others. If we were wrong, we would all die there today. They had us completely surrounded. Yet somehow, we got through all those people. Going up that hill, there were bullets flying all around us. I could feel the bullets going through me, like going by me. I could feel the air and I could hear the whistling noise. Yet none of these bullets touched me. And I was praying.
Going up that hill, I just knew that somebody was going to get shot because there was too many bullets flying all around us. And I thought about the women. And I prayed for them while I was going up that hill. When I got up there and we all met up there, I knew then that whatever happens, we were right, that we would be taken care of. There would be no harm to us.
NEAL ST. ANTHONY: Butler went on to accuse the FBI of harassing Native Americans by destroying objects of religious significance.
DINO BUTLER: Sacred things like eagle feathers, whistle bones, pipes, and stuff like this. They violated these things. They made fun of them. They call our tobacco cow shit. Things like this that are sacred to the Indian people, they make fun of. They've done this for 200 years longer. That is why those agents died. Wasn't because we killed them or nothing. It's because all those FBI agents were being punished. They walk around and they cry about me and Bob being acquitted.
They say that we shouldn't be acquitted, that we're evil, that we're cold-blooded killers. And they cry, too. Let's say that there was an agent walking down the courthouse after our acquittal, walking in the halls of this federal courthouse in Cedar Rapids. Had tears in his eyes. Now, they are known a little bit about what it is to suffer.
And if they learn from their suffering, if they learn that what they're doing is wrong, if they learn how to respect people and everything, then there need to be no more suffering amongst them like that. They don't need to be no more agents die or no more Indians people die. They arrested me on the Rosebud Indian Reservation, September 1975. I gave them a false name. And I was sitting in the back end of this car. I was out running home.
There were about 20 or 30 agents there, and there were more up at Crow Dog's place. They raided the two places at the same time. I heard a bunch of cars pulling into the yard. And I jumped up and I looked out the window. And I told my wife to get up. And I picked up this pistol and I walked out. These three men were coming toward me and they had guns.
And I asked them, what the hell is going on? They said, we're FBI agents. Get on the ground. So I got on the ground. They came up to me and asked me if anybody else was in the house. I told them, yes, my wife is in there. So they told me to call her out. So I called her out. She came down and they made her get on the ground. And I showed them this driver's license I had that said Robert Nobel on it.
So they arrested me there for having a firearm with an altered serial number on it. They put me in the back of this FBI car. Later, all the other agents, they were from the South Dakota area. They'd been working on this case ever since it happened, I suppose. They came down there. This one walked by the car and he looked in the back of the car like that, looked at me.
He walked over to these other agents and he says, hey. He says, you know who you got there? That one agent told him, yeah, that's Robert Nobel. He said, no. He says, that's that fucking Dino Butler. He says, why did you take him alive? The other agent came over and he looked in the car. And he walked back over and said, yeah, that's that fucking Dino Butler.
Does he have a gun on him? He said, yeah, he had a 0.45 loaded. You should have shot the son of a bitch right there, they said. And they all came over there and started looking at me and all. Pretty soon, this one came over there by himself and he stuck his head in the car. And he says, you son of a bitch. He says, one of those agents you killed was a good friend of mine. If I ever get you alone, he says, I'm going to blow your head off. Turn around. He walked off.
We started to leave. There was three agents. Got in the car. And they started up the car. And a couple of agents came over and they said, you're leaving now? And he said, yeah, we're going up to Pierre. We're going to take him up to Pierre. He said, don't be surprised if only three of us show up. Another one came over and he says, you guys are leaving. And he said, yeah. He said, well, don't leave no bruises on the body.
I accept the fact that I was going to die. And it didn't matter no more. But I wasn't going to sniffle and I wasn't going to cry to these people. I made that up to in my mind. We started out with one agent. He said, we know pretty much what happened, June 26. But there's a few blind spots. We're in a position to be able to help you if you'll help us fill in those blind spots.
And I told him, what do you mean? I start seeing a little hope there. I think I might get to Pierre alive if I play it right. I said, what do you mean? Well, you know. You know what happened that day. If you help us and tell us what happened, we're in a position where we can give you a new identification. We can send you to another location, give you a good job and a car, you and your wife, if you'll just tell us what happened and fill in the blind spots for us.
So if you don't do it, you're going to spend the rest of your life behind bars. We'll do everything in our power to see that you spend the rest of your life behind bars, rotting away. Or else we're going to kill you. So I said, well, how do I know I'm going to be safe? How do I know that you guys can protect me? He says, we've done it before. We've got people living like this in other places now that have helped us.
We gave them a new identity. We set them up in another spot. All you have to do when we do this is mind your own business, and don't go out and raise a bunch of heck and stuff and get yourself picked up. Don't bring no attention to you and you'll be all right. So well, how do I know? Where are you going to send me? He said, well, we could send you anywhere. We could send you Florida or anywhere back east.
So I said, well, I don't know. And I kept that up all the way to Pierre. When I got to Pierre, they took me up to the fourth floor in the federal building. Took me into this room. I knew then that I was pretty safe, that they wouldn't be shooting me there in the federal building. So that's when I told them that I didn't want to talk to them no more. I wanted to call my lawyer. They really got nasty with me and started pushing me around, cussing me out.
They said that Leonard Crow Dog was a scumbag. They said that Peltier was a scumbag. They said that all Indians were scumbags and all that. My people weren't going to help me. Why am I protecting them? They started telling me about Wounded Knee, how a few chicken shit Indians went to Wounded Knee and laid in the grass and shot from a long ways at the federal forces. So they weren't brave. They said they were chicken shit. They wouldn't come out and fight in the open. They laid behind bunkers and stuff like this, fighting.
They told me how I was chicken shit because I laid behind a bunker at Oglala and shot these agents. I said, I wasn't brave. I wasn't tough or nothing. I was just a little bitty nobody, scumbag. Didn't deserve to live. I said that nobody else that was there that day deserved to live, that they were going to do everything in their power to see that these people were dead. They promised me that they would kill me if I didn't spend the rest of my life rotting behind bars.
I wouldn't say anything to them. I told them I wanted to call my lawyer. They kept this up for six hours. Finally, they got mad. Mad or something. I don't know. The last thing they told me when they walked out, Dino Butler, you're nothing but a worthless scumbag. And I promise you that someday, I'm going to shoot you. And I'll blow your fucking head off. They turned around and they walked out of the room.
They took me out. I see Anna Mae. She was sitting out there. She smiled at me and I smiled back at her. And they threw me in the holding tank. Crow Dog was there. The other people that they arrested down were there. I thought that I would never be free again. I knew that they were going to railroad me. They said that there was talk that it was an ambush. There was talk that we drew those agents in there and that we executed them.
You heard on the news there that we drugged them out of their cars and shot them repeatedly. I knew that if they wanted to, they could railroad me on these charges like that because they've done it to other people before. And I didn't have much hope of ever being out again free. So I was feeling pretty low down when I went in there and Crow Dog was there. He told me not to worry, nephew. Everything's going to be all right. He said, just remain strong.
And he rolled up a cigarette and he says, I want you to pray with me. He said, I want all my brothers in here to pray with us. So we all sat down and we smoked that cigarette together and we prayed. Afterwards, they took us all over to the jail there and they threw us all in the same tank.
NEAL ST. ANTHONY: Butler went on to describe several incidents of harassment that took place while he was in jail, including not being able to mail more than two letters a week, not being able to receive presents of food, having religious objects confiscated, and being repeatedly threatened with solitary confinement. Later, he said, the harassment took a more dangerous turn when he was not allowed to see his lawyer.
DINO BUTLER: [? Mulder ?] says, if I come here-- I've just come from the courthouse. And the judge told me I could talk to Mr. Butler when you want to come down here. And the sheriff says he don't believe who I am. So Ellison told him, well, I know this man. She says, what's the problem? He says, there ain't no problem. He says if he wants to visit Butler, he can come back here on visiting day and visit him.
I don't want him in his jail because I don't know who he is. I don't believe none of that identification he's got. So Bruce says, well, what would it take to get him in there? [? Mulder ?] said, well, how about if I got a court order from the judge to come in here? He said, well, if you got a court order, it says I'd have to honor that. So he left and come back 15 minutes later, had a court order to visit me.
And the sheriff was all mad and he left. And [? Mulder ?] sat down and he says, Jesus, if this is a sign of what you're going through in this jail, he says, I sure wouldn't want to be in here with you. So we talked. One time, they called us all out of our cells like that. And they took us all downstairs and they put us in this one holding tank like that, everybody in the cell block.
There were a lot of FBI agents around there. We see them when they took us downstairs, and we had to walk by them. There was a whole bunch of them down there. I noticed all these people down there, all these FBI agents. I knew something was going on. So pretty soon, they come back and they call one guy out like that. And he went out like that. About 15/20 minutes later, come back and call another one out.
I was the only one left in there and I was in there about half hour. And he came and called me. And they took me out and told me to go on back up to my cell. So I walked upstairs and they locked me back up. And everybody was in there. They moved two guys out of there, put two more guys in there. And these brothers that were left there, they told me that the FBI had called them out of there and called them into this room.
They asked them if they knew Butler. And they said, yeah, we know him. We're locked up with him. So they say, well, you know that Butler killed two of our agents, don't you? They said, no, I don't know that. What he did. We want information on him. If you can give us information, we don't know what your charges are or anything.
But if you help us, give us information, if you know anything, if you heard Butler say anything or if you're willing to testify or something like that, we can help you out and get your charges dropped and give you a new ID or whatever you need, if you'll help us out. So, no, I don't know nothing. And they all got out. And they said they got up and walked out.
I didn't know nothing. They told me that. And I got affidavits from those guys saying that. They did the same thing to Bob. He said that they jerked everybody out of the cell and locked them all up and called them out one by one like that. And pretty soon, Bob is the only one left. And they told him to go back to his cell. So he went back there. And they all told him they'd done the same thing down there. Called everybody out, questioned them about Bob and me, wanted information. Any kind of information, they said, that would help them.
A couple of days later, they called me and Bob out. They put us in this little bitty cell by ourselves. And they start moving everybody out of the jails, move them to different jails around there. And they kept me and Bob in this one cell. They didn't tell us nothing. They didn't tell us why we were in there or anything. And they just kept us there. Then one morning, they come in there and woke us up real early and they said, come on, you guys are leaving. So we didn't know what was going on.
They took us from there and they drove us clear over to Sioux Falls, and took us to the South Dakota State Penitentiary there and put us in isolation there. So I asked the lieutenant there. I said, how come we're here? What's going on? And he says, I don't know. I said, well, can we have our legal material? Can we have our reading stuff and our writing stuff? He said no. He said, we got orders that you guys are not to have none of your personal property.
I don't know what's going on. There is no sense asking me because I don't know. So I said, well, who would I ask? Who knows that I can ask? He said, well, the warden might know. So would you tell the warden that I'd like to talk to him? The warden? He said, yeah, I'll tell the warden. So the warden didn't come down there that day. So the next morning, I wrote a letter to the warden, and I told him that I'd like to know what is going on. I don't know why I'm here. I don't know why we can't have our legal papers.
According to the law, we can have our legal papers and our legal books at any time we are in jail. And I just want to know why I can't have this stuff on us. He says, there's nothing I can do about it. I say, I'm here in the hole. He says, there ain't nothing I can do about it, but just refuse to eat any food or drink any water until I get some information. And that's what I'm going to do. I just won't eat or drink no more, until you come down here and tell me what's going on.
So the next day, he come down there and he brought this piece of paper. And he told me that Judge Bogue had ordered us transferred to the State Penitentiary for our own protection, that we were being tried. Our trial had been postponed for two weeks and our trial was being transferred to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. And that's the reason why we were held there. So I asked the warden. I said, well, how come we can't have our legal papers, and how come we can't call our lawyers?
Because of our trials coming up real soon, we got to keep in touch with our lawyers. It's important that we do. And he says, well, I'll talk to head marshal down here, who was Tennison at the time. Tennison sent word back that we weren't to make no phone calls and we weren't to have our legal papers and stuff, that we were being moved right away. And there's no sense bringing in our property and then have to load it all up and everything again.
So I said, OK, well, if we're being moved right away, it sounds reasonable. So two weeks later, they moved us out, moved us to Cedar Rapids. Got to see the Rapids there. The next morning, they call Bob out to fingerprint him. This happened before. All our lawyers were out of town one time. Judge Bogue signed a paper saying that we had to be fingerprinted and bugged. Pitchers were supposed to be taken.
And somehow, our lawyer in St. Louis heard about it, Bruce Ellison. He called up and he said, well, they can't do that. That's illegal. You guys don't have to do that. And they got a hold of the judge and everything. They got that motion. I mean, that court order. They got it annulled. It was illegal. So it was thrown out and we didn't have to take our fingerprints and stuff.
So when we got to Cedar Rapids, the first thing they did was call Bob out. And they said, well, we're going to fingerprint you and we're going to take your picture for our own records here at the jail. Bob says, I'm a federal prisoner. That don't matter. He says it's for our own records here at the jail. He says, you have no right to fingerprint me and take my picture. And he says, if you do, I want to have my lawyer present because I have a right to have my lawyer here.
No, you don't need a lawyer. I like to call my lawyers. No. You call your lawyer after we get done printing you and taking your picture. No, I want my lawyer. I want to call now. So the sheriff got all mad and everything. And he left Bob's head and he come back a little later. He says, you can take your fingerprint. We're going to take your fingerprints one way or another right now. And he says, either you're going to do it willingly or I'm going to force you to.
Bob says, I want to call my lawyer. And he grabbed Bob like that and threw Bob up against the wall and kneed him in the crotch like that. Threw him down on the floor like that and grabbed him by the hair and start banging his head against the floor like that. And Bob-- not one time did Bob do anything to resist because he knew that if he resisted, then the jury could justify that it was kind of self-defense or something because it's happened a lot of times before.
So anyway, Bob submitted to the fingerprints and the pictures. And we got a hold of our lawyers. And an investigation was ordered by the judge down there. So the judge down there was a hell of a lot different than Judge Bogue in South Dakota. Judge Bogue was really, I guess, what we would call a pig. He really wallowed in filth and dirt, and he had no respect. I mean, this kind of judge-- this guy is down there in South Dakota. And he handled a lot of cases down there, the American Indian Movement.
The FBI, they do anything on that reservation and get away with it. Because whenever complaints are made to the Justice Department or something, they go through Bogue down there. And Bogue just never does nothing about it. So that's why the FBI, they get away with a lot of that stuff, illegal subpoenas, illegal grand juries, and stuff like this in South Dakota because it's all taken care of through Bogue.
And I don't know what the law is down there. He has his own meaning of law, what law and order is down there. And he had ministers in his courtroom down there to the Indian people. So this judge in Cedar Rapids was a little bit more understanding, a little bit more sympathetic. And he ordered an investigation into what happened to Bob Robideau while he was in jail down there, why Bob was beat up.
They found out that the sheriff was totally in the wrong for doing that. That kind of force was not needed to be used against Bob to fingerprint him and stuff. And criminal charges have been filed against the sheriff and they're still pending down there. I guess the investigation come up with facts that this deputy had used excessive force and that he denied Bob's basic rights to call his lawyer and stuff like this. And he had no right to fingerprint Bob in the first place and to force him this way to do it. And that was all brought out in this investigation down there.
We found out, too, that this same sheriff has beaten up a lot of people down there in that jail. While I was in jail there, I've had people come in there, and they heard about Bob being beat up the second day we were there. And they come in there and they would tell me that they know that the guy had done that because he's done that to them. He's done that before. And they said if the guy hadn't stopped, he's going to kill somebody pretty soon because he's beating up some people pretty bad.
So anyway, charges were brought against him. The jail down there is being sued and everything. After our trial was over with, they took me and Bob out the next morning real early. They called us out and they took us down to a jail in Kansas City, Missouri. The two of us was in there Friday evening. Told us that we would have to spend the weekend in there.
They took away our clothes and give us our own clothes. And they gave us brand new sheets and brand new pillowcases and towel. Took us up to this big cell block. It's really a big one. Threw us in there and said, well, lock the door like that. And they left. We walked to all these-- that's about five or six cells in there. It was about six man cells. We walked in, looked in all these cells. And there was no mattresses in there, no pillows or nothing like that.
So we pounded on the wall and we got the deputy back there with them. Hey, he says, we got these mats. I mean, we got these sheets and pillowcases. We got no mattress, no pillows. Either something in there somewhere. He says, look around. And he walked off. We called him back. We told him there ain't nothing in here. Well, we'll get you some. He says, don't worry about it. And they left.
Monday morning, they called us out to take us to Leavenworth federal prison. The cell block that they threw us in-- they must they must have fed some fish to these people that were in there before. I don't know. It must have been about a week or so before because the way it smells and everything. Fish bones were laying there. Garbage pile that was about two feet high. There were all kinds of garbage laying all over the floor and everything. The toilets in the cell blocks didn't work or nothing really stunk. And they're really bad and everything.
We asked for a mop and a broom. We wanted to clean up a little bit in there. And they wouldn't bring us no mop or broom. We told them we wanted some stationery. We wanted to make a phone call. And they wouldn't let us make no phone calls or nothing. We told them, why? So while you're in transit, we have orders that you can't do none of this stuff. So we didn't do anything. We cleaned up the best we could and got rid of all that stuff. They took us to Leavenworth and they threw us in isolation there.
When you first go in there, they take you down to this receiving and discharge room. They dress you in there. They give us these clothes and told us to take a shower and put these clothes on. So I was undressing, getting ready to take a shower. And this one guard comes over to me and he says, you know why you're here. He says, and I do, too. He says, this is a reservation, too. And he said, we run the reservation here. And if you don't follow the orders here, he says, we're going to bury you here.
So I just smiled at him and I took my shower and come back out. And he kept trying to provoke me and get me mad, saying things like that. And I would do nothing. I just smiled at him and walk away. So they took us up to the cell block and we're going to lock us up. The lieutenant and a couple of these guards, and this one guard in particular, they took us into this one room and they told us-- again, they said that we know why you're here, and you know why you're here.
If you guys don't follow the rules here, we're going to bury you right here. You ain't leaving. So we said, OK. I said, well, look, we're only here to do our time. I said, we never come here to cause no trouble. I said, we want to be left alone. And I said, we're going to follow your rules and we're going to do what you say.
Me and Bob were both in jail before. And there's no way you can beat them people in there because they got total control over you. And to try and fight with these people, try to change the rules in there, it's just not going to be done. We both know this. We told them that we know. We've been in jail before. We know what goes on in these jails. We don't want no trouble. So I said, OK, if you got that attitude, just keep that attitude. So they took us up to our cells like that.
They let everybody else up there in isolation, let them go out to the yard and stuff like that. But they wouldn't let me and Bob out. Our cells were locked remotely from up front of the tier like that. They were controlled by locking system up there, open and close the doors up there. They come down to my cell and they put a great big chain around my door like that and put a big padlock on it, laughed at me and turned around, walked off.
I thought that was kind of funny. Every time they wanted me out of my cell, they'd have to come down there and they'd have to open up that big lock, and take that big chain out of there. Didn't bother me. It didn't hurt me none. So two weeks later, they call me out and told me I was leaving. And they put me on this bus. It was quite an experience, this bus they put me on. I found out that they keep about 5,000 people in what they call in transit.
Most of these people are in there for political reasons. And they're appealing their case or they're fighting something, or they have to keep in touch with lawyers and stuff like this. So what they do is they put these people on a bus. And they put them in transit and they ship them all over the country. And for security reasons, and also they don't plan an escape or anything like that, they refuse to let these people make any contact with the lawyers or anybody.
You can't call no phone, make no phone calls. You can't have no letters and you can't write no letters while you're in transit. Just the day before I left there, my lawyer called me. John Lowell from Virginia called me and he told me, I'm going to call you back tomorrow. And he says, we're waiting word from the judge that sentence you, and we should have a word by tomorrow about your case. We think we're going to get out real soon. And he says, I'll keep in touch with you as much as I can. So he said that.
So the next morning, they called me out and they ship me off like that and put me in transit, put me on this bus with about 20 or 30 other guys. And away we went. For two weeks, man, they transferred me all over this country. I went from Leavenworth. I went down to Oklahoma. From Oklahoma, I went to Texas. I went to Arizona, New Mexico, California. I went to Oregon. And I went up into Washington.
While all this was happening, my mother back in Oregon was really concerned about my safety because-- testimony brought out in our trial, about the threats made against my life and everything, that I wasn't going to live very long. And threats were made against Anna Mae that she would not live over a year. And she died five months later, with a bullet in her head. And the FBI tried to cover it up. Mom learned a lot of things at this trial, so she was concerned about my safety.
She would write registered letters to me, and they would come back to her and say he's no longer here. She done this two or three times. And pretty soon, she really got worried. She start getting sick. And she contacted the governor in Oregon and told the governor about my case, and how I just was acquitted in Cedar Rapids and told about the threats that were made against my life by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and that she was concerned, and asked the governor to try to find out where I was at and if I was all right.
So the governor said OK. So he checked that Leavenworth. And they said that I was in transit and that I was on a bus. And so he asked that my mother be able to contact me so it would make her feel better. So when the governor starts showing a little tension in my case, they settled me down in McNeil Island. And they let me have my letter. They give me all my letters. They give me a whole stack full of letters like that. And I got to call my lawyer and everything.
I don't know. I probably would still be in transit if it wasn't for my mom or something. Because my lawyers, they didn't know where I was at. Bruce Ellison tried to call me. And they said, well, he left La Tuna, Texas this morning. He's heading for California or somewhere. And he tried to call over. You know he's not here yet, somewhere between here and Texas. That kind of crap, they kept telling my lawyers. My lawyers couldn't track me down. Nobody could track me down.
So finally landed in McNeil Island. It wasn't too long after I was there, they called me down like that. Caseworker called me down. And he said, well, the appeals court overturned your conviction. You've been acquitted. So I told him, well, when am I getting out? And he says, well, right away. He says, we're just waiting for the papers now. So you should be out of here pretty soon. So I said, OK. So I went back to my cell and I waited and waited. For two weeks, I waited there. And they wouldn't tell me nothing.
And my wife kept calling up and asking when I was getting out and everything. And they said, well, we can't release them yet. We ain't got the papers yet. So my wife called back to the lawyers and asked them, how come Dino's not out yet? And they said, well, he's supposed to be out. We thought he was out. And the lawyers, I guess they were kind of wondering why I never called and why I never contacted them because they had a right to, I guess, because they had done a lot of work for me and Bob.
And I wasn't showing much respect to them if I was out and didn't call them or anything. So they were kind of upset about that, too. So they were surprised when my wife called and said that I was still in McNeil Island. They couldn't figure out why I was in McNeil island when the judge had issued a court order to release me already two weeks before. So they start finding out why I was still in McNeil.
And they found out that court order was sent from the judge's office, sent to South Dakota, to the marshals office back there-- that the marshals had the papers there and they were just sitting on them. They never mailed them out or nothing. They were just keeping them there. So the judge got mad, and ordered that I be released right away. They called me down a couple of weeks later.
And they said, we got priority on you, Butler. You're to get out on the next boat. Get your stuff together and get back down there as soon as you can. You leave at 2:45. So I said, OK. So I went up there. And I was kind of mad, too, when they told me that I was supposed to have been out a couple of weeks before that. So this receiving and discharge officer, he seemed pretty excited about getting me out of there as soon as possible.
So I just took my time. I went up there to my cell. And I sat there with my cellmate and I drank some coffee there and talking to him and all. They kept calling my name over the intercom, over this penitentiary. They kept calling my name, Butler. Butler. Called my number. Report to R&D immediately. And the last thing that R&D officer told me is just go down to the clothing shop and get you a pair of shoes to get out in. So I said, OK.
So I wait around for about an hour in my cell and I walked down there and I pounded on that door real hard. And I knew it was going to get that man down there mad. So he come out there and said, what the hell do you want? So I told him I'm supposed to get some shoes. And he said, come back later. And I said, well, I got orders here to get shoes. And I showed him a slip of paper from the R&D room. He said, well, come on in.
So he says, when you getting out? I said, I don't know. He said, well, you probably getting out Monday. That's my guess. He says, just a minute. And he walked in the back like that, and they were back there for about an hour, I guess. Finally, he come out there and said, well, we ain't got no shoes. Opened up the door. I said, OK. So I walked out. It was getting about 2 o'clock.
Quarter after then, this R&D officer was really getting upset because I wasn't there. So I come walking down there. And he start cussing me out. Where the hell have you been? God damn, I told you to be down here 1 o'clock. So I didn't say nothing. And he gave me my clothes and took me out there to the front desk like that. When you get out of prison like that, they're supposed to give you some money to be discharged, to help you get started again.
They didn't give me no money. They only give me one set of clothes. They're supposed to give you work clothes and four sets of clothing anyway. They give me none of that stuff. Kicked me out. I had to bum a quarter to make a phone call after I got over on Maine Island. Six days after I was out, I was up at my uncle's place. You got to understand, my uncle now, he's an old man. He's about 60 years old. He's been in prison two or three times himself.
And the sheriff department around the Lincoln County sheriff's department, they all know my uncle. They know where he lives. His son has been in trouble a couple of times. They've been down there looking for people several occasions. So OK. So I'm staying up there at my uncle's place this one morning. My little brother, he's 14 years old. He comes sneaking in there and he asks my uncle where I'm at. And he says, he's upstairs asleep.
So he comes up there and he says that FBI agents were just down to mom and dad. I said, what they want? He said, they were looking for you. They said that they're looking for you for escape. So you escaped out of McNeil Island. They told my Uncle Elton that I escaped out of McNeil Island. My uncle asked me, why in the hell you escaped out of McNeil Island? They didn't tell him. They couldn't tell him how I escaped. They just got orders from South Dakota.
The FBI agents in South Dakota sent an order to pick me up over there, that I was on escape. So they showed this piece of paper to my mom. It was a teletype kind of thing. Mom said that she read it. And it said that I was wanted for attempted escape or something like that, and that I was armed and dangerous. So these 20 FBI agents come down and they surround my mom and dad's place early in the morning.
Mom said she was sitting up in bed. She heard someone knock on the door real loud like that. Open up, she said. This is the FBI. So mom thought I never come home. She thought maybe I'd come back. I was raising hell. So she walked in there like that and she never checked. She just opened the door like that. As soon as she opened the door, she said they just kicked the door open like that and they pushed her aside. And they come running in there and they had these guns and everything.
Mom was hollering. Who are you? Who are you? Finally, this one agent came in there like that and told her, we're the FBI, and showed his ID like that. Where's your son at? I don't know where he's at. He never come home last night. So they searched all the house like that. And my little brother said he was sleeping like that. And he said someone slapped him awake like that. And he looked up like that. And he said this agent had a pistol like that pointed at his head like that. And he asked him, where's your fucking brother at?
My little brother looked at him and says, I don't know. So they searched the house like that and everything. Before they left, they told my mom, tell your son that we're going to hound him. We're going to keep after him. We're going to get him some day. I'm pretty sure they knew where I was at that day. They were looking for me. I know they knew where I was at.
Why did they search my mama's house and do that. Pull that little terrorist act on them and put a gun to my little brother's head. And then tell my mom that they were going to hound me and they were going to keep after me until they got me some day, that I could hide and anything I wanted to do. But they would end up getting me. Why did they do all of this. They said they were looking for me. They said that I attempted to escape while I was in jail in Rapid City. And I turned myself in.
I look at that now. I thought at first that they were down there to kill me. They'd come down there. And that if I was there, they were going to kill me that morning. But they knew that I wasn't there. They knew where I was. They never come up to my uncle's place where I was at. They didn't bother that place. That's the only place in that whole town that they didn't bother. And that was the most logical place to look if they didn't find me at my mom's place because my uncle, he's kind of an outlaw himself, and they arrested people there at his house before.
So now I can see why they didn't come up there, because they were just trying to get a message across to me, trying to tell me that I better butt out and leave things as they are, or else I was going to get killed. So at the time, it really made me mad. And I'm glad now that I got back because mom and them was really trying leaning on me heavy to stay home and behave myself and not get involved. Why should I go out there and put my life on the line? Because they were going to kill me if I got involved.
And that's what the FBI agents were doing that morning. That's why they came down there and put that message across to my mom and dad, that they were going to get me. And I can see now that that was a message that if they wanted me, they could have got me. They could have got me that morning, but they didn't. They just came down there and scared all my family and everything.
So I think about that now. And I'm glad now because it really pissed me off when they put that gun to my little brother's head. And that's why mom, they still want me home, and all my family wants me at home, or they want me up in Canada or some safe place. But I ain't going to do that now. I told mom and them I can't do that. I said, there's too many people being killed and there's going to be more people killed. And I'm not going to live over here and hide from those people.
Because if they want to kill me, they're going to kill me anyway, no matter where I go or what I do. So I might as well do what's right, what I know is right in my heart. And if I have to die for it, then that's good, too, because I'll go to a better place anyway. So I'm back over here and I'm helping out the best way I can. I ran into John Trudell down in Pine Ridge. Me and my wife were staying down at Oglala. He come down there. We talked it over.
So me and him, we entered into a conspiracy. I admit it right now. We entered to a conspiracy against the United States government. The United States government is corrupt. And it's bad. The FBI agents kill people. They ransack people's houses, take property illegally, and hold it for evidence and never give it back. Stuff like this happens all the time.
NEAL ST. ANTHONY: Dino Butler, AIM leader charged with the death of two FBI agents in the Pine Ridge shootout and acquitted on appeal this fall. Tomorrow on Midday, we present the testimony of Native Americans who say they were harassed by FBI agents who wanted to pressure them into appearing for the prosecution at Butler's Cedar Rapids trial. I'm Neal St. Anthony.