MPR’s Cara Hetland reports on 25th anniversary of Wounded Knee, a 72 day stand-off between members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) and the tribal and federal governments. Some regard the incident at Wounded Knee in western South Dakota as the beginning of an era of increased Indian activism and by others as the end to progress on the reservation.
CARA HETLAND: Life on a reservation 25 years ago was one of poverty, unemployment, and high rates of alcoholism. There was anger, frustration, and a bitter power struggle. On the Pine Ridge Reservation in Western South Dakota, Oglala Sioux residents blamed tribal government for their troubles. Attempts to impeach the president, Dick Wilson, were unsuccessful.
Some Indians asked for the assistance of the American Indian Movement, or AIM. Led by Russell Means and Dennis Banks, AIM demanded attention by the federal government. They wanted a Senate investigation into killings on Pine Ridge and the original treaty, giving the Sioux all of Western South Dakota, including the Black Hills, to be honored.
Instead, the federal government provided guns, FBI, and army personnel to assist Wilson and the tribal council against AIM and its supporters. The rivalry between the established Indian leadership and dissidents was intense and violent. It was intensified by the radicalism of the era.
Gunfire was a daily occurrence during the two-month standoff. Two Indians died. And many others on both sides were injured. Tim Giago, a vocal opponent of AIM, is the editor of American Indian Country Today. He lived on the reservation in 1973.
TIM GIAGO: We had a lot of outsiders come on to the Pine Ridge Reservation. Took over a very nice, quiet community. When they left, 73 days later, everything in that community was gone. Every house was burned down. The church was burned down. The trading post was burned down.
After the American Indian Movement left Wounded Knee, they collected hundreds of thousands of dollars from churches, from sympathizers, you name it, for their legal defense fund. Not one penny of that went back into rebuilding the homes of the elders and the people that lived in Wounded Knee. The town is still totally destroyed.
CARA HETLAND: Giago says, in 1973, there was economic development plans, new housing, and other federally financed programs. He says, following the Wounded Knee demonstration, federal funding nearly ceased. He says little, if anything, on the reservation has improved. Poverty, unemployment, and alcoholism are still big problems.
Tribal Chairman Dick Wilson remained in power a few months following the standoff. He died in 1989. The Oglala Sioux tribe is now run by members of AIM. The tribal council calls the 1973 standoff a liberation of Indigenous people and declared February 27 a national holiday.
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Indians are traveling from all over the country to celebrate. It's midnight at a Sioux Falls truck stop off Interstate 90. 20 Twin Cities members of the American Indian Movement stop. AIM National Director Clyde Bellecourt says the drum and chant signify there is more work to do.
CLYDE BELLECOURT: And then people are going to come together this weekend. And we're going to launch a master plan to get this government and its churches to live up to its commitments that they made with Indian people through documents called treaties.
CARA HETLAND: Bellecourt says all issues, from fetal alcohol syndrome to nuclear waste, will be debated in a day-long forum on Pine Ridge Reservation. He says AIM is also asking for federal investigation into events leading up to the 1973 standoff.
CLYDE BELLECOURT: They investigated Ruby Ridge. They investigated Waco. They investigated all these other atrocities that take place against non-Indian people. It's time now that they look at what has happened to Indian people. And we're going to be demanding that. And if we have to lodge multimillion, billion dollar lawsuits to bring that about, we will.
CARA HETLAND: Federal officials who negotiated the end to the standoff refused to discuss it. Following the 1973 standoff, tensions remained high. And violence continued. A separate confrontation in 1975 may be more memorable, when two Indians transporting explosives engaged in a shootout with two federal agents. The wounded agents were killed by the two Indians.
Activist Leonard Peltier went to prison for aiding and abetting in that killing. And his case has become a cause celebre for Robert Redford, the author Peter Matheson, and others. AIM activist Dennis Banks is living in Kentucky and works with the Free Leonard Peltier Movement. Russell Means is an actor. Clyde Bellecourt says promises made in 1973 were never fulfilled. He doesn't rule out another confrontation to gain support and attention. In Sioux Falls, I'm Cara Hetland.
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