Chronology of Oppression at Pine Ridge (1977)

_{Wounded Knee 1973, Pine Ridge reservation, Lakota / Očhéthi Šakówiŋ territory}

Intro

In the 1970s, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) sponsored a reign of terror by reservation police and vigilantes against traditional Lakota people and American Indian Movement (AIM) members or associates on Pine Ridge in South Dakota. This violent state repression consisted of dozens of murders and assaults, including an assault on a non-Native legal defence team.

The reign of terror was in response to the armed re-occupation of Wounded Knee in 1973 and the organizing work of the Oglala Sioux Civil Rights Organization (OSCRO) and AIM.

These organizations had been actively opposing the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) regime at Pine Ridge and the racist murders of Native persons and police negligence in towns bordering reservations in South Dakota and Nebraska, specifically the murders of Wesley Bad Heart Bull and Raymond Yellow Thunder.

The vigilante group led by tribal chairman Dick Wilson, the self-described “Guardians Of the Oglala Nation” (Goons), carried out much of the violent repression at Pine Ridge. Some reservation BIA police officers did double-duty as Goons. The vigilante organization was backed by the FBI, who supplied them with information and ammunition to use against AIM members, supporters or traditional people on the reservation.

On June 25, 1975, Dick Wilson transferred a large portion of Pine Ridge’s tribal lands to the Department of the Interior for resource exploitation, without the tribe’s consent, and under the cover of his Goons’ FBI-backed reign of terror (Source: Matthiessen, 1992/1983, pg. 418).

The following day, the FBI and BIA police engaged in a shootout with AIM members at the Jumping Bull family ranch at Oglala, Pine Ridge, resulting in three deaths (including AIM member Joe Stuntz and two FBI agents), and later the fraudulent extradition from Canada and ongoing imprisonment in the United States of AIM organizer Leonard Peltier. AIM members had set up a protective camp at the ranch at the request of the Jumping Bull family, due to Goon and police violence.

The police reign of terror continued after the shootout, now with added vengeance, resulting in several more murders, as in the cases of Byron DeSersa and Anna Mae Pictou Aquash, along with legal repression against AIM members or supporters through the court system, and police intimidation tactics.

-Ed

THE DEATHS AT PINE RIDGE IN THE REIGN OF TERROR, 1973-1976

From ‘Akwesasne Notes’, Midwinter 1976-1977

After the U.S. siege on Wounded Knee in 1973, a reign of terror continued on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Many people died, most of them supporters of the American Indian Movement or the traditional Lakota people.

Others were simply victims of the violence-laden atmosphere, poverty, alcohol. We list here those who died during that period, whose deaths were investigated by police for murder or manslaughter.

A few names have been marked with an asterisk, indicating there was a court conviction for the death.

We apologize if this list is incomplete, and we ask readers to help us make it complete by sending us the necessary information.

The Editors. [Akwesasne Notes]

Priscilla White Plume died July 14, 1973, at Manderson.

Julius Bad Heart Bull died July 30, 1973, at Oglala*.

Donald He Crow died August 27, 1973, at Pine Ridge.

Aloysius Long Soldier died October 5, 1973, at Kyle.

Phillip Little Crow died November 14, 1973, at Pine Ridge.

Allison Little Spotted Horse died November 23, 1973, at Oglala.

Melvin Spider died September 22, 1973, at Porcupine.

Lorinda Red Paint died February 27, 1974, at Oglala*.

Edward Standing Soldier died February 18, 1974, at Pine Ridge.

Roxeine Roark died April 19, 1974, at Porcupine.

Dennis LeCompte died September 7, 1974, at Pine Ridge.

Jesse Trueblood died November 17, 1974, at Pine Ridge.

Elaine Wagner died November 30, 1974, at Pine Ridge.

Robert Reddy died September 16, 1974, at Kyle.

Floyd S. Bianas died December 25, 1974, at Pine Ridge*.

Yvette Lorraine Lone Hill died December 28, 1974, at Kyle*.

Leon L. Swift Bird died January 5, 1975, at Pine Ridge*.

William J. Steele died March 9, 1975, at Manderson.

Stacey Cortier died March 20, 1975, at Manderson*.

Jeanette M. (Waters) Bissonette died March 25, 1975, at Pine Ridge.

Richard Eagle died March 30, 1975, at Pine Ridge.

Hilda R. Good Buffalo died April 4, 1975, at Pine Ridge.

Ben Sitting Up died May 20, 1975, at Wanblee.

Kenneth Little died June 1, 1975, at Pine Ridge*.

Leah Spotted Elk died June 15, 1975, at Pine Ridge*.

Jack Coler and Ron Williams (FBI) died at Oglala June 26, 1975.

Joseph Stuntz Kills Right died June 26, 1975, at Oglala.

Vance DuBray died July 9, 1975, at Allen*.

Randy Hunter died August 25, 1975, at Kyle.

Howard Blue Bird died September 9, 1975, at Pine Ridge.

James Little died September 10, 1975, at Oglala*.

Olivia Bianas died October 26, 1975, at Porcupine.

Michelle Tobacco died October 27, 1975, at Pine Ridge.

Janice Black Bear died October 26, 1975, at Manderson*.

Carl Plenty Arrows, Sr. died December 6, 1975, at Pine Ridge*.

Frank LaPointe died December 6, 1975, at Pine Ridge*.

Lydia Cut Grass died January 5, 1976, at Wounded Knee.

Byron L. DeSersa died January 31, 1976, at Wanblee.

Lena R. Slow Bear died February 6, 1976, at Oglala.

Cleveland Reddest died March 26, 1976, at Kyle.

Anna Mae Aquash died in February, 1976, at Wanblee.

Betty Jo DuBray died April 28, 1976, at Martin.

Sam Afraid of Bear died May 24, 1976, at Pine Ridge.

Julia Pretty Hips died May 9, 1976, at Pine Ridge.

Kevin Hill died June 4, 1976, at Oglala.

Betty Means died July 3, 1976, at Pine Ridge.

Lyle Dean Richards died July 31, 1973, at Kyle.

Sandra Wounded Foot died, date unknown, at Sharp’s Corners.

Marvin Two Two died May 6, 1976, at Pine Ridge.

Chronology of Oppression at Pine Ridge

Pamphlet: Victims of Progress, Early Fall 1977, p. 8-9.
Author: Anonymous

December 1890
Massacre of 350 women, children and men near Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, considered the last “official” massacre of Indians by U.S. forces.

January 1972
Raymond Yellow Thunder, a dignified older man, was harassed, beaten, tortured and humiliated before a crowd at an American Legion Dance and finally murdered in Gordon, Nebraska.

January 21, 1973
Wesley Bad Heart Bull, knifed in chest after an earlier fight with the same man and after a bartender in Buffalo Gap put a bounty on his life. His killer was charged with second-degree manslaughter and finally acquitted.

April 1973
Glen Three Stars, a known goon, and Tote (John) Richards, also a goon, assaulted Hobart Keith, member of the tribal council, active in the impeachment effort.

April 17, 1973
Frank Clearwater (47, from Cherokee, N.C.) was sitting in the church building during the Wounded Knee Liberation; he was unarmed. A bullet crashed through the wall and tore out a substantial part of his skull and brain. He died April 25th.

April 27, 1973
Buddy Lamont, forced from a bunker in Wounded Knee, coughing and choking because of CS gas, was slammed with a heavy burst of machine gun fire and killed.

June 1973
Clarence Cross and his brother Vernal were shot by BIA police while they slept in a car parked by the side of the road. Clarence died, and Vernal, who was also injured, was charged with his murder. For over a year, he was followed, harassed and attacked by BIA police, goon squad and FBI.

July 29, 1973
At Manderson, Pine Ridge — Curtis Ghost struck with a club by off duty BIA policeman, Jonathan Twist. Minutes later 2 BIA policemen arrived, grabbed Ghost and put him in a car. They also knocked down and beat Leo White Hawk. Cathy Eagle Hawk (8 Months Pregnant) was maced in the face by Twist. Harassment because of their identification with AIM.

August 31, 1973
Hearing confirmed the fact that WKLD/OC [Wounded Knee Legal Defense/Offense Committee] had been under constant surveillance since its National Meeting Memorial weekend at the Imperial 400 Hotel in Rapid City. 48 out of a total of 54 S.D. FBI agents were in Rapid City at that time.

October 12, 1973
Jailing of James Romero and the Miguel family of Phoenix, Arizona — racist move by FBI to brainwash American public that AIM is a plot to disrupt matters in the local community.

October 17, 1973
Pedro Bisonette shot to death by BIA police at a roadblock.

October 4, 1973
Dick Wilson’s car driven into Bissonette’s property by Bill Charging (friend of Wilson’s son). Charging was intoxicated and told Mark Lane that Wilson had offered to pay him $50 for coming to the Bissonettes to see what he could provoke.

Fall 1973
Group of goons shooting M-16s, fired at the Little Bear house striking seven year old Mary Ann and causing her to lose her right eye.

Post-Wounded Knee 1973
Paul Herman, BIA police officer and Chris Red Elk, member of the goon squad, assaulted Helen Red Feather, a strong AIM supporter, and then arrested her. Mace was sprayed in her face repeatedly, her arm was twisted and she was kicked in the side although she told them she was four months pregnant.

Between January 22 and February 7, 1974
(Between primary and election 1974) at least eight families received threats that their homes would be firebombed and shot at.

February 7, 1974
Milo Goings, a well-known AIM member and Wounded Knee defendant, has his car sprayed with bullets and his rear windshield shot out while driving his car.

February 7, 1974
One woman activist describes election night: “There was shooting going on all over the reservation. It was just like the night Pedro Bisonette was killed.”

February 18, 1974
Verlyn Dale Bad Heart Bull is fatally shot in Allen, SD almost exactly a year after his brother was killed in Buffalo Gap.

February 1974
Poker Joe Merrival, son of tribal attorney Ethel Merrival, is stabbed, and two other AIM supporters are beaten up.

Early 1974
The son in law of Bernice and Eugene White Hawk is taken 1/4 mile out of Manderson, and beaten while handcuffed. His thumbs are broken by the cops who stand on them in their boots.

February 1974
Between the primary and election for tribal chairman, numerous threats, harassments, intimidation and shootings directed against any who oppose the re-election of Dick Wilson. On Election Day, a young boy is shot.

May 27, 1974
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights investigation of the Feb 7 election of tribal chairman Dick Wilson at Pine Ridge substantiated such things as: people submitted absentee ballots who had not previously registered.

July 5, 1974
Office of WKLD/OC in Pierre, S.D. is raided by Attorney General William Janklow, Deputy Sheriff Arthur Marso, and a police officer. They have no warrant and will not leave when requested to do so. Lawyer Mark Lane closes the door in a firm fashion and after repeated requests they leave. Members of the defense committee flee Hughes County with essential defense documents in fear that Janklow will attempt to seize them. These documents are a confidential survey conducted under the direction of attorney for John Carlson, an Indian defendant, showing anti-Indian prejudice in S.D.

October 12, 1974
Pine Ridge home of Dick Marshall, officer of the Committee for Better Tribal Government, invaded by four goons who harass him and others.

November 18, 1974
One person killed, 5 wounded at Chester Stone’s home by Jess Trueblood who then kills himself, according to the police version. The case is being reopened. Suspicion that Manny Wilson (son of Dick) did the killing is also revived.

Winter 1974
A man named Jerry is chased and shot at while trying to catch his horse; he is beaten around the head and suffers permanent damage to his hearing.

February 2, 1975
Exchange of gunfire on Pine Ridge between AIM and others.

February 27, 1975
Six legal workers, lawyers and a Wounded Knee defendant are beaten on orders from Dick Wilson, who personally witnesses the incident after ordering his goons to “stomp ’em.” Also on Feb. 27, 1975, a group of AIM members are beaten, chased through a roadblock and shot at. Meanwhile AIM members Severt Young Bear and Marvin Ghost Bear, both elected tribal council members, are locked in the jail and surrounded by goons. BIA police hide in the tribal offices throughout these incidents. Wilson and the goons are indicted for misdemeanor assault only after intensive publicity about the matter (something that never happens when Indians are the only victims) while the AIM members are indicted for serious felonies.

March 9, 1975
Josh Steele, a known goon, shot dead in his car near his home in Manderson.

March 19, 1975
Jerry Bear Shield is charged with the murder of Josh Steele.

March 20, 1975
Stacey Kortier shot and killed. Two suspects held in BIA jail on Pine Ridge.

March 21, 1975
Albert Coomes and Mark Clifford, both goons, repeatedly ram the car in which the Eagle Hawk and White Hawk families are riding. The car is forced off the road. Edith Eagle Hawk, 37, her four month old daughter, Linda and Earl W. Janis Jr. are killed. Coomes also killed. Edith Eagle Hawk is an eyewitness to Josh Steele shooting incident.

Mar. 26, 1975
Jeanette Bisonette shot and killed while her car was parked on the side of the road. She was returning from the wake of Stacy Cortier. She was shot by a high-powered rifle.

March 1975
Accidental shooting death of Richard Eagle; stabbing death of 81 year old Rose Good Buffalo and alleged suicide of Justin Sitting Up in Wanblee. His family says it was murder.

Spring 1975
Four goons break into the home of Dick Marshall and Dave Clifford while a fifth goon assaults the residents. In self-defense Clifford shoots Bettelyoun. Only Clifford is taken into custody and charged with assault to do great bodily harm. His home is shot up and firebombed after his family flees for safety. No on is arrested or charged.

April 27, 1975
Orville Schwartings, hired hand, drives by shooting at the cluster housing in Batesland, shouting, “I’m going to kill all the Indians!” Mrs. Katherine Hudson is present at this incident and has Etta May Runnels call into the police station in Pine Ridge. Nothing is done as usual since it was a white man.

June 26, 1975
Two FBI agents and an Indian man [Joseph Stuntz] are killed in Oglala; Leonard Peltier and three other Indians are charged with murder of the agents.

July 4, 1975
BIA policeman Dan Mesteth takes Chris and Ben Fire Thunder to the Wounded Knee Community Hall, handcuffs and beats them. Chris had been arrested about 25 times since Wounded Knee 1973; the arrests often include beatings.

July 1975
FBI agents attempt to rape Colleen Clifford near Manderson Housing.

July 10-14, 1975
Goons beat Stan Star severely and leave him at the PHS hospital, thinking he is dead. He receives deep gashes in the top of his head, a broken arm, and his face is beaten so severely that a week later, his eyes are swollen shut and his teeth have to be wired.

July 1975
An old man (in his eighties) dies of a heart attack after being threatened by FBI agents with M-16s and other weapons.

August 1975
Leroy Apple kills Homer Bluebird after a series of harassment incidents.

September 1975
Eugenio White Hawk is injured when goons run him down on the highway. They are driving a car, he is riding a horse; the horse has to be shot.

September 13, 1975
Four men kick Jim Little to death in daylight in the cluster housing in Oglala. Those who try to break up the beating are chased away with boards; one is knocked unconscious.

October 1975
Cheyenne Nichol’s home in Pine Ridge is shot up while she is in Rapid City.

October 13, 1975
Four explosions rock Pine Ridge Village, damaging an electric transformer, the Tribal Court House (a trailer) the BIA Building and the Law and Order Building.

November 1975
Danny Merrival is shot in the mouth.

Mid November 1975
Frank Grooms removes a log house from the property of Irene Big Elk, who was buying the house from him and was caught up on her payments. Her son, who is living in the house, goes to town for supplies and comes home to find the house and everything in it gone. The house is removed by Grooms, who also takes a range, refrigerator, Skelgas heater, table and chairs, bedding, rug, and clothing.

November 3, 1975
Frank Wilson (brother of Dick) is intimidated outside a White Clay bar.

Week of November 10, 1975
Edgar Bear Runner attacked in the Sioux Nation Supermarket by Manny Wilson (son of Dick) and two other goons who flee when the manager calls the police. Later the same day, his brother Dennis is run off the highway near his home in Porcupine by goons. The same week the BIA SWAT team attempts to assassinate three members of AIM and then conducts a high-speed chase of the car in which the AIM members are riding across the reservation.

December 5, 1975
Glen Janis shoots and kills Carl Plenty Arrows and Frank Lapointe.

Week of Dec. 12, 1975
BIA police shoot Joe Swift Bird in the back in Pine Ridge.

December 12, 1975
Late night shoot out among members of the goon squad in North Ridge Housing in Pine Ridge.

Dec. 31, 1975
Lou Bean and two companions are shot at as they attempt to walk from her house to a friend’s. Police come and arrest her companion and send her home. No attempt is made to arrest those doing the shooting. This occurs in Crazy Horse Housing, Pine Ridge.

January 1976
Winnie Red Shirt’s head is grazed by a bullet shot from a car going past the store in Porcupine. She is the mother of Larry Red Shirt, the coordinator for the Lakota Treaty Council. Some witnesses say the people were actually shooting at Dick Marshall, long time reservation organizer and AIM member. Police try to claim Mrs. Red Shirt was hit by a rock, not a bullet. The hospital report says it was a bullet.

January 31, 1976
Byron DeSersa is murdered by goons during a chase. His car with passengers, all unarmed, is chased by six cars of known goons. After the car is wrecked, the goons prevent his getting medical attention, and he bleeds to death. His death is preceded by a day of shooting and threats by Pine Ridge goons. Authorities do nothing to stop the attacks on AIM members, supporters and traditionalists. Police arrest two people being shot at on old warrants.

February 1976
Car of young people driving from the AIM school in Rapid City late night is chased by a car at high speed from Scenic to Sharps Corner (near Porcupine). The AIM car is wrecked. Three of the four occupants are killed. Selma Johnson survives but has head and back injuries. This is the third such accident in a year. All of the victims have been AIM or AIM supporters. Authorities refuse to improve patrolling of the area.

February 1976
Lena Slow Bear is found dead on the side of the road near Oglala. She was 16. Circumstances of her death are being investigated.

This is only a partial list. There are probably almost as many more incidents that we have never even heard about. There are also more subtle attacks: of having an inadequate diet while white ranchers cattle graze in the front yard, of knowing there is no adequate health care available if you get sick and no preventive care at all; of all the subtly genocidal policies of a U.S. government afraid of issues like Treaty agreements, jurisdiction, sovereignty, control of land and programs and abolition of the 1934 and 1936 Indian government reorganization acts.

Guillermo Prado, Luis V. Rodriguez, The Indian Wars Are Not Over, Remembering Those Who Didn’t Survive (1973-1976), Free Leonard Peltier and All Political Prisoners (1998)

Goon Squad attack on the Wounded Knee Legal Defense/Offense Committee

Eda Gordon – October 20, 2000 – Santa Fe, New Mexico

County of Santa Fe
State of New Mexico

AFFIDAVIT

I, Eda Gordon, being duly sworn do depose and state the following:

1. I am a private investigator licensed in the State of New Mexico since 1982.

2. From 1973 through 1975 I worked with the Wounded Knee Legal Defense/Offense Committee, first as a press liaison and then as a paralegal/investigator for the cases arising out of the 1973 occupation of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

3. In February 1975 I was a passenger in a carload of lawyers and legal workers attacked at the Pine Ridge Airport by members of the vigilante group known as the “Goon Squad” (Guardians of the Oglala Nation) under the direct orders of Tribal Chairman Dick Wilson. Wilson stood at the driver side the car [sic], and when asked by one of the goons, “What do you want us to do with them, Dick?”, Wilson responded, “I want you to stomp ’em.” The six of us in the car were pulled out at gunpoint, thrown to the ground, and the men badly beaten. At one point, one of the goons pulled a knife directed at one of the lawyers, Roger Finzel, who was on the ground being stomped by boots and fists. I deflected the knife and received minor cuts on my hand.

4. The attack on the Wounded Knee legal team occurred in the midst of a “reign of terror” against traditional Lakota people who opposed the Dick Wilson regime, but also signaled that the repression had escalated out of control. No longer could the rampant violence on the Reservation be characterized merely as internecine warfare among factions when non-Indian out-of-state lawyers and legal workers had become a target of Wilson and his Goon Squad.

5. It was in this climate of fear four months later that FBI agents Williams and Coler, in unmarked cars, chased a pickup into the Jumping Bull compound in Oglala, and died in an ensuing firefight.

6. In March 1990, at the request of Bruce Ellison, legal counsel for Leonard Peltier, I traveled to Fargo, North Dakota, to interview members of the jury that had convicted Peltier of killing the FBI agents.

7. The purpose of the interviews was to inquire if the jurors would have changed their verdict if new evidence obtained after trial had been introduced at the time of the trial.

8. Subsequent to the conviction of Leonard Peltier, an FBI report was obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, which documented, contrary to FBI testimony at trial, that a ballistics test conducted by the FBI showed that a shell casing found at the scene was incompatible with a weapon attributed to Leonard Peltier.

9. Also obtained under the Freedom of Information Act after trial were FBI reports regarding the radio transmissions of the two agents prior to their death. These reports confirmed that the agents were chasing a red pickup truck into the Jumping Bull compound, not a red and white van, which Leonard Peltier was known to use. None of the transmissions discussed in the reports described the vehicle as a van. Other reports emphasized that for two to three weeks after the incident, the FBI was looking for and stopping red pickups — not vans — in its manhunt to apprehend the suspected killers of the agents.

10. Of the three jurors who agreed to an interview, two said that the discovery of the ballistics test and the discrepancy between the red pickup truck and the read and white van could have changed their verdict.

11. In the course of this post-conviction investigation, I also interviewed Wilford “Wish” Draper and Norman Brown on the Navajo Nation. Both were adolescents living at the Jumping Bull compound on June 26, 1975, and were called as witnesses for the prosecution against Leonard Peltier at the time of the trial. Both admitted that they were intimidated by the FBI into testifying against Peltier and told in front of their mothers that they could spend the rest of their lives in prison if they did not testify to implicate Peltier in the killing of the agents.

The foregoing statements are true and correct to the best of my knowledge.

Eda Gordon (copy of original affidavit below)

Notorized on October 20, 2000.