Anna Mae Aquash, Indian Warrior – Susan Van Gelder (1979)

From ‘News & Letters: Human Power is its Own End’, November 1979, Detroit, edited by Charles Denby

THE LIFE AND DEATH OF ANNA MAE AQUASH, by Johanna Brand (Toronto: James Lorimer & Co., 1978), $6.95. Available from, Akwesasne Notes, Rooseveltown, NY, 13683.

This biography of the development of Anna Mae Pictou Aquash as Indian woman and revolutionary shows feminists, Indian activists, and all serious revolutionaries why our enemies were so anxious to end her life and thought.

In February, 1976, a young woman’s body was found “dead of exposure” on, the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. She was hastily buried — after her hands were cut off and sent to the FBI in Washington. When they identified her as Anna Mae Pictou Aquash, her family and friends demanded a second autopsy which revealed she died from a .32-caliber bullet shot from close range into the back of her head — murder.

This book tells Anna Mae Pictou Aquash’s life story with no separation between the personal and political developments. Equal space is devoted to the history of the American Indian Movement (AIM) and the secret FBI war on all dissenters in the U.S., from the outright murder of AIM activists, to the “terrorism and one-sided law enforcement” practiced by the FBI in the Black movement, from the Panthers to Martin Luther King, Jr.

During the occupation of Wounded Knee, 1973, Anna Mae took part in the nightly patrols; she considered herself a female warrior and did not hesitate to take on ‘‘men’s work.” She was able to reach reservation women and move them to fight against their hardships in a way the male leaders of AIM were not able to do.

It was the AIM women who first became suspicious of Douglass Durham, AIM Security Director, whose exposure in 1975 as an FBI agent was a deadly blow to AIM as an organization. The women had observed Durham’s exploitation and abuse of other women and decided it was necessary to make it impossible for him to work in the National Office.

Anna Mae wanted to teach the students at the Red Schoolhouse AIM Survival School the use of libraries, so they could re-create “true reservation histories.” She was concerned with AIM’s long-range plans, and her vision that new leaders should be continually emerging conflicted with the ideas of most of the AIM leaders.

Whether feminists or AIM leaders recognized that her self-development as an Indian warrior could not have occurred without her fight to transcend the limits both white America and AIM puts on women, the counter-revolution knew that Anna Mae’s life continued the high point of human creativity, individual and community self-development that was Wounded Knee, 1973. She was indeed dangerous to the racism, sexism, and capitalist exploitation that blocks human freedom all over the world.

The publication of the story of her life and death makes it possible for revolutionaries everywhere to read and discuss her ideas, and to take up her challenge to struggle for a truly human society.

— Susan Van Gelder

Anna Mae Pictou Aquash – News & Letters (1976)

From ‘News & Letters: Human Power is its Own End’, April 1976, Detroit, edited by Charles Denby

We mourn the death of Anna Mae Pictou Aquash, a Canadian Indian, 31 [correction: 30 years old] years old and the mother of two daughters. She was a participant in the 1973 occupation of Wounded Knee; an AIM member in Los Angeles, St. Paul and on the Pine Ridge Reservation where her body was found on Feb. 26. Neither her murder nor the grotesque attempts by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and tribal and federal authorities to cover it up can change the fact that she spent her life fighting for freedom, like the 30 other Indians killed on Pine Ridge since Wounded Knee.

On March 9 the traditional leaders of the Oglala District said: “Anna Mae worked hard serving her Indian people and assisted us in our efforts to shed the shackles of government paternalism. She was with us in the past and we are concerned because we feel her involvement as our ally probably caused her death.”

Pine Ridge Defeats Wilson; Indian Repression Stepped-Up – Shainape Shcapwe (1976)

From ‘News & Letters: Human Power is its Own End’, March 1976, Detroit, edited by Charles Denby

by Shainape Shcapwe [Ihaƞktoƞwaƞ Dakota Oyate / Yankton Sioux Tribe]

In the election on Pine Ridge Reservation, Jan. 27, Tribal Chairman Dick Wilson was defeated. The vote was 1,610 to 1,079. His successor, Albert Trimble, was supported in the election by the American Indian Movement (AIM). A native of Pine Ridge, Trimble was the first Indian to be appointed Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Superintendent of the reservation with Wilson’s approval, after the occupation of Wounded Knee. When he became too “impartial” toward people trying to get rid of Wilson, he was reassigned by the BIA headquarters to a BIA office in Albuquerque.

I talked to Kathy, a spokesperson for the Wounded Knee Legal Defense Committee. She said, “Nearly twice as many people voted this time as there were two years ago. The federal monitors probably helped keep it a little more honest.”

BOMBED, SHOT IN BACK

But four days after the election, a dozen carload of goons (who are themselves Indian) went shooting into cars and homes of AIM members and traditionalists and firebombed two houses. Jim Little, whom Kathy described as “a rallying point for the reservation”, was severely injured by an explosive device. One hand was blown off; he might lose the other thumb even if they save the other hand, and both eyes had to be removed.

Byron DeSersa, also an AIM supporter, was run off the road and shot three times in the back. He was dead on arrival at the hospital. More AIM supporters were arrested after his funeral.

This has all been the work of Wilson’s goon squad, hired to help put down the four impeachment attempts against him in his first year of office. The last attempt led directly to the Wounded Knee Occupation of February, 1973. Since he’s been Tribal Chairman, more than 30 of his opponents have been killed.

I’m sure most people feel the election was a victory for Pine Ridge. Trimble talked about regular Tribal Council meetings to work out solutions to problems of housing, land use, and law enforcement. I’m hoping, as most people are, that the election of Trimble will not only get rid of Wilson, but that he can really help the people on Pine Ridge.

There are many people who want to get rid entirely of the Tribal Council system imposed by the U.S. in 1934, and return to a traditional form of self-government.

STRENGTH IN FACE OF REPRESSION

It is a very important time for all Indian people. Many AIM leaders and other activists have been jailed or tied up in legal battles recently. Dennis Banks was arrested on Feb. 1 in California. Over 40 police and FBI agents surrounded the house where he was staying with friends. They telephoned Banks to come out or they’d shoot into the house. There were several children inside.

When he did come out, police found no weapons in the house. He faces 15 years in jail on several counts. This is just one month after Loud Hawk and Redner were jailed in Oregon. (See News & Letters, January/February, 1976, p. 9).

I was told that many people around the country, Indian and non-Indian, put signs up in their houses saying, “Dennis Banks Welcome Here”. Since any involvement could bring long jail sentences, especially for Indians, this shows me an incredible strength within the movement despite the repression.

Kathy spoke about AIM on the reservation: “It’s bad to lose strong people like Byron DeSersa. But for every death on the reservation, support for AIM grows stronger. I feel that on Pine Ridge AIM is stronger than it ever was.”

Our supporters should know that we desperately need money to fight the legal (and actual) lynching going on right now. Send donations to: Wounded Knee Legal Defense/Offense Committee, P.O. Box 2397, Rapid City, S.D. 57701 [now out of date].