Wounded Knee: The Longest War 1890-1973

_{Wounded Knee, photo by Aaron Huey}

From ‘Black Flag: Organ of the Anarchist Black Cross’, December 1974, London, UK

The longest war that the United States government has ever waged has been against the American Indians. The war has never ceased. In 1890 federal troops massacred 300 unarmed Indians at Wounded Knee, South Dakota.

In 1973 the government again mustered its forces against the Indian people of the Pine Ridge Reservation who had gathered at Wounded Knee to protest at the continuing injustices to their people and the government’s violation of their treaty rights under the 1868 Treaty, states the Wounded Knee Defence Committee.

On February 27, within hours of calling for aid from the American Indian Movement, members of the Oglala Sioux Civil Rights Organisation and its supporters were surrounded. Police set up road-blocks, cordoned off the area and began arresting people leaving Wounded Knee.

The Oglala People prepared to defend themselves against government aggression — once again.

Under heavy fire from government troops and local vigilantes, the Oglala people liberated the village for 71 days — from February 27 to May 8 — establishing the Independent Oglala Nation. Two Indian men, Buddy Lamont and Frank Clearwater, were killed in the fight for their treaty rights.

Like its history of broken treaties, the government failed to honour the agreements ending the liberation of Wounded Knee signed on April 5 and May 5. The liberators asked for, and the Wounded Knee trials support, three basic demands:

1. A treaty commission (Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs) should examine the 371 treaties the Unites States has made — and broken — with Indian people. Rights should be enforced by law. The Oglala people should receive control of their reservation, as spelled out in the Treaty of 1868.

2. Repeal of the Indian Reorganisation Act of 1934, a major weapon in robbing Indians of their treaty-guaranteed reservation, and a means of setting up white-controlled governments. On Pine Ridge, hold new elections with impartial observers protecting against violence and fraud in the election.

3. Remove the Bureau of Indian Affairs from the U.S. Department of Interior — its oil mineral park interests conflict with Indian interests — and make the BIA an independent agency. On Pine Ridge, there should be an independent investigation of the BIA’s handling of Indian affairs, and an independent audit of the tribe’s books and land rent records.

As a result of the liberation, approximately 130 people face heavy federal charges; and many more indictments are expected. Another 150 people face state and tribal charges for their stand at Wounded Knee and other Indian civil rights protests. The trials are in process.

In St. Paul, Minnesota Russell Means and Dennis Banks went to trial January 8 for conspiring with five other leaders of the American Indian Movement to “take over” Wounded Knee and aiding and abetting in all the alleged “crimes” committed during the liberation. In Sioux Falls South Dakota 123 other people — the people who led the “leaders” — went to trial February 11.