A Holiday That Should Never Be

For some odd reason, and I will explain what I mean by odd later, the tribal government of the Oglala Sioux Tribe celebrates a reservation-wide holiday on February 27.

On Feb. 27, 1973, a group of American Indian Movement members occupied the Pine Ridge Reservation village of Wounded Knee. The village soon became "The Knee" to the occupiers.

In the 71 day occupation an entire village was pillaged and destroyed and more than 30 families, the original inhabitants of Wounded Knee, mostly Lakota people, were left homeless. A trading post, actually more of a grocery store than trading post, was burned to the ground and the Sacred Heart Catholic Church was also destroyed.

The Village of Wounded Knee was never rebuilt. A Lakota woman named Pinky Plume built another store and gas station in the community of Manderson, a village very near Wounded Knee that was a life saver to the people that had lost the services provided by the Trading Post at Wounded Knee.

The ousted citizens of Wounded Knee Village have tried without success to have their homes rebuilt. In the interim, the leaders of AIM have raised millions of dollars for its projects and legal defense funds, but have not contributed a single dollar to rebuild the village they helped to destroy.

I am not the only member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe to find the adoption of a holiday to commemorate the destruction of a historical village not only odd, but enraging. President John Steele of the OST is not only on unstable ground for encouraging this bogus holiday, but his logic flies in the face of reality. In fact, some of the individuals behind this charade call Feb. 27, 1973 the day that Wounded Knee was liberated. Liberated? How about destroyed, burned to the ground, demolished. Some liberation.

Any news reporter who wants to find out about the reality I speak of should track down some of the former residents of Wounded Knee and see if they are celebrating this reservation holiday.

I lived in Wounded Knee when I was a child. My father worked as a store clerk for Clive and Agnes Gildersleeve, the owners of the Wounded Knee Trading Post. One of my childhood playmates was Joan, the daughter of Clive and Agnes. The Gildersleeves were taken as hostages by AIM members on the night of Feb. 27, 1973. The business they had operated as the Wounded Knee Trading Post since 1930 was destroyed as was their home.

I would like for President Steele to tell me and hundreds of other members of the Oglala Lakota Nation why Feb. 27 is a day to celebrate. Many of the people that occupied the Village of Wounded Knee that night weren't even members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe and the agony after that night brought nothing but poverty to the people. That day did absolutely nothing to improve the conditions of the Oglala Lakota people. In fact, it probably set us back by 20 years. Is that a reason to call this day a holiday?

Seven years after that day the U. S. Census Bureau proclaimed Shannon County, the heart of the Pine Ridge Reservation, the single poorest county in America. All of the empty promises made by AIM amounted to nothing but words.

Pine Ridge still has one of the highest infant mortality rates in America, some of the shortest life spans for adults, and one of the highest rates of unemployment in America. February 27 should not be celebrated as a holiday, but as a day of mourning. Every member of the tribe should wear black armbands. If Wounded Knee is to be celebrated as a tribal holiday, the date of that celebration, nay - commemoration - should be changed to December 29, the day the real martyrs of Wounded Knee stood tall.

To learn about the other side of the occupation of Wounded Knee get a copy of the book "American Indian Mafia" by Joe Trimbach. It is a pretty detailed description of what happened inside of Wounded Knee in 1973.

There is a trial to be held starting June 17, 2008 in Rapid City. John Boy Graham, a member of AIM, has been accused of murdering Anna Mae Pictou Aquash. Her body was discovered near the village of Wanbli on Feb. 24, 1976, just three years after and three days short of the takeover at Wounded Knee. Suspected by AIM of being an FBI informant, this wonderful lady's life was taken by AIM and I think every member of the Oglala Sioux Tribal Council, and President Steele, should be seated in the courthouse in Rapid City as many of the horrid details about the death of Anna Mae and the destruction of Wounded Knee come to light.

Tim Giago, an Oglala Lakota, was born, raised and educated on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. He was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard in the Class of 1991. He can be reached at [e-mail]

Comments

[RayEvansHarrell]

forgive the poor formatting. I couldn't get this program to print a poem properly. Hope the point gets through in spite of the bad form. REH

[ahkota]

This is my response to Mr. Giago and the other hang around the forts, even those forts over in the Mediterranean. This was also posted on the Indianz.com website, Migwetch

In Tim Giago"s February 25th diatribe regarding the American Indian Movement and the Oglala people"s decision to commemorate the Occupation of Wounded Knee in 1973. Giago continues to profess his brand of yellow journalism by printing innuendos and omitting some relevant facts. I am not criticizing him for his views; rather I am disappointed that a man supposedly as learned as Mr. Giago is, in both the white mans world and the Indian world would continue to distort the facts for whatever his reasons are. Mr. Giago is intent on attacking and smearing AIM, wherever, whenever and in any public forum he can. For the sake of the many Tiospaye"s, brothers and sisters who have laid down their lives for the struggle that AIM continues to represent, for Leonard Peltier and for the many who continue to dedicate their lives to this struggle of Indigenous Sovereignty, I am humbly attempting this response.

Giago states in his article that a group of AIM people occupied the village of Wounded Knee. He is partially correct here in that probably no more than fifty of the two hundred and fifty people who went in to Wounded Knee on February 27th, 1973 were AIM warriors who were not either Lakota or Oglala. He also forgot to mention that many relevant people from the Oglala reservation made the collective decision to go to Wounded Knee. Among those who provided leadership and direction to the people were Oglala Lakota Headmen, Holy Men, Tribal Elders and then current Tribal Council members. Here is a short list of some of them, Frank Fools Crow, Pete Catches, Ellis Chips, Edgar Red Cloud, Jake Kills Enemy, Morris Wounded, Ellen Moves Camp, Gladys Bissonette, Vern Long, Pedro Bissonette and Severt Young Bear to name just a few of the many. Giago also failed to mention that AIM was for the most part kept out of the decision making process which was conducted by the local Traditional people from Pine Ridge. What kind of honor and respect is Giago displaying to these people and the members of these Oglala Patriot"s families who asked AIM to enter the fight?

Mr. Giago makes it appear that AIM came to Lakota Indian country to bring trouble to the local Indian population. The truth is that AIM was asked to come to South Dakota in late December of 1972 to address racism and the continuing dual standard of justice that exists for Indian people in South Dakota. AIM was requested to come to assist the family of Wesley Bad Heart Bull, who was murdered by a white man who wasn"t charged or arrested for the murder. Bad Heart Bull was murdered around the same time an Indian had killed a white woman and had the book thrown at him. On January 6th, 1973, what is known as the Custer Riot occurred, which the aftermath of brought many Lakota and other Indians from throughout the US into the Rapid City area. On February 11th seventy five US Marshals along with a contingent of FBI agents occupied the BIA building in Pine Ridge with several .50 caliber machine guns and sand bank emplacements. They would also ride around the reservation accompanied by the GOON Squad intimidating the traditional people in packs of four to ten vehicles with gangs of four heavily armed thugs in each car. They were already wearing fatigues and brandishing AR 15"s and other automatic weapons. This was a good three weeks before Wounded Knee was taken.

Most people are not aware that an illegal war conducted by the US government took place in Wounded Knee and that several hundred thousand rounds of ammunition were shot into Wounded Knee. What the government did that was illegal was to turn law enforcement into a Pentagon commanded and supplied army which the US Constitution prohibits. There were daily firefights, throughout the siege thirty eight defenders were wounded, one US Marshal was wounded, Frank Clearwater a Cherokee and Buddy LaMont a Lakota from Pine Ridge were killed in firefights with US forces. It was war. Every night during the occupation, the US forces would send up hundreds of magnesium flares which would cause fires and burn fields and buildings down, due to the shortage of water. Much damage was done to the village no doubt during the occupation, in war zones it is a quite common occurrence. When Wounded Knee ended there were several witnesses who describe what the government agents and the goon squad did to Wounded Knee after the occupiers were arrested or melted away into history. Stella Bear Shield, who was a ninety year old resident of Wounded Knee at the time and one who stayed until it was over witnessed BIA Police and the GOON Squad trash then burn her fields and her house down. Eddie White Rabbit another Wounded Knee resident witnessed BIA cops breaking into and smashing cars up as he was getting processed out of Wounded Knee. Grace Black Elk and many others also witnessed the destruction which took place as Wounded Knee switched hands from the Indian occupiers to the forces of the federal government.

In the end Wounded Knee was left destroyed, but much of the blame for the damage must be put where it belongs and that is on the laps of Dickie Wilson, his GOON Squad and the US governments. In 1973 there was not much in Wounded Knee and what was there, the people who were from Wounded Knee and those who were part of the occupying forces needed every building and resource we could utilize. AIM may be responsible for the damage that was done at Wounded Knee, but the damage we did was a costly consequence for answering the call of assistance put out to AIM by the Traditional people of Pine Ridge and for supporting and standing up with the Traditional element of Lakota"s to over a century of murders, lies, thefts and tyranny at the hands of wasicu and those who have helped him.

As far as Giago recommending that one read FBI agent Joseph Trimbach"s book "The American Indian Mafia" for the truth on AIM, without having even seen it I know it is filled with lies and distortions. Reading Trimbach"s book and expecting to find out the truth of those times in the seventies in Indian Country, well that would be like reading a book written by George W Bush while searching for the truth on Iraq, weapons of mass destruction, Saddam, oil and the people of Iraq, it ain"t going to happen. Concerning the trial of John Graham, Giago is right in that on June 17th, 2008, there will take place a real trial, not one like the Americans in their kangaroo court gave Arlo Looking Cloud. There and then, hopefully the truth will prevail in the case of the murder of Anna Mae Aquash. And that the US authorities who trailed, terrorized and threatened her with death if she wouldn"t cooperate with them in their investigation of the Peltier case will finally be held responsible for her murder. I might suggest to the OST Tribal President, Mr. John Steele that he hold a referendum concerning the Wounded Knee Tribal Holiday. I think the Oglala people would vote to maintain it.

[redbow40]

2nd post- I hope this one makes it. Thank you Ahkota for your comment, it was like a breath of fresh air. I would like to bring up a point, I have not seen discussed here. This F.B.I. agent suggests that the members of A.I.M. are violent criminals and laid seige to the Pine Ridge Reservation, a place many of them called home. I have not seen or heard a piece of evidence that shows any members of A.I.M. had prior convictions for felonies or violent pasts (Prior to Wounded Knee '73). How is it that our men, many of them activists who cared about the path of their people could over the course of several weeks become murderers? Can someone explain this to me? How can anyone say they care about Indian people and then believe the word of an F.B.I. agent? I would like to see the personnel files on these F.B.I. agents, and see just what crimes they've been accused of. It would probably shock everyone here. It would be a cold day in hell before I take the word of an F.B.I. agent. I read a story regarding the murders of many traditional Indian people. A good number of them were shot in the back of the head with a .223 round (that means AR-15). The official cause of death listed was suicide.The only people who could've supplied these weapons is law enforcement.

[RayEvansHarrell]

SACRED FLAGS

for Sagowa

Sitting at Eagle Lake
in Moscow, Pennsylvania
creating ceremonial flags
to mark the four directions and
the ceremonial door
to the sacred circle of life.

I constructed each flag

in the sacred colors.

From
National Public Radio
came the Benjamin Britten and
Wilfred Owen's "War Requiem."

In the four directions were four trumpets,
the singer intoned the words of the soldier poet

"Bugles sang,
saddening the evening air;
And bugles answered,
sorrowful to hear."

I heard and looked.
In each corner of the world
stood blue cavalry officers
with flag and bugle
and rifle and cannon.

It was Washita River and old Black Kettle
the great Cheyenne Peace Priest,
counseled his people
under a white Flag of Truce
as he held the Peace Medal
from President Lincoln in his hands.

"Be still,
do not fear,
we are at peace."

But Custer would have none of it.
As the bugle chorus bleated,
the cannons rose
and from the four directions
the soldiers and the Osage
fell upon the old men, women and children.

I wept bitterly, angrily
as I saw the running children fall,
the pregnant mothers disemboweled.

A scene told by my historian father
as a teaching
about a dangerous world for Indian people.

Through my rage
My teacher entered the room.
He saw my anger
and the flags of peace.

He, Black Kettle's heir in the present,
A High Medicine Peace Priest of the ........ people

said simply:

"You must learn to let go of your anger.

The Circle of life is a place of peace."

Digoweli 2008

[RayEvansHarrell]

Well Tim,

That was a very complicated time. Mafia is an interesting term to use in describing these actions. The Mafia is actually the old Roman Law and is the traditional government of Traditional Italians. You can see the roots of the Mafia in the HBO Rome series with the same Godfather's etc.

Are you looking back to a Golden Era prior to the Wounded Knee Occupation? Was there peace and prosperity at Pine Ridge before the coming of AIM? How is AIM different from the Northerners who went South in the 1960s and started the Civil Rights era except that AIM failed and the Northern coalition did not?

You wrote a good article about the journalist recently and the need for reporting the facts. What was the feeling of most Indian People about the Church at Wounded Knee described by L Frank Baum where the children's blood mingled with the red Christmas decorations? As he described that in his screed in the 1890s I could just hear the music to "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" sung by a little European Child on the movie screen.

But most of all. Why is nothing said about the need for sensitivity as the ancient traditions come back and the struggle to accept the 95 years of religious oppression (American Indian Religious Crimes Codes of 1883) prior to the 1978 Freedom of Religion for American Indians Act is integrated into the whole of the society? There is so much to be said and so much to be done. There are also people of good will outside the Nation that would help if the writers from within could just figure out how to ask. REH

[Pantelleria01]

Wow. Yes, odd is the right word. the dogs of AIM continue to deceive the world. I have read almost without stopping Trimbach's book, American Indian Mafia. It is compelling and heart-breaking and highly recommended reading. Buy a copy nd donate it to your public library. I am very sorry to hear of this falling sickness by the tribal leadership. Poor old Wounded Knee. And Ana Mae.....many of us are hoping the trial in the summer will produce a few other indictments, such as Dennis Banks and Rusell Means. Thanks Tim for keeping us informed. Migwitch Nikan.