A Risk Worth Taking

Hearing about what was going on at Pine Ridge, AIM was more than willing to step in to help. Members of AIM as well as the tribal leaders and a few members of the Oglala Lakota from Pine Ridge met at the Calico Hall Community Center, just five miles west of the reservation. [1] The chiefs of the Oglala, most specifically Fools Crow, explained what had been happening on the reservation. They explained that they had attempted to solve the problems with every legal option; with failures in every attempt, they were ready to take illegal action. With desperation, they asked AIM for help, even though they knew there with risks by asking. "Where AIM goes, chaos often follows. . . as they go down the road, they don't know exactly what is going to happen." [2] Following that reputation, AIM made a plan to help the Oglala nation; they were going to occupy Wounded Knee, a city on the Pine Ridge reservation. This occupation was to force Dick Wilson out of office by drawing the attention of the rest of the nation. 

Fools Crow, Oglala Chief [3]

The Oglalas were hesitant to agree but finally the women lost patience and took over the discussion. Ellen Moves Camp, one of the founders of OSCRO (Oglala Sioux Civil Rights Organization), said many things that inspired a lot of the Oglala Lakota to abandon their fears and take action. [4] "Dicky Wilson has forbidden any meetings, speech making, or traditional dancing on the reservation. But this is our land, Lakota land. It belongs to us, not him and his goons. . .  [5] I don't see why they can't take him  and throw him out or throw him in jail or something the way he's been terrorizing people here on the reservation. . . I'm not scared of them anymore." [6] Inspired by Ellen Moves Camp, Fools Crow made a decision for the entire tribe. "Then we'll go to Wounded Knee," he said, "The AIM warriors will lead us." [7]

[1] Dennis Banks and Richard Erdoes, Ojibwa Warrior: Dennis Banks and the Rise of the American Indian Movement (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2004), 160.
[2] John Kusiak, We Shall Remain: Wounded Knee, DVD, Stanley Nelson (2009: PBS), web.
[3] Otto Bettman, photographer, Frank Fools Crow at Wounded Knee Occupation, photograph, South Dakota: Corbis, March 6 1973, CORBIS Images: Bettman Collection, Web, http://www.corbisimages.com/stock-photo/rights-managed/BE054415/frank-fools-crow-at-wounded-knee-occupation (accessed March 26, 2012). 
[4] Reinhardt, Akim D. Ruling Pine Ridge: Oglala Lakota Politics from the IRA to Wounded Knee. Lubbock, Texas: Texas Tech University Press, 2007.

[5] Banks and Erdoes, 160.
[6] Kusiak, We Shall.
[7] Banks and Erdoes, 161.

[

American Indian Movement and Dick Wilson

AIM's Symbol

In 1968, the American Indian Movement (AIM) was created in Minneapolis. This group of young Indians had become expertise at using occupation as a protest. [1] In 1974, AIM occupied the headquarters of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and vandalized the building. In 1973, a white man killed an Indian by Custer, South Dakota. This man was charged with manslaughter, not murder, by local officials, causing AIM to react with anger. At the courthouse, 200 AIM members forced their way in and were attacked by law enforcement. The AIM members retaliated by lighting the courthouse in flames and destroying the town surrounding. [2]

Dick Wilson

Meanwhile, 50 miles from Custer, the Oglala Lakota (more often known as the Sioux) living on Pine Ridge Reservation were having their own difficulties. Elected chairman, Dick Wilson, had taken the job of traditional chiefs and used his power to disadvantage many of the Oglala Lakota living on the reservation. Wilson favored those who were "mixed race, assimilated Indians, like himself" over the full-blooded Sioux who still spoke their language and followed the customs of the traditional chiefs of the past. [3] Because of Wilson's favoring toward the non-traditional Oglalas, food, protection, and funds were distributed unequally throughout the reservation. Wilson and his people, referred to as GOONS (Guardians of our Oglala Nation), were challenged for corruption within the tribal government by the traditional Sioux and responded with violence. When charges were pressed, Wilson threw them out of court, making it impossible for the people to gain fairness and equality. [4] Because of Wilson's powerful threats and actions, many policemen were afraid to arrest any one of Wilson's "Goons," regardless of the fact that they constantly broke the law. In addition to this, many of the men in the police force were non-traditional Oglalas, meaning that Wilson favored and helped them. In an effort to keep that favor and support, these men did not arrest any Goons. In an interview for PBS's documentary We Shall Remain: Wounded Knee, Marvin Stoldt, a BIA police officer and non-traditional Oglala, said, "He helped me a number of times, so I felt that I owed him a loyalty and so I didn't support everything he did but [regardless] of what he did, I still felt that loyalty." [5]


Finally, the traditional Sioux having enough of being treated so poorly, started a civil rights commission and began gathering evidence of the corruption within the tribal government. In February 1973, impeachment hearings were held by the tribal council, but failed due to Wilson's threats to witnesses and council members. Many tribal members felt no hope. One traditional Oglala woman said, "Well I believe that the time has come that we have to commit violence in order to be heard. I don't wanna see anybody killed or anything, but the time is gonna come one of these [times when] violence might have to be in order to wake the people up." [6] It was with this attitude, that the Sioux living in Pine Ridge approached the AIM for help.








[1] Faragher et al., Out of Many: A History of the American People, vol. 2 (New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2012), 78.

[2] Columbia University, Press. 2011. "American Indian Movement." Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6Th Edition 1. History Reference Center, EBSCOhost (accessed March 4, 2012).
[3] John Kusiak, We Shall Remain: Wounded Knee, DVD, Stanley Nelson (2009: PBS), web.
[4] “Siege at Wounded Knee 1973.” Redhawk’s Lodge, 2002. siouxme.com/lodge/aim_73.html
[5] John Kusiak
[6] John Kusiak