February 27, 1973

Pine Ridge Reservation [1]

Filled with adrenaline and anxiousness, the protesters decided to secure Wounded Knee that night. In a caravan of fifty-four cars filled with almost 200 men armed with weapons, they headed east for Pine Ridge. Upon arrival, they "made a show of defiance by driving through the cold night, right past Wilson's headquarters with [their] lights blazing, car horns honking, and AIM flags fluttering from [their] car antennas." [2] When they finally arrived at the town of Wounded Knee, the Oglala Lakota and AIM members held a prayer meeting. Then, they split up and began what they were there to do; get the government's attention and help.

The Gildersleeve family [4]

Gildersleeve's Trading Post, the town's only store, was stripped bare after a few protesters took from it all the necessary firearms, ammunition, and food they would need for the next couple of days. The few white residents of the town, as well as the minister were being held captive in the local church and all the roads leading in or out of the town were completely blocked and stationed with armed protesters. Within just an hour of the occupation, the town was surrounded by about one hundred U.S. marshals. [3] Joseph Trimbach, a former FBI agent decided to go to Wounded Knee and meet with the protesters to settle the problem with no bloodshed. As he arrived, he was met with guns and a list of demands. 


The government's attention is exactly what the protesters wanted. By using force and violence, they hoped that the government would do as they asked and help them gain equality within the reservation. When Joseph Trimbach arrived, they knew it was time to demand what they wanted and when they wanted it. Hearing the demands of a "federal investigation of corruption on reservations in South Dakota" as well as "immediate Senate hearings on broken treaties with Indian Nations," Trimbach knew this was a problem much larger than what he could solve. [5] 


"We were angry about losing our land. Losing our language. Being ripped off of our ability to live as Indian people. Our parents was telling us 'You have to walk the white man road. The Indian ways are gonna be gone. Be a Christian, you know. Go to school and learn that English but don’t learn your own language.' We wanted to give our lives in such a way that would bring attention to what was happening in Indian country and we were pretty sure that we were gonna have to give our lives." -Carter Camp, former AIM member [6]

[1] Glennia Campbell, South Dakota: Burying My Heart at Wounded Knee, photograph, Pine Ridge: The Silent I, Sep. 6, 2008, The Silent I, South Dakota: Mountains & Missles, http://glenniacampbell.typepad.com/silenti/2008/09/south-dakota-bu.html (accessed March 29, 2012).
[2] Dennis Banks and Richard Erdoes, Ojibwa Warrior: Dennis Banks and the Rise of the American Indian Movement (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2004), 161. 

[3] Banks and Erdoes, 162
[4] Clive Gildersleeve, photograph, Pine Ridge: Blogger, December 8, 2010, Blogger, Wounded Knee Hostages Reveal Their Story, http://woundedkneestory.blogspot.com/ (accessed April 1, 2012). 
[5] John Kusiak, We Shall Remain: Wounded Knee, DVD, Stanley Nelson (2009: PBS), web.
[6] Kusiak, We Shall.