Tribe Seeks Reopening of Inquiries in ’70s Deaths

Associated Press

In 1973, members of the American Indian Movement, who had tried to seize control of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, clashed with federal officers.

June 15, 2012 By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS New York Times

PINE RIDGE INDIAN RESERVATION, S.D. — Forty years after the siege at Wounded Knee by members of the American Indian Movement, the Oglala Sioux tribe has demanded that the federal government reopen dozens of cases it says the F.B.I. may have mishandled decades ago. 

Anna Mae Pictou Aquash was among those killed on the reservation in the '70s.

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Johnny Sundby/Associated Press

Arlo Looking Cloud was one of two convicted of killing Anna Mae Pictou Aquash.

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Associated Press

Special Agents Jack R. Coler, left, and Ronald Williams of the F.B.I. were killed on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in 1975. 

Tribal leaders say that as many as 75 people were killed on Pine Ridge during a three-year period of internecine violence that followed the 71-day Wounded Knee standoff with federal troops in 1973, a time that came to be known on the reservation as the “reign of terror.”

The federal government has declined so far to re-examine the cases.
The dead, many of whom were members of the American Indian Movement, or AIM, often had been shot or hacked, their bodies disposed of on remote parts of the reservation’s sprawling badlands.

“In many of these cases, the issue is not the lack of evidence and the attendant need for more,” the tribe wrote in a letter on May 23 to Brendan V. Johnson, the United States attorney for South Dakota. “Rather, in many cases the issue is the potential impropriety of those required to investigate and prosecute these deaths.” 

The tribe says it believes that at least 28 deaths required an official re-examination, in part, “to determine whether the cases were closed for legitimate and conclusive reasons, notwithstanding the potential criminal implication of federal agents.” 

The federal government, which has denied any role in the deaths, says most of them were not murders, but suicides, accidents or unintentional poisonings. 

“If there’s ever any new information on these deaths, the F.B.I. will of course take a look at that information,” said Kyle A. Loven, an F.B.I. spokesman. Absent that, he added, “the F.B.I. does not have any intention of reopening these cases just to reopen them.” 

But William Means, a former American Indian Movement leader, said that because the federal government has declined to make its case files public, relatives of the dead have been left in limbo.

“Justice is always important,” Mr. Means said. “The families have never had any type of explanation.” 

The early 1970s was a dark, confused time on Pine Ridge, reflecting the turmoil in much of the rest of the United States. On Pine Ridge, the American Indian Movement’s attempt to oust Richard A. Wilson, the tribal president, led to sporadic warfare between AIM members and the Guardians of the Oglala Nation, a paramilitary organization known as GOONs, organized by Mr. Wilson. 

The federal government was frequently forced into the role of peacemaker — and occasionally, combatant. At least two F.B.I. agents were among those killed at Pine Ridge during the violence, which was, at the time, propulsive. 

From 1973 to 1976, the homicide rate on Pine Ridge was 170 for every 100,000 people, according to the tribe. By comparison, Detroit, which was among the nation’s most violent big cities, had a rate of about 50 per 100,000 in 1974. 

An F.B.I. review in 2000 of 57 deaths during the era of the reign of terror concluded that many deaths deemed suspicious by the tribe had not been murders. Among them was the case of John S. Moore, an American Indian Movement supporter found in December 1974 with stab wounds to his face and neck. A coroner ruled the death a suicide, a decision the F.B.I. has not challenged. 

But Lisa R. Shellenberger, a lawyer for the tribe, said the 1975 murders of the F.B.I. agents on the reservation had “bred deep mistrust” between the Oglala Sioux and the F.B.I., which she says may have affected the quality of the original criminal investigations and colored subsequent inquiries. Leonard Peltier, an American Indian Movement member, was eventually convicted of the agents’ murders. 

The tribe’s recent list of 28 deaths include cases that span a period from the politically volatile 1970s to recent years, when the vast majority of homicides on Pine Ridge have been related to alcohol consumption. The reservation remains inundated by violent crime, with a rate at least five times higher than the national average. 

Tom Poor Bear, the tribe’s vice president, is among those whose lives have spanned Pine Ridge’s bloody eras: He was wounded on the reservation in the ’70s, shot in the head by people he describes as “political opponents.” Mr. Poor Bear did not report the shooting to the authorities, believing that crimes committed against AIM members would not be taken seriously by the F.B.I. or by the tribal government, which he says were closely aligned. Twenty-five years later, in 1999, his brother and a cousin were found beaten to death, a case the tribe wants reopened. “Our people are being murdered,” Mr. Poor Bear said, “and nothing is being done.” 

Among the other cases the tribe wants reopened is the 1975 death of Hilda R. Good Buffalo, another American Indian Movement supporter, who was discovered dead inside her home — also with a stab wound in her neck. According to the 2000 F.B.I. review of the case, investigators also found evidence that a fire had broken out in her house. Her death, the F.B.I. report said, had been caused by carbon monoxide poisoning, acute alcoholism “and other factors.” 

The next spring, in May 1976, Julia Pretty Hips, an American Indian Movement member, was found dead outside a Pine Ridge school. She died of pneumonia caused by carbon tetrachloride poisoning, according to the F.B.I. (Carbon tetrachloride was once commonly used for dry cleaning and in fire extinguishers, among other things.) 

In May 1975, Ben Sitting Up, another American Indian Movement member, was killed by a blow from a hatchet. But after federal agents identified a suspect, the killer “was not prosecuted because of impairment caused by a mental condition,” according to the F.B.I. case review. 

The F.B.I. however, has not disclosed the nature of the suspect’s impairment, why the suspect’s ability to stand trial was not left for a court to decide or whether the suspect was a threat to kill again.

Tribal leaders say the case of Anna Mae Pictou Aquash, a high-ranking American Indian Movement member, illustrates the sloppiness of death investigations on Pine Ridge. 

Ms. Aquash’s decomposing body was discovered in a field in 1976. A coroner ruled her death had been caused by exposure to the cold. But after Ms. Aquash’s family demanded a second autopsy, she was found to have been shot behind the left ear. It was not until 28 years later, in 2004, that the first of two men was convicted in her death. 

For years, rumors have swirled that Ms. Aquash’s killers had been federal agents. But in 2004, evidence showed the men had been American Indian Movement members who believed she was an F.B.I. informant.

SD court upholds conviction in 1975 AIM slaying

May 31, 2012 Associated Press

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) ­ The South Dakota Supreme
Court on Thursday upheld a Canadian man's murder
conviction and life sentence in the 1975 slaying
of a fellow American Indian Movement activist,
ruling that the state had jurisdiction to prosecute him.

John Graham was convicted in December 2010 of
taking part in the killing of Annie Mae Aquash.
Prosecutors said Graham and two other AIM
activists, Arlo Looking Cloud and Theda Clarke,
killed Aquash because they suspected she was a government informant.

Graham, a member of the Southern Tutchone tribe
in Canada's Yukon Territory, argued that the
government should not have been allowed to move
his case from federal to state court after his extradition to the U.S.

However, the state's highest court ruled
unanimously that the state had jurisdiction to
prosecute Graham and that prosecutors presented
sufficient evidence to convict him. Graham's
sentence of life in prison without parole also is
not grossly disproportionate to his crime, the justices said.

"Indeed, the evidence reflects that Graham was
involved in Aquash's initial kidnapping, in
ensuring that she was kept in captivity, in
transporting her to her place of death, and in
the ultimate shooting," Justice Steven Zinter wrote for the court.

Graham's lawyer, John R. Murphy of Rapid City,
said he and Graham are disappointed in the ruling
but will pursue secondary appeals.

"We are going to continue to pursue relief both
in the courts in the United States as well as
seeking to address certain matters regarding the
propriety of the extradition in Canada," Murphy said.

South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley was
traveling and not immediately available to comment on the ruling.

Aquash's body was found in a remote area in
southwest South Dakota in February 1976. She was
a member of the Mi'kmaq tribe of Novia Scotia.
Federal agents investigated the case for years
but didn't bring an indictment until March 2003,
when Denver police arrested Looking Cloud.

Looking Cloud was convicted in federal court of
first-degree murder in 2004 and sentenced to life
in prison. A federal judge signed an order in
August reducing Looking Cloud's sentence to 20 years.

Clark, who was never charged, died in October.

Graham was arrested in December 2003 in
Vancouver, British Columbia, on federal charges
in Aquash's killing. Two courts ruled that the
U.S. government lacked jurisdiction to try Graham
because he is not an American Indian. The case
was eventually moved to state court.

Graham was acquitted of premeditated murder in
the state trial, but was convicted of felony
murder and sentenced to life in prison without
parole. The felony murder charge alleged he was
involved in a killing while engaged in another felony, kidnapping.

Graham argued that the state lacked jurisdiction
to prosecute him for felony murder because he was
extradited from Canada on a different charge,
premeditated murder. He contended that his
conviction should be overturned and he should be
allowed to return to Canada to challenge his extradition.

But the Supreme Court said Canada consented in
February 2010 to Graham's prosecution for felony murder.

"Graham has not argued that Canada did or would
object to Graham's prosecution for felony murder.
On the contrary, the only record evidence
reflects Canada's express consent to the prosecution," the court said.

Graham also contended that several witness
statements should not have been allowed at his
trial, including those made by Looking Cloud
about an alleged 2002 telephone conversation
between Looking Cloud and Aquash's daughter,
Denise Maloney, in which Looking Cloud said
Graham shot Aquash with Looking Cloud and Clarke present.

Graham said Looking Cloud changed his story to negotiate a reduced sentence.

The Supreme Court said Looking Cloud's testimony
was admissible because it was consistent with his
prior statement to Maloney in the telephone call.

The appeal also questioned the inclusion of
another person's testimony about a conversation
in which Leonard Peltier ­ who is serving a life
sentence after being convicted in 1977 of
shooting two FBI agents ­ accused Aquash of being
an FBI informant. The Supreme Court said that
person's testimony was impermissible hearsay, but
that its inclusion in the trial was a harmless
error because it would not have affected the verdict.

AIM was founded in the late 1960s to protest the
U.S. government's treatment of Indians and to
demand the government honor its treaties with
Indian tribes. The group grabbed headlines in
1973 when it took over the village of Wounded
Knee on South Dakota's Pine Ridge Indian
Reservation, leading to a 71-day standoff with
federal agents that included the exchange of gunfire.

Decades of Deceit: Graham's Life Sentence

Jan. 24, 2011 Infoshop News

by antoinette nora claypoole

Jan. 24, 2011. An old hotel where "movie stars" have stayed, an Indian Reservation where women are still found frozen to death. A fancy bronze sculpture of an "Indian warrior". Bars and Courtrooms. That's Rapid City, South Dakota. In a line: a colonizer's town where the Indian Wars were never quite ended.

Today, after years of fighting Extradition from Canada for the murder of his friend Anna Mae Aquash, John Graham faces sentencing in South Dakota State Court. He was found guilty in Dec.2010 of "kidnapping leading to murder", found not guilty of pre-meditated murder. And sentenced, today, to "life in prison", without parole. His daughter, his friends and family have always believed his innocence. And today John Graham, spoke, after not having taken the witness stand during his trial. According to witnesses, John Graham faced Anna Mae's daughters, in the courtroom today during sentencing. And explained. What had said to me in my interview with him. What his family and friends know. He never murdered Anna Mae Pictou Aquash.

When I attended his 2005 extradition hearings in Vancouver, B.C., stayed at a "support house" in the city, I learned alot about John Graham, the love his people have for him, and about the man himself. A gentle demeanor, his was not accusation nor anger, vindictiveness nor hate. It was sorrow at having been targetted by people he considered his "friends". "Once in the 80's", he told me in a funky coffee shoppe not far from where he checked into parole each day, " Once John Trudell and Dino Butler were facing some heat in the States. THey needed to hide out. I gave them a safe shelter here in B.C. until things cooled off. Why would Trudell turn on me?? And tell lies." Graham said this over coffee, in a near whisper. Perplexed. "I cared about him. He was my brother". Shaking his head, looking for the creamer as a distraction to the pain.

Trudell, in fact, had "identified" Graham for the FBI, and his statement was KEY in the extradition of John Graham. In Court, before I left back for the States, the Judge confirmed reliance on Trudell as key in the decision to uphold extradition. (search this blog and you'll find the details).

It is not only the loss of a father, activist and friend which has struck Vancouver, B.C. and White Horse Junction up in the Yukon, but also the deep scars of betrayal which were ripped open as not one old AIM person defended John Graham. With neither a statement nor a testimony, a letter or a song. In fact, when Floyd "Red Crow" Westerman was still alive, he HAD planned a great benefit/event in San Francisco for John Graham. That was during the Looking Cloud trial, back in 2004. Trudell was initially going to be there, with Floyd. But the day after i broke the news on KPFK Pacifica Radio, Westerman "cancelled" the event. When asked why he/Trudell claimed "it was just too controversial" to support John Graham.

Today, Graham's daughter Naneek, a strong and devoted woman, was quoted in the Rapid City Journal as standing by her father. Naturally. "Believing his innocence." Anyone who has met John Graham, talked with him and considered the circumstances of his arrest stood with Naneek in that courtroom, awaiting another mandate by "justice".

Graham's lawyer plans an appeal, Anna Mae daughters--their vendetta persisting-- continue to call for more indictments of old AIM they claim "ordered her murder". And I. Wonder at all the people I have met in the American Indian Movement (AIM) over the past three decades. Feel all those I have known. Some dead. Many whom I have loved. I feel the heartbeat of lying as a way to save one's life. I read and re read the FBI affadavits about "Annie Mae Aquash" alive in Jan. 1976, a month after people claim Graham Killed her. I recall the first person who told me about Paula Giese, a friend to Annie Mae, how Paula saw Annie Mae after the date people say Graham killed her. And how Giese died, how Annie Mae's husband Nogeeshik died after "finding out who killed her".

In my mind. Many AIM lives have been destroyed. Because the United States has yet to cease the Indian Wars. And all these murdered. And all those alive, but dead, nonetheless. Are now joined. As a song around the "old days" drum. Variant shrills of war woven with love of the Earth. Pounding into our hearts. To become One was the dream. To connect with all things truth. These ways are all but gone. Otherwise, John Graham would not have been sitting in a white man's courtroom. With Indian "children" looking to big daddy "justice" to dish up mercy. Something in the entire fates of Nations. Of Human Beings. Has gone terribly wrong. John Graham's "sentence" and conviction are the mirror within which we all must face "the truth of the lie".

The Trial of Land Defender, John Graham

Graham maintains his innocence despite a guilty verdict. He now faces life in prison.

by freejohngraham_info Media Co-op

Pennington County Court, Rapid City, SD

John Graham, 1980, La Ronge, Saskatchewan

Also posted by freejohngraham_info:

The Trial of Land Defender, John Graham

Jury Convicts John Graham: Land Defender Faces Life in Prison

Witnesses Testify in Graham Trial, Judge Decides Marshall Must Too

Trial of John Graham: Reports From Rapid (Nov. 30)

Trial of John Graham Native Land Defender Begins

On December 10 a South Dakota jury found John Graham guilty of felony murder in the death of American Indian Movement (AIM) member Anna Mae Aquash. John Graham, a Tuchone native originally from the Yukon, continues to maintain his innocence. Aquash was murdered in the 1970s in an execution-style killing in South Dakota. Graham has said that she was his friend and comrade.

In 2004, Arlo Looking Cloud was convicted of murder for aiding in the murder of Aquash. He received a life sentence with a chance of parole in 2013. Earlier this year, Richard Marshall was acquitted on the charge of supplying the gun that killed Aquash. Looking Cloud testified against both Marshall and Graham at trial. Thelma Rios plead guilty in November of this year to charges of aiding and abetting, for which she received five years of probation and no jail time.

At trial, the state alleged that John Graham took Aquash from Denver against her will and ultimately killed her in the hills of South Dakota. The government claimed the motive for the murder was that AIM believed Aquash to be an informant who had knowledge of sensitive information.

The jury acquitted Graham of premeditated murder: the first-degree charge. Nevertheless, the lesser charge of second degree felony murder* carries a sentence of life in prison.

Aquash was a Mi’kmaq from Nova Scotia and was well-known as a skilled organizer and warrior with AIM. In 1975, she said she had been targeted and threatened with death by the FBI. Her body was found on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in February 1976. The original autopsy report, made by an FBI-contracted coroner, stated her cause of death as "exposure" and made no record of the bloody bullet-wound in the back of her head. The FBI removed her hands for purposes of identification in Washington as they claimed the body was unidentifiable. The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) buried Aquash as a Jane Doe.

When the hands were identified as those of Anna Mae Aquash, AIM attorneys requested a second autopsy by an independent coroner. The new coroner Gary Peterson, testified at Graham's trial that he had indeed noticed the entrance wound and an object (the bullet) lodged in her head through a cursory examination.

The time from 1973-1976 on Pine Ridge is referred to by many as "the reign of terror." A paramilitary squad known as the Guardians of the Oglala Nation (GOONs), operated on Pine Ridge and were organized by the BIA. The GOONs were notorious for targeting traditional Lakotas and AIM members by shooting up homes, running people off roads and outright murder. According to former GOON, Duane Brewer, the group was given ammunition and intelligence by the FBI themselves.

On March 11 1976, before the results of Anna Mae's second autopsy were known, an article entitled "FBI denies AIM implication that Aquash was informant" appeared in the Rapid City Journal, despite the fact that AIM never publicly made any such allegation. Already the FBI had begun to redirect blame away from themselves and spin a story to target AIM and discredit indigenous resistance.

"If you start with the premise that we are just as inclined to break the law as to honour it...then no case we put together has any credibility," said FBI Special Agent John Sennett during the 2001 FBI campaign against clemency for imprisoned AIM member Leonard Peltier.

In the South Dakota courtroom this month, the audience was directed not to exhibit any symbols of support or disagreement at any time during session. Judge Jack Delaney also said that reactive facial expressions would be grounds for removal from court for the duration of trial.

Said trial was riddled with inconsistencies. Witnesses contradicted one another, stating that Aquash's hands were tied in front, behind or not at all when she was "kidnapped" from a house in Denver.

The murder having taken place 35 years ago, many contradictions in testimony were explained away as a problem of degraded memory. The entire case rested on verbal testimony without a shred of material evidence.

Witness Darlene Ecoffey (previously Kamook Banks), wife of Robert Ecoffey (the lead investigator of Aquash's murder and superintendent of the BIA on Pine Ridge), and ex-wife of AIM leader Dennis Banks, had worked with the FBI for at least a decade. She is known to have worn a wire and interviewed various AIM supporters. As in the Looking Cloud trial, Ecoffey again testified that Leonard Peltier told Anna Mae and herself that he had executed the two FBI agents in the 1975 "shoot-out at Oglala." Leonard Peltier is currently serving two consecutive life sentences for the death of the two FBI agents. He has always maintained his innocence despite his parole being contingent on an admission of guilt.

"Kamook’s testimony was like being stabbed in the heart while simultaneously being told your sister just died," said Leonard Peltier about Ecoffey's similar testimony at Looking Cloud's 2004 trial. "Of all the fabrications that the government has used to keep me imprisoned, this one hurt so deeply."

Witness Angie Janis said she was at the house in Denver when Anna Mae was "kidnapped." Janis works as a secretary at the Pine Ridge BIA. Her boss is Robert Ecoffey, bringing into question her motives for testifying. Darlene Ecoffey admitted that she had been paid over $40,000 by the FBI for her work as an informant. Testimony was also heard from FBI and BIA agents including the notorious FBI agent William Wood.

The defense rested its case on December 7 without calling a single witness. Twice, defense lawyer John Murphy asked Judge Jack Delaney to dismiss the charges against Graham, arguing that prosecutors had not proven enough of their case. Delaney disagreed and denied the motion.

So why is John Graham being targeted and why do many believe that he is innocent?

Anna Mae Aquash, Leonard Peltier and John Graham all consistently refused to falsely testify on behalf of the State. In return, Anna Mae was threatened with her life by the FBI. In an affidavit, Leonard Peltier said he was offered his freedom in exchange for false testimony against John Graham. Graham himself said that agents visited him four times in the Yukon, trying to get him to sign false statements implicating AIM leadership in the death of Anna Mae. When Graham refused the FBI said that he would face the charges instead.

"(The FBI) offered me my freedom and money if I’d testify the way they wanted," said Aquash when she was arrested in 1975. " I have those two choices now. I chose my kind of freedom, not their kind, even if I have to die."

John Graham also chose this kind of freedom, for which he now faces life in prison.

It has been suggested that prosecutors may proceed to charge some former AIM leaders with ordering the Aquash murder.

This trial has brought no real resolution. If anything the truth shown here is that state still aims to disrupt resistance movements and those who dare to struggle are at odds with the goals of the state. Although the imprisonment of John Graham is a tragedy, his refusal to frame others is also an inspiration to those who continue to resist the destruction of the land and native ways of life.

In Graham's own words, “I am a warrior. I was a warrior when I first went to South Dakota and I'll be a warrior this time when I have to go to South Dakota.” (from his 2007 extradition from Vancouver to South Dakota)

Graham's defense team is still working on his behalf. His sentencing is scheduled for January 24, 2011.

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* In felony murder cases, the prosecution does not have to prove that the accused actually killed anyone, instead the accused is found criminally liable for any deaths that occur during or in furtherance of a felony. In this case the felony is the kidnapping charge. For instance, if two people are robbing a bank and one of them is killed by police, the getaway driver can then be convicted of felony murder.

Article references:

Johanna Brand, The Life and Death of Anna Mae Aquash: References the article "FBI denies AIM implication that Aquash was informant" from March 11, 1976

Michael A. de Yoanna, Passing over Peltier (pt. 2): FBI Agent John Sennett quotation

Kevin McKiernan interview of Duane Brewer, quoted by Ward Churchill

http://grahamdefense.org

Embedded Links:

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http://ourfreedom.wordpress.com/2007/05/19/leonards-reaction-to-kamook-b...

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