What follows, therefore, is a point-by-point
analysis of the myriad inaccuracies in the Bureau's polemic. Those few instances in which it provides additional, clarifying, or
otherwise useful information will also be noted.
The official untruths begin on the very first
page of Accounting for Native American Deaths, with a "Forward"
provided by Douglas J. Domin, Special Agent in Charge of the
Minneapolis Field Office, wherein it is claimed that the document was
produced by his agents in response to new information provided to his
office by the South Dakota Advisory Committee of the United States
Commission on Civil Rights in December 1999. This information,
SAC Domin observes, consisted of "a list of fifty-seven names" of
individuals who died violently on Pine Ridge during the years 1973-76,
along "with allegations that their deaths had not been investigated"
by the FBI (which held/holds jurisdiction and primary investigative
responsibility within all federal trust territories, including
American Indian reservations).
Submission of this list and attendant allegations,
SAC Domin continues, "for the first time, provided the FBI with
specific information to address" in connection with longstanding
"rumors" that the Bureau had, at best, frequently turned a blind eye
to the murders of AIM people on Pine Ridge during the mid-70s. "The names of murder victims were not attached to the rumors," he
claims, and "addressing the allegations could not be [previously]
accomplished." Once it was provided the names, he concludes, his
office quickly prepared and began to disseminate its report for purposes
of clarifying or correcting the record and "protect[ing] the [public]
confidence the FBI must have to accomplish its mission."
This presentation of "fact" is pure hogwash from
start to finish.
First of all, SAC Domin seems completely unaware
that the Bureau itself confirmed its pattern of not investigating the
murders of AIM people on Pine Ridge a quarter-century hence, while the
deaths were still occurring. This 1975 verification was made by
George O'Clock, then Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's
Rapid City Resident Agency, the facility most directly responsible for
investigating crimes on Pine Ridge. Responding to press queries
as to why so many recent homicides on and around the reservation had
gone unsolved, O'Clock announced quite straightforwardly that his
office was in general "too shorthanded" to delve into such matters.
Secondly, as the allegations quoted in the
report itself make absolutely clear, it is not alleged that "none" of
the 57 homicides were investigated by the Bureau. In eight cases
the allegations state clearly that an FBI investigation is classified
as either "ongoing" or "pending" after 25 years. In a further
six cases, it is alleged that investigations were conducted, but that
they were marred by severe defects. Hence, Domin's presentation
misrepresents 14 of 57 allegations before the "accounting" even
begins.
Third, this was by no means "the first time" the
FBI has had an opportunity to address the list of names and allegations
in question. Along with Jim Vander Wall, I initially assembled
it in 1987 from fragmentary records provided by Bruce Ellison, Ken Tilson
and Candy Hamilton, all former members of the Wounded Knee Legal
Defense/Offense Committee (WKLDOC). A portion of it was then
published in my and Vander Wall's 1988 Agents of Repression (pp.
184-88), the first six copies of which book were acquired by the FBI
library in Washington, DC. Refined and expanded in 1989, the list
was then published again in my and Vander Wall's book The COINTELPRO
Papers (pp. 393-4), copies of which were also acquired by the FBI
library. The same list was also published as an attachment to an
essay included in my 1994 Indians Are Us? (pp. 197-205), and still again in my 1996 From A Native Son (pp. 257-60). It
has, moreover, been in continuous distribution by the Leonard Peltier
Defense Committee (LPDC) for the past six years.
Had the FBI felt the least institutional need to
reassure the American public of its integrity by reporting on these
particular matters - or believed itself obliged to correct what it
sees as inaccuracies in the historical record - it could and should have
done so at any point since the names and allegations first came into its
possession more than a decade ago. The Bureau did no such thing,
and it follows that the motives underlying the release of Accounting
for Native American Deaths at this late date must be other than
those described by SAC Domin.
The question at hand is thus what the FBI's real
motives might be. To this, the only plausible answer is that in
issuing such material now, the Bureau is hoping to undermine prospects
that imprisoned AIM member Leonard Peltier, currently in his 24th year
of incarceration after being wrongly convicted of killing two FBI
agents during a 1975 firefight on Pine Ridge, might receive clemency
from President Bill Clinton before the first of the year. To the
extent that the list of allegations can be discredited, so the
reasoning goes, AIM will be discredited, and so, by extension, will
Peltier.
Viewed in this light, it is not hard to see that
the report has nothing to do with a pursuit of truth or justice. To the contrary, it is difficult to imagine a more vindictive and duplicitous agenda than that prompting its publication. The
FBI's document thereby stands revealed for exactly what it is: a
patent piece of political propaganda.
Omissions in Contextualization
Several key aspects of the allegations are
carefully avoided in Accounting for Native Americans. They include the fact that the murders occurred amidst a concerted
campaign of repression conducted by the FBI against the American
Indian Movement on Pine Ridge during the mid-70s, that the 57 victims
consist almost entirely of AIM members and supporters (or their
children), and that the perpetrators, where they've been identified,
consist primarily of known members of the so-called GOON Squad (or GOONs, the self-proclaimed "Guardians of the Oglala Nation," an
FBI-aligned paramilitary organization active on the reservation during
the period). A major contention of those involved in preparing
and disseminating the list to which the FBI report supposedly responds is
that the killings often amounted not simply to murders, but to a
pattern of officially sponsored terrorism.
AIM as well as several independent researchers
have alleged all along that the crux of what happened on Pine Ridge
rested upon the FBI's relationship with the GOON Squad, an entity
formed in 1972 by then Tribal President Richard "Dickie" Wilson to
intimidate his critics, and underwritten through a combination of
federal appropriations and the misappropriation of several hundred
thousand dollars in funds designated for such purposes as road repair
on the reservation. It should be noted that approximately
one-third of those employed as BIA police officers on Pine Ridge
doubled as members of Wilson's GOON Squad, and that Delmar Eastman, head
of the reservation police force, served simultaneously overall as GOON
commander.
By March 1973, the Bureau appears to have
assumed de facto control over the GOONs, providing them with weapons,
ammunition, explosives, communications gear, field intelligence and what
amounted to blanket immunity from prosecution so long as they hit the
right targets. For the next three years the GOONs served as an
anti-AIM death squad functioning under the auspices of the FBI.
Correspondingly, the Bureau's investigations of
murders committed by GOONs, where they were undertaken at all, served
mainly to hide the facts and protect the perpetrators. As a matter
of record, the Bureau has historically cultivated similar arrangements
with rightwing paramilitary/vigilante organizations since at least as
early as 1917. Salient examples include nationwide connection
with the American Protective League during World War I, various
elements of the Ku Klux Klan during the early 1960s, the Secret Army
Organization in southern California during the late 1960s/early 1970s,
and the Legion of Justice in Chicago during the 1970s.
The FBI has of course pooh-poohed or ignored
such allegations from the outset. Much of the mainstream media
has followed suit despite repeated findings by the U.S. Commission on
Civil Rights that many of AIM's charges have merit. The same
conclusion was reached by the jury in the 1976 murder trial of AIM
members Bob Robideau and Dino Butler, after it had been presented with a
broad recounting of the evidence. Indeed, this all-white
Middle-American jury found that the "reign of terror" fostered by the
Bureau on Pine Ridge was sufficient to warrant any reasonable person
using armed force to defend themselves against FBI personnel. (Robideau
and Butler were acquitted of murdering agents Ron Williams and Jack Coler
on the basis that they acted legitimately, in self-defense). Still another substantiation of AIM's contentions concerning the
FBI/GOON relationship was offered by Duane Brewer, former
second-in-command of the GOON Squad, during a lengthy interview with
journalists Kevin McKiernan and Michel DuBois during the mid-80s.
Like the list victims/allegations itself, such
material has been published repeatedly over the past decade and has thus
been readily available to the Bureau. Insofar as Accounting
for Native American Deaths provides no hint that such matters are
at issue, it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that the FBI,
seeking to lend an aura of credibility to the report's "explanations"
of specific cases which would otherwise be lacking, has deliberately
misrepresented the situation it purports to address therein.
The Cases
A few additional points need to be made before
going into the FBI's "accountings" in individual cases. One is
that the position taken by Vander Wall and me - and consequently by the LPDC
and the South Dakota Advisory Committee on Civil Rights - is that
no successful murder prosecutions ensued from the FBI is not to say
that, under certain circumstances, perpetrators (or their surrogates)
were not occasionally charged and convicted of lesser offenses. We
discount such outcomes, however, on the grounds that convicting a
serial killer of shoplifting in no way "resolves" serial killings.
Another is that, irrespective of the Bureau's
technical vernacular, agents actually have to investigate something
for an FBI investigation to have occurred. Agents cannot have
simply photocopied another agents paperwork and placed it in a file
marked "case closed." We realize that such procedures have
served the Bureau well in annual statistical summaries of its
performance - and in defensive polemics such as the one at hand - but
they add up to little more than a conscious deception on the part of
those employing them. Finally, contrary to its customary
practice, the FBI is not legitimately entitled to credit itself with
convictions accruing from an investigation conducted by another police
agency.
While it is true that several murder convictions
were obtained against the killers of AIM people on Pine Ridge, we hold
that none of them resulted from an FBI investigation, per se. There are also serious questions in those instances with respect to
the degree of murder charged, the sentence imposed, and the amount of
time actually served. (The charges and penalties visited upon AIM
members like Richard Marshall and Leonard Peltier should be used as a
basis of comparison.)
With all this said, it is time to move to
specifics. Since the itemization of cases in Accounting for
Native American Deaths follows no discernable order - it is
neither alphabetical nor chronological, nor grouped according to cause
of death or investigative outcome - I've taken the liberty of
rearranging the sequence of refutations in accordance with my own
preferences.
Anna Mae Pictou-Aquash
The FBI report states that Aquash's body was discovered "in September
1976."
It was actually discovered on February 24 of
that year. The report goes on to state that the cause of death
"was determined to be a gunshot wound to the head." Unmentioned
is the fact that the official cause of death listed after the initial
autopsy, performed by FBI contract coroner W.O. Brown, was "exposure."
Only a second autopsy, demanded by Aquash's
family and performed by independent pathologist Garry Peterson, revealed
the gunshot wound. Although the allegation to which the FBI is
responding points out that neither the coroner nor FBI personnel
present during the initial autopsy have ever been deposed in the
Bureau's still "ongoing" investigation of the murder, the report
observes only that "the coroner was not deposed [because he] died
shortly after the autopsy" (in reality, it was more than a year
later). No mention is made of the FBI personnel involved, agents
David Price and William Wood. Finally, it is implied that the
victim had been placed at risk of retribution from AIM members because
of "rumors that Aquash had cooperated with the government and was an FBI
informant." The
role played by Douglass Durham and other FBI infiltrators in fostering
these rumors - and that this is a standard Bureau counterintelligence
technique known as "badjacketing" (or "snitch-jacketing") designed to
"neutralize" the political effectiveness of targeted activists - is
neglected altogether.
Lena R. Slow Bear, Delphine Crow Dog, Elaine
Wagner and Edward Means, Jr.
The cause of death indicated with respect to each of these individuals
is "exposure." The autopsy on each of the deceased was performed
by W.O. Brown. In view of Dr. Brown's performance in the Aquash
case, there is no reason to accept the validity of his findings at
face value. Other than filing the coroner's reports, the FBI
conducted no investigation into any of these deaths.
Lydia Cut Grass
The FBI report concedes that it was "initially
suspected" that Cut Grass died as a result of a beating. After
an autopsy performed by W.O.Brown, however, the charge of death was
changed to "overconsumption of liquor." The FBI filed Brown's
findings and closed the case.
Julia Pretty Hips
Cause of death is indicated as "carbon tetrachloride poisoning
[leading to] pneumonia." No suggestion is offered as to why, if
this were so, the body would have been found outdoors rather than home
in bed. The report goes on to state that an autopsy revealed "no
signs of trauma to her body," neglecting to mention that the autopsy
was performed by the same Dr. W.O. Brown who managed to "overlook" a
bullet fired pointblank into the head of Anna Mae Aquash even though,
according to the lab technicians who were present, the wound was
leaking blood onto to the morgue table. Beyond filing Brown's
paperwork, the FBI conducted no investigation.
Hilda R. Good Buffalo
In another W.O. Brown cause of death finding
regurgitated as "fact" in Accounting for Native American Deaths, Good
Buffalo is said to have succumbed to "carbon monoxide poisoning, acute
alcoholism and other factors" during a "small fire in her house." The source of the fire is not identified, nor is it indicated whether
the "other factors" involved might include a stab wound to the neck
the victim is noted as having suffered just before she died. Beyond filing Brown's "accidental death" report, the FBI conducted no
investigation.
Robert Reddy
Witnesses stated that Reddy was shot to death
and identified the murderer as a known member of the GOON Squad. W.O.
Brown, on the other hand, concluded during the autopsy that the victim
had instead been stabbed twice in the heart. Absent the slugs
which would attend gunshot wounds, the FBI concluded that there was
"insufficient evidence" to pursue an investigation and closed the case. One may perhaps be forgiven for observing that collection of otherwise
insufficient evidence is supposed to be precisely the purpose of an
FBI investigation. It should also be noted that, as a matter of
policy, all unresolved homicides occurring within FBI jurisdiction are
to retain an "ongoing" status. Closing the investigation in this
instance amounts to no investigation at all.
Andrew Paul Stewart, Aloysius Long Soldier
and John S. Moore
The FBI report offers as plausible propositions
advanced by the BIA police and other such agencies that each of these
individuals killed himself. Although each such contention is
dubious in its own right, the most preposterous is that Moore
committed suicide by stabbing himself in the face and throat. Self-evidently, there were no homicide investigations by the FBI.
Roxeine Roark
In a similar twist, the report contends that
Roark accidentally shot herself with a .357 magnum revolver and that an
FBI investigation was therefore unnecessary. While this is of
course possible, it fails to explain why a 1987 inquiry with the FBI's
Rapid City Resident Agency on the disposition of this case was met
with the response that no information could be provided because it was
the subject of a "pending" investigation.
Phillip Black Elk
The report concurs with allegations that Black
Elk died as a result of an explosion in his home and that there was no
FBI investigation. It claims, however, that since the blast is
attributed to a propane leak it was necessarily "accidental"
and an
investigative follow-up was consequently unwarranted. As any
good arson investigator will attest, however, such logic is faulty at
best. Staging the appearance of accidental detonations is a
common technique commonly employed by arsonists and assassins alike.
It should be noted that in 1979 AIM leader John
Trudell's entire family was killed under very similar circumstances,
and with an identical lack of response from the FBI, on the Duck Valley Paiute Reservation. Presiding over the investigation of the Trudell family's death was local BIA police chief Benny Richards, a
GOON prominent on Pine Ridge at the time of Black Elk's death.
Edith Eagle Hawk and Her Two Children
The report observes that the victims died in a "two car accident"
north of Pine Ridge, and that the "matter was not investigated by the
FBI because it occurred off the reservation, outside federal
jurisdiction." Unmentioned are the facts that Eagle Hawk was en
route to Rapid City to testify in federal court concerning GOON
violence on Pine Ridge, that the driver of the other vehicle was
Albert Coomes, a white vigilante known to be involved with the GOONs
(witnesses reported that another known GOON was a passenger in his
car), that witnesses described how Coomes appeared to have forced
Eagle Hawk's vehicle off the road, and that murder of a federal witness
falls under FBI jurisdiction, no matter where it occurs.
Betty Jo Dubray
The report states that "her death was the result
of a car/truck accident, and no investigation was conducted by the FBI." No mention is made of witness accounts of her being beaten up before
being helped into her vehicle, which was then deliberately rammed by a
truck driven by a member of the GOON Squad.
Jancita Eagle Deer
The report recounts simply that Eagle Deer was
struck by an automobile and killed while standing in the middle of a
remote stretch of Nebraska highway in the dead of night. It is
not mentioned that she was last seen alive in the car of FBI
infiltrator Douglass Durham, or that he had recently used her as a
pawn in an elaborate counterintelligence gambit designed to discredit
AIM leader Dennis Banks and was in the process of trying to cover his
tracks.
Also neglected are the facts that the driver of
the car which hit her described Eagle Deer as appearing to have been
"drunk" immediately prior to the impact, but that an autopsy revealed
no alcohol or other intoxicants to have been present in her
bloodstream. This obviously raises the question of whether her
peculiar behavior resulted from having been beaten senseless and dumped
along the road, presumably by Durham, before regaining consciousness
and being run over. Whatever the truth, the FBI displayed absolutely
no interest in investigating one of its own.
Cleveland Reddest, Priscilla White Plume
and Melvin Spider
The cause of death indicated in each of these
cases is "hit and run," a finding which hardly precludes vehicular
homicide. In the case of Reddest, it is noted that the victim
appeared to have been "lying in the road before the accident." As in the Eagle Deer case, however, an autopsy revealed no alcohol or
other intoxicants to have been present in his bloodstream, a matter
strongly suggesting he may have been beaten unconscious before being
run over. It is noted that two suspects were identified at the
time. Unmentioned is the fact that both were known GOONs. Neither was prosecuted because the FBI abandoned its investigation
before "sufficient evidence of criminal conduct" could be developed.
The available evidence in the Spider case is
more suggestive of blunt trauma injury to the head caused by a club
than by a car. Again, a known GOON was identified, but the FBI's
investigation closed at a point when there was still "insufficient
evidence to charge a person with the death." The White Plume
case follows much the same pattern.
Betty Means
This is also classified as a hit and run, albeit
one in a conviction of sorts resulted. No charges were brought
against the driver, a known GOON, ostensibly because "although he left
the scene of an accident, his actions were not a violation of federal
law." His passenger, a woman named Arlene Good Voice whom even
the FBI acknowledges as having deliberately caused the fatality, was
allowed to enter a plea to charges which resulted in a sentence of 18
months probation.
Frank Clearwater
The report states that Clearwater "was shot at a
road block at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, in April 1973 which started
when Federal agents were fired on." Actually, the victim was
sleeping in the church adjoining the Wounded Knee gravesite - a
considerable distance from any roadblock - when he was struck in the
head by a heavy machine gun round fired from the federal perimeter.
Journalists inside Wounded Knee at the time
unanimously agree that federal agents initiated the firefight. No mention is made of a considerable delay in the victim's emergency
medical evacuation precipitated by federal authorities, or that this
was a contributing factor in his death nine days later. The
slowness of Clearwater's evacuation should be contrasted to that
provided FBI agent Curtis Fitzpatrick when he was slightly wounded in
the wrist a few weeks earlier.
Buddy Lamont
It is noted, rather defensively, that "the facts
of the matter, along with the autopsy report, were reviewed by the
U.S. Attorney. No charges were filed." This is in response
to the allegation that, after Lamont was hit by federal gunfire at
Wounded Knee, he bled to death while FBI snipers prevented AIM medics
from reaching him and administering first aid. Unmentioned is the
fact that several medics, all clearly identified by red cross
armbands, were actually hit by federal gunfire during the course of
the 71 day siege. In fact, there is at least one case - that of
medic Ron Rosen - in which it appears the armband itself was used as
an aiming point by a sniper.
Pedro Bissonette
The BIA police story, accepted in the FBI's
"accounting" with further ado, is that Bissonette was "killed by a
single shotgun blast to the chest" when he "advanced on police
officers with a raised 30.06 (rifle)". Omitted are the facts
that the weapon supposedly used by Bissonette was never produced by
the police, or that Joe Clifford, the officer who fired the fatal
round, moonlighted as a GOON. Nor is it noted that the shotgun
pellets all struck the victim within a five inch radius, meaning that
Clifford had discharged his weapon at a range of three feet or less
(this renders the officer's depiction of Bissonette advancing with a
raised rifle at the time he was shot utterly implausible). Finally, it is not mentioned that it took the BIA police nearly 45
minutes to summon an ambulance from the nearby Pine Ridge IHS
hospital, and that the victim bled to death in the interim.
Joe Stuntz Killsright
The report states that Killsright was killed
during the FBI's RESMURS investigation. He was in fact killed
during the June 26, 1975, firefight which also resulted in the deaths
of FBI agents Williams and Coler and thereby precipitated RESMURS. Cause of death is indicated as being a single long rang gunshot to the
head, fired by either an FBI or BIA police sniper.
The fact that two eyewitnesses - journalist
Kevin McKiernan and South Dakota Attorney General William Delaney -
state that the victim's torso had been riddled by an automatic weapon
fired at close range is unmentioned. This is perhaps because of
the implication that Killsright might have been summarily executed by
an FBI agent enraged over the deaths of his colleagues. Be that
as it may, the Bureau relies upon yet another autopsy performed by W.O.
Brown to "confirm" its version of Killsright's death.
Martin Montileaux
Since the murder occurred in the town of Scenic,
about 20 miles north of the Pine Ridge boundary, it is claimed that
"the FBI had no investigative jurisdiction in the matter." While
this is true in principle, the fact is that the Bureau not only
investigated but provided key witnesses employed by state prosecutors
in obtaining a First Degree Murder conviction and sentence of life
imprisonment against AIM member Richard Marshall.
Correspondingly, it is left unmentioned that the
witness was Myrtle Poor Bear, the same psychologically unbalanced
woman from whom agents David Price and William Wood collected three
false and mutually contradictory affidavits purporting to incriminate
Leonard Peltier in the deaths of agents Coler and Williams, and that one
of these affidavits was then used to obtain the fraudulent extradition
of Peltier from Canada.
Finally, nothing is said about the fact that
Poor Bear subsequently recanted her testimony against both Marshall
and Peltier, claiming it had been coerced by agents Price and Wood (who
admittedly held her incommunicado and against her will in a Nebraska
motel room for more than a month). As in the Aquash case, there
is no indication agents Price and Wood have been so much as questioned
with respect to the distinct possibility they suborned perjury and otherwise obstructed justice in all three of these murder
investigations.
Byron DeSersa
An extremely garbled and incomplete recounting of
the aftermath of this grisly and clearly preplanned atrocity is set
forth. It is true, as the report states, that GOON
commanders/prime culprits Manny Wilson and Chuck Richards were acquitted
of charges brought against them (mainly because of incredibly sloppy
evidentiary work by the FBI). The allegation is also true,
although implicitly denied in the report, that the First Degree Murder
charges against the pair were dropped altogether. That only a
single adult GOON, Charlie Winters, was ultimately convicted in this
case, and then merely of having been an "Accessory After the Fact" in a
"Second Degree" murder, tends to speak for itself.
That the sole conviction as an actual
perpetrator was that of a 17-year-old "juvenile" - who under terms of
the Federal Youth Corrections Act could be sentenced to no more than
five years imprisonment - is at once laughable and contemptible,
smacking as it does of a sop to public outrage which might ensue
should too sensational a crime be left entirely unpunished. No
matter how you slice it, the bottom line is that of more than a dozen GOONs identified by witnesses as participating in the DeSersa murder,
two ended up serving less than six years between them.
Phillip Little Crow
The Bureau concurs that Little Crow was beaten
to death by a GOON named Irby Hand, but points out that Hand was
resultantly sent to prison. Although it is noted that Hand's
sentence was a mere five years - he served only three - no mention is
made of the fact that this meager punishment accrued from an
arrangement wherein federal authorities allowed the murderer to plead
guilty to a charge of Voluntary Manslaughter. Also omitted is
the fact that several other members of the GOON Squad identified by
witnesses as having participated in the beating were not charged at
all.
Leon L. Swift Bird
The report recounts that the victim was stabbed
to death by Dorothy Iris Poor Bear, who then entered a guilty plea to
a charge of Voluntary Manslaughter. Since Poor Bear, who was
sentenced to only three years, and since even that paltry sentence was
suspended, there is a clear appearance of a deal having been worked
out among federal authorities allowing her to take a painless "fall"
for the person(s) who actually did the killing. This appearance
is reinforced by the fact that a 1987 inquiry made with the FBI's
Rapid City Resident Agency produced the response that no information
on the case could be provided, since it was the subject of an
"ongoing" investigation.
Stacy Cortier
The report acknowledges that AIM member Cortier
died of "numerous bullet wounds" inflicted by GOON Squad member Jerry
Bear Shield (whom, it is suggested, "may" have been shot in the neck
by Cortier during an exchange of gunfire). Any FBI investigation
would have been strictly pro forma since Bear Shield quickly entered
into a plea bargain arrangement resulting in a sentence of one year on
a charge of Voluntary Manslaughter. He ultimately served less
than nine months.
Leah Spotted Elk
A similar appearance is presented in this case.
The alleged perpetrator, Kenneth Returns From Scout, was allowed to
plead to reduced charges that resulted in his serving less than two
years.
Carl Plenty Arrows, Sr., and Frank La Pointe
Both men were shot to death by a GOON named Glen
Janis, who was identified as the killer by several witnesses and admitted killing Plenty Arrows, an AIM member. Janis initially
declined, however, to acknowledge that he'd also shot La Pointe, who
was himself associated with the GOON Squad (a matter suggesting La
Pointe was killed by accident or mistake). Although the murder
of Plenty Arrows was plainly in cold blood, federal authorities worked
out an arrangement in which Janis was allowed to plead guilty to one
count each of Second Degree Murder and Voluntary Manslaughter. His
sentences were set to run concurrently (rather than consecutively,
like the double-life term meted out to Leonard Peltier). He
therefore faced a maximum of 20 years in prison and served a little over
11. Perhaps because of the ineptitude he displayed in killing
another GOON in the process, Janis suffered by far the harshest
punishment of anyone ever convicted of murdering an AIM member or
supporter. The investigative work on this case was, however,
handled mainly by the BIA police rather than the FBI.
Hobart Horse
It is observed that the assailant in this case,
Roger James Cline, was convicted of Voluntary Manslaughter and sentenced
to 10 years imprisonment. Omitted is the fact that the arrest,
prosecution, and conviction resulted from actions undertaken by the BIA
police rather than the FBI. Nor is mention made of the fact that
no investigation at all seems to have been conducted with respect to
the possible culpability of several associates of Cline, all known
members of the GOON Squad, who were present when the crime was
committed. Finally, the appropriate charge in a killing of such
barbarity - witnesses said Horse was not only shot but run over
several times with a car - would be First Degree Murder rather than
manslaughter.
Kenneth Little
The report confirms that the victim was beaten
to death with a tire iron by occasional GOON Squad member Antoine
Bluebird. It is observed that Bluebird was convicted of
Voluntary Manslaughter and sentenced to serve seven years in prison. No indication is given as to how much time he actually served, or that
his arrest and attendant investigation were carried out by the BIA
police rather than the FBI.
Ben Sitting Up
The FBI report confirms that Sitting Up
was murdered by "an individual using an axe." It goes on to
explain that "a suspect was identified but was not prosecuted because
of impairment caused by a mental condition." Aside from begging the
obvious question of why the individual was not prosecuted for purposes
of ensuring his commitment to an institution for the criminally
insane, the response neglects to mention that he was notorious as an
especially violent member of a GOON group known as the "Manson
Family." In his interview with McKiernan and DuBois, former GOON
commander Duane Brewer recalls the same man as a "freak" who was
eventually "fired" from the GOON Squad after he set out to cut an
intended victim in half with a crosscut saw.
James Little
The report acknowledges that this case devolves
upon a BIA police rather than FBI investigation. It is noted
that witnesses identified four known members of the GOON Squad - Tom
Eagle Chief, Cecil Bear Robe, Fred Marrowbone and an unnamed juvenile -
as having collectively stomped and beaten Little to death. The
quartet was, however, charged with Voluntary Manslaughter rather than
murder. Eagle Chief, Marrowbone and the juvenile were convicted
and sentenced to a mere six years, six years and four years respectively. Only the juvenile served his full term.
Janice Black Bear
In this case, which like that of James Little is
acknowledged as having developed upon a BIA police rather than FBI
investigation, a GOON named George Twiss confessed to having beaten
the victim to death. An arrangement was quickly worked out by
federal authorities in which Twiss was allowed to plead guilty to a
charge of Involuntary Manslaughter. He was sentenced to three
years and served about one-half of a year.
Dennis LeCompte
The report again concedes that this case
devolves upon a BIA police rather than FBI investigation. Although the killer, a GOON named Glenn Three Stars, admitted shooting
the victim to death at close range, he claimed self-defense and was
charged only with Voluntary Manslaughter. Poor evidentiary work
by BIA investigators, apparently unassisted by the FBI, resulted in
his acquittal.
Howard Blue Bird
This is yet another case conceded to have
developed upon a BIA police rather than FBI investigation. Although the killer, LeRoy Apple, readily admitted stabbing Blue Bird
to death, he was allowed to enter into a plea bargain on a charge of
Assault with a Deadly Weapon resulting in a sentence of just one year
in prison. He served approximately nine months.
Jackson Washington Cutt
The report indicates that this case involved a
combination of BIA police and FBI investigations. The police took
information from an eyewitness identifying a known member of the GOON
Squad as having re-interviewed the witness and took a statement from the
GOON denying culpability. At this point, it is observed that an
"Assistant U.S. Attorney [shortly] advised that a motion and order to
dismiss" the charges would be entered in federal court. Unmentioned is the fact that the Bureau recommended such action be
taken. Since the murder remains unresolved for this reason, it
is still classified as the subject of an "ongoing" FBI investigation.
Marvin Two Two
This one is truly bizarre. The report informs us
that the victim's real name was David Martin Two Two and that his death
was 05/06/76. It then goes on to announce that "a review of
death certificates in all surrounding counties in South Dakota and Nebraska reflect no record of his death."
Meaning what? That Two Two didn't die? That he did, but the only thing officially recorded was the date? We are given to understand that "the FBI would have addressed this
case if Two Two had been murdered on Pine Ridge." While this
sounds reassuring, simple logic dictates that since the Bureau
professes to know only when the man died, not how, it can't possibly
be in a position to know whether he was murdered or not. The
other AIM fatalities categorized as "non-murders" in Accounting for
Native American Deaths might be usefully viewed through the
Bureau's response in this case.
Jeanette Bissonette
The report fails to contradict the
allegation. It does, however, neglect to mention that the agents
inexplicably focused their investigative attention on AIM as the
probable culprit, or that, in his interview with McKiernan and DuBois, GOON commander
Duane Brewer candidly admitted that his men had killed Bissonette "by
mistake." There being no statute of limitations on murder, this
raises the question of why the FBI has not reopened its investigation
in this case.
James Brings Yellow
The report does not really address the
allegation, which makes no claim that the victim died instantaneously. The elderly Brings Yellow suffered a heart attack when agents kicked
in his door while conducting a warrantless no-knock assault upon his
home during the early stages of the RESMURS investigation. That
he died of related causes a day later in the hospital is irrelevant.
Richard Eagle
Since the report confirms the allegation, no
further comment seems necessary.
Allison Fast Horse
Since the report confirms the allegation, no
further comment seems necessary.
Corrections to the Record
In any endeavor of the sort undertaken by Vander Wall and me in
compiling our list of victims/allegations, there is bound to be a
margin of error (witness the mistakes made by the FBI concerning the
month in which Anna Mae Aquash's body was discovered and the
investigative framework in which Joe Stuntz Killsright was shot to
death). I am therefore pleased to be able to make the following
corrections to our record based upon information provided in
Accounting for Native American Deaths.
Sam Afraid of Bear
Vander Wall and I erroneously recorded Afraid of Bear's death as having
resulted from a gunshot wound. The FBI report indicates he was
instead beaten to death. It also notes that an individual named
Rudolph Running Shield was subsequently allowed to plead guilty to the
murder in exchange for a reduction in charges and sentence. A
second man, Luke Black Elk, Jr., was convicted of Second Degree Murder
in February 1978. It is thus implied that both the guilty plea
and the conviction resulted from an FBI investigation. To all
appearances, however, the FBI added nothing to a BIA police
investigation resulting in the arrests of both perpetrators.
Edward Standing Soldier
The report points out that Standing Soldier was
killed not by "party or parties unknown," as Vander Wall and I
erroneously stated, but by a GOON named Gerald Janis. It then
proceeds to accept at face value an improbable tale about how the
victim was killed while engaged in an armed robbery of the killer's
home. When this "evidence" was presented to a grand jury, the
report concludes, "a no bill was returned resulting in no prosecution
and the FBI investigation closed." To all appearances, the
"investigation" was more of an orchestration of the murderer's
exoneration.
Kenneth Hill
Vander Wall and I erroneously recorded the
victim's first name as "Kevin." The report also observes that
Hill was murdered not by "party or parties unknown," as we wrongly
stated, but by four individuals who stabbed him 19 times. It
does not mention that the killers were known GOONs. It does
observe, however, that, of the four, only one "17-year old Indian
youth" was prosecuted and then only for Murder in the Second Degree.
Julius Bad Heart Bull
Vander Wall and I erred when we attributed Bad
Heart Bull's murder to "party or parties unknown." The FBI
report corrects the record by pointing out that he was beaten to death
by a GOON named Bartholomew Joseph Long, using a 2x4 studded with
nails. It is noted that Long was subsequently convicted of
Second rather than First Degree Murder and sentenced to a mere ten
years. No indication is given as to how long he actually served. Whether the investigation was conducted by the FBI or the BIA police
is not stated.
Randy Hunter
Vander Wall and I again wrongly attributed the
murder to "party or parties unknown." In actuality, according to
the report, witnesses identified the man who shot Hunter as a GOON
named Vern Top Bear. Top Bear was charged with Second rather
than First Degree Murder and eventually acquitted. No mention is
made of a botched evidentiary submission by the FBI as contributing to
this result.
Sandra Wounded Foot
The report points out that Wounded Foot was not
killed by "unknown assailants," as Vander Wall and I recorded. She
was in fact shot in the head, execution style, and dumped in a remote
section of the reservation by a BIA police investigator named Paul
Duane Herman, Jr. Rather than being prosecuted for the murder,
Herman was allowed to plead guilty to a reduced charge of Voluntary
Manslaughter and sentenced to just 10 years in prison. No mention
is made of how long he actually served.
Michelle Tobacco
Vander Wall and I erroneously listed Michelle
Tobacco as an "AIM supporter." In actuality, she was the
nine-month-old daughter of an AIM supporter. The report
indicates that she was killed when "a relative [who] had consumed
liquor, tripped and fell with the baby. When the relative awoke,
Michelle was dead." The misimpression created is that the
relative was drunk, passed out, and crushed or smothered the baby. Omitted are the facts that the relative was not intoxicated, that she
fell when startled by a bullet being fired through her window from
outside her home (presumably by GOONs), and that in the process she
struck her head on a coffee table and knocked herself out. Under
the circumstances, it is small wonder the federal prosecutor declined
to press charges.
Olivia Bianas
Vander Wall and I erred in describing the victim
as an "AIM supporter" and that she was killed by "person or persons
unknown." She was in fact beaten to death by her husband,
Norman, a reputed GOON. Receiving the usual preferential
treatment accorded those of service to the FBI, the murderer was
allowed to enter a guilty plea on a charge of Voluntary Manslaughter
and sentenced to only eight years. He served a little over five.
Floyd S. Bianis and Yvette Loraine Lone Hill
In this case, which turns out to have been a
double homicide, it seems Vander Wall and I were simply wrong. Both the deceased were children, apparent victims of child abuse, and our contention that there was an AIM/GOON connection was erroneous. An appropriate FBI investigation did by all accounts take place and resulted in the successful prosecution of the perpetrator. Moreover, both the charges and sentences handed down seem quite
appropriate. The Bureau's exemplary performance in this
obviously non-political case can, however, be usefully contrasted to
its handling of every other murder discussed herein.
Concluding Observations
Inexplicably, a Pine Ridge murder case listed by
Vander Wall and I, that of Lorinda Red Paint, is not addressed in
Accounting for Native American Deaths. On the other hand,
that of John S. Moore, a 1974 AIM casualty whom we didn't include
because he was killed in Lincoln, Nebraska, is discussed in the
report. While this serves quite well to punctuate the point that
there were many other fatalities attending the FBI's repression of AIM
than those Jim and I recorded, it is important to remember that the
murders are themselves only part of the broader picture of what was
done to the American Indian Movement and grassroots population of Pine
Ridge during the mid-70's.
There were, for example, nearly 350 non-lethal
but nonetheless serious physical assaults against AIM members and supporters on the reservation recorded by WKLDOC during the same
period. In nearly every instance, the assailants were identified
by the victims &/or other witnesses as members of the GOON Squad. Yet in only a handful of instances did these crimes, all of which were
subject to the FBI's jurisdictional authority, result in any sort of
prosecution. In most cases, the FBI conducted no investigation
at all.
Had he been asked at the time, Rapid City ASAC
George O'Clock would undoubtedly have claimed that since his office
was already too shorthanded to investigate the wave murders on Pine
Ridge, he obviously couldn't spare the manpower to investigate the
physical assaults. O'Clock's agents, however, had time available
to amass more than 342,000 separate investigative file classifications
on the victims concerning such weighty matters as "Interference with
Postal Inspectors in Performance of their Lawful Duties" and the alleged
theft of a pair of used cowboy boots (not one, but two agents were
actually assigned to this last).
While the relatively few investigations of the
myriad major crimes committed by the GOON Squad were routinely
abandoned because of "insufficient evidence," or resulted in plea
bargains and ridiculously light sentences, those opened in AIM cases
were pursued with a vengeance and typically "prosecuted to the fullest
extent of the law." More than 540 charges were filed against AIM
members and supporters as a result of the 1973 confrontation at Wounded
Knee alone. These resulted in a grand total of 15 convictions,
all on minor charges. In many instances, it turned out that
evidence supporting the charges was effectively non-existent.
Such a miniscule percentage of convictions
resulting from prosecutions attempted might seem to add up to little
more than an astonishingly inept performance on the part of the FBI's
vaunted investigators, by far the worst in the Bureau's history. Nothing could be further from the truth. In this instance,
charges were filed and prosecutions recommended although agents knew
full well there was no possibility that "guilty" verdicts would be
attained. The point - as was clearly articulated in 1974 by Col.
Volney Warner, an army counterinsurgency specialist assigned as an
advisor to the FBI's Pine Ridge operation - was to destroy AIM by
tying up its members in endless courtroom proceedings and ultimately
bankrupting the Movement as it struggled to meet the spiraling costs
of bail and legal defense. The strategy was designed, as Warner
observed, so that "government wins, even if no one goes to jail."
In this sense, the Bureau's extralegal use of
the judicial process was a resounding success. It also speaks
volumes in explaining why so much of the massive violence directed
against AIM went unpunished during the mid-70's, and continues for all
practical intents and purposes to remain uninvestigated to this day. Nothing in Accounting for Native American Deaths alters this
harsh reality. Quite the opposite. By releasing this
purposefully misleading report, the FBI has demonstrated beyond all
reasonable doubt that it has changed little if at all over the past 25
years. The attitudes, ethics and sensibilities exhibited by
Douglas Domin and his colleagues in preparing their "report" are
indistinguishable from those guiding the agents who operated on Pine
Ridge a generation ago.
The premise that this constitutes an eminent
danger to the rights and liberties of all Americans is amply
corroborated by numerous revelations of comparable FBI misconduct in
recent years. Whether it is exposure by its own forensic
specialists of the fact that the Bureau's crime lab has systematically
fabricated physical evidence for purposes of obtaining the convictions
of thousands of possibly innocent people, the release from 27 years
imprisonment of former Black Panther Geronimo ji Jaga after a judicial
finding that he'd been the victim of a frame-up in which the FBI was
plainly complicit, the Bureau's withholding of vital evidence from
even the Attorney General in the course of its self exoneration
concerning the 1993 Waco bloodbath, or any of a dozen other examples,
the pattern remains consistent.
The FBI is, as it has always been, an agency
antithetical to the democratic ideals of the United States. Subverting law in pursuit of order, it continues today, as it has
since its inception, to employ the vast resources at its disposal in
destroying those whose viewpoints and activities it deems politically
objectionable, and then to hide the truth of what it has done from the
public it supposedly serves. Should we as citizens prove
ourselves willing to accept the latter subterfuge, and thereby allow the
former practice to continue, we will no longer need to concern
ourselves with worries about whether America is becoming a police
state. Instead, we will be compelled to confront the terrifying
fact that it already has.
© 2000 Ward Churchill,
Reprinted With Permission
