Anna Mae Aquash

Anna Mae Pictou Aquash or Anna Mae Aquash , also known as Annie Mae, with her Mi'kmaq name Naguset Eask (born March 27, 1945 , Indian Brook 14, Hants County, Nova Scotia , Canada ; † December 1975 in Pine Ridge Reservation , South Dakota , USA) was a prominent member of the American Indian Movement (AIM). After the Mi'kmaq- Indian murdered in the mainly by Oglala inhabited Indian reservation had been found, their role has been controversial.

She was presumably tortured and shot as an alleged police informant and traitor in connection with Leonard Peltier's alleged involvement in the Jumping Bull shooting. In some cases, attempts were made to portray her as a martyr of the Red Power movement and to attribute the murder of the AIM activist, who was arrested several times, to the FBI. Individual court cases related to the crime only began after the turn of the millennium. AIM activist John Graham was sentenced to life in prison in 2011 for the murder of Aquash. More than 30 years after her murder, further proceedings have not yet been completed. The suspects include high-ranking members such as legal representatives of the AIM.

Engagement in the Red Power Movement

One of their first actions was to take part in Indian protests in Boston Harbor against the 350th anniversary of the arrival of the Pilgrim Fathers in the New World on the Mayflower . AIM activists boarded their replica, the Mayflower II , on Thanksgiving 1970. Anna Mae Aquash was also involved in the establishment of the Boston Indian Council (now the North American Indian Center ). She moved to Bar Harbor , Maine with her two young daughters in the early 1970s and worked on the TRIBES project. TRIBES stood for Teaching and Research in Bicultural Education School Project and aimed to bring Indian children closer to their own history.

After the failure of her first marriage, from which her two daughters came, she met the Canadian Ojibwa Nogeeshik Aquash from Walpole Island . Both traveled to Pine Ridge in 1973 and participated in the AIM occupation of Wounded Knee and married there.

In 1974 she assisted in the armed occupation of Anicinaabe Provincial Park by the Ojibway Warriors Society in Kenora, Ontario , and in early January 1975 she participated in a Menominee Warriors Society action at the Alexian Brothers Novitiate , Gresham , Wisconsin . Before her assassination, she lived in Pine Ridge like other AIM activists from across North America and was also temporarily in Los Angeles and Canada. She was close to Dennis Banks and Leonard Peltier in the organization and began to play a prominent female role in AIM.

Her death

A few months after the exchange of fire at Jumping Bull Ranch , Aquash was suspected by the movement of cooperating with the police. Two FBI agents and an AIM activist were shot in the shooting. Leonard Peltier, who was later sentenced to twice life imprisonment as the main party involved, escaped prosecution by fleeing to Canada. In late 1975, Aquash was interrogated by the AIM, with the participation of Peltier's attorney Ellison, according to individual testimony.

In early 1976, her largely disfigured body was found off South Dakota Highway 73 at the northeast end of the Pine Ridge Reservation, ten miles north of Wanblee and near Kadoka. The rancher Roger Amiotte discovered them during an unusual warm period on February 24th. The body could not be identified, despite the presence of police officers who had known Aquash. Her severed hands had to be sent to the FBI headquarters in Washington, DC for fingerprinting. She was initially buried anonymously as Jane Doe . Eight days later, after identification, she was exhumed on March 10, 1976 at the request of the family and the FBI. This time the gunshot wound was recognized.

Criminal proceedings and a co-conspirator

On March 20, 2003, two people were charged with the murder: Fritz Arlo Looking Cloud (a homeless Lakota ) and John Graham (also known as John Boy Patton), a Southern Tutchone tribesman from Whitehorse , Yukon , Canada. Graham's adoptive aunt Theda Clark was not charged, although it was believed she supported the act.

Leonard Peltier's longtime attorney, Bruce Ellison, invoked the Fifth Amendment , which stipulates that no one has to testify against himself, and refused to testify at both the preliminary grand jury hearings of the Looking Cloud case and the trial itself. The prosecutor named him in A co-conspirator at the trial and witnesses testified that the attorney participated in the interrogations of Annie Mae Aquash on December 11, 1975, which took place shortly before she was killed.

In August 2008, a grand jury indicted a third person, Vine Richard “Dick” Marshall, of aiding and abetting in the murder . Marshall was a bodyguard for Russell Means .

Graham, Looking Cloud, and Theda Clark reportedly abducted their victim to Marshall's home, where Aquash was believed to have been held before they were murdered. Marshall's wife Cleo Gates confirmed this in the proceedings against Looking Cloud. Marshall is also said to have procured the murder weapon. He had previously been imprisoned for a murder in 1975 (and was pardoned in 2000).

Trial against Graham and Rios 2010

In September 2009, Graham and Thelma Rios were charged with the kidnapping and murder of Anna Mae Aquash by the South Dakota State Court. Thelma Rios came to an understanding during the proceedings and was sentenced in November 2010 to a prison term of 5 years for complicity in kidnapping, which was largely suspended due to her poor health. She died of lung cancer in January 2011 . John Graham was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder in December 2010.

The Trial against Looking Cloud

On February 8, 2004, the trial of Arlo Looking Cloud began before a US federal jury that resulted in a guilty verdict. On April 23, 2004, the defendant was given a life sentence. A videotaped interrogation in which he had admitted his presence at the scene, tipped the scales for the conviction. However, he claimed not to have known of the scheme that Aquash was about to be killed. The defendant gave John Graham as the shooter.

Looking Cloud appealed his conviction. But although he had been slightly drunk during interrogation, there were plenty of other witnesses who heard him speak of his involvement, including his old friend Richard Two Elk, Troy Lynn Yellow Wood, John Trudell, and the daughters of Anna Mae Aquash. Looking Cloud withdrew his videotaped confession, calling it a lie. He also objected that his lawyer was incompetent; the latter had to object to the admission of the video recording and, among other things, had to protest against the admission of Anna Mae's second-hand statements as well as the public prosecutor's trick questions.

The competent court of appeals (United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit) rejected the appeal on August 19, 2004.

John Graham tries to avoid a lawsuit

Canadian Attorney General Vic Toews ordered John Graham's extradition to the United States on June 22, 2006. Graham was awaiting charges for his alleged involvement in the murder. Graham appealed and was placed under house arrest. In July 2007, the house arrest was rejected by the court and the extradition order was confirmed. On December 6, 2007, the Canadian Supreme Court dismissed another appeal, and John Graham has been awaiting trial for murder against him and Marshall in a Rapid City , South Dakota prison since then .

Graham denies any involvement in the crime, stating that his charges are an act of revenge. The United States government and the FBI wanted to force him to give false testimony against AIM leaders on the matter. He was given the alternative of being charged as Aquash's murderer himself if he did not cooperate. Graham claims to have last seen Aquash on her drive from Denver to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, where he claims to have brought her to safety.

The AIM leadership did not answer the question of Graham's guilt uniformly, John Trudell and Russell Means claim that he was the murderer, others see him as a scapegoat .

Theories and Motives

There are different assumptions about who was behind the crime. John Trudell accuses Dennis Banks. He testified in both Butler and Robideau's 1976 and Looking Cloud trial that Banks reported to him about the killing before the body was identified. Banks, in his autobiography Ojibwa Warrior , gives the reply. In the conversation with John Trudell he was informed of the identity of the victim and was surprised by the death of Annie Mae Aquash.

Paul DeMain, editor of the Indian newspaper News from Indian Country , claimed in an editorial in 2003 that Anna Maes was executed because of her knowledge of Leonard Peltier's guilt in the murder of the two FBI agents, but he did not blame him Acted himself. Peltier responded with a libel lawsuit filed on May 1, 2003. That lawsuit was withdrawn on May 25, 2004 and a settlement was reached. DeMain said he wanted Peltier to have a fair trial that was withheld from him and that Peltier was not involved in the killing of Anna Mae Aquash. DeMain did not revoke his assumption of Peltier's guilt for the deaths of the two FBI agents, nor the presumption that Aquash's murder occurred out of fear of Peltier's possible betrayal.

In the Looking Cloud trial, prosecutors also alleged that AIM leaders saw Aquash as a problem over Peltier for admitting to her the murders of the two FBI officers. The witness Darlene Kamook Nichols then testified that Peltier made this confession in late 1975 in a group of AIM activists. This group, followed by the police at the time, included herself as well as her sister Bernie, her then-husband Dennis Banks, Aquash and others. Peltier said that the “son of a bitch begged for his life, but I shot him anyway ” (“ but I shot him anyway ”) . Bernie Nichols-Lafferty confirmed her sister's statement about Peltier's statement.

Other witnesses testified that Peltier actually put a gun in her mouth while interrogating Aquash. Peltier and David Hill forced Aquash to build explosives, which they then placed in two power stations on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Aquash's fingerprints should weigh them down.

Anna Maes Aquash's daughters

Indigenous Women for Justice chairwoman Denise Maloney-Pictou is convinced of John Graham's guilt. She suspects that AIM “assumed she knew too much. She knew what was going on in California, where the money for the guns came from, knew plans, and above all, she knew who had shot the FBI men. "

Anna Mae's other daughter, Debbie Maloney-Pictou, an officer with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and active in the Annie Mae Justice Fund , reports that Arlo Looking Cloud telephoned her to tell her about the circumstances surrounding her mother's killing; this admission would be the FBI's view. That call was mediated by Paul DeMain and Richard Two Elk. Looking Cloud confirmed the call in his taped confession on March 27, 2003.

Fonts

• "Letter from jail" , 1975.

literature

• Voices from Wounded Knee, 1973. In the Words of the Participants . Rooseveltown, New York: Akwesasne Notes, 1974. ISBN 0-914838-01-6 .
• Antoinette Nora Claypoole: Who Would Unbraid Her Hair. The Legend of Annie Mae . Anam Cara Press, 1999. ISBN 0-9673853-0-X
• Steve Hendricks: The Unquiet Grave. The FBI and the Struggle for the Soul of Indian Country . New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, 2006. ISBN 1-56025-735-0
• Michael Donnelly: Getting Away with Murder , article in: Counterpunch , 2006.
• Charlie Smith: John Graham Says Native Chiefs Under FBI Spell , in: The Georgia Straight , July 12, 2007 (A summary of John Graham's position.)

Web links

• Anna Mae Aquash's biography
• Committee on Justice for Annie Mae and Ray Robinson
• Indigenous Women for Justice
• 1975 Letter from Anna Mae Aquash Prison
• Interview with Robert Robideau about Anna Mae in Heyoka Magazine

Individual evidence

1. ↑ A wedding photo is reproduced in: Voices from Wounded Knee, 1973, in the Words of the Participants , Akwesasne Notes , Rooseveltown, NY, 1974.
2. ^ The action was led by Vernon Harper, the head of AIM Toronto and a member of the Communist Party of Canada; Source: Anna Mae Aquash Timeline , News from Indian Country
3. ^ ^{A b c} Johanna Brand, The Life and Death of Anna Mae Aquash , Toronto: James Lorimer (1993)
4. ↑ Aquash Murder Case Timeline by Paul DeMain, NFIC, archived copy ( Memento of the original from May 13, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
5. ↑ Testimony of Roger Amiotte in the Trial of Arlo Looking Cloud, February, 2004 ( Memento of the original from May 18, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Justice for Anna Mae and Ray 
6. ↑ Aquash Murder Gets New Grand Jury Hearing News From Indian Country , Jan. 24, 2003
7. ↑ co-conspirator , compare Paul DeMain's Chronicle of the Procedure (Aquash Murder Case Timeline) , News from Indian Country , at Aquash Murder Case Timeline ( Memento of the original from July 5, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and still Not checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
8. ↑ Aquash Murder Case Timeline ( Memento of the original from May 13, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
9. ↑ US Indicts Richard Marshall in Aquash Murder Case , News from Indian Country , August 26, 2008
10. ^ 2 Charged in 1975 American Indian Movement Slaying . In: News from Indian Country , September 22, 2009
11. ^ Rios, accessory in Aquash murder, dead at 65 . Rapid City Journal, February 11, 2011
12. ^ Graham sentenced to life in prison . Rapis City Journal, January 24, 2010
13. ↑ ^{a b c} "Interview With Fritz Arlo Looking Cloud, March 27, 2003" ( Memento of the original from May 16, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Justice For Anna Mae and Ray 
14. ↑ ^{a b} Looking Cloud appeal decision ( Memento of the original from March 8, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 261 kB) 
15. ↑ ^{a b} Witness statements ( memento of the original from August 20, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Justice For Anna Mae and Ray 
16. ^ Terry Gilbert, Summary of Looking Cloud Appeal Decision , American Indian Movement Grand Governing Council
17. ^ "Trial for 1975 Murder of Canadian Woman Set for February in South Dakota"  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Associated Press (via The News , Pictou County, Nova Scotia, October 17, 2008)  
18. ↑ Interview with Antoinette Claypoole; Antoinette Nora Claypoole, "An Interview with John Graham" (March 30, 2004), Heyoka Magazine ( Memento of the original from August 21, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
19. ↑ Justice For Anna Mae and Ray, "Testimony of John Trudell in the Trial of Arlo Looking Cloud February, 2004" ( Memento of the original from August 18, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
20. ↑ "(...) I do not believe that Leonard Peltier received a fair trial in connection with the murders of which he was convicted. Certainly he is entitled to one. Nor do I believe, according to the evidence and testimony I now have, that Mr. Peltier had any involvement in the death of Anna Mae Aquash ".
21. ↑ News From Indian County Allows Peltier to Withdraw Lawsuit ( Memento of the original from May 13, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . 
22. ↑ Peltier Accepts Settlement over Aquash Murder ( Memento of the original from October 25, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .  
23. ↑ Press Release May 28, 2004 ( Memento of the original from May 13, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . 
24. ↑ Ka-Mook Testifies . jfamr.org. Archived from the original on May 18, 2008. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved November 10, 2010. 
25. ^ Bernie Lafferty Speaks Regarding Leonard Peltier . jfamr.org. Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved November 10, 2010. 
26. ↑ http://www.jfamr.org/doc/troytest.html ; http://www.dickshovel.com/annatp4.html ; Archive link ( memento of the original from November 25, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; http://www.dickshovel.com/21705.html ; Steve Hendricks, The Unquiet Grave: The FBI and the Struggle for the Soul of Indian Country, 2006, Thunder's Mouth Press, p. 202; On p. 4. ( Memento of the original from March 27, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 67 kB)  
27. ↑ On p. 6, 14. ( Memento of the original from March 27, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 67 kB) 
28. ↑ Indigenous Women for Justice Website ( Memento of the original from March 15, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
29. ↑ "(...) she knew where the money was coming from to pay for the guns, she knew the plans, but more than any of that, she knew about the killings. “ Justice for Anna Mae and Ray, An Interview with Denise Pictou-Maloney on the Death of her Mother, Annie Mae Aquash ( Memento of the original from December 20, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , November 24, 2004