Clyde Bellcourt Speaks at Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio

To really understand what took place. And wouldn't need to quote from February 27 to May 8th. I would first of all have to go back and give you at least a little history. Of the formation of the American Indian Movement. Its objectives and goals. Why it was formed. Who they looked at as the worst enemy of Indian people. And what they have done in the past five years to create some type of social change. The American Indian Movement itself was formed in July of one thousand sixty eight in the city of Minneapolis. It was formed by a group of Indian people who came. Together from many walks of life. From many different tribes. From many different levels of education from many different cultures and many different traditions. This was considered one of the largest Indian gatherings ever take place in the city of

Minneapolis. And yet out of approximately 12 to fourteen thousand Indians who reside in the metropolitan area of Minneapolis St. Paul. Only 130 Indians came together that particular night. People have made statements throughout the country in the past 25 years since the formation of the National Congress of American Indians. That I'll be in an organization that came together. Supposedly to be an advocate for Indian people. Has either failed that. Or had become a white orientated type of organization. Where the Indian continuously. Looked to the white man for direction. And as I travel across this country. I am confronted every day. And generally it's by my own people. Because they have been living under a

paternalistic attitude since birth. The government the Office of Education and the Christian church. And they believe that they cannot get along without these three institutions. They believe that these institutions cannot be changed. They have accepted the white man's way. To such a degree that they have lost their identity. And we found this out when we formed the American Indian Movement in the city of Minneapolis. The people who gathered there that night were dissatisfied. They felt that little of nothing was being done. By this government to honor the treaties made with Indian people. They felt that even their own so called in organizations

were not doing anything to create any type of social change in their community. And as we looked at the makeup of all these organizations across the country. We knew that one way or the other the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The opposite of education. And the Christian church. Not only influence those boards but control them with their funding process. And when the American Indian movement formed in July of 1968 calling themselves the Concerned Indian American coalition at first. They were determined that this was going to be and in an organization it was going to be totally independent concept. That only people with Indian heritage and Indian blood and culture.

Were going to make decisions for Indian people as far as this organization was concerned. And we didn't just started you know out of the clear blue sky. It wasn't just a bunch of militants that sat down and said we're going to start another organization to receive a lot of funds and forget about the people. It started as a grassroots organization that met many times in homes and cars and cafe's because nobody would provide a meeting place for people like this. But it came together anyway. And to demonstrate its concern for Indian people it immediately. Attacked these three institutions that we felt were the three key enemies of Indian people. Be in the church. The federal government through the Bureau of Indian Affairs. And education. And we were talking about a white

European education one that's history is built on conquest and victory. You know we talked about the church. We're talking about people who came here first. Seeking religious freedom. You talked about a church that participated prior to any treaty that was ever made. And forced assimilation of the Indian person. As a human being. We talked about a Bureau of Indian Affairs that controlled Indian peoples lives for one hundred forty nine years. And told everything they did control the least of their land determine what school they could go to what type of education they could get. These were the things that were discussed. The early part of one thousand sixty eight.

These founding conferences that took place. And after it was all over and we came out with a list of objectives. Objectives that were designed. To turn the history of Indian people around in this country. Objectives that were designed to give Indian people back their sovereign rights. That they had when they made treaties with the United States government and set aside for themselves. And in the meetings that we had nearly park one thousand sixty eight. About 80 people. Dropped out of the phony conference. We invited them to leave because we said that we meant business. We told that we were all through bullshit and.

We were going to stay on our knees for the rest of our life. We're going to stand up and we're going to be counted. And those people who had any hang ups now there's time to get out. But if they ever probably coming back and being part of this movement. The door would always be open. One of the biggest problems facing the Internet community at that time was a police problem. The city of Minneapolis. There was approximately 40 to 55 Indian people arrested Weekly. Because such a watch when the paddy wagons would come down to East Franklin and loaded his people up. When they went to by the time they went to court the next day they were just arrested for minor intoxication or breach of peace. They also had tacked on to those charges. Just in a RAS. Attempted

assault. Use of profanity in public and etc.. Because in it people did not have money to defend themselves they merely threw him a public defender. Who negotiated a plea and got them 60 to 90 days in the workhouse. The workhouse was nearly 50 percent Indian. The American Indian Movement immediately launched. An all Indian citizens patrol. To monitor the police. Show up the next day as witnesses in court. To provide some type of bail bond system to get these people out next stablish a defense. We told in people that they do not have to plead guilty anymore. They don't have to negotiate any plea. They want a jury trial they could have it. Within a three month period. We had a court's backlog for

over 18 months. Jury trials. For 22 straight weeks were successful stopping in and people from getting their heads beat in. Top young girls from being molested and even raped by policemen. In and people throughout the country saw the effectiveness of this organization. Within a three month period we had over 600 members registered. And before the year was over to estimated that 80 percent of the metropolitan area surveys that were taken supported. The American Indian Movement. I had the opportunity to participate. In all Indian task force. In 1967. Sixty eight. Was funded under the Ford

Foundation. And the purpose of this taskforce was to investigate the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The church and education. Purpose of this taskforce was to expose these three institutions. And how they worked as a conspiracy. To rippin people off. Of not only their culture and their heritage but their land and their natural resources. After logging over 100000 miles traveled across this country. Urban settings into reservations. Came up with statistics that were almost unbelievable. These were based on eight hundred fifty thousand Indians that are registered now under the Interior Department the United States. We found out that the gross annual income of the Indian per family is set at fifteen hundred dollars

a year. Found out that for every white child that is born today in United States and live this. Bringing in children don't make it the first month. They found out in the Indian people live to be forty three point five. And for white America it's 65 plus. Found out that we had a suicidal rate. 20 times the national average. 65 percent of our students were dropping out of high school. And we had a 5.5 grade level. People ask me today. You know say how come you're so savage. Anymore. Because you're such a heathen. If you don't believe in Jesus Christ. Ask me how come I'm so

militant. Maybe it's because I witness these things all my life and have attempted to do something about it. He was unable to until the movement was formed. To tell Indian people made up their minds themselves. That they were going to shed. Everything that was instilled in their mind that was right and wrong. Immediately after the formation of the movement. Launched an all out attack against the churches. Because we knew that the churches were the first to come here. They were the first to exploit the Indian. We knew that just 50 years after they ate that Thanksgiving dinner. Thanking not only Jesus Christ but for Indian people because Indian people were the ones that say them.

Over 50 percent of the Pilgrim Fathers that landed perished the first winter. It was Indian people who came out of the woods and administered medicine. They even found medicine for the new diseases that they brought with them and cured them. Show them how to plant their crops. Show them what berries to eat how to insulate their homes give them everything that they need it. Within 50 years after that. Fifty seven tribes were totally erased from the face of the earth. And it was the churches that were centered in all the time by the government. During the seizure of the Bureau of Indian Affairs we were successful and confiscated 30 tons of records. Records that incriminate every administration. From the time this

government was formed. Records that talked about the churches and how they met and came together. For decisions were made by Congress before a treaty commission was ecstatic to go in and make treaty with this tribe. The churches would first give their report. And they would talk. About their great missionary work with this particular tribe and how they have educated it. Got something like 40 to 60 percent of this tribe speak an english. Missionize them. And the government would move in. And the church working along with the government. Of course. Indian chiefs to make treaties. Treaties that ceded large portions of land to United States government. Treaties were Indians set aside certain portions of land for themselves and certain

rights. Rights that the Great Spirit gave them and no one else. Rights of survival. The right to hunt. The right to fish in my state to gather wild rice and trap. Water rights mineral rights were set aside by the great chiefs. They knew that they had to look out. For the unborn generation. It's always been our way of life. As Indians. Knowing this we went before the Minnesota consulate churches who operated what they call the Department of Indian work. And it's true all over it's true in Los Angeles Denver Chicago Cleveland Ohio. Anywhere you go in any state you go. They have a Minnesota consulate churches like Colorado consulate churches

our South Dakota consulate churches. And in every one of those consuls of churches they have a Department of Indian work. They have various departments that are supposed to deal with social issues around them the poverty. In Minnesota they have them in a sort of consulate churches Department of Indian work. And in the study that we conducted along with many white ministers young ministers were also fed up with that process the information they gave us we found out that the churches were ripping up the congregations to the tune of 10 million dollars in six years. The upgrade to conditions of Indian people in that state only thirty five thousand Indians. We found out that not one Indian person sat on the board of directors.

Not one Indian person worked on the staff of that department. Not one Indian person was being helped. Through that exploitation that the church was carrying on every Sunday and continues to carry on today. And we went in there and we demanded like we demanded of all other Indian organizations. And Indian people control their own destiny. That Indian people like stablished their own program that's going to be living in poverty from their community. And we presented them with an eight point challenge. An eight point challenge that was not only endorsed by them and eventually actually supported it. It has been indorse. By 33 major denominations today. Delegates that have built.

In 12 major denominations foundations and caucuses. And boards. To regulate. That solicitation process. And hundreds of Indian self-help programs have sprung up because of that effort and because of those challenges. The following year we journeyed to in 1969 we went to Sioux Falls South Dakota. For people. Myself and Dennis Banks. All one's been young. You were 15 years old named Joe big. Found out through the ministry and those ministers that supported the American Indian Movement. But the churches were operated not just level on a national basis. Sioux Falls South Dakota every two years all of the Indian missionaries

and ministers. From throughout the country of the three loathsome Senates got together. They talked about the Indian problem. They talked about poverty. They talked about alcoholism. Talked about all of these things that affect the Indian community. And after a three day period they go back home with beefed up budgets. And the following year you would see another new church being built on that reservation and its poverty remain the same. We presented. The Lutheran Church us a with eight point challenge. Demanding that 75 percent. Of their board of directors be Indian and that the chairman forever be an Indian. And after a three day confrontation with the churches they finally

endorse. And actively supported those challenges or so we thought. They told us that next year they would provide us with a $13000 budget they would let us contact Indian people from throughout the United States and bring them together to form that board that we talked about. In the following year we did just that we have stablished a 75 percent controlled Indian board that had representation from the urban area. Rural area the reservation and the youth. And they told us that they were sorry they couldn't. Recognize that board untell we went through their conferences until we went to San Antonio across this country every two years and get the conference endorsement. And I guess that's

when the. American union movement immediately became known as a militant organization. Because we grabbed the whole of August on a college and we held it for four solid days. And it wasn't until we threatened to file a one billion dollar lawsuit against the Lutheran Church US A. But the three presidents of those three Senate send telegrams to us saying that they would recognize that board and they would actually financially support it. And in the one billion dollar suit. Four hundred million dollars of that was for gross violations of the Ten Commandments. And we could prove it. We could prove that they were directly responsible for the 57 tribes of a race from the face of the earth in the name of Jesus Christ. We could prove that Colonel 17.

Great Methodist minister was the man to lead the charge at Sand Creek and massacred the Cheyanne in the Arapaho. We could prove that the churches stood by and watch that Wounded Knee 1890. 280 members a big foot strip Bigfoots tribe was shot gun shot down with guns. Charges another 400 million dollars for alienation of ecumenical affections. That's when you take an Indian student. From his home and away from his mother and his father. And you put him in a missionary boarding school make up for eight solid years. And you make a pretty good if you want to go to the toilet. You tell him to disrespect his father and his mother. You tell him his language and his culture and his religion is wrong. That crisis the only way. We knew that all

of these were responsible. For the 20 to 1 suicide rate and people are facing today. The other 200 million dollars for the costs. And a breach of contract the promises that they made us just a year prior to that. These challenges have been presented on a national basis and now on a world basis and we say today that if the hierarchy of the church. Allowed a congregation down of a congregation level to hear these challenges they too would have support of them. And they would have never been a trail of broken treaties. Never been 2.1 million dollars in damage to the Bureau of Indian Affairs building in Washington D.C.. And Lawrence Lamont. And Frank Clearwater. Joel Best Annette.

And the others that died at Wounded Knee would still be alive today. In March of one thousand sixty nine. He launched a full scale attack against the federal government. Not many people in America paid attention to that. There's a lot of other struggles were going on at the time. Nobody thought the end in whatever stand up or do these things. But we were successful and hold it in and occupy nine of the area offices of the Bureau of Indian Affairs for two solid weeks. In March in 1909. And then started to tracks back and forth to Washington D.C.. And what time we went there they said that they were going to shake up the Interior Department. They're going to restructure the Bureau of Indian Affairs. They're going to put Indian people in

charge and people are going to make decisions Nixon said that Indian people are going to have self-determination without germination. And he turned around and ecstatic the national consul I mean an opportunity. Under Vice President Spiro T Agnew and they hired a white man called Robert Robertson. Said he'd be an optimist for 90 days and Indian people themselves would be able to elect a director. And he's been there every sense. To know that they form the National tribal chairman's Association. Comes directly under Nixon and Agnew have them in Ehrlichman Robertson right down the line to people like Dickie Wilson and the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Set up the same way. Same thing in mine. Terminate in and people

and take what little laugh they have. The American Indian movement continues for five solid years to demonstrate its concern. In the areas of health education and welfare. And when they were unable to change the curriculum in a public school system. In the state of Minnesota and elsewhere we had chapters springing up all over the country. We've stablished our own schools. We call it the American Indian Movement survival school. Where they're still learning the basics. Except at English and our school is taught as a foreign language. Our students are taught to speak again. A top to speak sued. To taught to respect their elders. They're taught to value is that it's better to share.

That or to give than to receive. And they're taught respect for them. Mother the Earth. You know tot his spiritual ism in a religion. And all living things including the trees and the plant life the fire the fish in the water other brothers and sisters. Have seventy six drop outs in our school today. Thirty four of them referred to us by the juvenile courts of Minneapolis. And in a three year period. Not one kid not one of these children has dropped out of our school. All of these slow learners news potential dropouts needs pushouts. We're still going to school. We brought in. A young Jewish couple who were friends to the movement to evaluate.

Achievements of these children. Belong when a young man by the name of Ralph wear a full blooded Indian clinical psychologists. Over a three month period. They found out that these children's learning ability. Pasti to learn had jumped from point five to 1.5 grade levels higher than their white public school counterpart. School is hard to get recognition in accreditation for today. When they talk about busing integration and racial balance. We tell them that they've been bussin Indians for years. Been bused in from Alaska to Locke Oklahoma they've been bused them from waiter to Minnesota on my reservation to Haskell to fly and go to Upton. And to the other 235

Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding schools across this country. And it hasn't worked for Indian people. Well there's a few that make it as a few. Their father works in the bureau and I got a little bit money. They go on to higher education. And because of that we do have a few people around like Vine Deloria today who is well educated but not books. We have a few attorneys like Ramon rule but do was able to make it all the way through. But the majority of Indian people were turned into hairstylists carpenters mechanics. This is all a plot the plan. Of the federal government to. Get us off the land. Because it has no place to practice to trade or. To put us into urban ghettos across this country so they can disenfranchise us and take what little we have left. Six solid years. Carried signs.

Brain sang songs in a drum marched. Trudged off Mt. Rushmore to set two years in a row. Protesting the violation of the Treaty of eight hundred sixty eight. Every time we got arrested we started a treaty. Before we got to the courts. Judges would. Disqualify themselves because they were landholders in direct conflict with that treaty. We'd end up without a case. And we went there to get arrested went to get arrested just to get the treaty before the courts where they could do it and find out where the hell were. Where is white America. That's what we want to know. Where is this government relationship to treaties. July in August of 1972.

All of our chapters from throughout the country to come to the rose about Indian Reservation in South Dakota. For three solid days we sat down. We re-evaluated the movement itself. Looked at everything that we did for FY solid years. We found out that millions and millions of dollars more was being spent. And in people because of the advocacy that we put forth. More organizations were being formed be found out there are twenty eight hundred Indian organizations now today operating in the United States. We found out also that the system sticks. In the conditions of Indian people. You mean virtually the same. We decided then that we had lunch one more effort and effort I

would pull together one of the. Greatest alliances to ever take place here in the western hemisphere. And that was surpassed even our great. Grandfather to come see from this area. One day I would make every Indian person in this country either stand up and be counted. Or remain. Ocal tomahawk or an apple or whatever they were. To launch a caravan from the West coasts. And we would travel for a month and a half before we would get to St. Paul. And along the way we would stop in every urban ghetto setting where in it people resided in every reservation. And we'd asked them to join us because when we got to St. Paul we were going to have a conference. And we were going to decide our relationship to the federal government once and for all.

Over 200 tribes met in St. Paul Minnesota. Delegates and representatives from almost every movement organization in the country who lation ship to Indian Affairs gathered there. And we didn't sat down and talk about the Indian problem anymore. We talked about a white problem. We talked about the problem in Washington and how they were creating. This for Indian people. But we got through it our two week conference we came out with a 20 point. Solution paper 20 points that legislation could be built and drafted around. That would bring forth what the president said Indians will have self-determination without terminations.

And we sent an advance crew in to Washington D.C. to make sure that we would have the type of public forums with these federal agencies that would be needed. And with these congressional leaders and these various departments. Of the interior. Get endorsement of the 20 point solution paper and some type of commitment and promise to us. That they would act on these. It told Indian people that this is what they were searching for. If enough people just come forth and tell us what they want to. We'll give it to them. And when we got to Washington D.C. all of the meetings I work stablished two weeks before. Some reason were closed down. It was election week. In want any type of a police problem in Washington. And we know today that the administration

itself was responsible for what happened in the Bureau of Indian affairs when we got to Washington D.C. even the churches closed their doors in our face. But only. Things that we had to go as Indian people went to the Bureau of Indian Affairs number one enemy in this country. All this bureaucracy alive today. Is stablished under the War Department hundred forty nine years ago to regulate trade between the Indian nation and United States government. When 500 Indian people gathered inside the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Commissioner who was India and welcomed us. But the man from the Land Management Department Harrison last told us at 5 o'clock he wanted us out of his building. A white man. In a Bureau of Indian Affairs built. Him telling us he wants

us out of his building. A building that was built off the rip off of it in people's lands resources. They don't have no Bureau of black affairs a bureau of white affairs except the White House and DC. But they have the Bureau of Indian Affairs and we were determined to do something to change that. And at 4:45 we looked out the window as they did what they have done across this country. Amassed all of their military support. Yet every pick in Washington DC and surrounding us even set some on horseback and ride gear and gas masks trying to scare us. There are many chiefs inside the bureau building. There are many spiritual leaders and medicine men. When we asked Indian people the old women and the children to lean

they would not leave. People like Martha grass who had been travelling to Washington for 40 years. That she was tired. As far as she was concerned she was going to get an answer short before she left Washington D.C. She was going to die there in that bureau building and I saw 500 people come together into one mine. Make a decision that all of them were going to stand together. And for five solid days we negotiated. We fought down. Every attempt by every federal judge to remove us from that ability with a legal team that we had. We've been able to overturn restraining orders that kept us out of an Arlington National Cemetery where we wish to go and gather. Have a Sermanni for Ira Hayes. The other unions that

died. He's white man's wars. Finally on the 8th of November. We told them that we were off to talking to their flunkies. Brought to talking to people who have been oppressed and suppressed and in people's rights. We're all taught to talk in the interior of people and Justice Department people health education welfare and all these other agencies. And we notified the Committee to Re-elect the President who came to visit us. Now if the fat man himself was not on the phone in one hour. Garantie announced that he was going to come and meet I sent a representative from the White House. That I wasn't going to be a Bureau of Indian Affairs building. Within the hour. Within one hour.

They flew. A man by the name of John Ehrlichman to come and be with us. And after a series of negotiations we were able to get commitments signed by him and Frank Carlucci and Leonard Garment. We decided that we would leave the Bureau of Indian Affairs and go home. But we were broke then and we needed money and we told him that. We could not get our people home to the reservation where they came from. Unless we had the money to do so. John. Ehrlichman asked us how much we needed the fastest proposal ever wrote in my life. It came up to sixty six thousand six hundred fifty dollars. And within one hour's time a brown satchel case was delivered.

The sixty six thousand six hundred fifty dollars in $100 bills. And we left Washington D.C. with a police escort. With a police escort and 30 tons of files. Back home. And just a week after we left. The White House closed off future negotiations stating that they would not talk anymore about the solution paper. Until they got their records back. Records have never been returned. And within one month after we left a federal grand jury met in Washington D.C.. And they indicted 12 of us.

Every one of us American Indian Movement people. They didn't bother to touch the other 84 percent. Who represented reservations in the land and treaties. But there hasn't been a warrant issued to date. And we found out that one of the reasons why. Was the money that they gave us that they try to tax Indian people for cross this country. They immediately moved to grab all the federal funds from our survival schools saying they were being used for revolutionary purposes. Which we shouldn't eventually got back. But the money that they really gave us did not come from the Department of Transportation or the Bureau of Indian Affairs or the Office of Economic Opportunity.

One of the reasons why they did not arrest us is the money came from the Committee to Re-elect the President. When we started our long trek home this puppet government I was ecstatic under the national consul in an opportunity and people like Webster to hock who was chairman of the rosebuds to try and the pistil minister on leave. People like Richard Dickie Wilson started to condemn us. Doing too in a country that did that. When we got back home they put restraining orders against us. We can stand up in a public forum on our own land and own reservations. Intelligent people who cannot make it to Washington D.C. me about the lies and the DCT and the corruption they're. Going to love to do that because those orders given down the line to the tribal presidents under the vice

president's desk. To put a muzzle on the American Indian Movement. And we knew then that we were on the enemies list. As soon as we got home we started hearing about. The people who were murdered. When we were gone. We heard about Raymond yellow thought. It was stripped from the waist down and go to Nebraska 18 miles from Pine Ridge. A 56 year old man who worked as a ranch hand all summer and had nothing else to do but to drink all winter long but enjoy himself was stripped from the waist down and shoved out. Into an American Legion Post where the John Birchers were having a party. Made to dance naked like an Indian. Two weeks later they found him dead frozen. Carla. Picked up four whites two brothers. Other fellow and his sister.

They admitted that they picked Raymond Yellow Thunder Up. Made him strip from the waist down. They beat him took him to the dance floor and shoved him out to make him dance. Put him back in the trunk of a car and 20 degrees below zero weather. And then dumped him off in this used car lot. Where he died. There were fourteen hundred Indians. Marched on Gordon Nebraska and we got back from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation is only twenty two thousand twenty two hundred Indian people lived in Gordon at that time and 10 percent of them were Indian. And before we got there there was an exodus of all the whites leaving town. Trailer houses and everything else that they could gather.

From there we ended up in Scottsbluff Nebraska attempting to form some type of coalition. With our Chicano brothers and sisters. In Isn't that community. We were afraid to even go out after dark. Nebraska and Scottsbluff. It was then that the government was after us because they immediately. We don't know if they were freed because of the building in affairs or what but immediately when they found out the American Indian Movement was going to Scottsbluff Nebraska they called up the National Guard and gov X said we are not going to have a Bureau of Indian Affairs in Nebraska. They called up 50 state troopers. They called up the special operations group from Washington DC. And they surrounded us during a spiritual. Conference. In Chicago community and before the.

Conference ended in three days 38 of our people were arrested illegally placed in jail for a variety of conspiracy type charges. And during that time a young man by the name of Wesley bad heart bull. Set upon the late January of 1970 to 73. Buffalo Gap South Dakota just a little ways off the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. He was stabbed 27 times by four whites in broad daylight. They too were only charged with second degree manslaughter. On February 6th They were scheduled to appear for the preliminary hearing in Custer South Dakota. In a call went out to Indian people again. To gather in Custer on February 6.

We were going to confront. This judicial system. Which has never presented a face first degree murder bill against Indian people for the past against whites for killing Indians in the past 25 years. The letter that went out across the country it told Indian people to come they're prepared to die. When they decided to go into. Buster South Dakota. Medicine man was successful. Stopping any Indian from taking any type of weapon. I was right in there with them. They would go there to play with the peace pipe. The Spiritualists of. Medicine man would lead us in our spiritual leader Leonard Crow Dog. And when they got there they locked up. The courthouse.

They had the whole town in fact locked up. Vigilantes. And whites were standing on the rooftops with shotguns. Pitchforks whatever they could get their hands on and only 200 people. Drove into that town and went to the federal building to talk to the judge. Talk to the state attorney general talk to the state attorney's office. While Russell Means and Dennis Banks and four others were inside negotiating. The policeman attacked Wesley bad heart Bull's sister on. The right immediately erupted. A police riot. Before it was over the courthouse was burning. And the Chamber of Commerce was

burned to the ground. And 17 for the opera singers were in a hospital critically wounded beaten up broken arms backs and everything. We went to Sturgis. Went to Rapid City. We went to every county seat in that area. But tend to get brothers out of jail who are being held on fifty thousand seventy hundred thousand dollars for like charges. And all during this time on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation we are receiving reports from our people. This aim person got beat up last night. This person that sympathized with the American Indian Movement got it. Our national press secretary's house was fire bombed with his wife inside. Union movement women were being picked off the streets and drug into the jail and

physically assaulted. By goon squads and white ranchers. And they told us that the federal government had sandbagged every federal building in town and that 50 marshals were already there. They had machine gun nests. Because there was a threat that the American Indian Movement might come on that reservation. On February 18th after a series of meetings with our traditional chiefs and headmen. The local civil rights organization the land owners association the landlords themselves. Issued a national press statement. Stating that we. We're well aware. Of the conspiracy that has taken place on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. A conspiracy from Nixon all the way down to Dicky Wilson to learn of the American Indian Movement on

there. So they could massacre us. We're getting calls every day from Washington DC telling us not to go under they're going to get us. But on February 18th we told the people that we were not going to stand by any longer. That's all these Indian people had to do was invite us and we would come. Because we had been committed to do that since we formed in 68. On February 26 and 27. We met at calico hollow on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation 14 miles from the tribal scene. After a two day meeting where we conducted an Indian Grand Jury hearing and heard like close to fifteen hundred complaints. All of this information was turned over to the traditional chiefs and headmen. With them to make the final decision on what to

do. They retired along with the leadership of the American Indian Movement. And after a three hour conference. They all got up and shook one another's hand and smoked a pipe. And then it was interpreted to us. What had taken place. And the traditional chiefs and headmen. Asked the American Indian Movement to do whatever was necessary. To put a check and a stop to the tyranny on that reservation. They told us that Wounded Knee was the heart of exploitation and out reservation. They said only 42 families live there but they have 12 churches and they're getting ready to build another one. They said they have a

trading post or an a food store. And not only every family in that community but most of the other Indians on the reservation are in debt and enslaved. To that trading post. Trading Post that operated for 25 solid years without a license. A trading post where Indian people were forced when they're hungry. To sell their beadwork and their quill work and their sacred artifacts. For $5 and food in the next day you would see it in the showcase being sold anywhere from 50 to 100 dollars. It picked Wounded Knee to make this stand. That would not only create a national awareness. Of the problems that Indian people were forced to live under in this country. But would create a worldwide awareness in relationship to the treaty situation with Indian people.

But of 27 20 grat. Sees Wounded Knee. All world and particularly the administration and people like Senator George McGovern got up tight within two hours after the occupation took place they had 24 personnel carriers surrounding us and we found out that they were parked for 10 solid days 23 miles away in Martin South Dakota. Now you tell me who was in conspiracy. One hundred fifty Federal Bureau of Investigation officers at Wounded Knee. They recruited a hundred eighty Bureau of Indian Affairs law enforcement from other agencies and from other reservations throughout the country. And 86 ranchers formed within two days and were endorsed by the governor of the state of South Dakota. The vigilante group was supposed to be

a special operations group for the future. Such a thing should happen. Here and people inside it have hardly any weapons. 20 tools and shotguns what they used to hunt with. They didn't have any tanks they don't have any submachine guns. They didn't have helicopters. They didn't have Phantom jets that stretched us every morning to wake the people up and scare him to try to get him to fight along with one another and leave didn't have none of that type of equipment. So all we had was a sacred pipe. And a purification ceremony and the willingness to die for what we believed in. And we know today that. We would not be here. We would not be alive if it wasn't for the fact that white America and America itself stood up.

It wasn't for the fact that the president States was receiving hundreds and thousands of letters and telegrams a day. Not only from people here at home but from abroad. Knew that they would have came in. The first man to show up on the scene was the only person that we would never invite anywhere. Well Senator George. Armstrong McGovern. And he came there because he was concerned about the so-called white hostages. He wasn't concerned at all for the all people that chose to make that stand with us. He wasn't concerned at all about the children that were inside Wounded Knee. He wasn't concerned at all about the fact that something like 64 percent of 64 the people inside would need had pneumonia. He wasn't concerned at all about the fact that we had no insulin in there for the

diabetics. His only concern for the Giller sleaves knows people who have been rippin people off for years missionaries. But even they refuse to leave. They told George McGovern if they were hostages they were hostages of the federal government. And not of the American Indian Movement to people. And they told George McGovern that if they were to listen to Indian people in Washington D.C. we would not be going to NE. But 71 solid days. A little ragtag band is what some reporters refer to it as I've been. A Wounded Knee against the most powerful forces in the world. Or so they thought. Seventy one solid days hundreds and thousands of rounds of machine gun fire were poured into that village and the public was led to believe that the

American Indian Movement fired one hundred fifty shots. We responded with one hundred seventy five the firefights over for the night. We were in Wounded Knee. We know that trailer houses collapsed in there because they took so much machine gun fire. If it wasn't for our spiritual leadership and the elders we listened to inside Wounded Knee not one of us would be alive today. I know what Castro and people were talking about. When he said Crazy Horse and drown a mole. Some of the greatest fighters in the world because I witnessed it for 71 solid days. Every time they open fire I saw the people crawl into the ground. Because our medicine man said that our mother would protect us. People were led to believe that Indians were fighting Indians.

Wounded Knee. We were fighting a corrupt administration that was put together in 1934 under the Indian Reorganization Act. Act as a terminations policy for tribal government and for land. We were fighting. People. Who thought and had the same mentality. As those who are caught in a trap today. In Washington DC. Nobody said anything about the women and what part they played at Wounded Knee. The press sensationalized everything. They never once talked about. Independent to a nation that was ecstatic. Never once talked about that we didn't no longer have a

perimeter but borders to defend. They never talked about the violations of the agreement that was signed on April 5th which prolonged the occupation for another month. You see in the past last months. Of the occupation of the press conferences were held. In the Bureau of Indian Affairs building on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. And the only people who journeyed over those hills and through those federal forces to come in and get the true story were Movement people throughout the United States. And thirty nine foreign countries. Came in to visit. With us and do documentaries. You know today that if the administration was able to. Discredit the American Indian Movement get the public's eye away from Wounded Knee that they would it

came in the same way that they did at Kent State attic or anywhere else they've been. But we knew that we had 51 percent support of the American public. It came out in the Harris survey. It came up at 29 other percent supported the occupation but not the armed confrontation. But 51 percent supported the armed confrontation because they knew we tried every other avenue of redress. And only 21 percent supported the United States government. Two weeks later he took a survey and 67 percent of the American people believe that Nixon was lying. At Wounded Knee we had more support than the president of United States. Today a hundred. And forty nine people. Are scheduled before to go before the white courts here in America.

As a leadership trial started Tuesday. Also start to select a jury. To try one hundred twenty nine other people and Sioux Falls South Dakota a state where they have already determined. That Indian people cannot get a fair trial and where they moved our case from there to St. Paul. There are still moving ahead to try to what they call the nine leadership cases. Eighty four of those nine leadership cases are Indian women. The first 14 people to go to court. In South Dakota are Indian women. We know that this is a tactic of the United States government of divide and conquer and always has been. To divide the resources. Of the world in the legal defense options Committee. We know it's a tactic to try to attempt to get an immediate conviction in Sioux Falls South Dakota 240

miles away. So they can immediately prejudice the case that has taken place in St. Paul. We know that the government was never at Wounded Knee to reach a just settlement. Because the chief negotiator stayed it. For days after the occupation ended on May 12. And he went there to destroy. The American Indian Movement. He said that's exactly what they did. News from. Tuesday morning to give you a little idea what's going on in St. Paul. Going to quote them you think you're getting on an airplane. You have to go through metal detectors. You're searched by federal marshals.

Escorted to two private elevators that have been sealed off nobody else can travel among about people I want to go to court. You're taken to the seventh floor you get out. You go through metal detectors again you're hand searched then you're escorted into the courtroom and seated. Tuesday morning. 80 traditional chiefs and headmen and their wives and spiritual leaders from the Pine Ridge Reservation walks in the state capital to the federal building in their full regalia and their full traditional dress. In a statement to judge Fred nickel and United States government and to the world. They were the traditional chiefs and headmen. That their fathers signed the treaty of eight hundred sixty eight. That they're going to ones over responsible for Wounded Knee because they were the ones that caused the

American Indian Movement in the. They demand to release of our people charged. They demanded that the government try them if they want to try someone in their white courts. Tuesday Morning Russell Means and Dennis Banks. Were allowed to make their own opening statement. To the jury. We have an all white jury in St. Paul composed of nine women and three men. But we feel it's one of the best juries to ever be put together in this country in a conspiracy trial. Because the people who perfected the jury selection process who have worked in 36 other major conspiracy trials. Where they're in support of us along with our medicine men.

Also means a statement was only objected to once. When Dennis Banks got up to speak in front of all the traditional chiefs and the jury and everybody else the press. When you try to lay a foundation for the introduced a treaty of eight hundred sixty eight as his defense as our defense the prosecution immediately objected. Saying it wasn't a treaty issue. The treaty could not be used. Dennis Banks continued to speak. Soon a judge was objecting. To him constantly jumped up to object to the judge. The judge told him to be seated. Then McLean jumped up. Then Ken Towson jumped up. Then the four prosecuting attorneys jumped up. The marshal said if you don't be seated I'm going to call the marshals and have you ejected. And they said they would have to be carried out because they were

not walking out of that courtroom. And he brought the marshals and he checked on all of them including Dennis Banks the major defendant. Then he lies when he did you know this great liberal. Judge from the state of South Dakota. Who requested that he hear these cases because he tried a couple of other Indian cases already. Called the recess immediately and called everybody into his his chambers. And after a half hour they went back into the courtroom. Apologized and told the jury that he was in error for times. Apologized to the jury to the prosecution to the defense to defendants and then the dignitaries that were there to see white man's justice. And for that. We are saying today that if we can get the same type of mass of support. That we had going in the South Dakota.

People will start signing petitions and sending letters and telegrams to judge Fred nickel. Dime States district court in St. Paul Minnesota. If they all just telegrams and wires. The attorney general of the United States into the president demanding that these indictments be squashed and the trials be stop. DP listen to him. If you can get the same type of massive support that we got. At Wounded Knee South Dakota in 1973. And I guarantee you my brothers and sisters. We all need a final blow to Watergate because all the same people are involved here. They say that they sat down to sign a final agreement and wouldn't need they didn't trust the Justice Department anymore. But I requested to talk to somebody from the White House level. Because they

knew John Ehrlichman before. They asked that he be sent to because he was in charge of minority affairs in the president's cabinet. We don't know inside Wounded Knee what was unfolding out here. We do know that people like John Ehrlichman were not available anymore. The next choice we asked for Haldeman They said Haldeman is not available either. We asked for. The man who is in charge of all Indian opportunity in this country. He said that our agreement would not be signed into law by President Spiro T Agnew came there and he wasn't available either at the time that we would need it the most responsive leadership in this country. But time that was important not only to Indian people but for everyone. There was no leadership. Leonard Garment ended up signing that paper. And we are saying today that if we can get the same type of massive support.

That we had at Wounded Knee if we get the same kind of mass of support that we had the Bureau of Indian Affairs. We will not only lead a final blow to Watergate. But we will lay the final blow to that fat pig that still sets in Washington D.C. Thank you. Ah.