And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: Date: Sun, 13 Jun 1999 07:09:20 -0400 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: Lynne Moss-Sharman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: ANNA MAE PICTOU-AWUASH Wounded Knee Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" June 13, 1999 Justice at last for Anna Mae? DNA evidence may finally solve the 1976 murder of a Canadian Indian woman By PETER WORTHINGTON -- Toronto Sun The bizarre murder of a Canadian Indian woman nearly 24 years ago on South Dakota's Pine Ridge reservation, near Wounded Knee, is today closer to being solved, thanks to a Denver detective and DNA evidence. It was a sensational mystery at the time. The case has never been closed, and now three middle-aged Indians who were wild, status-seeking teenagers in the mid-'70s, may soon be indicted by a Colorado grand jury if Denver detective Abe Alonzo has his way. Anna Mae Pictou-Aquash, a charismatic, controversial 30-year-old Micmac from Shubenacadie, near Halifax, made headlines when her decomposing body was finally identified in February, 1976. At the time hers was just one of some 300 Indian deaths at Pine Ridge between the 71-day siege at Wounded Knee in 1973, and the murders of two FBI agents in 1975, while a mini-war raged. A dispute over whether uranium-rich Sioux land should go to the U.S. government involved traditional Indians who sought help from the militant American Indian Movement (AIM). The Bureau of Indian Agency (BIA) police, paramilitary Guardians of the Oglala Nation, U.S. marshals, the FBI, SWAT teams and assorted vigilantes were all in confrontation, with the National Guard in the wings. Most of the Indian deaths, usually by gunshot, were designated as being from "exposure." Of 63 identified bodies, 47 were of AIM supporters. Only the shooting deaths of two FBI agents were investigated. Initially, Anna Mae was one of the unidentified Indian dead. When her body was discovered by rancher Roger Amiotte in a remote corner of the reservation on Feb. 24, 1976, police and the FBI uncharacteristically swarmed the scene. UNUSUAL PROCEDURE The local pathologist ruled she'd died from exposure - probably drunk - and that she'd recently had sex but wasn't raped. In an unusual procedure, the FBI had her hands amputated and sent to Washington for fingerprint identification. (Normally, if the FBI wants ID, the finger tips are cut off and sent in the matching fingers of a surgeon's glove.) FBI agents had repeatedly interviewed Anna Mae and tried to recruit her as an informant. A warrant was out for her arrest on a weapons charge. Many Indians now believe that when Anna Mae refused to co-operate, the FBI planted rumours that she was an informer. This technique was successful in causing dissension and spreading suspicions among Indians. It helped destabilize AIM which, as it turned out, was thoroughly penetrated by the FBI. After Anna Mae was buried in an unmarked grave as "Jane Doe," the FBI notified the Canadian government and relatives in Nova Scotia of her death. The family, knowing Anna Mae was too experienced to die of exposure, contacted a lawyer, had the body exhumed and got an independent pathologist to do an autopsy. Dr. Garry Peterson of St. Paul Hospital in Minnesota discovered a bullet wound in the back of her head, and a .32 slug bulging above her left cheek. Blood tests showed no alcohol or drugs. Dr. Peterson suspected she'd been raped. Rumours flew. Some felt the FBI had "executed" Anna Mae in revenge for agents Ron Williams and Jack Coler being killed the previous June, and/or because she wouldn't co-operate. Others felt Indians had killed her because they thought she was an informer. The FBI later made an unusual public statement that she wasn't an informer. Three federal grand juries (1976, 1983, 1994) failed to indict anyone. For years, the case was going nowhere. Then along came a determined U.S. marshal for South Dakota, Bob Ecoffey. In 1994, he sought assistance from Alonzo, an equally resolute Denver detective, in running down how Anna Mae was "kidnapped" or abducted from Denver in December, 1975 and taken to Pine Ridge. The investigation narrowed to three Indians, teenagers at the time, anxious to make a name for themselves as AIM "dog soldiers" or warriors. Under orders or on their own, they forcibly took Anna Mae to Pine Ridge for questioning about being an informer. USING THE INTERNET Alonzo, a 27-year detective, has taken the unprecedented route of going on the Internet to ask for information and witnesses. He's had a surprising response, "mostly from Indians," and has knitted together many unconnected details which give a solid picture. He is convinced he knows the murderers, or abductors, and expects a Colorado grand jury to soon be convened. "It's unusual that the federal government turns over a grand jury investigation to a state, but that's what's happened," he said when I called him. What's changed in the case is DNA evidence. ("Yes, it'll play a big part when the time comes," he said. "That's all I want to say for now.") DNA tests weren't sophisticated in 1976. Paul DeMain, of the respected publication News from Indian Country and the Native American Journalists Association, has spent years looking into Anna Mae's murder. He and his team have also identified the three Indian suspects. One lives in Nebraska, one in Denver and the other in the Yukon. The RCMP are now involved. Alonzo has questioned them, and feels they might crack. Why not give one immunity to testify against the others? "We don't want the co-defendants testifying against each other if we can help it," he says. "It doesn't lead to a strong case ... better to have independent witnesses." In mid-May I visited Leonard Peltier, who is serving two life sentences in the federal prison at Leavenworth, Kan., and asked him about Anna Mae. He was in charge of AIM security, and with Bob Robideau and Dino Butler questioned Anna Mae about being an informer. All were convinced she was clean. "Anna Mae was dedicated to our cause," says Peltier. NO PROOF While Robideau and Butler were acquitted of murdering the FBI agents, Peltier was extradited from Canada on the basis of a perjured affidavit concocted by the FBI. He was found guilty of murder after a trial that involved the FBI withholding, planting and fabricating evidence. Later, the FBI admitted "we can't prove who fired those shots." Hopes are Peltier will get clemency after 23 years in prison. At the time of Anna Mae's death, Peltier was in Canada. He has refused to talk with Det. Alonzo, as has his defence committee headquarters in Lawrence, Kan. Neither trusts the Anna Mae investigation and both fear its goal is to discredit AIM. I argue that the truth, whatever it is, should come out. Speculation is that Anna Mae was a convenient scapegoat. Good-looking, dynamic, aggressive, intelligent, capable, she was resented by some. Twice married, the mother of two daughters, a sometime model, she'd taken up with Dennis Banks, a top leader of AIM and was resented by some AIM women. Also, she was an outsider - a Canadian, a Micmac, and affiliated with the West Coast branch of AIM, not Dakota. After interrogation a week or so before Christmas, 1975, Anna Mae was taken to the northeast corner of the reservation and shot. Two months later her body was found. Det. Alonzo is reluctant to pass judgment on other police agencies, but is appalled that so many unsolved or uninvestigated deaths occurred at that time: "Let's just say there were a lot of situations where the police work was questionable. But our investigation has found nothing to implicate any other law enforcement agency in Anna Mae's murder." Still, if the FBI did plant disinformation that she was an informant then, as News From Indian Country notes, "that act set her up to be executed" by paranoid AIM hotheads. Over the years, the Canadian government has shown little concern for Anna Mae, one of its citizens. Similarly, a succession of Canadian governments has ignored the unjust extradition of Leonard Peltier. Recently, Justice Minister Anne McLellan declared she thinks the affidavits that got Peltier extradited are genuine. That alone speaks volumes about our government. "Let Us Consider The Human Brain As A Very Complex Photographic Plate" 1957 G.H. Estabrooks www.angelfire.com/mn/mcap/bc.html FOR K A R E N #01182 who died fighting 4/23/99 [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.aches-mc.org 807-622-5407 Reprinted under the fair use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&