And now:Sonja Keohane <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
<http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/19991104/us/means_aim_accusation_2.html
Thur
sday November 4 6:37 AM ET
AIM Members Accused in Killing
By ROBERT WELLER Associated Press Writer
DENVER (AP) - A leader of the American Indian Movement has accused group
members of ordering the execution of an activist more than 20 years ago, a
death the group has long blamed on the FBI.
AIM leaders had accused the Federal Bureau of Investigation of being
responsible for the shooting death of AIM member Anna Mae Pictou-Aquash,
whose body was found on a South Dakota Indian reservation in February 1976.
Russell Means told a news conference Wednesday he believes AIM members
killed Pictou-Aquash because they falsely believed she was an FBI informant
and had provided information on the agents' killings. Such informant rumors
had dogged Pictou-Aquash in the years before her killing and were
heightened after her quick release on bond from two federal weapons-related
arrests in 1975.
It is the first public accusation of AIM involvement by anyone who was in a
leadership role in the movement at the time of her death. No one was ever
charged with her slaying, though federal grand juries have heard testimony
in the case on and off since the killing.
Current and former AIM members have been trading bitter accusations for the
past several years about the death of Pictou-Aquash, who was close to
several top leaders of the group and participated in the 1973 takeover of
the town of Wounded Knee, S.D. The siege ended 71 days later with the
deaths of two Indians and the wounding of a federal marshal.
Pictou-Aquash also was present on the reservation ranch where two FBI
agents were killed in a shootout with AIM members in June 1975. AIM member
Leonard Peltier is serving a life prison term in connection with those
slayings, though AIM officials and other activists claim he is innocent.
Means accused federal authorities of refusing to arrest Pictou-Aquash's
killers because it would reveal the FBI's role in efforts to destabilize
AIM.
``If AIM is the perpetrator of this grisly murder, in collusion with the
FBI, I want it brought out,'' Means said.
Means, who for years has publicly feuded with AIM leaders Vernon and Clyde
Bellecourt, said he would remain a member of the group but wants it to be
an organization ``that does not murder its own, and a woman at that.''
He said that was a particularly serious violation of Indian heritage.
A statement issued by Bellecourt's office said Means was no longer a member
of AIM. It also said Means' allegations ``are a continuation of the U.S.
Government FBI war against the American Indian Movement leadership. One can
only suspect that Russell Means is attempting to deflect attention from
himself and what role he may have played in the death of Anna Mae Aquash.''
Means said, ``We are convinced the FBI hired Vernon Bellecourt'' to create
dissension in the organization.
