Aquash had no defense with AIM
http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/news/opinion/columnists/local/article_f9aa11e2-5950-11df-846e-001cc4c03286.html
Steve Miller
May 7, 2010
The trial of Richard Marshall in the Annie Mae Aquash murder left me
with a sense of dread and sadness that didn't have anything to do
with the not-guilty verdict.
A federal jury on April 22 found Marshall not guilty of providing the
gun that was used to kill Aquash, the American Indian Movement
activist killed by other AIM members in December 1975. Marshall's
acquittal showed that a Native American can get a fair trial in Rapid
City, said his defense attorney, Dana Hanna. U.S. District Judge
Lawrence Piersol thanked Hanna, a court-appointed attorney, for
providing a spirited defense.
It's too bad Annie Mae didn't have the same quality of defense
against those inside AIM who accused her of being an FBI informant
throughout 1975, a charge the FBI has consistently denied.
Some in AIM accused the FBI of being responsible for Aquash's death.
That theory has fallen apart since the real story began coming out
about 15 years ago.
The real story-and the sad story-is that fellow AIM supporters
kidnapped Annie Mae, tried her in a kangaroo court and then executed
her, based on testimony in the murder conviction of Arlo Looking
Cloud for his role in her shooting, as well as testimony in the Marshall trial.
My sense of dread came from listening to the chilling account of
Annie Mae's last days, knowing how it would end.
Annie Mae Aquash, a member of the Mi'kmaq tribe from Nova Scotia,
Canada, came to South Dakota to support AIM, taking part in the 1973
standoff at Wounded Knee. After accusations began circulating that
she was an FBI informant, Aquash in November 1975 was tied up at a
Denver home of AIM supporter Troy Lynn Yellow Wood and taken to Rapid
City by AIM member Theda Clarke and young AIM supporters Arlo Looking
Cloud and John Graham.
In Rapid City, a "kangaroo court" determined that Annie Mae was, in
fact, an informant, or a potentially damaging witness, particularly
against Leonard Peltier, who had admitted to her that he had shot the
two FBI agents killed in a shootout near Oglala on June 26, 1975,
according to prosecutors.
Clarke, Looking Cloud and Graham then took Aquash to the Pine Ridge
Reservation, making a stop at Marshall's house in Allen and another
house in Rosebud, before taking her to a bluff on the edge of the Badlands.
There, as Annie Mae begged for her life and prayed in her own
language, Graham shot Aquash in the back of the head, according to
Looking Cloud. Graham, also from Canada, is scheduled to stand trial
in July, along with Thelma Rios of Rapid City for her alleged role in the case.
I wasn't too surprised at the verdict in the Marshall case. The
allegation that Marshall provided the gun that killed Aquash was
centered on shaky testimony from two key witnesses. But aside from
Marshall's role, one stark fact stood out as testimony unfolded about
Annie Mae's final days: Virtually none of her fellow AIM members made
a serious attempt to save her. Or at least none that prosecutors know about.
Yellow Wood and some of the others who testified at Marshall's trial,
said they still believed in the American Indian Movement, and praised
the group for doing much to raise awareness of real grievances.
Annie Mae, too, believed in those core principles of AIM. She left
her home in Canada, along with two young daughters, to come to South
Dakota to stand up for native people and for AIM. In the end, no one
in AIM stood up for her.
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Steve Miller is a retired Rapid City Journal Reporter. He can be
contacted at [email protected].
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