Category: Article Excerpts

The Emergence of the American Indian Movement: Resisting the Government | November 10, 1977

“What the government did to Peltier is the way that an oppressor must work, because Leonard represents the sovereignty that Indians speak of, sovereignty in the sense that we don’t have to be oppressed anymore, by any man or government, sovereignty in the sense that we understand that we are a natural part of the creation and that no man or government have a right to change that natural order. Sovereignty in a sense that we understand that all struggles of liberation will not be successful until the people control the land.” ~

SOURCE: The Daily Princetonian

White Jury Convicts Aim Leader | May 5, 1977

 “Peltier wasn’t tried by his peers. The judge played the role of prosecutor and found Peltier guilty before the jury did.”

“In the last century stories of cowboys and Indians were a popular theme for those who wanted to take our land. In our generation there is now the FBI and the Indian, because today technology needs the resources that are on our limited land base. So the FBI is now the 7th Cavalry for the corporate interests of America.”

 “This accounts for the drive of the FBI against AIM because we stand in the way of their objectives.” ~

SOURCE: California Aggie, Vol. 95, No. 24.

Open Fire: Or The FBI’s History Lesson | November, 1976

“We’re as natural to the land as the trees that stand outside your window.”

“Three hundred and eighty-four treaties have been signed and 384 were broken. No one ever stood trial for breaking those laws. When a person is charged with committing a crime in your society he is not brought to our society to be tried.”

“Our culture has been changed in such a way that it can never go back to what it was.”

Continue reading “Open Fire: Or The FBI’s History Lesson | November, 1976”

Who Are the Real Terrorists? | Late Autumn, 1976

“Racism and double standards of justice are the real threat to the Internal Security of this nation-state. AIM people are just trying to survive as human beings. As for these senators calling us violent, that is an unfunny joke. These representatives of a social system that produces napalm, tactical squads, M-16s, racism, class exploitation, etc., calling us violent is the rhetoric of liars and hypocrites.” ~

SOURCE: Akwesasne Notes, Vol. 8 No. 4

7,000 Rally at S.F. People’s Bicentennial. Trudell Reading Message from Dennis Banks Who Was Being Held in San Francisco Jail. | July 10, 1976 

Banks July 4th message: “I do not celebrate today, instead I mourn for all my brothers and sisters whose lives have been lost fighting for our freedom. On this so-called day of independence I ask you America, what does the concept of freedom mean to Anna Mae Aquash, and to Buddy La Mont, to Frank Crow Dog, and to Little Joseph Stuntz, all of whom were killed by the federal gun…”

John Trudell reemphasizing Banks’ message: Our enemy is the FBI. They no longer wear the uniform of the Seventh Calvary, but their actions are the same. All that has changed is technology. We must not talk to the FBI. They are the enemies of the people. They are the murderers. The thieves. We want to be liberated from their corrupt value system. Today, July 4, is just one more day of oppression. Free the People! ~

SOURCE: The Black Panther. Vol 15, No.13.

Trudell Demands Explanation | March 20, 1976

“When the tribal chairman and tribal judge in Owyhee attempted to legally exercise jurisdiction for their community, they were attacked by the Bureau of Indian Affairs[BIA], they were lied about and called names by the BIA and its employees. Through high pressure tactics: promises of jobs and pay-offs (grants and loans to individuals), the bureau and its agents had these two men illegally removed from office. Jurisdiction to Indian people is the right to shape and mold one’s own destiny; the future for the children of tomorrow. The cities of Reno, Carson City, or any other town or city government exercise that right, why can’t tribal governments?”

“It’s too bad taxpayers allow their money to be wasted like this.”

SOURCE: Nevada State Journal

Indian Activist Raps Role of Whites in Rights Denial | October 7, 1975

“I don’t believe in civil rights. It’s human rights I am for.” 

“The solution to our country’s problems isn’t jail, or alcohol, or churches, or higher education, but people.” 

“We, the Indians of the nation are tired of being lied about. We’re tired of being portrayed as seen in the John Wayne westerns.” 

“When the Indians stayed on their reservations and got drunk, and fought and shot and killed between themselves, it was ok. Now that we try to organize and call the political system corrupt, they call us militant, radical, Communists, and subversive.”

Continue reading “Indian Activist Raps Role of Whites in Rights Denial | October 7, 1975”

The Shooting Of Russell Means | Late Summer, 1975

“The FBI should explain to us the deaths of people who have been killed on the Pine Ridge Reservation. When we start seeing justice delivered in those terms, then maybe our people will lay down their arms. But all these FBI agents who grew up watching John Wayne like to play cowboys and Indians. This time it backfired. They ran into someone who didn’t want to play. We’re tired of being the only ones killed. You can only push so long and when people have nothing to lose, they fight back.” ~

SOURCE: Akwesasne Notes. Vol. 7, No. 3.

AIM Doesn’t Apologize for Two Dead Agents | June 30, 1975

“The American Indian Movement does not apologize for the two dead Federal Bureau of Investigation agents.” 

“We’re tired of being the only ones killed.” 

“We’ve heard accusations, now let’s see the proof. The press should demand to see the evidence.” – On alleged AIM involvement in shooting of agents on Pine Ridge. 

“A fascist tactic. The state has no jurisdiction on the reservation.” – On Bill Janklow bringing state law officers onto the reservation. ~

SOURCE: Rapid City Journal

Trudell Speaks Out | April 28, 1975

“There is nothing respectful about making people be what they don’t want to be. A white political structure is deciding our way of life. Right now, if we don’t go the white man’s way we become a statistic on alcoholism, suicide, or low level education.”

“I don’t want to talk about violence. Ask the people who make the guns and the bombs about violence. If we defend with violent tactics it’s because we are presented with them.”

“We are not troubled with inner tribal differences as other organizations are. We’re just getting by, which is something all Indians are familiar with.” ~

SOURCE: Life (newspaper), University of Utah. Logan. V.72, No.73

AIM Speaker Describes His Struggle | April 28, 1975

“Civil rights are rights men legislate against you after they take away your human rights.” 

“I do not consider AIM to be a militant organization compared to United States arms policy.” 

“They talk about broken laws, we talk abut 389 broken treaties. Either all these laws mean something or all laws must be invalid.” 

“Wars are being fought against a defenseless people every day. White people say these wars ended with their grandfathers.” ~

SOURCE: Student Life (newspaper), University of Utah. Logan. V.72, No. 73

AIM Maturing, Chairman Says, Despite Criticism. | April 21, 1975

John Trudell the 29-year old chairman of the American Indian Movement, describes his organization as “the extension of the old renegade Indian membership.” Trudell, a Sioux living on the Duck Valley Reservation near the Idaho-Nevada border, was interviewed last week by reporter Thomas J. Lewis of The Idaho Statesman.

“AIM is maturing a little bit,” Trundell said. “We’re coming to the point now where we have a fluid membership.”

“The real question and issue is what about the system that uses the illegal tactics when it comes to its not dealing with issues like alcoholism and other problems. Those are the tactics we’re concerned with.”

Continue reading “AIM Maturing, Chairman Says, Despite Criticism. | April 21, 1975”

From AIM Occupation: Audit, Debate Promised | March 5, 1975

“We feel we started with nothing, now we have the tribe willing to negotiate with the company over the dismissal of 140 employees and a federal audit has been promised of on the job training funds paid to the Fairchild Camera and Instruments Co.”

Conference was called to “get the media to get off our case and to start concentrating on Fairchild.”

“I don’t try to see it from the corporate viewpoint. Besides, no job in America is worth costing people their respect.”

“Yes there’ll be some negative reaction on the part of businesses, but it may be good for the reservation in the long run.”

“All the media coverage I see on this thing is that AIM gets amnesty. AIM did not ask for amnesty. That was never one of our issues or demands. The issues are Fairchild and the exploitation of the Navajo Tribe.” ~

SOURCE: Clovis News Journal

Akwesasne Notes | Early Spring, 1974

“We have been condemned for being militant and violent, but in the American Indian Movement, we have not killed anyone, yet many of our people have died. We have not taken anyone and locked them up in prisons, but many of our people have been put in jails. We have not sold alcohol to people on reservations. We have not taken the young children away from their parents and put them in mission schools. We have not taken racist education and put it inside of our boarding schools. We have done none of these things, and yet we are the ones condemned for being militant and violent and radical. It was militancy and it was violence, and it was radicalization that forced these things upon us and it did not come from our communities.” ~

SOURCE: Akwesasne Notes Vol. 6 No. 1 p.11

Judge Delays Aim Leaders Hearing | September 5, 1973

“This conspiracy to destroy the Indian people is being conducted through the use of alcohol, drugs, the judicial system and federal bureaucracy. This conspiracy is targeted not only at AIM, we have only to look at the oppressive conditions of our Indian peoples throughout America to recognize the realness of this conspiracy.” ~

SOURCE: Idaho State Journal

AIM Leader Clyde Bellecourt Shot and Critically Wounded at Rosebud Res. | Early Autumn, 1973

AIM supporters were thoroughly confused by the shooting, split in loyalties, and unsure what to do next. Statements by AIM leadership reflected the uncertainty and by September 4, a statement by John Trudell, national co-chairman (with Carter Camp) could say only that “the central leadership committee of AIM, having thoroughly evaluated all aspects of the shooting, has determined that the shooting was conspiratorial in nature.” Trudell described the conspiracy as aimed at the destruction of Indian people “through the use of alcohol, drugs, the judicial system, and the federal bureaucracy.” Trudell said that AIM refused to aid this conspiracy, and that it was asking members to return to their home communities to carry on with the business of program development for the liberation of native peoples in their own home communities. ~

SOURCE: Akwesasne Notes. p. 8.

More Problems Plague Chilocco | Late Winter, 1972

“We want to return Indian education to Indian people. We do not want the usual government solutions of threats to close down the school. We want improvement within the school, or the building of Indian-controlled schools in the Indian communities. We will not be stayed by intimidation. We are tired of waiting and we will wait no more.” ~

SOURCE: Akwesasne Notes. p. 16.

B.I.A. Beaten Badly in “Battle of the Braids” | Late Autumn, 1972

“Police, armed with shotguns, guarded the back door of the BIA office, while some men were placed on the roof of the building. Sheriff’s deputies were marshalled at the courthouse. But police withdrew at the request of George Scott, a member of the task force and deputy director of the BIA’s office of  education in Washington. There was no need to call the police. Between our group and George Scott’s group, the situation was completely under control. We were in our building, doing Indian work.” ~

SOURCE: Akwesasne Notes. P.9

Alcatraz, Few Have Seen Your Beauty as the Indian Has | July 08, 1971

“When the Europeans came to this country, they claimed it and ripped off the natural resources. Why is it alright when they do it and a crime when we do it?”

 “Take the newsmen to all the poverty pockets throughout the country. Conditions are the same in poor areas and ghettos.”

 “Alcatraz was 19 months of temporariness. Indians are used to temporariness. We are always permanently nowhere and temporarily somewhere.”

 “The Indians do not want money but the right to determine the destiny of their community. It doesn’t matter what the sum of money is because these programs don’t aid the Indians. Half the money gets lost in red tape anyway.”

 “This area suited our purpose. It’s a good land base and it’s been totally abandoned. We don’t want to kick anyone out of their house just like we don’t like to be kicked out of ours. The houses look pretty sound. It’s some of the best housing we have ever had. Also, it’s not any more of a hardship to haul food and water up here than it was on Alcatraz.” ~

SOURCE: The Martlet, vol. 11, no. 01

Alcatraz Indians Vow to Press On | June 20, 1971

“We’re not going to quit. We’ve been moved twice and we’re tired, but we are going to keep on plugging because we want someone to listen to us.”

“We’re talking about our right to live, our right to be people and this is how they respond. It shows that their attitude toward us has not changed.”  

“They’ve responded with shows of force. They’re trying to intimidate us, but we’re not going to be intimidated. They’ve always dealt with us with a show of force. We don’t want to get hurt but we’re not afraid of that. We’ll be back. America hasn’t heard the last of its Indians and that’s definite until some active, positive steps have been taken to relieve the conditions we’re talking about.” 

“We need the copper to support ourselves. We claimed the island as our own, just as they claimed this country and we had a right to the resources.” – On copper being removed from Alcatraz and three individuals being charged with stealing. 

SOURCE: New York Times

Indians Charge Double-Talk | Early Summer (June) 1971

“The first guarantee they made when the negotiations started was that nobody on the island would be arrested or taken off the island.”

 “Browning wanted to settle the issue some way. He told us they wanted to give us the island and still look good. But word one was that no one – no one – would be arrested or taken off the island while the negotiations were underway.” ~

SOURCE: Akwesasne Notes, Vol. 3 No. 5. P.4

New ‘home’ for Indians | June 15, 1971

“This is good land. This would be a nice place to put a little cultural center and a free Indian University.” 

“This is totally senseless. They have good housing here, good land. Yet there are Indians in this country who have no place to live.” 

“I don’t see us peacefully walking away from here. We’re not afraid. When you get down to it, what can they do to us that they haven’t already done in the past.” ~

Ranks of Indian Invaders Grow at Old Missile Base | June 15, 1971

“This is good land. This would be a nice place to put a little cultural center and a free Indian university.” – re: East Bay Missile Base occupation

“This is totally senseless. They have good housing here. Good land. Yet there are Indians in this country who have no place to live.” re: East Bay Missile Base occupation

“They broke their agreement with us. We decided that if the government did take back Alcatraz from us we weren’t going to go quietly. We’re not quitters.”

“I don’t see us peacefully walking away from here. We’re not afraid. When you get down to it, what can they do to us that they haven’t already done in the past?” ~

SOURCE: The Press Democrat.

Ousted from Alcatraz and Nike Site, Indians Vow to Keep Plugging | Early Summer, (June) 1971

“But we’re not going to quit. We’ve been moved twice and we’re tired, but we are going to keep on plugging because we want someone to listen to us.”

 “We’re talking about our right to live, our right to be people and this is how they respond. It shows that their attitude toward us has not changed.”

 “We’re not statistics and not that passive Indian who keeps turning the other cheek. We’re not going to be the forgotten Americans any longer, either. We’re going to be Indian-Americans and we’re going to let the whole world know that we’re going to be people.”

 “They’ve responded with shows of force. They’re trying to intimidate us, but we’re not going to be intimidated. They’ve always dealt with us with a show of force. We don’t want to get hurt but we’re not afraid of that. We’ll be back. America hasn’t heard the last of its Indians and that’s definite until some active, positive steps have been taken to relieve the conditions we’re talking about.”

 “We claimed the island as our own, just as they claimed this country.” ~

SOURCE: Akwesasne Notes, Vol. 3 No. 5. P.7

Indians’ Bleak Winter | Early Spring, 1971

 “It has become home. We have lived there and survived, nobody can deny that. If they want to give us the deed fine, but now we will take the initiative to perhaps challenge the legal system or the lack of education that faces the American Indian. You can be certain we will not leave Alcatraz. We have come too far and through too much to start giving land back to the white man.”

“Alcatraz, the idea, is deeply set. And I have found that the idea is not here alone, not on the island, but wherever there is any Indian in this country.” 

 “We will not leave.” ~

SOURCE: Akwesasne Notes, p10

Indians on Alcatraz till U.S. Ousts ’em | November 19, 1970

“A national park is another part of the American fantasy. America doesn’t need another Disneyland. While tourists are looking at Indian statues, our people will still be living on reservations with inadequate food and clothing, poor educations and in poor health.” – The Department of the Interior’s park plan for the island.

“We’re just as determined as we were in the beginning, only we’re wiser now. We’ve got experience.” ~

SOURCE: The Central New Jersey Home News

Alcatraz Glows Again: Indians Rekindle the Light  | September, 1970

“For us on the island, and for Indians everywhere, it is a symbol of the rekindled hope that some day the just claims and rightful dignity of the American Indians will be recognized by our fellow citizens.”

“It was in peaceful search of this recognition that we came to the island last November. As long as the light glows, the search will go on.” ~

SOURCE: Raudebaugh, Charles. Akwesasne Notes Vol. 2 No. 5., P. 23.

Alcatraz Indians Short of Water | August 16, 1970

“And now we require only the return of our water. We will make do without electricity, but we must have water.” – On the US Government cutting of electricity to the island and removal of water barge for “repairs.” 

“If something happens and we need water, we’re literally dead.” ~

SOURCE: https://www.nytimes.com/1970/08/16/archives/alcatraz-indians-short-of-water-declare-the-island-off-limits-to.html

Alcatraz Indians’ Arrow Halts Ferry Boat Wake | August 15, 1970

“We asked the ferry people to stop this, we asked the Coast Guard to take action, and finally we said we wanted it stopped, and yet it continued. With one 42-cent arrow, we stopped it.” – Trudell on the firing of an arrow at a ferry boat. 

“We will not bow down or cater.”

“We don’t want another Wounded Knee, My Lai or Kent State here, but we will not back down when we’re right. We’ve had to take our lumps before” ~

SOURCE: Press Telegram