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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (June 24, 1976)
Il Portland Observer Thursday, June 24, 1976 Page 3 Under siege, AIM finds its spiritual roots by A n drew Koss and Stephen Most (PNS) Three years after the inter nation ally publicized O ccupation of W ounded K nee, South D a ko ta, the American Indian Movement (A IM ) which led the uprising appears, on the surface, to be a shambles. The A IM leadership has been im pri soned or chased underground and the organization's time and energy has been tied up in over ISO separate court rases. Dennis Hanks and Russell Means, the prime movers of the organization, are reported to be bitterly divided over their future roles, and Means was re rently the target of an assassination attempt, allegedly carried out by mem hers of a rival A IM faction. In addition, A IM 's legal offense/de fense office has been unable to generate sufficient political or financial support for its various legal battles. And even A IM spokespeople quietly acknowledge that its national office is barely func tioning. All this, Indian activists claim, points to the success of an ambitious PHI effort to disrupt and dismantle the militant Indiun movement by a combina tion of harassment, infiltration and divi sion of leadership tactics strikingly si m ila r to the co n tro v e rs ia l C O IN T E L PRO techniques w ith which fed eral agents struck at militant Black organize tions during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Hut given the continuing series of critical A IM setbacks, a curious pheno inenon remains: what began as a small band of urban, politically minded refor mers has been transformed into a per vasive, decentralized spiritual move ment woven into the fabric of tradition al Indian culture. As such, A IM has ignited what one Indian leader calls "the spiritual rebirth of our nation." The Turning Point Since its founding in 196H as an urban organization for unemployed Indians who had come to cities through the federal relocation program, A IM has gone through various transformations. Its early successes were chiefly con fined to the cities. In St. Paul A IM led a drive to persuade big industries to employ Indians. In Minneapolis it work ed with the Office of Economic Oppor tunity to channel funds into native peoples' organizations. The Minneapolis A IM patrol followed police who were arresting and beating Indians, then appeared in courts as witnesses to prove a pattern of discri mination. W ithin a year, arrest rates dropped sharply. A IM work in Minneapolis also led to the building of an Indian Center and the first urban Indian housing project with 230 homes. These efforts made A IM known as the most effective Indian activist group, and branches soon sprang up in cities with native populations throughout the country. But the critical turning point in the movement occured when leaders visited medicine man l^sonard Crow Dog on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation. Crow Dog advised them that to be a true Indian organization they needed to return to the spiritual heart of traditional Indian culture a spark still preserved by the traditional and holy people. Said one leader, “That is actually when the A m erican In d ian M o vem en t was born." The Sacred Hoop Soon after. A IM united with tradi tional Sioux and members of the Oglala Civil Rights Commission to take a stand at Wounded Knee. They chose the site of the 1690 massacre to protest unpunished killings of Indians and the one man rule of the tribal president, Richard Wilson, be cause, as Wallace Black Elk said: "The hoop, the sacred hoop was bro ken here at Wounded Knee, and it will come back again. The stake here that represents the tree of life, the tree will bloom, it will flower again, and all the people will rejoin and comc back to the sacred road, the red road." During and after the Wounded Knee occupation. A IM groups formed spon taneously on reservations throughout the U.S. A IM inspired actions by Nava jo, Menominee and other groups oc cured independently of the central hier archy, under local leadership. "That's the best thing about the movement," says Dennis Hanks today. "The rank and file are taking steps on their own, without waiting for orders from their leaders." Assult on Leadership Most of the top leaders are currently embroiled in legal battles with state and federal authorities. Russell Means, a m ajor fig u re in the W ounded Knee occupation, fares a two-toTen year jail sentence on a riot conviction. Leonard Crow Dog. now the move ment's "spiritual leader", was recently released from jail pending an appeal of Joe Joseph Your Community Insurance M an 3 9 3 3 N.E. Union 2 8 2 1 -3 6 8 0 an assault conviction. A IM colounder Dennis Hanks is fighting extradition to South Dakota, where, he insists, he will be killed by authorities if he is forced to return. Two A IM members have just gone on trial in Cedar Falls. Iowa, for the mur der of two FB I agents last summer. And two others have been in jail with out trial since 1974 in Ventura, Califor nia. accused of murdering a taxi driver. For months following the murder of two FB I agents and an Indian at Oglala, South Dakota, on June 26, 1975, the FBI virtually occupied the Pine Ridge reservation with 150 agents - the heav iest concentration of federal police, per capita, in the country. Four Indians were eventually charged with the agents' deaths. All but one, I,eonard Peltier, who is to be extradited from Canada, are now on trial. According to the F B I, Peltier was traveling with Dennis Banks, his wife Kamook. and three others in November of last year when Oregon police stopped them and charged them with carrying dynamite. Hanks and Peltier escaped, but Kamook and the others were a r rested. One of the others, Annie Aquash, slipped away from custody following her transfer to South Dakota. Her battered body was later found in Wanblee, on the Pine Ridge Reservation, after an autopsy the FBI announced her dead from expo sure. But a second autopsy requested by her family found a bullet hole in the back of her head. In the trial of the remaining two defendents, a key prosecution witness has withdrawn much of his testimony after admitting he was secretly coached by government prosecutors on what to say in court. A different A IM Despite the arrests, convictions and deaths. A IM supporters insist that the movement continues to flourish. They point with pride to its involvement with the recent International Treaty Confer ence, which drew thousands of Native Americans as well as representatives of revolutionary groups from Rhodesia, the Middle East and Puerto Rico. There are also ongoing projects such as A IM "survival schools” for Indian children, two of which recently received $200,000 government grants. "A IM will be the liberation organiza tion of our people for the next 20 years,” claims Jimmy Durham of the International Indian Treaty Council. leaders and supporters agree, how ever. that the A IM that has survived is different from the A IM of 1968, or even the A IM of Wounded Knee. It has to a large extent forsaken its “vanguard" role and purposefully integrated itself into traditional tribal structures. Its members are no longer outside activists from the cities, but are more often drawn from the broad spectrum of traditional tribal members on each re servation. And A IM does not often act alone, but as part of tribal organizations like the Lakota Treaty Council on Pine Ridge Reservation that have taken the lead in the Native Americans' major fight: the restoration of treaty rights and sovereignty. W HN l< ,4 KV N 11 FREE PRIZES 10 - S p eed Bike A M /FM Clock R adio $ 2 5 Food BE A W IN N E R - STOP BY ROZELI.-S A N D SIGN CP D R A W IN G ON JU L Y 17. A T 3:30 P.M . 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They may not be old enough to receive Social Security or may not have been married the tw enty years necessary to receive benefits from their husband's employment. The centers would use skills developed through caring for a family in training as resource persons and peer counselors for other older persons seeking assistance with health, housing, employment and other problems. The effort would not compete with young persons in an al ready strained job market, but would use existing skills to meet community needs. A lliance for D isplaced H om em akers developed from Jobs for Older Women. Working with the National Organization for Women Task Force on Older Women, the A llia n c e was in s tru m e n ta l in the creation of the California centers. Ms. Shields' appearance is sponsored by the N.O .W . Task Force on Older Wo men. the Governor’s Committee on the Status of Women, Oregon Council for Women's Equality, Y W C A and the De partm ent of Continuing Education. rhetoric, emphasizing instead its adher ence to traditional Indian spiritual val ues. Its activities will concentrate more on local projects such as its survival schools, food and cattle ranching coop eratives, and supporting traditional tri ba) leadership on the reservation. Says Dennis Banks: "If there was to be a doctrine, it would be based on spiri tual values. A IM has a kind of spiritual direction that this country needs. 1 don't see A IM perishing. You can't bury a spiritual movement.” CATALOG OVERSTOCK SALE ROZELL’S 2n d A nn iversary C elebration June 16 - July 17, 1976 traditionals. Rather than looking to increased rev enues as the key answer to tribal problems, Banks worries about the im pact of the economic rules learned from white America. "The greatest danger comes from the economic system. 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