JOHN TRUDELL: A Profile of Cowardice

JOHN TRUDELL: A PROFILE OF COWARDICE AN FBI INFORMANT COVERS HIS TRACKS IN THE MURDER OF ANN MAE PICTOU AQUASH

By Robert Robideau, Co-defendant of Leonard Peltier

On, June 26, 2007, the 32nd anniversary of the Pine Ridge reservation firefight that left two FBI agents and an Indian man dead , the Canadian Court of Appeals in British Columbia sent John Graham a long awaited message, rejecting his appeal of a lower court’s ruling that he should be extradited to the United States to face trial in South Dakota for the killing of Anna Mae Pictou Aquash and ordering him into custody to be extradited to the United States. In rejecting Graham’s appeal, Canadian Justice Ian Donald wrote: "But on the crucial issue of whether the person known as John Graham, also known as John Boy Patton, was the same person who committed the murder, the judge found that the evidence of John Trudell established identification."
John Graham has until the 26th of July for the Supreme Court to decide whether to accept his case on appeal. However, the Graham committee announced, "given the three judges' unanimous decision, the chances appear to be slim that such an appeal would be heard."
John Graham and Arlo Looking Cloud were indicted in 2003 for the execution style killing of American Indian Movement icon Anna Mae Pictou Aquash. In February of 2004 Arlo Looking Cloud stood trial at which time John Trudell testified that Looking Cloud confessed to him, in 1988, his role in Anna Mae’s murder and also implicated John Graham as shooting Anna Mae in the head while she prayed. After a three day trial, Looking Cloud was found guilty of first degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. His conviction says nothing about the fairness of his trial.
Although a few of those responsible for her death have been revealed, and Looking Cloud has been declared guilty, the truth still remains hidden under a blanket of deceptions and lies. There are numerous questions that cry out to be answered. Most notably, why have noted AIM members become informants for the FBI? The FBI paid Darlene Nichols Kamook Banks $47,000 to say that Leonard Peltier "bragged about killing the two agents" and made inferences targeting Leonard Peltier in the death of Anna Mae Aquash. In 2006, in reference to Kamook’s accusations, Trudell admittedly told her that "she had done the right thing.." and "…I said the only way we are going to be able to get to the bottom of this is we have to hunt them down and flush them out.". What sort of deal has the FBI made with John Trudell ?
It came as a big surprise to many in Indian country when Trudell, a former leader and national spokesperson of AIM, materialized as an informant for the FBI against Arlo Looking Cloud, and John Graham. An even bigger surprise came soon after Arlo Looking Cloud’s conviction, when Darlene Nichols Banks "Kamook" married BIA officer Robert Ecoffey, a thug who served under the former corrupt Pine Ridge reservation President, Dick Wilson, and who allied himself with domestic security agents of the FBI in creating the reign of terror from 1972 -1976, resulting in 60 homicides and 200 assaults against Indian people, almost all of whom were associated with AIM.
A recently uncovered FBI document, discovered through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), strongly suggests that the FBI choose not to prosecute anyone for the murder of Anna Mae for 29 years, but instead to covered up for those whom they knew were implicated in her murder, to protect an operative/informant working with them. Did their informant/provocateur retire from AIM? Clearly, the FBI’s intent to blame Peltier and keep him in prison until death became an important reason to proceed with the prosecutions. After approximately 16 years of silence, John Trudell suddenly appears as the most important federal witness and conspirator to implicate Arlo Looking Cloud, John Graham and Leonard Peltier in the murder of Anna Mae Pictou Aquash.
Why, 31 years ago, did Trudell expose, at my trial, a conversation he had with Dennis Banks that Banks told him that Anna Mae had been killed BEFORE HER BODY HAD BEEN IDENTIFIED. It wasn’t relevant to my trial and its significance was not immediately grasped. Was it done in preparation for an opportune time? What about his conversation with Arlo Looking Cloud in 1988, incriminating both Looking Cloud and Graham into Anna Mae’s execution? What sort of deal did the FBI have with Trudell? Trudell also implicated others: "Lorelei Means, Madonna Thunder Hawk and Thelma Rios, as persons guarding Anna Mae" in Thelma’s home in Rapid City. Why did Trudell, after 27 years of accusing the FBI for killing of Anna Mae, decide to accuse members of AIM instead?
Trudell’s testimony in the Looking Cloud trial establishes that he knew for 16 years that John Graham, aka, John Boy Patten, Arlo Looking Cloud, and Theda Nelson Clark took Anna Mae, who was tied up, from Denver, Colorado to Rapid City, South Dakota, where she, according to witnesses, was questioned at the Wounded Knee Legal Defense/Offense Committee and ultimately shot in the head by John "Boy" Graham. Trudell says that he knows Looking Cloud and Graham were "following orders.". If he knows who gave the orders he has yet to say. Perhaps Trudell has been saving this part of the puzzle for the Graham trial.
Several sources have stated that Trudell asked Kamook Banks to participate and gave her "strong words of support" to encourage her to take the witness stand to testify about an alleged confession she heard by Leonard Peltier. This, together with the testimony of another long time close friend of Trudell‘s, Troy Lynn Yellow Wood, said that Anna Mae told her Peltier had put a gun to her head in an attempt implicate Peltier to the Anna Mae murder. Kamook also testified that Anna Maetold her the same story at the 1975 AIM Conference (SEE Arlo Looking Cloud trial transcript: http://www.jfamr.org/doc/index.html ) I never saw Kamook at the Conference and her sister, Bernie Lafferty corroborated she was not there (taped phone conversation, August 4th, 2004). I was present and I never saw Leonard with a gun when Banks and Vernon Bellecourt ordered us to take Anna Mae out to question her. Trudell publicly rallied for Peltier’s freedom for more than 20 years. Why has Trudell now turned on Leonard to encourage the proffering of lies from long time friends and associates?
Candy Hamilton, a prosecution witness, commented, "I didn’t think that Leonard should have been dragged into it. I mean, god, how could he have had anything to do with it, he was all so broken." She said further, "...Leonard was not really considered high up in AIM, I think that it came from the top. For sure the Bellecourts and probably Banks, and after that I don’t know" (taped conversation, August 28, 2004). Mrs. Ecoffey’s sister, Bernie Lafferty, in another taped phone conversation, said: "Oh yeah, that is why I couldn't understand why they were trying to involve Leonard in this ..." (August 4, 2004).
"The way I understand how things went John T (Trudell) contacted Kamook about telling the truth. So why he has come out of this smelling like a rose and Kamook takes the label of informant is beyond me," expressed Denise Maloney after the Looking Cloud trial. She has also described odd behavior by Trudell just before the Looking Cloud trial: "When I ran into John Trudell in San Francisco in 2002 he ran around the room like a chicken with his head cut off …talking in code and not really saying anything." (e-mail, February 11, 2004).
Paul DeMain, Editor of News From Indian Country, and friend to Joseph Trimbach, (former Special Agent in Charge of the Minneapolis Division of the FBI) in a phone conversation in regard to Leonard’s civil suit against him stated, "I would have never said that Leonard Peltier ordered Anna Mae's death because first of all I don’t believe that is the way that happened and second of all even if Peltier wanted her dead there was no authority to have ordered something like that in the apparatus of AIM. He wouldn’t have been able to do that. But the first proposition is that I never would have said that" (taped phone conversation May 2005). SEE: ( http://www.leonardpeltier.net/peeledapple.htm ).
Kamook’s sister, Bernie Lafferty said, "Leonard treated Anna Mae no different than the rest of us, "… "I never once heard Leonard accuse Anna Mae of being an informant." Bernie further said, "We was always real close to Anna Mae…well, we had to be…I know deep in my heart that she was no FBI agent. She would never say anything to anybody" (taped phone conversation, August 4th, 2004).
Other sources that uphold the same opinion about Leonard’s trust of Anna Mae can be found in the following sources: In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, by Peter Matthiessen, Agents of Repression, by Churchill and Vander Wall, and many other media journals, and books. But our actions toward Anna Mae showed our trust of her, and her actions toward us speak louder then words.
Indeed, there were two occasions when Anna Mae became a member of our group. The first occurred, when she become a member of our group one day before the Crow Dog raid. The second occurred when she joined Bank’s in Denver, before the Columbus Day bombings on the Pine Ridge reservation in 1975. Both actions on her part reflect that she had no fear of Leonard.
Each time Anna Mae ran it was from federal authorities. She went to the safe house provided by Trudell’s close friend, Troy Lynn Yellow Wood, in Denver, Colorado. It is well known in AIM that Trudell and Troy Lynn have been friends for many, many years. While in Denver , Trudell normally visited and stayed at her house. The question here is, why would this long time friend of Trudells agree to take Anna Mae prisoner and then hand her over to her executioners with out Trudell’s approval, who was then the national chairman of AIM?
On November 24th, 1975, after being released in connection with the Oregon charges and the FBI Crow Dog arrest, Anna Mae went to Denver, Colorado for the third time. "She knew she was going to get indicted on the Oregon charges no matter what, [and, I add, she knew there was no chance she would receive justice from the scheduled trial on November 25th, 1975 in Pierre, SD] so she split," Nilak Butler stated In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, by Peter Matthiessen. Anna Mae also believed that she would, as she had done on other occasions, re-join Leonard Peltier and Dennis Banks through the help of Troy Lynn and Colorado AIM. Ray Hand Boy testified that he and Evelyn Bordeaux drove Anna Mae to Denver at her own request.
According to the testimony of John Graham’s girlfriend at the time, Angie (Begay) Janis, soon after Anna Mae arrived in Denver she received a phone call from Rapid City and was told to "hold Anna Mae". Janis then phoned her "best friend" Yellow Wood, who’s house then became Anna Mae’s prison. The phone call came shortly after Trudell picked up and drove Dennis Banks, who had just escaped the Oregon shootout, to California. Was it Dennis Banks, who ordered further questioning of Anna Mae Aquash? What did Trudell have to do with this order? Banks and Trudell both knew that many AIM members, including those working at the WKLD/OC, had formed suspicions Anna Mae was an informant. According to Candy Hamilton they "wanted to know why everywhere Anna Mae had been people got arrested" (taped phone conversation, Sept. 2004).
Ken Stern, in his book, Loud Hawk, writes at length about Trudell's ideas of who the informants could have been that turned in Banks’ motor home. Trudell has a long history in AIM of fingering people as informants. Did he finger Anna Mae? As it turns out, he has become what he has decried: an informant.
For years Trudell claimed to know nothing about the death of Anna Mae and accused the FBI of being solely responsible. Yet, statements he has made over the years highlight the incredulity of his alleged lack of knowledge and that he has associated with and given aid to the right individuals in AIM to cover up the parties who committed this crime and to create patsies to take the fall for both the FBI and AIM.
Bruce Ellison, Trudell’s attorney buddy of 32 years, believed Anna Mae to be a "snitch". This is the same attorney Trudell knows took part in the WKLD/OC meeting about her; and this is the same attorney Trudell has conspired with for the last 29 years to cover up for those who ordered and killed Anna Mae. Beginning in 1976 both Trudell and Ellison began making public statements accusing the FBI of being totally responsible for the death of Anna Mae. , But Trudell’s testimony at my trial makes it clear that he knew in 1975 what AIM members had played, implicating Dennis Banks. In the Looking Cloud trial, Trudell said nothing about FBI involvement in the killing, nor has Trudell made further statements to the media about FBI involvement.
On April, 28, 2005, in a hand written letter to me, Arlo Looking Cloud alleged that his trial attorney Tim Rensch conspired with Bruce Ellison. "I received a letter informing me that Vernon B. [Bellecourt] provided all my legal material in my case to Laliberte [Graham’s attorney] in Canada, apparently getting it from Gilbert [Arlo‘s appeal attorney]. And I read Vernon and Gilbert go way back. And how hard Rensch [Arlo’s trial attorney] worked to make sure Candy Hamilton couldn’t mention Bruce Ellison’s name. Rensch, his former law partner Leech and Ellison go way back."
According to Canadian Justice Ian Donald, Trudell was the most important witness in John Graham’s extradition proceedings, and Trudell will also be a prime witness for the United States federal prosecution against John Graham. What is even more curious to many of us close to the events is why has Trudell’s close friend Bruce Ellison befriended John Graham’s defense team in Canada? While in Canada on June 9,2007, Ellison,spoke to the media in support of John Graham. Perhaps Arlo has brought attention to the reason why.
I know the friendship that has existed between John Trudell and Bruce Ellison all these years, but a recent article published in Counterpunch on March 8,2007, by Michael Donnelly, entitled "Rock Stars, Porn Stars and Peace, LA Story," makes it clear that Ellison and Trudell are still good friends. Donnelly writes, "The occasion was last month in Los Angeles when John Trudell, Jackson Browne and Willie Nelson held a benefit concert for the Women's Cancer Research Institute. It was the second Give Love; Give Life benefit that the fellas have held for this cause.
"LA Native Celia Alario and I hooked up for brunch with Quiltman, my good friend and member of Trudell's band Bad Dog. Leonard Peltier's attorney, Bruce Ellison joined us, as did Jimbo Simmons of the Treaty Council and the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN)". http://www.counterpunch.org/donnelly03092007.html
The question. What does Bruce Ellison and Trudell share, besides their friendship, that has bound them together in the Anna Mae killing? With Trudell the fed snitch, one would naturally think they should be at odds with each other, yet it is clear they are not. What are we missing here? A very clever conspiracy, but conspiracy to accomplish and gain what? Each has placed himself in different camps and positions of influence. Bruce Ellison, who has Graham’s defense team covered and John Trudell who has the federal witnesses covered.
The information about the FBI affidavit Anna Mae wrote in her letter to Trudell became one of the documents used to accuse and confront Anna Mae. According to one inside source, this affidavit was used in Denver, Colorado, by Theda Nelson Clark, Troy Lynn and others, and used again in South Dakota as an instrument, that purportedly evidenced that she was an informant. Did Trudell pass this FBI affidavit on to his friend Troy Lynn?
John Trudell, National Chairman of the American Indian Movement during that period, began an early campaign to cover up the true circumstance that lead to the execution of Anna Mae. The question is why?
Even after I had publicly confronted Trudell in 1994, with the murder of Anna Mae, at the "Salt of the Earth Book Store", in Albuquerque, New Mexico, (when Bob Ecoffey was carrying an active investigation) he continued to say nothing publicly of what he knew of AIM‘s involvement. To the contrary, he accused me of being part of the FBI cointelpro program stating, "…a Cointelpro operation is being directed at me…to neutralize me. I have been waiting for the attack."
If as Trudell contends, he was not an important part of Banks’ support network, why was he contacted to "protect Anna Mae" in California? Why was Trudell recruited to help purchase weapons for Banks? Why was Trudell the only one Banks called to pick him up in Nevada after escaping the Oregon shoot out? Why was Trudell contacted and told the location of Anna Mae‘s safe house? Banks knew that "after Pierre, [South Dakota,] Anna Mae went to [Denver,] Colorado" (In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, by Peter Matthiessen). Trudell’s knowledge that Anna Mae "had been taken to a protected area," that she had "been taken prisoner" leads many to believe that he could have saved Anna Mae.
According to Trudell’s testimony in the Looking Cloud trial, he claims to have found out about who murdered Anna Mae for the first time in 1988, when his good friend Troy Lynn Yellow Wood set up a meeting between Trudell and Looking Cloud who allegedly told him the whole story of Anna Mae’s murder. This is simply not true based on Troy Lynn‘s own words from October 2nd, 1994 taped conversation that "John Trudell has known about all this from the time Anna Mae was taken from my house". Trudell’s own admission, during CBC the Fifth Estate program aired in December 2000, that "Troy Lynn called me from Denver and told me that Anna Mae had been at her house and these people had come and took her away as prisoner".
Trudell stated: "... And I got this message that...Annie Mae was in trouble and could I help her. I couldn't because they had a warrant for my arrest in Nevada on a charge that was later dropped. I could do nothing about it. The next time I …Dennis told me she had been shot in the back of the head. He told me this in California. This is when he was out on bail there...I know it was within two days or so after they found the body and I knew nothing about that" (trial transcript of the Butler -Robideau trial, Cedar Rapid, Iowa, 1976, http://www.dickshovel.com/trurspn.html ). Trudell’s words contradict his own testimony at Looking Cloud’s trial, where he testified that he had been in Los Angeles in late September and early October, he said: "…one of us always stayed with her as much as possible just to act in the capacity of being security." The fact is that even if Trudell was unable to travel in December, he had access to all the phone numbers of AIM members in Rapid City, as well as the lawyers’ who worked at the WKLD/OC office. He knew Anna Mae had been taken and where, to save her was just a phone call away.
Why didn’t he intervene to save his "friend" Anna Mae?
Trudell's long time friend and close associate, Bruce Ellison, who participated in the questioning of Anna Mae and allegedly provided documents that went to show she was an informant. Why didn’t Bruce Ellison contact Trudell? Perhaps he did. Ellison said that Anna Mae had been brought into the WKLD/OC office tied up, "I told them to untie her". (Conversation with Bruce Ellison during the March 4th, 2005, "Benefit for Freedom" in Toronto, Canada).
Why did Trudell align himself for 29 years with Bruce Ellison, a person he knew participated in the WKLD/OC "meeting" that undoubtedly condemned Anna Mae as an informant?
Why does Trudell continue to maintain close ties to Bruce Ellison, who he knew took part in the interrogation of Anna Mae at the WKLD/OC?
For many years, beginning in 1975, both Trudell and Bruce Ellison had taken the position that they "do not know who pulled the trigger…" But "the responsibility clearly rests with the federal bureau of investigation". In, Rolling Stone, April 7, 1976, Banks was the first to utter this position stating, "…even if AIM members had killed Aquash, the FBI bore responsibility because it had helped launch rumors about her."
In my conversation with Trudell 1994 at "Salt of the Earth", I asked him, "Did you know that Bruce Ellison was involved?" Trudell answered: "Yes, I knew about that". Again, the question, did those at the WKLD/OC "meeting" call Trudell, who they knew was not only a long time "friend" of Anna Mae‘s, but also a person who, by Trudell’s own admission a was a close associate to Banks?
In a tape recorded interview, Candy Hamilton alleges Anna Mae told her that "Price told me he would see me dead within a year." In the Lan Brookes Ritz documentary, "Anna Mae, Brave Hearted Woman,"
Trudell said, "Agent Price told Anna Mae if she did not cooperate she would be dead before the end of the year...and it worked out that way!" Just before leaving the jail in Vale, Oregon she told one reporter, obviously speaking about the FBI, "They’ll execute me. That’s what they do to Indians who fight for their people". In the Looking Cloud trial, Trudell said nothing of these threats by FBI agents as he had done for years with the media. Why has Trudell become conspicuously silent about the involvement of the FBI? Does Banks, who has remained silent also, still support Trudell today or does he fear Trudell?
There are many unanswered questions concerning John Trudell’s motives for joining the federal prosecution in the Anna Mae Aquash murder case and giving comfort and aid to the likes of Kamook and other friend’s; and influencing testimony that seeks to drag Peltier into this mess. It’s becoming instructive that John Trudell has known, from day one, why Anna Mae Aquash was taken prisoner, and executed; and as a witness for the prosecution, sheltered himself from possible prosecution for wrong doings he may have played in the killing of Anna Mae and its cover up. What did Trudell have to do with the killing of Anna Mae?
What has materialized is that John Trudell, and his friends, Troy Lynn Yellow Wood, Kamook Ecoffey Banks, and other federal witnesses have become FBI puppets to convict two small pawns and target Leonard Peltier. It is instructive to know that John Trudell was privy to the legal strategies in both my trial and that of Leonard Peltier’s. We are forced to look further into the possibility that Trudell may have been working with the feds as early as 1975, especially in light of the fact that Trudell implicated Dennis Banks in the murder of Anna Mae Aquash while testifying at my trial. There is nothing that explains why he should have even gave this testimony in 1976. His testimony is repeated in the Looking Cloud trial.
http://www.jfamr.org/doc/trudell.html.
We know that some where in the back ground the FBI is dirty in all of this. We know it was an FBI operative/provocateur who first started the rumors that Anna Mae was an informant. It was an FBI informant who perpetuated the rumors. It was an FBI operative/informant responsible for the death of Anna Mae. It is well known within the American Indian Movement that Trudell has attempted to place snitch jackets on several members of the American Indian Movement. In the end we must ask just when did John Trudell actually become an FBI informant? The answer would reveal much.

WHO IS JOHN TRUDELL?

Who is JOHN TRUDELL?
The COURT OF APPEAL FOR BRITISH COLUMBIA said in it’s ruling on June of 2007 to extradite John Graham :
[71] John Trudell’s evidence is the most significant evidence found in the Record of the Case. Without his evidence there would not be sufficient evidence to commit Mr. Graham for extradition. [Emphasis added.]
[72] I set out Mr. Trudell’s evidence from the Record of the Case in its entirety:
John Trudell was an AIM [American Indian Movement] member at the time of this incident. He is expected to testify that Arlo Looking Cloud told him that he, GRAHAM, and Theda Clarke took Aquash from Troy Lynn Irving’s house in Denver. Looking Cloud stated to Trudell that Aquash was then taken to a house by the old Indian hospital in Rosebud. He further stated that Theda and John Boy then went to the house for a short time. Looking Cloud stated that afterwards they drove to the location where Aquash was shot. He stated to Trudell that he and John Boy marched Aquash up to a ravine and that she was crying and praying for her kids and begging them not to do this. Looking Cloud told Trudell that they made Aquash kneel down in front of them and that John Boy shot her in the back of the head. He is able to identify Graham in Exhibits 3 and 4, [Photograph 3 and 4], Exhibit 3 being a photograph taken in 1983 and Exhibit 4 being a photograph taken on or about the time of Graham’s arrest in Canada in the instant case in December, 2003.
http://indiancountrynews.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=864&Itemid=108

AIM
THE BEGINNING

By Robert Robideau

I joined the North West regional chapter of the American Indian Movement in the fall of 1973. I jumped the Gray Dog in Vancouver, Washington. I hated the bus, but the short three hour ride helped me to relax on the way up to Seattle. I thought back to seeing my cousins Jim Robideau and Leonard Peltier at Crow Dog’s Sun dancing late in the summer. It had been a real surprise to see them in the arbor dancing and I had been glad at the time to be with family. They would put me up at their house long enough to get my finances together, then I would head out to other places. But things were not going to work out the way I had thought. While there word came that Pedro Bissonette had been murdered by the Pine Ridge BIA police. Leonard and Jim both asked me along when they began getting ready to head to South Dakota. Jim Robideau, had been with members of North West AIM at Custer and Wounded Knee and Leonard Peltier, had joined AIM while in Wisconsin just before the Trail of Broken Treaties caravan to Washington, D.C. After the Trail of Broken Treaties he went to jail for allegedly assaulting an off-duty police man, he was acquitted 5 years later when the policemen’s girlfriend testified how her boyfriend had lied about the incident to jail Leonard whom he knew was a member of AIM.

Earlier in the year Pedro and other members of OSCRO had met with the American Indian Movement to discuss the political abuses of Dick Wilson and the physical force being used by his goons to intimidate and place fear amongst the traditional Oglala people. They were trying to impeach Richard Wilson, the tribal chairman, who amid charges of nepotism and vote buying had failed to hold public council meetings and done nothing to stop the ongoing uranium leases for white companies on the reservation land.

Anti-AIM Wilson used government funds to create a private police force dubbed the “goon squad” by many Oglalas because of its brutal tactics. The special group appropriated the acronym GOON calling themselves, “Guardians of the Oglala Nations.” Drive-by shootings became common and scores of Oglalas had been killed from 1973 to 1976.

On February 27, 1973, after attempts to impeach Dicky Wilson had failed, a meeting lead AIM to help the Oglala people to take and occupy the historic site of the massacre at Wounded Knee was decided as the best vehicle to get national/international attention focused on the corruptions with Wilson’s administration and its support by President Nixon.

All chapters of the AIM were being asked to "meet and assemble in Rapid City, South Dakota, before going on to Pine Ridge to join others at Pedro’s funeral.

After an hour of talking, Jim Robideau hung the phone up and gave those in the house the information, after that everyone came alive with a frenzy of activity. Preparations for the trip to South Dakota began in earnest. Leonard Peltier got back on the phone to call other members and contacts to raise funds.

The following mourning Jim, Leonard and I took a trip to Salem, Oregon, to met with a local activist and support group that had, over the phone, committed to donating funds and other resources to us. As we pulled up and parked in the back of a large white house a black man stepped out the door, greeted us with a hand wave as we stopped and climbed out. We stayed only long enough to pick up their contributions, guns and money, then got back on the road.
We arrived back to Seattle the same day, the following morning a 5 car caravan was ready to hit the road. With the full group assembled in the house, a general discussion of security procedures for different road situations were discussed and agreed to. With Jim and I in the lead car we left that evening. The only time we stopped was to take gas, food and necessities, otherwise we kept moving until we reached Rapid City.

We arrived on the 21 of October and were lead by local AIM to the Lakota Homes Community Center where we were put up in a dormitory for the night.

The following mourning we loaded ourselves back into the cars and joined other cars forming a long procession on the road to Pine Ridge. Despite the anger and eagerness in the air to tangle with the BIA police we passed them at each juncture of the road toward Pine Ridge village without incident.

When we arrived on the land where Pedro’s wake was being held we placed our men and women with the other existing security . We were informed that it would be four days of mourning, so we began a roving patrol to secure the area from anticipated problems with Wilson´s goons.
The group and the activities that were unfolding around us was all a totally new experience for me, I had never been in a situation where I didn't know who the hostiles were that we had been given the responsibility to defend the funeral from; and the idea of defending a funeral seemed absurd and beyond my imagination. Anyone that had the thought of attacking one had to be obscene and fool hardy in this instance. But sure enough the following night security caught some young Oglala man that the locals designated as, "goon". I couldn't believe it. Billy Charging, a friend of Manny Wilson, Dick Wilsons son, had attempted to come into the wake while drunk. He was taken to the main house and questioned by WKLD\OC lawyer, Mark Lane. Billy Charging confessed that he had taken a $50 bribe to come into the funeral and cause an incident that would give the police an excuse to come in. He was released after he wrote a confession and I knew in that moment that things were very serious.

With the consent of the AIM leadership and local Oglalas the second pair of goons that were caught the following day on the funeral grounds, were taken out and down the road someplace where they got their asses kicked. Leonard, Jim and Ron Buffalo were spotted by two BIA reservation policemen as they left the two goons laying on the ground beside their car. The police attempted to stop them and a short gun fight ensued. The BIA police fell back as soon as they realized that they were receiving gun fire. An exchange of gun fire ensued as they chased Leonard’s yellow car down the road. It was reported later that one policeman had been wounded by flying glass. Leonard, Jim and Ron escaped without a scratch.

Upon their return we were told to beef up security and it wasn't long after we had added more men to security that the BIA police began assembling on highway 18 in front of the drive way leading onto the land. Although we fully expected them to come in, it quickly became apparent that they were not going to attempt it. I was very surprised, in all my experience with the police they had always went in to arrest their men.

My experience in the city told me to expect a confrontation, but they did the unexpected, by simply setting in their patrol cars and not making an overt move toward us. They stood by their cars with rifles in hand and watched as we ourselves in secure areas faced watching them. We learned that Dick Wilson was under pressure from the U.S. Government not to start an incident, the rumor was they feared that another Wounded Knee type action could be sparked here if they attempted to move against people at the funeral.

My experience in the city told me to expect more then the sit and wait stand off confrontation, but they did the unexpected, they sat in their patrol cars not making an overt move toward us. They stood around by their cars with rifles in hand and watched as we too stood our ground facing them openly armed. We learned that Dick Wilson was under pressure from the U.S. Government not to start an incident, there were fears that another Wounded Knee type action could be sparked.

"About four hundred mourners filed past Pedro Bissonette's casket as it lay in a tepee in front of his mother's home, three miles north of Pine Ridge. The government had attempted to get a court order barring AIM leaders from the funeral, but a federal judge denied the request. At the Roman Catholic funeral mass, Pedro's mother, Suzie Bissonette sat next to Russell Means and his brothers, Ted, Dale, and Bill. Dennis Banks had been barred from the reservation by Delmar Eastman, special officer in charge of the BIA police, who said that he would arrest Banks on sight if he attempted to enter the Pine Ridge reservation. The funeral procession detoured to the edge of the reservation, so that Banks could view Pedro's body. He sat beside the opened casket, gazing at Pedro's face for a short time before the procession continued.

At the conclusion of the funeral, Leonard, who not want to leave his car behind because of all the repair work he said he had put in to it, was finally persuaded to leave it when it finally became clear to him that the police were waiting to bounce on it if it should be seen exiting the funeral grounds. We knew that the police had identified it after the running gun fight with them, and would be waiting to arrest anyone that would have been stupid enough to drive it off the property . We were given an old Chevy with busted out windows to ride back to Rapid City in. We froze our asses off on the trip back to Rapid City. The BIA police followed the long caravan of cars all the way off the reservation, but did not attempt to stop one car. The South Dakota State Police picked up the caravan after we crossed over the Pine Ridge boarder at Oeirichs and followed us from a distance as we headed north on Highway 79 into Rapid City.

We pulled up to the WKLD\OC on Allen Street and parked in front. Leonard, Jim Robideau and I stepped out of the car and took the few stepped that brought us through the front door, that lead up the stairs to the second floor WKLD/OC office. We stood for a moment just inside, than Leonard told me to wait as Jim and he headed for a door across the room and disappeared. We had stopped at the law office to have a closed meeting with Russell Means, Dennis Banks and a few others. The subject was: What to do about the murder of Pedro Bissonette.
While the meeting went on, I sat down in an over stuffed easy chair next to the main door. Lite up a smoke, laid back an observed the coming and goings of white and Indian people.
I hadn't asked about the meeting, we operated on a need-to-know only bases; nor did I have an idea of what it was about. All I knew is that Leonard and Jim had an idea and plan and had asked to have the meeting to discuss it with the leaders of the American Indian Movement.

As I sat observing the rooms' activities, my thoughts traveled back to Oregon, and the beginning events that had unfolded with Nacho Wolf soldier and his wife Lily. I had come full circle and I didn't have an idea what might happen next in my life. These events had swept me up and taken over my destiny. But I was feeling comfortable with the activities and events that had already occurred, it was already feeling homey, and I was more than willing to go further with where ever the circumstances of the time took me. A new sense of purpose, meaning, and a feeling of wholeness began to emerge in me that was not there before.

Leonard came out and told me that we would be staying over night at the "AIM house"; and if I wanted, I could walk over to it with two friends of his. Jim and he were not finished with their meeting and would walk over after they were finished. Monty, who had came in shortly after I had settled in the chair was standing in looking on when I motioned him over as I got up, indicating we were following the two ladies who had walked over after materializing from some back room. Lorelei DeCora, of the Ho-Chunk (or Winnebago) tribe, who had been in charge of the clinic in Wounded Knee, and Andria Sky Kingman, of the Minneconjou Lakota (Cheyenne River) tribe who also had been in Wounded Knee.

The two AIM women walked Monty, a boy of seventeen, and I to the AIM house that was about ten blocks away in a residential area. It was a two story house in a quite neighborhood just off of Mount Rushmore Highway on Fairview Street. Monte, a skin from the Havasupai tribe living in the Grand Canyon in Arizona, and I were invited to relax in the living room. The ladies disappeared into the kitchen to brew coffee. It was late in the evening, and I was still drinking coffee, when Leonard and Jim finally walked through the door with big smiles glued to their faces. "How is it going cuz." I shock my head in acknowledgment of the situation. “We'll stay here tonight and move to a new location tomorrow." Jim said, in a serious business manner, than quickly followed Leonard into the kitchen.

The next day, the 26 of October, we moved to the north side of Rapid City to, Evelyn Bordeaux's house. A ranch style with a full basement located in a residential neighborhood. The main body of Northwest AIM had been kept apart from us. They were put at the Lakota Homes community center, a government getto Indian project, typical of the time. We had spent our first night in Rapid City there before joining the caravan that had taken us to Pedro‘s funeral. The Rest of our group were not being allowed to know our location. Richard who knew that something was a-foot attempted to argue to stay, but was handed the responsibility of taking the group back to Seattle, then hustle up more guns and ammunition and bring the stuff back to us along with other AIM members who were in Portland, Oregon.

We didn't ask any questions, we didn't need to because we knew that there would be a proper time for being apprised of our action. We waited patently for weeks before peaces of the plan of our targeted action began to unfold. It became more clear that my cousins had chosen us over others to do some dangerous undercover operation on the Pine Ridge reservation. So far, four of us, Monty, Leonard, Jim and I had arraigned our sleeping areas in Evelyn’s' basement. John and Mike, who were also from the Northwest showed up a week after we had taken up residence in Evelyn’s basement. Monty and I had remained during that full time, while Leonard and Jim remained free to move about making the critical arrangements.

Four of us remained in the basement of Evelyn’s for four weeks, not coming out at all, than toward the end of November during a snow storm it was decided that it was time we move to Pine Ridge to set up our operation. It was at this point that we were told what our objective was. The murder of Pedro Bissonette had inflamed many Oglala people, who now looked toward the American Indian Movement to stop the stepped up beatings and killings by Wilson’s' goons and supporters. AIM leadership had agreed, that it was time to take another direction in the struggle to overcome the continued political motivated killings of Oglala people on Pine Ridge and it seemed apparent that there was only one way to accomplish it. Get rid of the villain. Our group had volunteered to carry this objective out.

Just after nightfall we packed our gear into a older model station wagon, than jammed our bodies in and headed east out of Rapid City on Highway 44. The snow storm covered our trail out of town . The winds were beginning to blow harder as we passed the small airport as we continued on to Scenic.

The howling blowing snow made visibility difficult forcing us to a crawl. No one said a word as we made our way through the cold freezing night. The gusting winds and snow rocked the car back and forth violently creating the feeling of tense dire expectations of what lay in front of us as we inched our way foreword. When we arrived at Scenic, it was still early, the Long Horn Saloon stood dark and still as we passed, the animal skulls nailed to its false façade gave it a ghostly foreboding appearance. At that moment a feeling came over me that we were entering through the gates of hell.

The un-kept reservation road was narrow and full of large pot holes, that, with the loud howling wind and blowing snow, knocked us about in our seats, forcing us to slow down to a snails pace . As we crawled slowly through the Badlands the age old formations came at us like eerie moving ghost shadows. I began to feel as if we had entered through another dimension, and began to wonder about its reality. As I looked out through the storm silhouettes, not a part of the general landscape, misshapen forms appeared through the storm. As we moved closer, the objects materialized as junked overturned cars that had been abandoned where they had either died of old age or wrecked in some common place drunken frenzy. Finally, a small white steeple church appeared, one similar to the one I had seen on the Rosebud reservation some months back. It too was empty and abandoned....an uncomfortable premonition of this adventure came over me for a fleeting second as we passed this symbol of oppression.
Jim, finally said, "There’s Porcupine, just up ahead."

I would learn later that Porcupine is community not far north of Wounded Knee, and it had been a major staging area for people that moved in and out of Wounded Knee during the occupation.
It had taken us three hours to get through the snowstorm, normally it was a one hour drive. Like wolves not wanting to be detected by our prey, we cautiously made our way through the small community of homes until we came to a gate that lead to a dirt driveway onto private property. Jim jumped out and opened the barbed wire gate and back in after closing it. We followed the diagonal road’s easterly direction until our head beams showed us two old one room log houses. As we pulled up to a barbed wire fence that encircled the two log homes a figure appeared from around the corner of the one that sat to the right. Jim opened the door and stepped out waving and yelling at the shadowed figure. "Oscar, its me, Jim!"
Another medium build man appeared out of the shadows of the house. He hurried toward us, opening the wire gate then waved us through. Jim crawled back behind the wheel and drove the car through parking next to one of the cabins. The six of us piled out to follow our host a short distance to cabin filing through the door. It was light with one kerosene lantern which was burning on an old worn small kitchen table. Oscar Bear Runner, a short, medium set and wiry Oglala in his sixties, with a hurried manner about him and his son, Dennis, appeared . They both looked us over as Jim introduced each one of us to them…. taking each of their hands in turn with a hardy greeting shake.

I stood next to a little wood pot belly stove, absorbing the heat that was radiating out from it. After a short while it began to drive the chill out of my bones. It was a comforting feeling, I began to feel at ease with the two strangers before me. They were gathering up cups and filling them with black coffee they had brewed on the wood stove special this occasion. Jim and Leonard had taken chairs at the small table next to our host who were still standing, while the rest of us remained standing with coffee cup in one hand and a cigarette in the other.
Oscar, straightened up and looked at us to see that all of us had a cup and than said, "make yourselves at home. There are things to sit on, you just have to look around." Each one of us turned our heads and stepped to an object that could be used as a seat. One found a short wooden stool, another a milk can and the last was a wooden box. Monty, the youngest of our group, stepped over to where Dennis had sat and joined him on the edge of an old sagging double bed that sat against the wall to northwest corner of the room.

Oscar had taken the last chair at the table with Jim and Leonard. They began to talk about what was happening in the communities on Pine Ridge. Oscar began recounting the goon assaults and killings that had occurred since Wounded Knee. He said, "Helen Red Feather was attached and arrested for 'being an AIM sympathizer.' The goons kicked her in stomach, she was pregnant. Than Clarence Cross and his brother Vernal, were shot by tribal police while sleeping in their car. Clarence died. Vernal survived a bullet wound, but was arrested for "assaulting a BIA tribal policeman." Oscar said that is a lot of fear and tension in all of the districts and he with a smile said, “I am sure happy to see you all here with us."

Jim began talking about taking a horse ride to Manderson and Oscar, listening, began shaking his head in affirmation of Jims' suggestion. Jim turned from his conversation with Leonard and Oscar, to me and asked if I wanted to take a horse back ride with him . I shuck my head affirmatively and said, "Sure, why not." With a twinkle in his eyes, Oscar turned and asked me, "Are you a cowboy?" "No, Oscar, just another Indian that knows he can ride a horse." It had been a long time since I had ridden a horse, but I liked the idea of riding over the snow covered land I had found myself. And it would give me a first hand opportunity to get myself familiar with the lay of the land.

Jim and Leonard stood up from their chairs, after Oscar told them that we could stay in the small log cabin that sat next to his. Oscar, moved toward the door and the rest of us followed. The cabin sat about fifteen yards away from Oscars' cabin, and it was about half the size of the main cabin. The small cabin had two bunk beds set up against one wall and two army cots sitting next to another wall to accommodate the six of us . A small pot belly wood stove stood in the middle of the room. Jim turned to Geronimo, "Why don't you pull the car up close to the cabin." When Geronimo brought the car around, we all unloaded our gear and took it to our chosen bunks; settled back in our sleeping-bags for a welcomed good nights sleep.

Early, the following mourning there were two horses, saddled, and waiting outside the cabin for Jim and I. I had dressed with the warmest clothing I owned, but as I stepped out into the snow, I know that it was not going to be a warm ride. We mounted the horses as the others looked on with faces that didn't believe that either one of us could even get on the horses. We waved as our horses turned and walked off with us toward the southeast snow covered rolling hills.
We moved casually over the snow covered ghostly landscape, letting the horses take us at their own pace. When we got to the top of one high hill, Jim stuck out his arm and with a pointed finger, "That is Wounded Knee and over to the right will be Manderson." I looked out over a wide expanse of country below us. Except for a few scattered trees it was barren for a far as the eye saw. I wondered how people could live in it, but as we continued on, I began to feel its spacious charm. We crossed a two lane highway, than headed down an embankment to an ice covered stream. The horses didn't hesitate as we urged them on, broke through the thin ice and moved the short distance across the cold stream, then took a short jump up and over the embankment to flat land. After two hours on horseback we rode into a cheap government cluster housing area. The Oglala Lakota who opened the door to Jim and I went quickly back to the kitchen, filled two cups with hot coffee, before expressing his excited pleasure of our visit. Jim had befriended him at the 71 day Wounded Knee the occupation.

I didn’t ask questions, knowing that all things would be revealed at the proper time. I had no idea what the purpose of our visit was, but I knew that it was connected to our mission on Pine Ridge. Jim spent all day in conversation, I took no part in, with the man and woman. I sat on their living room couch reading a book I had found laying on a end table. When night fall came Jim and I got back on our horses and headed back to Oscars place. The wind began to kick up and snow began to fall when we left. We made our way back in the cover of night through a little blizzard. Man was it cold. We following the same route we had come. By the time we arrived back to the cabin I was freezing to the bone all I think about was getting myself rapped around that little hot potbellied wood stove.

When Jim and I went through the door everyone inside the cabin greeted us with smiling faces. They were happy to see us back from our adventure. They didn't ask any questions about our ride, but waited for Jim to give them some news. Jim and I said nothing as we stood close to stove driving the cold away. Leonard told us to get our gear together as he and Jim headed out the door explaining that they needed to speak to Oscar and would be back.

When they returned we were dressed out in greens with a weapon in one hand and coffee cup in the other. Leonard said, "We are going into Pine Ridge so be on your toes. Dick has a woman who lives in a trailer house that he visits and we are going to it to see if we can catch him there”.
We drove through another snowstorm as we headed toward Pine Ridge village. We made our way through unfamiliar streets until we came to an empty lot and parked. Jim told us to wait in the car, while he and Leonard got out and disappeared somewhere into the night.

I didn't like the idea of just sitting in a car because it made us vulnerable to any policeman or goon that might happen by. The wait was boring as all of us vigilantly peered out. We smoked cigarettes, said little as the snowstorm helped to cover our presence. The reappearance of Jim and Leonard broke the tension.

They returned and reported seeing nothing that lead them to believe that Dick was in the trailer house. After some small talk about possibilities it was agreed that we should take the opportunity to visit another friend who lived close by. It turned out to be Gladys Bissonette, who opened her door to Jim, Leonard and I. They talked about Dicks whereabouts and movements, but Gladys said that no one that she had spoken with knew where he was, no one had seen him around for days.

Although there had been nothing said, she seemed to know why we were on Pine Ridge, and it became clear that she was one of many that supported our purpose. There were photos of her grandchildren on the walls and Pedro was amongst them. Her face was still strained and haggard after the funeral, but anger could be seen in her quick movements around the house as she talked about the continued assaults by Dick Wilson's goons and she said with finality, "I hope you get that son of a bitch."

We drove back to the trailer house and set up an observation point that each one of us took turns watching until early mourning. We arrived back at Bear Runners just as the mourning light turned the landscape to a gray haze. (Include information from Jim ) [14] Interview Jim Robideau. May 2005.

We had been on the Pine Ridge reservation for weeks meeting with different families and looking for Dick Wilson, but he was not to be found. For some reason he just was not on the reservation. We had been to everyplace people had told us to look, time and time again, without success. Ya, we were amateurs, but we had been willing to try when others had not. I began to feel like we were just blindly stumbling around the reservation, it gave me the uncomfortable thought that maybe we had no business being here. Toward the end of the third week everyone began to get agitated with our lack of success. It began to become clear that if something did not materialize soon we would have to abandon the effort.

The short cold winter days left us with long nights to tell stories about each other. Leonard, who loved to tease others was having a hay day with everyone. One evening someone began talking about the “chickens of the Knee.” Jim said that after a helicopter ride with the feds Russell Means and Clyde Bellecourt left for some strange reason, after being in the Knee for only three weeks. Folks believed it had to do with conversations they had with the fed’s that scared them out.

Then there was the Black activist, who came in thinking that he would save the Indians with his civil rights experience in the south. Ray Robinson Jr. evidently was shot in the thigh when he reportedly “went crazy”. A Wounded Knee Vet said that he died as a result of “shock and bleeding from the gunshot wound”. It was rumored that he was buried on scared land.
One evening while we sat staring at the pot bellied stove that had become the center of our life and attention during our stay at Oscars. Leonard looked over at me and asked,” Well, what do you think Bob?" I looked back at Leonard and than at the rest of our crew.” Well, we didn't come here to homestead Oscar's land. If something does not happen soon, it should become obvious to us that we are in the wrong place, doing the wrong thing. And we had better move on to do the productive work we all have committed ourselves for .”

While waiting, Jim and two of the other men in our group had stopped at the Scenic Bar and had come on two goons sitting and drinking beers. Jim went back to the car to get a .22 semi auto target pistol. As he was shoving it into the belt of his pants, it accidentally fired hitting himself in the thigh. He was rushed a Rapid City hospital.

We didn't learn about it until the following day after the two men that were with Jim, returned to Oscars'. It was obvious that we could not continue, things just had not gone right. The snow storms had brought an omen, it seemed to all of us, that disaster was about to strike us if we attempted to continue on our present course. Most of us were relived after all agreeing to abandon any further idea of getting Wilson.

It had become so obvious to all of us that we needed no further conversations to confirm it. We packed it up and drove back to Evelyn Bordeaux's . We stayed until we were capable of moving on. Four of our members took the car and headed back home to the west coast, while Leonard and I remained in Rapid City.

After doctors had patched up Jim’s leg, the FBI showed up while he was helpless in bed with an arrest warrant for him. They hand cuffed him to the bed after placing him under arrest him on a “red bandana Joe” warrant for the fall of 1972 Custer riot and demonstration that he had been caught on film showing him with a police baton beating the shit out of the police he had taken it from.

Jim was eventually taken to the County Jail, and not long after friends bonded him out of jail. He left with others for Seattle, Washington. I stayed with a lady I met and began an affair with after returning from Pedro‘s funeral. I moved into the AIM house on Fairview Street with my new lady, Andrea Skye. Madonna Gilbert who seemed to be in charge of operations, was sharing her life with Milo Goings.

Jim, who had went back to Seattle, then traveled a bit, going to Oklahoma and a number of other states, came back to South Dakota in the early part 1975 for trial and sentencing on the Custer Riot charges.

When Jim and Leonard returned to Seattle in 1974, a power struggle began to surface. Conflicting attitudes brought on a slight clash between Jim and Leonard. Leonard said that he really did not care who the leader was. He knew that when we went into actions, it would be all about who wanted to go, and there would not be repercussions if you decided not to go. On the other hand, Jim felt that Leonard was developing more influence with the group, jealousy sparked hard feelings. Leonard had a no bull-shit attitude; and Jim was still using the strong fisted approach in relating to the group. Richard said, Jim took the attitude that “I am the leader and this is the way it is going to be.” Jim also started to became more involved in Lakota ceremonies and Peyote ceremonies. A lot of brothers on the west coast didn't use peyote and the Lakota ceremonies were not their way. I guess Jim did not have the sense to understand that they had a culture too."

Leonard left for White River, South Dakota, where friends put him up and kept him out of sight of the law. He was now wanted in Wisconsin for allegedly assaulting a police officer and now in South Dakota for allegedly shooting at two tribal policemen during Pedro‘s funeral. I continued to live at the AIM house and began working with local Dakota AIM, who were trying to get an Indian Survival School started in Rapid City. I continued participating as security for AIM events and for the AIM leadership who came to Rapid City or the reservation. Milo Goings and I became partners in most events that required us for security.

Andrea and I continued to live in the AIM house with Madonna Gilbert and Milo Goings for some months. Madonna, Lorelei and Andrea were working on trying to get an AIM school in Rapid City, but could not find the resources needed to pull it together. Then when Russell Means decided to run for Tribal Chairman against Dick Wilson in the late fall of 1973 and 1974, Milo and I were asked to do security for him. It was during this time that Madonna, Milo, Russ, Andrea and I went to Porcupine to be with Ted Means and Lorelei (DeCora) Means, an Indian Health Service (HIS) nurse who had decided to have a natural child birthing at her cabin. The Goons were still running about so Milo and I stayed outside most of time doing security.

Milo Goings, an Oglala from Pine Ridge and I began spending more time on Pine Ridge at various functions and meetings to guard Russell Means. On February the 27, a gathering took place at the Porcupine Community Center, to celebrate the first anniversary of the Wounded Knee occupation. Most of the AIM leadership showed up, Dennis Banks, the Bellecourts, Russell Means and various other leaders of AIM chapters.

It was during this occasion that I met Dino Butler again. I stepped out the door and stopped short when I saw him . I knew him but couldn't place the face, so I said "Don't I know you?" He stepped up to me and re-introduced himself to me; and than we both recalled the days when we had walked the prison yard of the Oregon State Penitentiary with a mutual friend.
I wouldn't see Dino again until Leonard and he showed up at my house in Swift Bird, on the Cheyenne River reservation, some nine months later.

Russ lost the election to Richard Wilson. An attempt was made to challenge the outcome of the election through the Federal Court in Rapid City, with Judge Bogue, presiding over the case. He didn’t have a chance in hell. Russ than asked the United States Commission on Civil Rights to investigate the election claiming that there had been fraud involved in the voting. The United States Commission , after reviewing the election results recommended that: In view of the facts found here, the most appropriate course would appear to be for the Tribal Council to order a new election. At this writing, the Council has not had the opportunity to consider the allegations of irregularities in the election. Should the council fail to order a new election, it will then be incumbent upon the BIA to determine whether the present tribal representatives are entitled to recognition. In our view, the results of the election are invalid at least so far as those candidates running on a reservation-wide basis, the president and vice-president. No Attempt was made to evaluate or determine whether the election was fair with respect to the election of members of the Tribal council.

A sweat lodge ceremony, then followed a special healing yuwipi ceremony on Pine Ridge in the community of Manderson. Ted Means and Lorelei moved to the Pine Ridge reservation, where Lorelei had her first child in a log cabin. Milo Goings, Madonna, Russ, Ted, Andrea and I attended. Fear of goon attacks had become a daily concern and everyone made extra efforts to carry their guns to be in readiness to defend against it.

The Lakota AIM house in Rapid City was turned into a Survival School under Madonna Gilbert.
Andrea and I move to Cheyenne River after the birth of our son Robert. Andria wanted to have her own house and she moved us to Swift bird, a community next to the Missouri River. It was not long after that I met David Hill. I was looking for a car and word came that David had a station wagon he wanted to sell, so my wife and I took the two hour trip to Rapid for the car. He was still with Thelma Rios, who had been my wife’s friend for some years. I wouldn’t see David again for about a year. But, during the intern I heard about the court roon scuffle in Sioux Falls where his left eye was damaged. After, buying the car from David Andria and I took a few trips to the Wounded Knee trails in Sioux Falls. But after they were moved to St Paul, Minnesota we reverted to a domestic type of living, with breaks that took us to occasional AIM events or ceremonies. It was during this period that she and I went to Green Grass to meet with Russ, Dennis, Vernon and Arvol Looking Horse, the keeper of the sacred calf pipe bundle. The sacred calf pipe bundle is brought out, but not unwrapped during a sweat that was part of scheduled meeting with Arvol.

Shortly after that we traveled to Porcupine to a yuwepi ceremony on Pine Ridge to name the new baby girl of Lorelei and Teds. Some years later she was run over by a motorist during a run to Support Prisoners at Sioux Falls Prison.

Jobs were hard to come by in the country so I spent many days hunting and fishing to supplement food on the table. Winter came in the fall of 1974 I became house bound much of the time because the snow storms are intense in the winter months. That summer I had found minimum wage work lifting bundles of straw onto a conveyer that feed the bundles into a shredding machine then ejected the straw out along the road embankment to prevent erosion.
That spring of 1975 Dino and Leonard came up to visit me in Swift bird. They said that they were still with Dennis Banks and that all of them were on Pine Ridge because Dennis had begun trial on the 1972 Custer riot charges. That they would be down there “Watching out for his ass on Pine Ridge,” until his trial concluded.

Copyright. 1979 by Robert Robideau

GHOST DANCE 1974

By Robert Robideau

It was June the 9 that we pulled up to Crow Dogs front gate. We were greeted by Henry Crow Dog, a very fine and humble elder who smiled, showing his teeth, when he recognized the group. He came up to the lead car and said, “Welcome nephews, go in and camp wherever you would like to. After you have finished setting up your camp come over to the house, I need help moving things to set up a outside kitchen for the people that will be here for the ceremony.” We assured him that we would return to help him as soon as we completed setting up our camp site.
There were only a few people at Crow Dogs, but a lot of dogs. One dog in particular, one big St. Bernard, that was covered with mange that smelled very bad. I found out later that the skins on the reservation treated mange with motor oil. This big dog’s name was Clumsy, he was Leonard Crow Dog’s dog, and it was reputed to have very special powers. But I never saw any evidence of the dogs powers while I had been there.
That evening the spokesperson for our group went to Henry Crow Dog and asked if he would conduct a sweat lodge ceremony. He told us that he would if we would build the fire and heat the rocks. While the fire was going we cleaned the sweat lodge and laid new cedar boughs and sage on the ground inside. About eighteen of us, men and women, crawled inside this small sweat lodge, we were cheek to cheek. Henry conducted a very humble and gentle ceremony. When we finished we went back to the Little White river, that ran through the property in the back, and jumped into the cool water enjoying the exuberating feeling of it. There were a lot of Yuwipi ceremonies, peyote meetings and sweats that began after our arrival.
Our Northwest AIM group always pulled security for Crow Dog’s Sundance except for those that were dancing. The first night on security was pretty uneventful, pretty quite. We had taken it upon ourselves to begin security soon after arriving, as we had always done in the past. Knowing that there would be large numbers of people coming we wanted to be prepared for gate security and any disruptive elements that might pass by the Sundance grounds. We assigned ourselves to four man squads. A main gate squad and a roving patrol squad that would patrol the grounds and perimeter of Crow Dog’s property. We had no radio communication equipment, all we could count on was hearing a shot in the event of trouble. So most of security carried guns of one kind or another. Rebuilding the main arbor, and making it bigger consumed many days of work on the part of Northwest AIM and others who came early to camp out and help.
Meetings were held regarding the Sundance. One issue that was raised was the use of firearms on the property and it was a controversial issue with the Crow Dog family. Henry didn't feel that firearms were the correct way in which to handle the kind of threats that were going on during Sundance. He and his son Leonard had a number of disagreements, but they had never took it into a public forum like this before. Northwest AIM put away their guns this year of Sundance.
Security was 24 hours a day because there had been some drive by shooting incidents by the goons at the beginning of the sun dance preparations during the end of July. A lot of activity by the feds and tribal government was reported. The Feds began appearing frequently around Crow Dogs, two feds were caught spying on the sun dance from the top of a hill and chased off by a roving patrol group of AIM security. These two feds came back with BIA police and demanded that the AIM members who had chased them off be turned over to them. In order to avoid problems for the Sundance a group identifying themselves as the ones who had chased the two feds off came foreword. The feds claimed they were not the ones and make further demands for the individuals but told that the one’s who had come foreword were the ones who had chased them off. We turned our backs on the police and walked away and that was the end of it.

The following morning someone came up and said that Leonard Crow Dog wanted to speak with us. Everyone waited around in a group until Crow Dog came up to us and directed us toward the main gate and than across the road. He said he was going to show us something and wanted to also talk to us about some special things. We followed him down the road crossing over Iron Shell Bridge and at that point we cut over toward the west and came to a dirt road that lead us up to a very small pasture, which lay beneath the hills that were covered with cedar trees.
I noticed right away that there was a burial ground in front of us because it had markers. He lead us further to until coming to a burial spot, than began speaking to us: "Good mourning, my relations, I am happy to see you and I thank you for coming to help us. The reason I bring you to this area here is because here is a man who is laying here in my land. I buried him here and he walked all the way to Wounded Knee where he gave up his life. His name is Clearwater. And so, I must ask you. Are you here to die? because everywhere that I go I tell myself, 'Do I want to die here? And this is where Frank Clear Water wanted to die in the Indian Nations. So he asked me to bury him here in the Indian Nations. So I ask you that seriously and sincerely are you ready to die for what you believe? For what we believe? If you are there are a lot of places here we can bury you because some people are going to die. Some are going to get hurt. Some are going to leave us. And if you choose to leave us you may do it and there will be no disgrace. It is just not your time to live for what you are preparing to die for."
No one said a thing, we just stood looking at Crow Dog and checked our own insides out. I asked myself seriously if I wanted to die in this place and I said to myself , “Ya this is a good place to die." Far better than some mortuary in the cities where they want to cut your body up and take everything out and flush it down the toilet. And than stuff you with Styrofoam and put you in a little expensive plastic box and expensive cement lined hole.
The seriousness of Crow Dogs words were disrupted by one of the men who spoke of performing a marriage ceremony and asked Crow Dog if he would do this.
About this time Mary Crow Dog, Leonard's wife, a small woman with long brown hair, fair brown skin and very quite demeanor manner about her came up to the group and went to the person who had asked about marriage. She shook his hand and than stepped over and stood by Leonard. Leonard spoke up, "This would be a movement marriage. A marriage in which there can be no divorce, because in our language there is no word for divorce. You would have to stand on the top of this man's grave, over this warriors grave and take the sacred vows of marriage."
We left Frank Clear Waters' grave and walked back to the camp where we broke up into work groups. Steve Robideau told us that he was leaving for White River to pick up Leonard Peltier. When they returned Leonard started talking to us about the police and how he had to hide out and how glad he was to get out of White River because some woman had been on his case. He asked how many people from the west coast had come who the women were. He said that Uncle Leonard, referring to Crow Dog, would be happy to see all of us together. Peltier was just one of the brothers who had been under some kind of pressure from the police and was hiding out. Like some of the rest us who had come to the Sundance he was out to enjoy life. Leonard, like most of our group, had always had a very great sense of humor and good laughter.
That day Leonard came in I made my way up to the gate and there was a four man squad from our group on duty. One of the men was my cousin, Jim Robideau, who said, "You look like you need some sleep cuz."
"Ya, I need some sleep."
"Here take my blanket." He said, and handed me the blanket that he had wrapped around his body. I took it gladly and laid down with it next to the fire and fell to sleep almost immediately.
I awoke the next mourning with the sound of different voices and knew that people on security had changed. I rolled over and got up. I stumbled over to the main kitchen, that we had put up behind Henry Crow Dog's house. I ate Oat meal, fry bread and drank coffee then strolled over to our camp. People were beginning to raise from their beds, stumbling toward the kitchen for coffee. I was still sitting with a new cup of coffee when Leonard Crow Dog came over and said, "We are going to Ghost Dance here, those of you who want to dance raise your hands." Many in our group raised their hands. Leonard Crow Dog continued, "Alright, tonight there is going to be ceremony at my mothers house. It is going to be a peyote ceremony, and it is going to be a good one. So I would like to see some of you there."
Jim Robideau, who had been standing by the fire drinking coffee with the rest of us, spoke up, "I would like to see all members of the group take a sweat for the ceremony." I was reluctant about sweating with women, but I felt that I should respect the Lakota ways. That evening I went over to the sweat lodge area. Leonard Crow Dog was there with everyone else and they were about to enter. When I saw that there were more women going in amongst the his group, I decided to stay outside and handle the rocks and water. When the ceremony concluded and everyone was out, Crow Dog told us to go to his house because he had something to give to each one us. So after everyone had finished dressing we walked over to his house. He began pulling out bitter-root and giving each one of us a peace. When he had come to the last person, he said, "Use this before you go to the peyote meeting. It will help clean your body and don't drink water...you know...that way…that way you won't have to go to the toilet." I took the bitter-root and put it into my pocket. Crow Dog turned and called for is wife, Mary to bring him other medicine. She came out with another large paper bag and inside were eagle feathers. Leonard took out a handful of them and said to Nacho, "Here, give them out." Everyone eagerly accepted a feather.
That evening we all went to Henry’s house for the Peyote meeting. As I walked through the door I saw the people sitting on the floor, a circle of Indians from many tribes. Leonard began the meeting with prayers and than peyote soup was passed around to each one of us . The prayer songs where being sung with the steady beat of the water drum and sound of the gourd rattle. The peyote soup continued to be passed from one to the next as each spoke their prayers, asking for whatever we thought grandfather and grandmother spirit of the peyote could help us with in our struggles.
There are two forms of the Native American Church that are practiced. One is called, "Cross fire," Christ is the central figure in this mixture of Indian and white Christianity. The other is "Half Moon fire" that pre-dates the first. The Crow Dogs are Half Moon peyote practitioners. Although the two ways are different both groups will cross over to meet and pray with each other. Traditional Indians will not argue about religion of any kind. And even in a half-moon fire meeting you will hear the song called "Jesus, Light of the World.”
The man that sat next to Leonard Crow Dog was Philip Eagle Bear, a Brule too. He was a large heavy set man, very dark in complexion. To me he seemed like a very humble person. He was the Cedar man. During the meeting, while fanning himself with an eagle feather, he began to speak about the old ways of the peyote. While he was speaking I noticed that some of the men in the circle were not sitting up straight and neither were some of the women. Philip Eagle Bear, continued, "When I was a young man, a road man told me that it was improper to stretch out. Men and women should be sitting up straight so that when the peyote spirit comes around he will not find you sleeping or napping. If you are, he will pass you by because he will think that he is not wanted. " The group straightened up and adjusted themselves properly.
It was early morning when the meeting broke-up and we went back to our camps to get ready for the Ghost Dance. The traditional clothing that Leonard Crow Dog had asked everyone to wear could be made from buck skin or cotton, but it had to have a thunder bird and symbols of the universe on it. One man had a tee-shirt with the thunder bird on the back and other symbols exemplifying the creation of the universe.
From our camps participants made their way back to Leonard Crow Dogs house and assembled out side. By than the sun was coming up in the eastern horizon. Henry Crow Dog stepped out of the house dressed in a painted buck skin shirt, pants and moccasins. His face was painted and he wore a buffalo head dress. Leonard Crow Dog had an eagle head tied to the back of his head and held a shield depicting two arrows and two bullets. From here, Henry Crow Dog at the head of us began to sing Ghost dance songs and the man behind began to drum. He lead them in single file to the east and crossed the river over some logs that lay across it. They made their way up the hill until they came to a small area that flattened out that was mid way from the top of the hill. Phillip Eagle Bear, was standing waiting for them by a large milk can with a ladle in his hand. As each one of them reached him, he handed out the ladle to drank the peyote tea.
They were guided into a large circle and told not to set down on the ground. Henry Crow Dog prepared a fire next to the sweat lodge. There was a small teepee that had been set up the day before. Henry than walked to the center of the circle of men and women and spoke a long time about the Ghost Dance and why it was being held. He instructed everyone what to do. Than Leonard Crow Dog stepped from the circle and walked to the center. He stood for a moment and than said, "There are going to be four men that are going to be the heads of security for our red nation. These men are: Leroy Kings, [a Dine who was known to be loose and disruptive. He had been escorted from Big Mountain behind accusations of child molestation in 1978. Jim Robideau, who had taken the holy road of peyote road man, Frank Black Horse, who had been arrested in Alberta, Canada with Leonard Peltier had never been seen again. Eddie White Water, an Oglala, who we were told to watch out for because he was a peeking-tom. Than Leonard told the dancers to take each others hand and begin dancing in a circle. The dance of the sacred hoop.
Just about everyone from the Northwest AIM was dancing with the exception of Ron Buffalo, Richard Robideau and I whom were on security on a hill above them responsible for preventing interference of the Ghost Dancers.
Dancers from the Northwest were Joe Stuntz, who was murdered by the FBI a year later during the Oglala fire fight. The others was Leonard Peltier and Nacho Wolf Soldier. The majority of the Ghost dancers were from other red nations. There were a few Lakota’s that danced.
During the Ghost Dance at Crow Dogs another ceremony was underway at Green Grass, on the Cheyenne River reservation. It was during this period that my wife Andrea and I, now considered to be members of Lakota AIM, went to Green Grass to a special meeting with Russell Means, Dennis Banks, and Vernon Bellecourt. It was a special ceremony being led by Chief Arvol Looking Horse, the keeper of the sacred calf pipe bundle, to bring unity to the red nations. The sacred calf pipe bundle was brought out but not unwrapped during a sweat that took place after having our meeting with Arvol. It had been a humbling experience for me.
Toward the evening of the first day the Ghost dancers came to a halt and all of them filed back down the same way they had come and then broke up after crossing the little white river. At camp they took off their ceremonial clothing and prepared themselves for a sweat.
Just prior to going to the sweat lodge, there was a rumor circulating amongst the Ghost Dancers that there was a camera crew at Crow Dogs and this crew had been given permission to film the dance ceremony. We were told that they would begin in the mourning. That evening the dancers confronted Leonard Crow Dog about it. He said, "Yes, because the way things are going, what is happening to Indian people now, some of the things in our ceremonies are not going to survive. We need to record them so that our future generations will know that the red man was here”. Leonard Crow Dog had explained too that our job in life was to share the great spirit with non-Indian people so that they could be educated about the Indian way of life. He had said that it is important that white people lead a happier life. He felt that the education white people received from Indian people could help them to stop their destruction of mother earth.

We could not accept this explanation . In the end many of our northwest AIM dancers dropped out, still disagreeing with the filming because some of us felt that although it was okay to share our ways with all people it was not acceptable to film and sell our religious ways.

It was it was just too much of a contradiction to our struggle to maintain respect for Native American religious practices. So Leonard was told that this idea was not liked or supported. The following morning Nacho left camp to escort the ghost dancers to the river where he joined Ron, Richard and I on security.
I noticed that not all of the people who had danced on the first day where in the circle. And I saw that there were new people in the circle. Leonard Peltier had dropped out of the dance too. The disturbance of the camera crew effected a lot of those that remained in the dance. Northwest decided that they would not support filming of any sort of ceremonies.
Soon after arriving at Crow Dogs , Jim Robideau got beat up pretty badly by Russ Means and his group. Jim had stopped at a bar in White River when he saw an AIM car outside. It was Means and some members from his group that were drinking. An argument occurred and than a fight. Jim remembers that he had gone with Mary to find Leonard Crow Dog to sober him up for the up coming ceremonies. They found him drinking with Russell Means and other members of his group. An argument ensued that led to a fight with Means and the rest jumped on Jim. When Jim returned to camp, Northwest AIM jumped in cars and a van. We drove back to the bar, but Means and his group had split. The group looked all over the reservation but never did find them. Figured that they all ran to Rapid City to finish out their drinking party.
That evening Henry Crow Dog, for some reason, was trying to take the front gate's securities' guns away from them. But they escaped him and stayed out of his sight the rest of the night. Then Leonard Crow Dog came back from some place, ran into a ditch just in front of the security gate. We knew that Leonard and his wife were drunk. Shortly after they had gotten into their house we heard a lot of screaming and yelling. Than he stepped back out of the house and started screaming and cussing at the top of his voice at all of the people in camp. Waking up the whole camp.
The next evening Leonard Crow Dog pulled us aside to tell us that there were these two Indians who had recently raped a relative of his and he wanted them dealt with. So, no choice, four cars of us went over to the individuals home which was located in the government housing . The housing project only had two roads leading in and out of it so we had two cars block off those while the rest continued into the housing on foot to one of the houses, but he was not at home. The people that were at his home were not going to help him and gave us directions to the other individuals home who had been involved in the rape too.
Leonard Peltier went into the front door and Jim Robideau went into the back door. They kicked the doors open while everyone else surrounded the house and covered it with weapons pointed. Leonard had a 12 gage shotgun when he went through the front door. The skin was still in bed when they pulled him outside and told him to lay face down on the street. Crow Dog began talking to him, asking him why he and his friend had raped his relative, but the skin lay quietly not say anything. Crow Dog told someone to get his clothing, but would not allow him to have his shoes. He was tied up on the spot and than we took him back to Crow Dogs, where we tied him to a tree and placed a 24 hour guard on him. Leonard Crow Dog kept him for two days before finally releasing him. I never heard of this man again, but it would be my good guess from the punishment he received from Crow Dog and many of us at camp that he never attempted to rape another Indian woman on the Rosebud.

Sundance 1974
People began arriving a week before the Sundance was set to begin. It was the first year that a whole group of Chicano people from Denver, Colorado came. The women really stood out, Rocky Holgin and Betty would return year after year. The women arrived in their high heals, short shorts, and halter tops. Everyone at Crow Dogs Paradise just freaked out when they saw them and there was a real racist sentiment amongst the older people that came out in their comments and conversations. I remember Grandma Crow Dog talking about, "those Mexicans, what are they doing here anyway." That attitude fell away really fast though because as soon as people really began to see that those Chicano people were Indian people like themselves, than it was cool.
Most of us were really burned out on cooking and these Chicano women volunteered to cook dinner the first evening and it was Rocky Holgin that lead them. They cooked some great chili beans and tortillas. The men enjoyed a real delicious feast because they had been eating commodities all summer. The old people thought it was outrageously good too. At the disappointment of Leonard Crow Dog, the women discarded their short shorts and high heals for dresses and other more modest attire.
People had expressed to Leonard Crow Dog that they wanted to have a pow wow during the evening hours. Though he didn't believe in that sort of thing during Sun Dance, he gave in to the pressure of the people. But he didn't feel real good about it because he felt that it was not appropriate, commenting, "All those city Indians dancing around."
A lot of other people wanted to put up stands to sell things and Leonard Crow Dog said he didn't want it, but respected the needs of people. He finally said, "It will be good for my kids to see how the city Indians did things." Henry Crow Dog on the other hand enjoyed the Pow Wow scene.
A large group of city Indians came from Los Angeles, California and they became concerned about sanitation and the food. We just couldn't feed all of the hundreds of people who came to the sun dance. This group was not used to reservation life and had no understanding that commodities were one of the main sources of their diet.
Anna Mae and her husband Nogeshik Aquash came. While Nogeeshik took the kids fishing Anna Mae cooked and helped the other women with the kitchen duties. They stayed for two days.
Glyde Bellecourt complained to others leaders that Northwest security would not follow his orders. But what did they expect from our bunch of AIM‘sters, we never did take to anyone’s orders, let alone yield to the barks of outside leaders . We had been tutored well in the urban ghettos, taught to respect no one that did not show us respect. Each one of us were a sovereignty unto ourselves.
It was early afternoon when all the sun dancers were called to assemble at the ceremonial arbor where Chief Eagle Feather, a traditional sun dance leader and Principle Chief among the Sicaju Lakota announced in a firm and deep voice, "It is time now. It is time to go and bring back the Big One. [The sacred sun dance tree.] I have been doing this every year for many years and always it is the same. But today is different. Today my son will touch the tree a free man. And not having to do all of this in secret, as I have been doing since 1954. You see, the United States government denied us our freedom of religion for many years; and among the things forbidden to us as caretakers of the land, was to Sundance. So it was that Henry Crow Dog, Fools Crow, Lame Deer, young Leonard Crow Dog and myself had to sneak around to do the Lords' work. So at this time, I would like to acknowledge all of you younger men and women, who are pledged to defend this way. I would like to thank AIM especially. So we better move on to the 'Big One' now. Take it down, bring it back and have it up before sundown. That is the Lakota way. That is the creators' law."
With this announcement they leaped into their cars, vans, pick-ups and roared out of the Paradise, going southeast, crossing Iron Shell Bridge, toward Grass Mountain. I rode in a Chevy, with Jim Robideau, that was being driven to death by Leonard Peltier, who with one black leather gloved hand on the steering wheel would twist his head just about all the way around to the back seat where I was sitting to inquire about the chastity of certain ladies from the Northwest AIM. As the car began to head for the ditch he jerked the wheel back onto the pavement and his head came back around to continue his inquiries. Now and than Leonard would look at me and accuse me of lying because I would not meet his eyes when I answered. But then again, neither would you if a manic like Leonard had your life in his hands. All you would do and think about is that place on the road where you could leap out without busting your ass. Jim just sat and said nothing, now and than, just as we both thought we were about to crash, he would break out in that cackling laughter, peculiar to madmen and just as quickly...return to his solitude. What the hell, he had already found his Holy Road. I was still a lost child.
We all survived the ordeal of Leonard’s' driving. Everyone had pulled off the main road and onto a narrow trial that lead us into a large grove of cotton woods. The tree was enormously tall and thick at the base. I could not imagine how they were going to carry it back, some long miles to the sundance arbor. Nacho said, "Just thinking about it awakened my back pains and caused me to recollect that since I had not eaten for several days maybe I was naturally exempt."
Standing around the tree, were some hundred and fifty men, women and children. A group of drummers were off to one side. I saw Nacho's face grew into a big smile as he slowly moved next to a pretty women who was dressed in buckskin, leggings, beaded handbag, shawl draped over her shoulders and genuine with spirit. Leonard and Jim both turned and stared at him as if he were some kind of snake about to pounce on a meal. Nacho seeing their glaring eyes, didn’t move, just grew a big deliberate lecherous smile.
The drummers sounded their drums, then began to sing the pipe song. The sun dancers lined themselves up behind the virgin girl who stood before the tree with a new ax in her hand; the principle chiefs and medicine men stood beside her as she stepped foreword and took the first bite of wood away from the trees' trunk. Then the rest of the dancers, in each their turn, took the ax and chopped until the old tree came to it final rest on the ground.
Taking the tree back to the Paradise on that hot, dusty summer afternoon proved to be a difficult task. Under no circumstances could it touch the ground. There was no rest for the dancers as they walked the miles, with security in the lead stopping traffic and warning on lookers not to step in front of the tree. After, what seemed forever, the Sun Dancers arrived back to the arbor, where a hole had been dug in the center of the ceremonial ground and ceremoniously prepared to receive the tree. Crow Dog had placed food and medicine inside the hole, than the tree was laid in. Crow Dog sang ancient songs as he placed tobacco and other sacred offerings. Tobacco ties, raw hide cut out images of the buffalo, life of the nation; a man with a large penis, fertility of the nation. and a turtle, long life, were tied to the branches. Then ribbons, red, yellow, white, black, blue and green were also tied to its branches. Finally the ropes of each Sun Dancer were tied and as the sun starting its final descent below the hills to the west the tree was raised up into the hole.
Nacho who had been working real hard over his eagle bone whistle, having some difficulty setting the tree gum in it, Selo Black Crow, a medicine man and member of AIM told him that he was not using the correct sap. Selo told him that in hot weather tree sap had a tendency to harden fast, so he had to work fast. He went on to tell Nacho that he would have to locate a cedar tree, then peel a small amount from the bark then inlay it just inside the hole closest to mouth side of the eagle bone. Nacho like the rest of us in AIM were city boys that had since joining AIM taken pride in becoming Sun Dancers. We felt privileged to have received an opportunity to learn Lakota religious ceremonies from the many medicine men that shared their knowledge with us; and grateful to become participants of age old practices.
Early the following day the dancers were being lead into the sun dance arbor through the eastern gate. There were four assistants helping Leonard Crow Dog, Chief Eagle Feather, Chief Frank Fools Crow and Rod Skinandore. Leonard was dressed very simple, he had on a cotton lavender skirt with ribbon colors that had been stitched on the lower hem. His crown was made from prairie sage, eagle feathers, one had been placed in each side of the crown sticking straight up. He wore wristlets and anklets of sage on both wrist and ankles. His general appearance of dress was equal to all the other dancers before him.
It was sometime toward noon when the dancers pointed up at the sky over their heads an eagle had flown in and was circling. Another eagle flew in, joining the first and than another and finally a fourth joined the other three that still flew overhead souring ever higher above the arbor in a circle. Jerry Roy, an Ojibway, drag eighteen green buffalo skulls inside the circle of dancers whose whistles mimicked the high pitched screams of the eagles overhead .
Copy right. 1979 by Robert Robideau
All rights reserved

JOHN TRUDELL, A PROFILE OF COWARDICE AN FBI INFORMANT COVERS HIS TRACKS IN THE MURDER OF ANN MAE PICTOU AQUASH


By Robert Robideau, Co-defendant of Leonard Peltier

On, June 26, 2007, the 32nd anniversary of the Pine Ridge reservation firefight that left two FBI agents and an Indian man dead , the Canadian Court of Appeals in British Columbia sent John Graham a long awaited message, rejecting his appeal of a lower court’s ruling that he should be extradited to the United States to face trial in South Dakota for the killing of Anna Mae Pictou Aquash and ordering him into custody to be extradited to the United States. In rejecting Graham’s appeal, Canadian Justice Ian Donald wrote: "But on the crucial issue of whether the person known as John Graham, also known as John Boy Patton, was the same person who committed the murder, the judge found that the evidence of John Trudell established identification."
John Graham has until the 26th of July for the Supreme Court to decide whether to accept his case on appeal. However, the Graham committee announced, "given the three judges' unanimous decision, the chances appear to be slim that such an appeal would be heard."
John Graham and Arlo Looking Cloud were indicted in 2003 for the execution style killing of American Indian Movement icon Anna Mae Pictou Aquash. In February of 2004 Arlo Looking Cloud stood trial at which time John Trudell testified that Looking Cloud confessed to him, in 1988, his role in Anna Mae’s murder and also implicated John Graham as shooting Anna Mae in the head while she prayed. After a three day trial, Looking Cloud was found guilty of first degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. His conviction says nothing about the fairness of his trial.
Although a few of those responsible for her death have been revealed, and Looking Cloud has been declared guilty, the truth still remains hidden under a blanket of deceptions and lies. There are numerous questions that cry out to be answered. Most notably, why have noted AIM members become informants for the FBI? The FBI paid Darlene Nichols Kamook Banks $47,000 to say that Leonard Peltier "bragged about killing the two agents" and made inferences targeting Leonard Peltier in the death of Anna Mae Aquash. In 2006, in reference to Kamook’s accusations, Trudell admittedly told her that "she had done the right thing.." and "…I said the only way we are going to be able to get to the bottom of this is we have to hunt them down and flush them out.". What sort of deal has the FBI made with John Trudell ?
It came as a big surprise to many in Indian country when Trudell, a former leader and national spokesperson of AIM, materialized as an informant for the FBI against Arlo Looking Cloud, and John Graham. An even bigger surprise came soon after Arlo Looking Cloud’s conviction, when Darlene Nichols Banks "Kamook" married BIA officer Robert Ecoffey, a thug who served under the former corrupt Pine Ridge reservation President, Dick Wilson, and who allied himself with domestic security agents of the FBI in creating the reign of terror from 1972 -1976, resulting in 60 homicides and 200 assaults against Indian people, almost all of whom were associated with AIM.
A recently uncovered FBI document, discovered through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), strongly suggests that the FBI choose not to prosecute anyone for the murder of Anna Mae for 29 years, but instead to covered up for those whom they knew were implicated in her murder, to protect an operative/informant working with them. Did their informant/provocateur retire from AIM? Clearly, the FBI’s intent to blame Peltier and keep him in prison until death became an important reason to proceed with the prosecutions. After approximately 16 years of silence, John Trudell suddenly appears as the most important federal witness and conspirator to implicate Arlo Looking Cloud, John Graham and Leonard Peltier in the murder of Anna Mae Pictou Aquash.
Why, 31 years ago, did Trudell expose, at my trial, a conversation he had with Dennis Banks that Banks told him that Anna Mae had been killed BEFORE HER BODY HAD BEEN IDENTIFIED. It wasn’t relevant to my trial and its significance was not immediately grasped. Was it done in preparation for an opportune time? What about his conversation with Arlo Looking Cloud in 1988, incriminating both Looking Cloud and Graham into Anna Mae’s execution? What sort of deal did the FBI have with Trudell? Trudell also implicated others: "Lorelei Means, Madonna Thunder Hawk and Thelma Rios, as persons guarding Anna Mae" in Thelma’s home in Rapid City. Why did Trudell, after 27 years of accusing the FBI for killing of Anna Mae, decide to accuse members of AIM instead?
Trudell’s testimony in the Looking Cloud trial establishes that he knew for 16 years that John Graham, aka, John Boy Patten, Arlo Looking Cloud, and Theda Nelson Clark took Anna Mae, who was tied up, from Denver, Colorado to Rapid City, South Dakota, where she, according to witnesses, was questioned at the Wounded Knee Legal Defense/Offense Committee and ultimately shot in the head by John "Boy" Graham. Trudell says that he knows Looking Cloud and Graham were "following orders.". If he knows who gave the orders he has yet to say. Perhaps Trudell has been saving this part of the puzzle for the Graham trial.
Several sources have stated that Trudell asked Kamook Banks to participate and gave her "strong words of support" to encourage her to take the witness stand to testify about an alleged confession she heard by Leonard Peltier. This, together with the testimony of another long time close friend of Trudell‘s, Troy Lynn Yellow Wood, said that Anna Mae told her Peltier had put a gun to her head in an attempt implicate Peltier to the Anna Mae murder. Kamook also testified that Anna Maetold her the same story at the 1975 AIM Conference (SEE Arlo Looking Cloud trial transcript: http://www.jfamr.org/doc/index.html ) I never saw Kamook at the Conference and her sister, Bernie Lafferty corroborated she was not there (taped phone conversation, August 4th, 2004). I was present and I never saw Leonard with a gun when Banks and Vernon Bellecourt ordered us to take Anna Mae out to question her. Trudell publicly rallied for Peltier’s freedom for more than 20 years. Why has Trudell now turned on Leonard to encourage the proffering of lies from long time friends and associates?
Candy Hamilton, a prosecution witness, commented, "I didn’t think that Leonard should have been dragged into it. I mean, god, how could he have had anything to do with it, he was all so broken." She said further, "...Leonard was not really considered high up in AIM, I think that it came from the top. For sure the Bellecourts and probably Banks, and after that I don’t know" (taped conversation, August 28, 2004). Mrs. Ecoffey’s sister, Bernie Lafferty, in another taped phone conversation, said: "Oh yeah, that is why I couldn't understand why they were trying to involve Leonard in this ..." (August 4, 2004).
"The way I understand how things went John T (Trudell) contacted Kamook about telling the truth. So why he has come out of this smelling like a rose and Kamook takes the label of informant is beyond me," expressed Denise Maloney after the Looking Cloud trial. She has also described odd behavior by Trudell just before the Looking Cloud trial: "When I ran into John Trudell in San Francisco in 2002 he ran around the room like a chicken with his head cut off …talking in code and not really saying anything." (e-mail, February 11, 2004).
Paul DeMain, Editor of News From Indian Country, and friend to Joseph Trimbach, (former Special Agent in Charge of the Minneapolis Division of the FBI) in a phone conversation in regard to Leonard’s civil suit against him stated, "I would have never said that Leonard Peltier ordered Anna Mae's death because first of all I don’t believe that is the way that happened and second of all even if Peltier wanted her dead there was no authority to have ordered something like that in the apparatus of AIM. He wouldn’t have been able to do that. But the first proposition is that I never would have said that" (taped phone conversation May 2005). SEE: ( http://www.leonardpeltier.net/peeledapple.htm ).
Kamook’s sister, Bernie Lafferty said, "Leonard treated Anna Mae no different than the rest of us, "… "I never once heard Leonard accuse Anna Mae of being an informant." Bernie further said, "We was always real close to Anna Mae…well, we had to be…I know deep in my heart that she was no FBI agent. She would never say anything to anybody" (taped phone conversation, August 4th, 2004).
Other sources that uphold the same opinion about Leonard’s trust of Anna Mae can be found in the following sources: In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, by Peter Matthiessen, Agents of Repression, by Churchill and Vander Wall, and many other media journals, and books. But our actions toward Anna Mae showed our trust of her, and her actions toward us speak louder then words.
Indeed, there were two occasions when Anna Mae became a member of our group. The first occurred, when she become a member of our group one day before the Crow Dog raid. The second occurred when she joined Bank’s in Denver, before the Columbus Day bombings on the Pine Ridge reservation in 1975. Both actions on her part reflect that she had no fear of Leonard.
Each time Anna Mae ran it was from federal authorities. She went to the safe house provided by Trudell’s close friend, Troy Lynn Yellow Wood, in Denver, Colorado. It is well known in AIM that Trudell and Troy Lynn have been friends for many, many years. While in Denver , Trudell normally visited and stayed at her house. The question here is, why would this long time friend of Trudells agree to take Anna Mae prisoner and then hand her over to her executioners with out Trudell’s approval, who was then the national chairman of AIM?
On November 24th, 1975, after being released in connection with the Oregon charges and the FBI Crow Dog arrest, Anna Mae went to Denver, Colorado for the third time. "She knew she was going to get indicted on the Oregon charges no matter what, [and, I add, she knew there was no chance she would receive justice from the scheduled trial on November 25th, 1975 in Pierre, SD] so she split," Nilak Butler stated In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, by Peter Matthiessen. Anna Mae also believed that she would, as she had done on other occasions, re-join Leonard Peltier and Dennis Banks through the help of Troy Lynn and Colorado AIM. Ray Hand Boy testified that he and Evelyn Bordeaux drove Anna Mae to Denver at her own request.
According to the testimony of John Graham’s girlfriend at the time, Angie (Begay) Janis, soon after Anna Mae arrived in Denver she received a phone call from Rapid City and was told to "hold Anna Mae". Janis then phoned her "best friend" Yellow Wood, who’s house then became Anna Mae’s prison. The phone call came shortly after Trudell picked up and drove Dennis Banks, who had just escaped the Oregon shootout, to California. Was it Dennis Banks, who ordered further questioning of Anna Mae Aquash? What did Trudell have to do with this order? Banks and Trudell both knew that many AIM members, including those working at the WKLD/OC, had formed suspicions Anna Mae was an informant. According to Candy Hamilton they "wanted to know why everywhere Anna Mae had been people got arrested" (taped phone conversation, Sept. 2004).
Ken Stern, in his book, Loud Hawk, writes at length about Trudell's ideas of who the informants could have been that turned in Banks’ motor home. Trudell has a long history in AIM of fingering people as informants. Did he finger Anna Mae? As it turns out, he has become what he has decried: an informant.
For years Trudell claimed to know nothing about the death of Anna Mae and accused the FBI of being solely responsible. Yet, statements he has made over the years highlight the incredulity of his alleged lack of knowledge and that he has associated with and given aid to the right individuals in AIM to cover up the parties who committed this crime and to create patsies to take the fall for both the FBI and AIM.
Bruce Ellison, Trudell’s attorney buddy of 32 years, believed Anna Mae to be a "snitch". This is the same attorney Trudell knows took part in the WKLD/OC meeting about her; and this is the same attorney Trudell has conspired with for the last 29 years to cover up for those who ordered and killed Anna Mae. Beginning in 1976 both Trudell and Ellison began making public statements accusing the FBI of being totally responsible for the death of Anna Mae. , But Trudell’s testimony at my trial makes it clear that he knew in 1975 what AIM members had played, implicating Dennis Banks. In the Looking Cloud trial, Trudell said nothing about FBI involvement in the killing, nor has Trudell made further statements to the media about FBI involvement.
On April, 28, 2005, in a hand written letter to me, Arlo Looking Cloud alleged that his trial attorney Tim Rensch conspired with Bruce Ellison. "I received a letter informing me that Vernon B. [Bellecourt] provided all my legal material in my case to Laliberte [Graham’s attorney] in Canada, apparently getting it from Gilbert [Arlo‘s appeal attorney]. And I read Vernon and Gilbert go way back. And how hard Rensch [Arlo’s trial attorney] worked to make sure Candy Hamilton couldn’t mention Bruce Ellison’s name. Rensch, his former law partner Leech and Ellison go way back."
According to Canadian Justice Ian Donald, Trudell was the most important witness in John Graham’s extradition proceedings, and Trudell will also be a prime witness for the United States federal prosecution against John Graham. What is even more curious to many of us close to the events is why has Trudell’s close friend Bruce Ellison befriended John Graham’s defense team in Canada? While in Canada on June 9,2007, Ellison,spoke to the media in support of John Graham. Perhaps Arlo has brought attention to the reason why.
I know the friendship that has existed between John Trudell and Bruce Ellison all these years, but a recent article published in Counterpunch on March 8,2007, by Michael Donnelly, entitled "Rock Stars, Porn Stars and Peace, LA Story," makes it clear that Ellison and Trudell are still good friends. Donnelly writes, "The occasion was last month in Los Angeles when John Trudell, Jackson Browne and Willie Nelson held a benefit concert for the Women's Cancer Research Institute. It was the second Give Love; Give Life benefit that the fellas have held for this cause.
"LA Native Celia Alario and I hooked up for brunch with Quiltman, my good friend and member of Trudell's band Bad Dog. Leonard Peltier's attorney, Bruce Ellison joined us, as did Jimbo Simmons of the Treaty Council and the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN)". http://www.counterpunch.org/donnelly03092007.html
The question. What does Bruce Ellison and Trudell share, besides their friendship, that has bound them together in the Anna Mae killing? With Trudell the fed snitch, one would naturally think they should be at odds with each other, yet it is clear they are not. What are we missing here? A very clever conspiracy, but conspiracy to accomplish and gain what? Each has placed himself in different camps and positions of influence. Bruce Ellison, who has Graham’s defense team covered and John Trudell who has the federal witnesses covered.
The information about the FBI affidavit Anna Mae wrote in her letter to Trudell became one of the documents used to accuse and confront Anna Mae. According to one inside source, this affidavit was used in Denver, Colorado, by Theda Nelson Clark, Troy Lynn and others, and used again in South Dakota as an instrument, that purportedly evidenced that she was an informant. Did Trudell pass this FBI affidavit on to his friend Troy Lynn?
John Trudell, National Chairman of the American Indian Movement during that period, began an early campaign to cover up the true circumstance that lead to the execution of Anna Mae. The question is why?
Even after I had publicly confronted Trudell in 1994, with the murder of Anna Mae, at the "Salt of the Earth Book Store", in Albuquerque, New Mexico, (when Bob Ecoffey was carrying an active investigation) he continued to say nothing publicly of what he knew of AIM‘s involvement. To the contrary, he accused me of being part of the FBI cointelpro program stating, "…a Cointelpro operation is being directed at me…to neutralize me. I have been waiting for the attack."
If as Trudell contends, he was not an important part of Banks’ support network, why was he contacted to "protect Anna Mae" in California? Why was Trudell recruited to help purchase weapons for Banks? Why was Trudell the only one Banks called to pick him up in Nevada after escaping the Oregon shoot out? Why was Trudell contacted and told the location of Anna Mae‘s safe house? Banks knew that "after Pierre, [South Dakota,] Anna Mae went to [Denver,] Colorado" (In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, by Peter Matthiessen). Trudell’s knowledge that Anna Mae "had been taken to a protected area," that she had "been taken prisoner" leads many to believe that he could have saved Anna Mae.
According to Trudell’s testimony in the Looking Cloud trial, he claims to have found out about who murdered Anna Mae for the first time in 1988, when his good friend Troy Lynn Yellow Wood set up a meeting between Trudell and Looking Cloud who allegedly told him the whole story of Anna Mae’s murder. This is simply not true based on Troy Lynn‘s own words from October 2nd, 1994 taped conversation that "John Trudell has known about all this from the time Anna Mae was taken from my house". Trudell’s own admission, during CBC the Fifth Estate program aired in December 2000, that "Troy Lynn called me from Denver and told me that Anna Mae had been at her house and these people had come and took her away as prisoner".
Trudell stated: "... And I got this message that...Annie Mae was in trouble and could I help her. I couldn't because they had a warrant for my arrest in Nevada on a charge that was later dropped. I could do nothing about it. The next time I …Dennis told me she had been shot in the back of the head. He told me this in California. This is when he was out on bail there...I know it was within two days or so after they found the body and I knew nothing about that" (trial transcript of the Butler -Robideau trial, Cedar Rapid, Iowa, 1976, http://www.dickshovel.com/trurspn.html ). Trudell’s words contradict his own testimony at Looking Cloud’s trial, where he testified that he had been in Los Angeles in late September and early October, he said: "…one of us always stayed with her as much as possible just to act in the capacity of being security." The fact is that even if Trudell was unable to travel in December, he had access to all the phone numbers of AIM members in Rapid City, as well as the lawyers’ who worked at the WKLD/OC office. He knew Anna Mae had been taken and where, to save her was just a phone call away.
Why didn’t he intervene to save his "friend" Anna Mae?
Trudell's long time friend and close associate, Bruce Ellison, who participated in the questioning of Anna Mae and allegedly provided documents that went to show she was an informant. Why didn’t Bruce Ellison contact Trudell? Perhaps he did. Ellison said that Anna Mae had been brought into the WKLD/OC office tied up, "I told them to untie her". (Conversation with Bruce Ellison during the March 4th, 2005, "Benefit for Freedom" in Toronto, Canada).
Why did Trudell align himself for 29 years with Bruce Ellison, a person he knew participated in the WKLD/OC "meeting" that undoubtedly condemned Anna Mae as an informant?
Why does Trudell continue to maintain close ties to Bruce Ellison, who he knew took part in the interrogation of Anna Mae at the WKLD/OC?
For many years, beginning in 1975, both Trudell and Bruce Ellison had taken the position that they "do not know who pulled the trigger…" But "the responsibility clearly rests with the federal bureau of investigation". In, Rolling Stone, April 7, 1976, Banks was the first to utter this position stating, "…even if AIM members had killed Aquash, the FBI bore responsibility because it had helped launch rumors about her."
In my conversation with Trudell 1994 at "Salt of the Earth", I asked him, "Did you know that Bruce Ellison was involved?" Trudell answered: "Yes, I knew about that". Again, the question, did those at the WKLD/OC "meeting" call Trudell, who they knew was not only a long time "friend" of Anna Mae‘s, but also a person who, by Trudell’s own admission a was a close associate to Banks?
In a tape recorded interview, Candy Hamilton alleges Anna Mae told her that "Price told me he would see me dead within a year." In the Lan Brookes Ritz documentary, "Anna Mae, Brave Hearted Woman,"
Trudell said, "Agent Price told Anna Mae if she did not cooperate she would be dead before the end of the year...and it worked out that way!" Just before leaving the jail in Vale, Oregon she told one reporter, obviously speaking about the FBI, "They’ll execute me. That’s what they do to Indians who fight for their people". In the Looking Cloud trial, Trudell said nothing of these threats by FBI agents as he had done for years with the media. Why has Trudell become conspicuously silent about the involvement of the FBI? Does Banks, who has remained silent also, still support Trudell today or does he fear Trudell?
There are many unanswered questions concerning John Trudell’s motives for joining the federal prosecution in the Anna Mae Aquash murder case and giving comfort and aid to the likes of Kamook and other friend’s; and influencing testimony that seeks to drag Peltier into this mess. It’s becoming instructive that John Trudell has known, from day one, why Anna Mae Aquash was taken prisoner, and executed; and as a witness for the prosecution, sheltered himself from possible prosecution for wrong doings he may have played in the killing of Anna Mae and its cover up. What did Trudell have to do with the killing of Anna Mae?
What has materialized is that John Trudell, and his friends, Troy Lynn Yellow Wood, Kamook Ecoffey Banks, and other federal witnesses have become FBI puppets to convict two small pawns and target Leonard Peltier. It is instructive to know that John Trudell was privy to the legal strategies in both my trial and that of Leonard Peltier’s. We are forced to look further into the possibility that Trudell may have been working with the feds as early as 1975, especially in light of the fact that Trudell implicated Dennis Banks in the murder of Anna Mae Aquash while testifying at my trial. There is nothing that explains why he should have even gave this testimony in 1976. His testimony is repeated in the Looking Cloud trial.
http://www.jfamr.org/doc/trudell.html.
We know that some where in the back ground the FBI is dirty in all of this. We know it was an FBI operative/provocateur who first started the rumors that Anna Mae was an informant. It was an FBI informant who perpetuated the rumors. It was an FBI operative/informant responsible for the death of Anna Mae. It is well known within the American Indian Movement that Trudell has attempted to place snitch jackets on several members of the American Indian Movement. In the end we must ask just when did John Trudell actually become an FBI informant? The answer would reveal much.


http://heyokamagazine.com/HEYOKA.9.BobRobideau.Trudell.htm
Published on heyokamagazine Fall 2007
Vol. 9


COMMENTS
Robert, You inspire and amaze me constantly with your courage to come out and speak your truth...from your heart. No matter what the personal consequences to yourself. You are a true warrior in every sense of the word and you stand for mother earth...first and foremost. Men and women come and go... their visions true...their visions becoming tainted. Mother earth and 'the people' come first. You stand out among the rest. The best information we can give the young ones of today...is 'GET INFORMED!' Pay attention... and listen. Things are changing at the speed of light. Watch carefully chldren where you place your energy and intention...for "Where attention goes...energy flows." I shall not take any side in this blog response... except for Mother Earth and her children...FIRST AND FOREMOST! I have watched you carefully through the years and you have not wavered. When you discover new information and truths...you follow your instincts (heart) and proceed accordingly. I respect you and listen carefully. Thank you for stepping up to the plate...over and over and speaking from your heart...no matter what the consequences. Everyone here has a decision to make. ... From the heart...! Bless you for standing tall and being true. All my relations...love, stephaniePosted by stephanie on Tuesday, July 17, 2007 at 1:58 PM