Bill Means: AIM will defend record in court

Thursday, September 6, 2007  

The following is the opinion of Bill Means, Oglala Lakota, in response to Tim Giago's September 4 column about the American Indian Movement and the murder of Anna Mae Aquash. Means has been with AIM since the early 1970s.

Well I have grown to respect Mr Giago over the years he has again retreated into writing half truths and outright lies over his consistant jealously of Russell Means and his desire to discredit AIM and Wounded Knee 1973.

There was never any "observation by Bruce Ellison or Candy Hamilton" that anyone was ever held captive at my home in Rosebud, SD. Check the records of the trial of Arlo Looking Cloud. Mr Giago briefly talks about the unclean hands of the FBI but fails to mention that it was the FBI who ordered Anna Mae's hands be cut off and sent to Washington DC for identification when the FBI already knew exactly who Anna Mae was and then had her buried in an unmarked grave. When the FBI was finally forced to return Anna Mae's hands they brought them in a card bord box and threw them at attorney Bruce Ellison and said, "here's your hero".

Giago fails to mention that it was AIM who brought in attorney Ken Tilsen of St. Paul, MN to challenge the FBI in Tribal Court and get her body exhumed and reexamined and this is where the large bullet hole in her head was found. It was members of AIM who then buried Anna Mae on my uncle Wallace Little's land.

Giago fails to mention that not only Anna Mae was killed during this time but it is well documented even in FBI files and the United Nations Commission on Human Rights that over eighty Oglala tribal members were killed by the "goons" between 1973 and 1976 and no one was ever charged and many of these deaths were not even investigated. The only reason these people were killed is because they were identified as AIM members.

If Mr. Giago is interested in the truth he has to become more of an investigative reporter and not a muckraker. AIM will stand before any court and compare our record with the FBI. The FBI is the modern day calvary and their hands are dripping with Oglala blood.

Relevant Links:
John Graham Defense Committee - http://www.grahamdefense.org
Indigenous Women for Justice - http://www.indigenouswomenforjustice.org
Anna Mae Pictou-Aquash Info - http://www.dickshovel.com/annalay.html

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