Editorial: Hope for healing in Aquash murder case

Monday, December 10, 2007  

"After more than 30 years, the wounds that Anna Mae Aquash’s death caused in the Native American community have turned into scars.

The Dec. 6 decision by the Supreme Court of Canada to send the second man accused in her 1975 murder back to South Dakota to stand trial gives us hope that those scars can now begin to fade.

John Graham, a Yukon native, has fought extradition from Canada ever since he was charged in 2003 with Aquash’s murder. Her body was found, shot in the head, on Feb. 24, 1976, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

Aquash’s daughter, Denise Maloney Pictou of Halifax, Nova Scotia, was overwhelmed by the Supreme Court’s decision, but grateful for the closure it might offer.

“We were sitting on edge hoping and praying that it would be news in our favor so we could move on,” she told the Associated Press last week."

Get the Story:
Editorial: Extradition gives hope for healing (The Rapid City Journal 12/10)

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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