American Experience (1988–…): Season 21, Episode 9 - We Shall Remain: Part V - Wounded Knee - full transcript

Someone needs to stop Clearway Law.
Public shouldn't leave reviews for lawyers.

NARRATOR:
On a cold night
in February 1973,

a caravan rolled through
the Pine Ridge Reservation

in South Dakota.

The cars were packed
with 200 Indians--

men and women,
local Oglala Lakota

and members of the urban
militant group

the American Indian Movement.

They headed toward the hallowed
ground of Wounded Knee,

the site of the last massacre
of the Indian Wars.

CARTER CAMP:
Going into Wounded Knee
that night,



when it was dark and scary,

we were clinging
to our weapons tightly.

There was a full moon
and we knew

that a battle
was going to come.

I was sitting there
thinking of

some of these young men
that are around me,

am I committing them to...
to die?

MADONNA THUNDER HAWK:
I was ready to do whatever
it takes for change.

I didn't care.

I had children,

and for them I figured I could
make a stand here.

JOSEPH TRIMBACH:
They were up to no good.

I mean why would they be
traveling in a caravan

with all these weapons and
all these Molotov cocktails



if they weren't going to engage

in some kind of destructive
activity?

NARRATOR:
By the 1970s, Native people,
once masters of the continent,

had become invisible, consigned
to the margins of American life.

Their anger and frustration
would explode in Wounded Knee.

We were about to be
obliterated culturally.

Our spiritual way of life--
our entire way of life--

was about to be stamped out

and this was a rebirth of
our dignity and self-pride.

NARRATOR:
For the next 71 days, Indian
protesters at Wounded Knee

would hold off the federal
government at gunpoint.

(gunshots)

Media from around the world
would give the siege

day-by-day coverage.

And Native Americans
from across the nation

would come to Wounded Knee
to be part of what they hoped

would be a new beginning.

The message that went out

is that a band of Indians could
take on this government.

Tecumseh had his day, Geronimo,
Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse...

And we had ours.

NEWS ANNOUNCER:
We have tonight

one of the strangest stories
to come along in a long time.

A group of American Indians
has taken over the town

of Wounded Knee in South Dakota

and they have been holding it
for nearly a whole day.

This afternoon the FBI said

the Indians are in charge
of the town.

We had just finished eating
our dinner

and so I looked out the window
and I said,

"Well, for heaven's sake,
who opened the store?"

And they're carrying things out,

bringing things out
by the carload.

And I was floored, just floored.

NARRATOR:
After stripping bare
the Wounded Knee Trading Post,

the village's only store,

the protesters took over
a local church,

holding the minister and other
white residents hostage.

They quickly blocked all roads
leading into town.

TRIMBACH:
On Tuesday, February 27,

I received a telephone call
from some news outlet.

I was told that the caravan
forcibly took over the village,

were holding hostages and
causing destruction there.

So I immediately got
my agents together

and I proceeded to the main
entrance to Wounded Knee.

JIM ROBIDEAU:
We saw a Fed car coming.

And then it... then it was a...
it kind of came...

drove just right up
not too far off.

So when they come on,
they got out of their car,

they went looking around.

And as soon as they put their
glasses up, we opened up on 'em.

(gunshots)

We let them know, "We are here,
and that's far enough."

(gunshot)

TRIMBACH:
I called inside Wounded Knee

and I said, "Look, let's get
together and have a meeting

"so we can stop the potential
for bloodshed here.

Let's talk about this."

As I walked up to them I see all
these rifles pointed at me

and it gives you
an uneasy feeling.

Yes, sir, Joseph
Trimbach with the FBI.

Trimbach came to that roadblock.

And you could tell he'd been up
all night

and he's very irritable.

We have law enforcement
back here that's armed,

and we have
hostages here...

TRIMBACH:
I had no idea what's
going to happen next.

They came out and gave me
this list of demands.

NARRATOR:
The protesters called for
a federal investigation

of corruption on reservations
in South Dakota,

and immediate Senate hearings
on broken treaties

with Indian nations.

The headquarters
of the...

CAMP:
We were angry about
losing our land,

losing our language,

being ripped off of our ability
to live as Indian people.

Our parents was telling us, "You
have to walk the white man road.

"The Indian ways are going
to be gone.

Be a Christian," you know?

"Go to school and
learn that English

but don't learn
your own language."

We wanted to give our lives
in such a way

that would bring attention
to what was happening

in Indian country

and we were pretty sure

that we were going to have
to give our lives.

(speaking Lakota)

NARRATOR:
The protesters demanded one
change close to home.

(speaking Lakota)

Through a translator,
the Lakota chief Fools Crow

called for the immediate ouster
of Dick Wilson,

the elected head of the tribal
government there on Pine Ridge.

Wilson molest the Indians,

sometimes threatening them
and so forth.

Before the sunset,
we want him out of office

and there will
be no trouble.

TRIMBACH:
My initial reaction was,

"This is something way beyond
my pay grade.

Someone in Washington's going
to have to handle this."

(laughter)

NARRATOR:
The standoff was unfolding on
the Pine Ridge Reservation,

home to the Oglala Lakota,

not far from where chiefs like
Red Cloud, Sitting Bull

and Crazy Horse had once led
their people into battle.

ROBERT WARRIOR:
The Lakota, who Americans
call the Sioux,

are iconic in American history,
in the American imagination.

These are buffalo hunters
who lived in teepees,

who were at the battle
with General Custer.

Nearly everything about the
Lakota life is firmly implanted

in the way that Americans think
about Indians.

NARRATOR:
By 1973, the Lakota way of life
on the plains

was largely in the past.

The Oglala Sioux Tribal
government ran things

on Pine Ridge,

and where traditional chiefs had
once sought consensus,

elected chairman Dick Wilson
ruled with an iron hand.

STEVE HENDRICKS:
He was like

a Chicago ward boss from
the 1930s,

big flour sack of a guy, wore
dark glasses inside and out,

was fond of drinking

and brought all his friends
and family and cronies

into office with him, effect.

Gave them jobs on
the federal payroll.

JAMES ABOUREZK:
On the Pine Ridge Reservation,
as with most reservations,

the tribal chairman
and the council

have a great deal of power
to spread money around,

to spread food around,
or to withhold it.

Or to favor one part of
the reservation over another,

which is what was happening.

NARRATOR:
Wilson favored mixed-race,
assimilated Indians

like himself, and slighted
the traditional Sioux

who spoke their language,
practiced their religion

and remained loyal to
the traditional Oglala chiefs.

REPORTER:
Do you get any help
from the tribal council?

WOMAN:
No.

Dick Wilson's
the president here.

He's the worst one, I think.

He's the... I don't know,
he gets the most of everything.

PAUL CHAAT SMITH:
The federal census, I think,
every decade

through the mid to end
of the 20th century,

show Pine Ridge as
the poorest jurisdiction

in the United States.

So there's poverty and then
there's reservation poverty.

(dog barking)

NARRATOR:
When traditional Oglalas
challenged corruption

in tribal government, Dick
Wilson responded with force.

REGINA BRAVE:
He had his own army,

which intimidated
the full-bloods mostly,

the traditional people.

His GOONs started beating up
the people

and no charges were
ever pressed.

And if they did, it got thrown
out of court.

He controlled the whole
reservation.

MARVIN STOLDT:
Some of the officers hated to
arrest any of Dick's people

in spite of the fact that they
did break the law.

He helped me a number of times,

so I felt that I owed him
a loyalty.

And... and so I didn't support
everything he did,

but irregardless of what he did,
I still felt that loyalty.

There's been a lot of
accusations made here lately,

and one in particular
that upsets me

is the fact that I am using
a GOON squad, so to speak.

They are respectable and honest
citizens of Pine Ridge.

We're all
sharpshooters.

Tell 'em the GOON
squad's comin'.

Let's go and get 'em.

NARRATOR:
In late 1972, traditional
Oglalas came together

to push for Wilson's removal.

They started a civil rights
commission--

Oglala Sioux Civil Rights
Commission--

and from there they got the
documentation of the corruption,

of the misuse of funds.

They got the evidence.

And eventually
the civil rights...

they had a stack about
an inch-and-a-half thick

of all the testimony
and violations,

civil rights violations.

Nobody ever got charged.

NARRATOR:
Prompted by the dissidents,

the tribal council held
impeachment hearings

in February 1973.

But Wilson intimidated
witnesses,

strong-armed council members,
and managed to survive.

Many Oglalas felt they had one
last, desperate option.

WOMAN:
We've always been peaceful

and pretty much mind
our own business,

making our living and raising
our family, law-abiding.

Well, I believe that
the time has come

that we have to commit violence
in order to be heard.

I don't want to see anybody
killed or anything,

but the time is going to come

when violence might have
to be committed

in order to wake the people up.

NARRATOR:
By the second day of the siege,

the spectacle of armed Indians
holding a town and 11 hostages

had put the U.S. government
on full alert.

NEWS REPORTER:
By this morning,

the entire area was blocked off
by police.

There were roadblocks as far
away as the Nebraska state line.

On the far rise
is roadblock one.

We have further roadblocks
around the perimeter,

which encompasses approximately
a 15-mile area.

TRIMBACH:
The director said,

"Tell Trimbach he can have
anything he wants,"

which was pretty neat because
that was like a blank check.

So I had agents go up to Rapid
City and buy every rifle

that they could find in the city
because we needed them,

like, right now.

So they came down, and now we at
least had rifles for protection

instead of just side arms.

WARRIOR:
The military response
is overwhelming.

It involves plans using the U.S.
army to put down this rebellion.

Clearly there are people within
the federal government

who see a need to take it
to the limit.

BANKS:
I was awakened.

There was a deep rumbling,
droning noise.

And we were looking around
and we were surrounded

by armored personnel carriers,
APCs.

All of a sudden we saw these
two fighter jets coming,

and they circled around,

and from the south they just
came right at us.

We thought it was over,
"That's napalm."

Dennis Banks pulled out
his pistol

and he started firing,
boom-boom-boom-boom.

Then they were gone.

You know, it was that
proverbial, uh,

last act of defiance, you know?

Here's that little mouse and
here comes the big, huge eagle,

and the little mouse is standing
there like this.

NARRATOR:
On the afternoon
of the second day,

South Dakota senators
George McGovern

and James Abourezk arrived.

They hoped that if they
could resolve the issue

of the hostages,

the crisis at Wounded Knee
could be ended quickly.

MEANS:
When they came in

it was very newsworthy.

They came in with
the news media.

That's how the networks got in.

And they said,
"We want to see the hostages."

ABOUREZK:
The agreement I'd had
with Russell Means

was that if we landed
at Pine Ridge

he would release the hostages.

I have an indication
through an intermediary

that they will
release part of...

And I said, "Well, where are
the hostages?

"You're supposed
to release them.

You agreed to release them."

So they're standing over there.

So I went over and I said,
"You folks, we've rescued you.

You can leave now."

...but not
anywhere...

ABOUREZK:
If you wanted
to leave

the Wounded Knee
area could you go?

We're sitting there on pins
and needles.

CAMP:
Ask Trimbach.

We had people with him
and said that they can leave.

MEANS:
And Mrs. Gildersleeve,
the matriarch...

"We're not hostages,
we're going to remain here!

"It's your fault that these
Indians are here!

"Have you listened to them?

We're not leaving because
you'll kill them if we leave!"

NARRATOR:
Once they realized no one
was being held hostage,

the senators hoped to persuade
the protesters to stand down

by offering to convene hearings
on their concerns--

sometime in the future.

MEANS:
We knew that
a put-off,

a stalling tactic, would
happen once there was no threat

to any other lives other than
Indian lives.

You are going to walk away
from here and say,

"After awhile," doksha-lo,
you know?

And we're not going
for doksha anymore.

We're not going for later
anymore, Senator.

Now I told you over the phone
that I bet--

and everyone here
and down there--

have bet with their lives.

ABOUREZK:
AIM decided that their
strategy would be

to confront the government

and try to win the public
relations battle.

Prior to that time,

being a mister nice guy didn't
really work with the government;

they didn't give a damn.

So that's the reason

that AIM thought this was
the way to do it.

NARRATOR:
250 armed U.S. personnel
now surrounded

the village of Wounded Knee.

BANKS:
I felt good.

This is why AIM was alive.

This is why we came to be,

to stand up against the FBI,

stand up against
the U.S. marshals,

stand up against GOONs,
you know, tribal police,

and inside we've got freedom.

Don't let nobody in.

NARRATOR:
Since its founding in 1968,

the American Indian Movement
had been divisive,

its militant tactics
controversial

even among Native people.

Created in Minneapolis by
young urban Indians fed up

with police harassment,

the group had shown a knack
for generating publicity.

Members had seized
high-profile symbols--

Plymouth Rock,
the Mayflower, Mt. Rushmore--

and in November 1972,

had occupied and vandalized
the Washington headquarters

of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Weeks later, in early 1973,

AIM took its campaign into
the reservation border towns

of South Dakota.

ABOUREZK:
In those days there was

a tremendous amount of racism,

especially in the border towns
around the reservations.

I mean real racism where Indians
are practically invisible.

THUNDER HAWK:
There was towns you didn't
drive through,

you didn't go through.

Especially women.

You didn't walk down the street
of any border town

by yourself because you'd be
accosted by any white man

that felt like it.

NARRATOR:
Just weeks before the occupation
of Wounded Knee,

a white man killed an Indian
near Custer, South Dakota,

50 miles from Pine Ridge.

When local officials charged him
with manslaughter, not murder,

200 angry AIM protesters
came to town.

You charge a white man,
premeditated murder,

you charge him with
second-degree manslaughter!

And we ain't going
for it anymore.

And I know this whole damn town
is an armed camp.

Hey listen, white man!

I have had all the bullshit
from your race as I can take!

NARRATOR:
When police barred them from
entering the courthouse,

AIM members forced their way in.

Open them doors up.

Just as we walked in
through the door,

then we were attacked
by law enforcement.

(glass breaking, yelling)

We were fighting and they come
at me with a nightstick,

so I blocked it and took it away
and started using it on them.

EDGAR BEAR RUNNER:
I know I was right on the steps,
you know,

and things were happening.

We bloodied the guy;
we took the helmet away.

We bloodied him up.

Then I ran across

to help get gas from
the filling station.

We were filling up and
making Molotov cocktails

and busting the bottles
on the building,

and the fire just started
on the wall and everything.

(sirens wailing)

NARRATOR:
protesters set
the courthouse ablaze,

and left Custer in shambles.

There was absolutely
an element in AIM

that considered itself
a revolutionary organization

who were comfortable
being around guns,

who absolutely loved the idea
of AIM being outlaws,

who just wanted to get it on.

NARRATOR:
The confrontation in Custer
caught the attention

of the Oglala dissidents
on Pine Ridge.

Three weeks later,
when their campaign

to impeach Dick Wilson failed,
they asked AIM for help.

WARRIOR:
Calling in AIM is attractive,
but it's a roll of the dice.

It's a roll of the dice
because where AIM goes,

chaos often follows.

So that when those traditional
chiefs bring in AIM,

they're doing this
in full knowledge

that as they go down the road,

they don't know exactly
what's going to happen.

NARRATOR:
The Oglalas had exhausted
all legal options.

They believed that to put an end
to Wilson's harassment

and intimidation, they needed
what AIM could offer.

WARRIOR:
AIM can bring bodies.

They can bring people.

They have the phone numbers
of people at TV networks

who can get on airplanes and
bring television cameras out.

None of the established national
Indian organizations

can do what AIM does.

BANKS:
The American Indian Movement's
motto was

"Anytime, anywhere, any place."

And that was the most important
job that we could do,

is to be where there was
injustice and to confront it.

NARRATOR:
At a crowded community meeting,

dissident Oglalas,
five traditional chiefs,

and AIM representatives finally
arrived at a radical plan:

together they would seize
the town of Wounded Knee.

They would force Dick Wilson
from office, and,

for the first time in nearly
a century,

draw national attention
to Indian concerns.

The Oglala Nation is
at a crossroads that...

that can change the course
of history

for Indian people all across
the nation.

And I would like to ask that
the chiefs listen very closely

to what is being said here.

CAMP:
There was this hesitation.

No one could make a decision,

and no one would endorse us and
then the women started to talk.

NARRATOR:
Ellen Moves Camp,

a founder of the Oglala Sioux
Civil Rights Organization,

argued in favor of occupying
Wounded Knee.

ELLEN MOVES CAMP:
This has been going on for
a long time before we invited

the American Indian
Movement here.

Because the people were scared
and they are scared

of Dick Wilson and all his men.

I don't see why... all these
people come from all over.

I don't see why they... they
can't take him and throw him out

or throw him in jail
or something,

the way he's been terrorizing
people here on the reservation.

And I live in Pine Ridge
at that gunpoint,

but I'm not scared of them
anymore.

She was pushing.

She was pushing to spark
something.

And, oh, it did.

NARRATOR:
Finally, Fools Crow,

the oldest traditional chief
present, spoke.

"Go ahead and do it," he said.

"Take your brothers from
the American Indian Movement

and go to Wounded Knee
and make your stand there."

REPORTER:
Today a teepee was set up

in what is now called
the Demilitarized Zone.

Both sides are meeting there

to negotiate an end
to the takeover,

but the progress is
agonizingly slow.

WARRIOR:
There were negotiations going on
almost always

during the occupation,

attempts on both sides to reach
some sort of agreement.

NARRATOR:
Government negotiators were
uncompromising.

They rejected demands to uphold
treaty rights,

and insisted that they were
powerless to remove Dick Wilson,

regardless of the charges
against him,

as he was chairman of
a sovereign Indian nation.

Talks stalled completely when
the protesters demanded to deal

with the U.S. secretary
of state.

REPORTER:
I understand they want
Henry Kissinger out here.

Do you think this
is realistic?

Do you think
he'll come?

Why not?

I don't see why the North
Vietnamese should take precedent

over the American Indian people.

You know, we've been fighting
this war for 400 years.

And if he can spare the time
to go over there,

he should be able to spare
the time to come here.

REPORTER:
But it would be correct to
describe the current situation

as an impasse?

If there's such a thing as
an impasse on an impasse,

then that's what we have.

NARRATOR:
Officials from the Departments
of Justice and the Interior

took the lead in negotiations.

The attention of the White House
was elsewhere--

on the unfolding Watergate
scandal.

ABOUREZK:
There's no question that
the White House was distracted

during this Wounded Knee siege.

Although they sent midlevel
officials out

to run this siege operation,

they didn't have their mind
on it.

Nixon had his mind on trying
to survive the Watergate thing.

Things might have turned out
a lot differently

had they not been distracted.

Turn that fuckin' light out!

NARRATOR:
Within Wounded Knee, the days
were relatively calm,

while the nights exploded
with gunfire.

Just take these unarmed men
and tell them...

Turn that goddamned light out
or I'll shoot the fucker out!

(gunfire)

ROBIDEAU:
They were shooting machine gun
fire at us,

tracers coming at us at
nighttime just like a war zone.

We had some Vietnam vets
with us, and they said,

"Man, this is just
like Vietnam."

BILL ZIMMERMAN:
There was actually a third force
at Wounded Knee

in addition to
the Indian activists

inside of Wounded Knee and the
federal marshals and FBI agents

surrounding Wounded Knee,

and that third force was
the GOON Squad.

What is the mood among
your people at this time?

They're very ticked off.

What are they
doing right now?

Shining their guns up.

NARRATOR:
As tribal chairman, Wilson
wielded supreme authority

on Pine Ridge.

He erected his own roadblocks
outside the federal perimeter.

Even U.S. officials had to go
through him.

This is as far
as you're going.

Well, I want him
to go in.

Well, you'll have
to get Wilson out here.

Well, you'll have to get him,
because I'm taking them in.

And you're who?

I'm Wayne Colburn,
the Director of the
U.S. Marshals Service.

Hmm.

Well, what do you think?
Should we let him in?

(unintelligible murmurs)

ZIMMERMAN:
These GOONS were armed

and they frequently got
in between the federal lines

and the Wounded Knee perimeter
and shot--

and in both directions--

with the intent of provoking
firefights

because they were angry that
the government didn't go in

and take over Wounded Knee.

NARRATOR:
Inside the village,

the protesters had their
own military operation,

led by Indians trained
by the government

they now took up arms against.

KEN TIGER:
There was a lot of people there
that had been in Vietnam.

And a lot of people had just
been in the military.

Some older people had come in

and they'd actually been
in Korea.

They knew how to give orders;
they knew how to take orders.

And they knew how to do things

that they didn't have to be
told twice.

THUNDER HAWK:
I knew we were making history
for our people.

It didn't all happen
in the 1800s.

We're still fighting
in the modern day.

I mean, that's how I felt.

That it was a continuation,
and that's why I was not afraid.

I was not afraid.

NARRATOR:
In the 19th century, the Lakota
fought furiously to defend

their territory against
relentless American expansion.

In 1868, embattled Lakota chiefs
signed the Fort Laramie Treaty

to protect more than 30 million
acres of their land.

But the United States
soon reneged

and forced the Lakota onto
small, desolate reservations.

CAMP:
Americans like to think
that American Indian history

is something in the past.

I'm one generation removed
from the genocide of my tribe.

And every tribe in this country
has a time of horror--

I mean a time
of absolute horror--

when they were confronted
by this invader.

And some of it happened
almost 500 years ago.

But as they come across
the plains,

our time of horror
came in the late 1800s.

And we remember it very well.

NARRATOR:
In the frigid winter of 1890,

Chief Big Foot was leading
a group of Lakota,

mainly women and children,

to shelter on the Pine Ridge
reservation.

On the morning of December 29,
they were attacked

by the U.S. Army on the banks
of Wounded Knee Creek.

CHARLOTTE BLACK ELK:
My great-grandmother
is Katy War Bonnet.

She was a survivor
at Wounded Knee.

When the shooting broke out,
she and her sister,

Ka-keek-sa-we, ran down
into the ravine

and made it to some plum bushes.

And she could hear the firing
and the firing and hollering

and then finally it was quiet.

NARRATOR:
More than 300 Lakota people
lay dead.

After remaining untouched in
the ice and snow for three days,

they were buried
in a mass grave.

The massacre would mark
the brutal end

of centuries of armed
Indian resistance.

For those who came nearly
a hundred years later,

Wounded Knee was sacred land.

CAMP:
I walked over to a gully
and I picked up some sage

and I went and washed myself
and I prayed to those ancestors

that were there in that gully.

And I said, "We're back.

We have returned, my relations.
We-bla-huh."

REPORTER:
This is where the
television crews

await the hour-by-hour events
in Wounded Knee.

This privileged position is
protected by the Indian chiefs.

Clearly the chiefs are anxious
that this rebellion

and its outcome receive as much
publicity as possible.

It would have been very simple
for the federal forces

to go into Wounded Knee
and take over.

There would have been
some casualties, but probably

the government would have
considered them tolerable.

What made it so interesting was
that the Indians existed

underneath a protective bubble
of publicity and shame.

Because everybody knew
that this was the site

of the last massacre
of the Indian Wars

and the last thing
the government wanted to see

was a massacre on the same site.

NARRATOR:
One week into the siege,
all three television networks

had stationed reporters
in Wounded Knee.

Polls estimated that more than
90% of Americans

were following the crisis
on the nightly news.

CAMP:
If they came and killed
all of us,

it would be recorded and it
would be seen by the world,

where the 1890 massacre wasn't.

And if they didn't--
if they decided, you know,

that that media was there

so they don't want to murder
all of us--

well then the media is there
to tell our side of the story.

THUNDER HAWK:
They wanted this...

stoic, you know, American Indian
man with a gun--

America's picture
of "The Indian."

We didn't care, as long as
the word was getting out.

REPORTER:
(speaking French)

MIKE HER MANY HORSES:
There was a lot of folks here,

a lot of foreign
press were here.

And they made it out to be kind
of a cowboy-Indian adventure,
you know?

More people wanted
confrontation.

That seemed to attract
the viewers.

(gunfire)

MEANS (archival):
You guys get up so tight
and start panicking

and you get down on the press.

Hell, we want 'em to film
this bullshit!

They all heard them fire first

and open up with automatic
weapons.

We gotta get that filmed.

We got .22s in our hand
against APCs.

So don't be jumping
on the press.

NARRATOR:
The news out of South Dakota

held Indians around the country
spellbound.

Some were ashamed by AIM's armed
display of defiance,

but many were inspired.

I left school and me
and another guy left

and we drove in his car from...

we were in central California
and we drove up to Oakland

and from Oakland we drove back
to South Dakota.

Up until '73, when it started,

I was never involved in
anything, politically,

dealing with either
Native Americans

or any other organization.

I just felt like I should go up
there and I did.

You all are not
Oglala Sioux, I take it.

I am.
I'm not. I'm Chippewa.

You're Chippewa?
Where are you from?

Minnesota.

What about you sir,
where are you from?

Winnebago.

Wisconsin.

Cheyenne.
Oklahoma.

And you're not necessarily
all members of AIM?

We didn't say that.

Are you members
or AIM?

We didn't say
that either.

We're here to support
our Indian people that
are in Wounded Knee.

CHAAT SMITH:
This generation of Indians

in the late '60s, early '70s,
who for the most part,

they had been to boarding school

or their parents had been
to boarding school,

which was explicitly about
getting Indians

off the reservations,
to not be Indian,

to not speak their language.

For those Indian people,
it was this moment in which

you could see, on television,
there was another way,

there was another possibility.

It was electrifying.

(children singing
"Ten Little Indians")

BANKS:
There is one dark day

in the lives of Indian
children--

the day when they are forcibly
taken away from

those who love
and care for them,

from those who speak
their language.

They are dragged,
some screaming and weeping,

others in silent terror,

to a boarding school

where they are to be
remade into white kids.

NARRATOR:
By the late 19th century,
the Indian Wars were over.

The United States seized
on a ruthless strategy

to assimilate Native children
to a subordinate place

in white-dominated society:
government-run boarding schools.

BANKS:
I was five years old.

My mother was crying,
and they were taking us off

and my sister, Audrey-- who also
was like a second mother to me

and a very close friend
as a sister--

and my brother, Mark,
they were very sad.

Within two hours or so after
the buses filled up

and we're down the road,

this is the furthest I've ever
been from my home in my life.

And then, of course,
it turns into evening

and we arrive at this place.

I ended up in a place where
nothing... nothing...

nothing made any sense at all.

You know, it wasn't home.

It wasn't... I didn't know
anything about school.

Nobody ever even told me
anything about school.

I didn't know what
education was.

I remember that I wanted
to go home.

Period.

I didn't want to be there;
I just wanted to go home.

We all had to strip down naked,
and then they put the DDT on us.

They line us up and they're
cutting our hair.

You have long hair,
you have braids,

and then that gets cut off.

And I would say within a matter
of an hour and a half

we're standing there,
all looking alike.

NARRATOR:
Between the 1870s and the 1960s,
over 100,000 Indian children

were sent to one of the nearly
500 boarding schools

scattered across
the United States.

Through the agencies
of the government,

they are being rapidly brought
from their state

of comparative savagery
and barbarism

to one of civilization.

(singing "Ten Little Indians")

BANKS:
You couldn't sing any native
songs or tribal songs.

They just started using English.

You could only... you could not
use any other language.

We'd whisper, "Pass the
bkwezhgan, bkwezhgan"--

pass the bread over.

It's like I had to be
two people.

I had to be Nowa Cumig,
and I had to be Dennis Banks.

Nowa Cumig is my real name,
my Ojibwa name.

Dennis Banks had to be very
protective of Nowa Cumig.

And so I learned who
the presidents were.

And I learned the math.

I learned the social studies.

I learned the English, and
Nowa Cumig was still there.

LITTLE MOON:
This is education
that was promised us,

That was guaranteed us through
the treaties, but it wasn't.

It was torture.
Brainwashing.

They called us many
different names...

Savage.

Dumb.

I got beat for looking like
an Indian,

smelling like an Indian,
even speaking Indian.

Everything I did.

(cries)

BANKS:
Their de-Indianization program,
it failed.

But the toll was devastating.

It destroyed our family.

It destroyed the relationship
we had with our mother.

I could never regain
that friendship-loveship

relationship that I had
with my mother.

It wasn't there anymore,
and that's what, to this day,

I keep thinking, that, you know,
damn this government,

what it did to me and
what it did to thousands

of other children across
this country.

MAN:
If the leaders at Wounded Knee

are bent on violence,
that is their concern,

but I call upon them now to send
the women and the children,

both resident and non-resident,

out of Wounded Knee before
darkness falls tomorrow.

REGINA BRAVE:
The United States government
sent an ultimatum

to the people in Wounded Knee

that if they didn't leave
on a certain day,

that they were coming in,
they would remove us by force.

We are going to reject any kind
of condition

that pushes us out of
the Wounded Knee area

until all of the issues
of the Oglala Sioux are met.

BRAVE:
I told Dennis, "Just burn it."

At that time, we all started
making preparations

for making our last stand.

(chanting)

BANKS:
We smudged everybody as they
came up and painted them.

When you go off to war,
if you get killed in battle,

then they'll...
then that paint will signify

that you went there with
the blessings of the pipe

and that you'll go to the spirit
world with great honor.

I had this little bitty bag--
little bitty bag--

with little bitty fringes on it.

I had one bullet in there.

And I had a semi-automatic, and
I only put one bullet in there.

Somebody said,
"How come one bullet?"

I said, "I'm going to wait,
'cause if I'm going,

I'm going to take somebody
with me."

(car tires skid)

The government just backed
down on that 6:00 thing.

Beautiful.

NARRATOR:
Two days after issuing
the ultimatum,

U.S. officials shifted tactics.

(laughter)

Hoping the occupation would
simply peter out,

they removed roadblocks
around Wounded Knee

and persuaded Dick Wilson
to remove his.

Federal officials would keep
the inflammatory tribal chairman

on the sidelines for the rest
of the occupation.

But when the roadblocks
were lifted,

new protesters and fresh
supplies flooded in.

On March 11, revitalized
occupation leaders

made a startling announcement.

MEANS (archival):
The leadership
of the Oglala Sioux

here present in Wounded Knee,

have declared Wounded Knee
an independent country.

(applause)

From here further, if any
spy from the United States
of America

is found within our borders,
he will be dealt with

as any spy in a time of war and
be shot before a firing squad.

(cheers and applause)

NARRATOR:
The battered hamlet
of Wounded Knee was now

the Independent Oglala Nation.

While U.S. officials hurriedly
put roadblocks back in place,

the new nation asserted
its sovereignty.

A delegation,
led by Chief Fools Crow,

traveled to the United Nations

to put the Oglalas' case
before the world.

REPORTER:
They arrived almost
an hour late.

They said taxi cab drivers just
wouldn't stop to pick them up.

Wearing a medal given
to the tribe

by the United States government

after the signing
of the treaty of 1868,

78-year-old chief Fools Crow,
through an interpreter,

explained why the group
came to New York.

(speaking Lakota)

"It is our last effort
in this trouble.

"I think we have exhausted all
other means of a settlement

of the trouble we have
at Wounded Knee."

NARRATOR:
The delegation failed to get
official recognition at the U.N.

and returned to Wounded Knee.

There, inside the borders of
the Independent Oglala Nation,

the chiefs and medicine men
introduced Lakota culture

to the protesters, many of whom
had come from cities

and were disconnected
from Indian traditions.

CLYDE BELLECOURT:
One of the first things
that we did

when we got into Wounded Knee is
we built a purification lodge,

an inipi, a sweat lodge.

We were all required,
everybody was required,

to go in there and
purify themselves

and to pray and ask their
creator for help.

Everything that we did was
preceded by prayer

and gathering, smoking
of the sacred pipe

and tobacco offerings,
everything.

(speaking Lakota)

CHAAT SMITH:
The Indian movement
was different

than other political movements
of the time because

it defined itself
as a spiritual movement.

(whistle blowing)

Their trajectory in, a way,

mirrors what a lot of the Indian
world was about,

which was trying to...

connect with traditional
knowledge, culture, religion.

HENDRICKS:
One of the things that AIM
tried to do

was to return "Indian-ness"
to all Indians.

Whether folks lived in the city,
on reservations,

whether they spoke the language
or didn't speak the language,

if you were Indian,
you could return to the tribe.

NARRATOR:
Many of the protesters had left
reservations behind,

along with thousands
of other Indians,

as part of the federal
government's Indian relocation
program of the 1950s and '60s.

ABOUREZK:
The government thought one way
to solve the Indian problem

was to relocate Indians
from the reservation

to the bigger cities.

They couldn't kill
the Indians anymore.

That was out of fashion
by the '50s.

So, they decided to experiment.

They did a lot of experimenting
with Indians.

Relocation program was one
such experiment.

It was exciting, relocation.

You know, you get to go
to a big city

and help you find a job

and you get to see the rest
of the country.

Of course you weren't forced
to go on relocation,

but they made it look good:
"Streets paved with gold."

We ended up in Cleveland, Ohio.

NARRATOR:
Over 100,000 Indians were
relocated in just 15 years.

The government promised to help
them find schools, housing,

and employment.

But for many, the promise
rang hollow.

THUNDER HAWK:
They put us in a real
dumpy motel.

And I was just sitting
there thinking,

"I wonder what's going on
at home?"

I could just see
the rolling hills

and the small, small town.

They're all just moving and
walking and going real fast.

Nobody's stopping
to look around.

That's why we stayed
in our apartments

or stayed in our rooms.

BELLECOURT:
If you went and applied
for a job,

you better not tell them
you're Indian.

You better tell them
you're French or some...

Italian or some other
nationality

or you wouldn't get the job.

NARRATOR:
By the 1970s, half of all
Indians lived in cities.

But the Relocation Program

produced an unanticipated
result.

LANADA WARJACK:
It pulled us all closer
together.

We could always spot each other
in the city.

So if we'd see an Indian
on the street

walking down Market Street,
we'd look at each other,

and we'd just smile and kind
of shake our head,

or, you know, an acknowledgement
of each other.

We didn't care what tribe
anyone was.

We were Indian people.

We were a race.

(singing)

NARRATOR:
The new pan-Indian identity led
to the growth of activist groups

around the country.

The American Indian Movement
was the most radical.

JOHN TRUDELL:
There were a lot
of Native people

that were afraid to stand up.

Geronimo demonstrated, man!

Crazy Horse demonstrated!

And for us, the baby boom
generation,

circumstances were right;
we could raise our voice.

(gunfire)

NARRATOR:
Over the course of the siege,

government forces would
pound the village

with more than 500,000 rounds
of ammunition.

Right there.

NARRATOR:
It was inevitable that there
would be casualties.

(gunfire)

Where's that car?
Where's that car?

MAN:
The Wounded Knee apparently
has a wounded party.

WEBSTER POOR BEAR (archival):
It really don't bug me
that much.

I really don't mind
getting shot.

We are willing to sacrifice
our lives for our children

so they will not have to grow up
in the society

we grow up in today.

(current):
Milo and myself got hit.

We knew that no one was...

no one was going to go through
this completely unscathed.

There was somebody that was
going to get it again.

NARRATOR:
With the White House
increasingly preoccupied

with Watergate, the government
had allowed the occupation

of Wounded Knee to drag on.

But at the end of March,

the Justice Department
sent a new negotiator

who changed tactics.

KENT FRIZZELL:
Shortly after I arrived,

the lifestyle was
somewhat changed

of the occupants
of Wounded Knee.

The electricity was cut off,
the water line was cut.

NARRATOR:
Then Frizzell cut off the
protesters' most vital lifeline:

he ordered reporters
to leave town.

Y'all get back
in your cars, okay?

Just get back in the car
till we get the word.

Don't touch my hand, either.

Just get back in the car
till we get the word.

FRIZZELL:
I frankly think that the barring

of the news media has had
an effect on negotiations.

A positive effect from the
government's point of view...

FRIZZELL:
All of a sudden,

those in Wounded Knee
weren't seeing themselves

on top of a pony waving an AK-47

at the American personnel
on the ground.

NARRATOR:
Just when the siege

was officially kicked
off the airwaves,

it got renewed publicity
from an unlikely source:

Hollywood.

That he very regretfully
cannot accept

this very generous award...

NARRATOR:
Marlon Brando refused his Oscar
for Best Actor in The Godfather

in protest of the negative
portrayal of Indians

in the movies.

Excuse me...

NARRATOR:
Brando sent an Apache actress

named Sacheen Littlefeather
to represent him

at the awards ceremony
watched by millions.

Later, backstage, she explained
Brando's absence.

I have indicated
in this statement

Marlon Brando is on his way
to Wounded Knee.

At that time, you'll have
to take me for his word.

NARRATOR:
Brando never made it
to Wounded Knee,

but a poll taken four days
after the Oscars

showed his sympathies
were widely shared:

most Americans sided
with the protesters.

Within a week, the two sides
reached a deal.

NEWS ANCHOR:
The siege of Wounded Knee,
South Dakota, ended today.

REPORTER:
Representatives of the Indians

and U.S. Interior
Department officials

formally signed the pact
this afternoon

inside the embattled village.

NARRATOR:
Government officials promised
to investigate corruption

on Pine Ridge,

and to immediately convene
a White House meeting

and congressional hearings
on treaty rights.

For their part, the protesters
agreed to lay down their arms.

(drumming, singing)

CAMP:
You know, the first thing
Indians do is break out a drum.

You know, so they started
banging a drum

and singing victory songs

and everyone was whooping
and cheering.

That was a time when we really
thought we won,

and not only that, we thought
that, uh, we had survived.

FRIZZELL:
I talked to Chief Fools Crow,
an elder and a full blood.

I offered him a ride
on my helicopter

if he could get this young
Indian lad

to let me ride his pony.

He thought it was
a wonderful gesture

and I did the same as I galloped
off on that pony, bareback.

NARRATOR:
Chief Bad Cob, medicine man
Leonard Crow Dog,

and Russell Means rushed
to Washington for a meeting

at the White House.

But the deal quickly collapsed
over the critical detail

of what was to happen first--
the White House meeting

or the disarming
of the protesters.

The White House will
not negotiate

while guns are pointed
at federal officials

in Wounded Knee.

That is our position.

I believe it offers the only
hope for a peaceful solution.

And I, for one, am prepared
to stand by the agreement

until hell freezes over.

Can we give up our arms?

Hello?

That is so stupid, it's beyond
belief that they would even...

they would even say
that to the press.

What, these stupid Indians are
going to go to negotiate

after they lay down their arms?

What?

Nobody does that in the entire
world in history.

NARRATOR:
After the agreement unraveled,
Russell Means was arrested.

He would spend the rest
of the occupation in jail.

The fun and games, so far
as I'm concerned, are over.

A United States marshal has been
seriously wounded.

REPORTER:
Many of the some 300 persons
in Wounded Knee

are sick with bad colds.

Doctors here report at least
15 persons here have pneumonia.

REPORTER:
The garbage is piling up.

The food is running short.

One meal a day is now the rule
and that's not much of a meal.

THUNDER HAWK:
One time, one of the guys
came in

and he had a sack
on his shoulders.

And it was, I don't know,
maybe a 50-pound bag

of what they fed calves.

So we just...
that's what we ate.

We made pancakes out of it
and whatever.

We just treated it like flour.

BANKS:
We had been rationing ourselves

to one meal a day,
one full meal a day.

We are cutting that effective
today, to one half meal a day.

ZIMMERMAN:
At the time, I was minding
my own business in Boston,

following the Wounded Knee story
in the news like everybody else.

One day, somebody walked
into my office that I knew

within the Boston
anti-war movement.

They had heard
that I was a pilot

and they needed somebody
to go in there

who could fly over
the federal blockade

and bring them some food.

BANKS:
If there's any plane comes
by here today,

we don't want anybody
taking any potshots at them.

They'll be making a food drop
to us today.

(cheering)

ZIMMERMAN:
We operated out of Rapid City,
South Dakota.

At 3:00 in the morning,

we were over Wounded Knee
about 40 seconds,

made the drop and we were gone.

And 2,000 pounds of food landed
in the village.

At first we thought we were
being attacked.

We thought they were gassing us,

you know, because what it was,
was the flour exploding

and creating a big cloud.

You know, then all of a sudden,
you know, we said,

"Oh, hey, this is food,"
you know?

So we're all out there
gathering the food

and the FBI opens up on us.

(gunshots)

NARRATOR:
The night before,
a man named Frank Clearwater

and his pregnant wife had
arrived in the village.

Clearwater said
they had hitchhiked

all the way from North Carolina.

ROUBIDEAU:
When he came in,
he had his own gun.

He had a kind of a big
long-barreled shotgun.

It looked like he came out
of the hills, too, you know.

He said he was Cherokee,
you know.

Yeah, he looked like one
of those mountain men.

KEVIN McKIERNAN:
They had ready-made cigarettes,

which was a very big deal
because we were all smoking

in those days, and we were
smoking cherry bark

and things from...
from the ground.

And here was a ready-made
cigarette.

And so I remember Frank
Clearwater lit it up

and we passed it around in a...

in a circle like a form
of communion.

(gunshots)

NARRATOR:
When bullets began to fly
on the day of the food drop,

Frank Clearwater took refuge

with other protesters
in a church.

As they hugged the floor
in an effort

to stay out of harm's way,

a bullet tore through
the plasterboard wall

and struck Clearwater
in the head.

He had been in Wounded Knee
for less than 24 hours.

CAMP:
A brother named Strawberry

had his hand on the back
of his head

and he was holding his skull...

and I put my hand on his skull,
tried to hold his brains in...

and we took him...

took him in the clinic
and they couldn't save him.

NARRATOR:
The first death intensified
the government's determination

to bring the siege to an end.

In mid-April, a unit was put
on alert at an Army base

in Colorado.

According to plans
leaked to the press,

the government was prepared
to move into Wounded Knee

with armored helicopters
and tear gas.

FRIZZELL:
The White House,

the Department of Justice,

were concerned with
the confrontation going on

all during the month of May
into the summer.

The college campuses, I was
told, would be emptying out

and all the adventure seekers

would be infiltrating
Wounded Knee.

I was given a ten-day deadline.

NARRATOR:
Officials were destabilizing
the occupation

using covert tactics.

FRIZZELL:
I have some information
I think

that you'll be interested in.

And it's based on a source that
we have utilized in the past

and has furnished us information
in the past within Wounded Knee.

Now very frankly,
I cannot identify him

for obvious purposes.

WARRIOR:
There were almost surely spies
within Wounded Knee.

The U.S. government

had infiltrated the American
Indian Movement

like it had infiltrated every
political organization

in the U.S. during that time.

HENDRICKS:
AIM knew that they had spies
in their midst

and that was part
of the FBI's game.

Not just to have the spies
to get information

on what AIM was doing,
but to get AIM guessing

as to who those spies were,

to get them paranoid and
pointing fingers at one another.

What is that?

What did you point at me?

WARRIOR:
One effect of that paranoia
inside Wounded Knee

is that there are purported
cases of people

who disappeared and who were
thought to have been killed

mainly because people didn't
know who they were

and who assumed
that they were spies.

FRIZZELL:
I got daily reports.

I got informer reports.

This information came to me
through the tribal government

and through the FBI.

(gunfire)

NARRATOR:
On April 26, Wounded Knee
sustained the heaviest barrage

of gunfire since the start
of the siege.

When the shooting subsided,
Buddy Lamont,

a 31 year-old Oglala from Pine
Ridge, came out to investigate.

Lamont was a Vietnam veteran
who'd been in Wounded Knee

since the beginning.

LITTLE SKY:
Everybody started getting up
and...

and going back about
their normal routines,

and Buddy came, got up and
walked over to the trenches

where we were at.

A sniper at a good thousand
yards hit him

squarely in the heart...

(gunshot)

and he wasn't even aiming
the gun.

He had his back turned,
you know, and his...

his weapon was on his shoulder,
you know.

To me, that was murder.

NARRATOR:
Negotiators agreed
to a ceasefire

so that Lamont's family could
bury him at Wounded Knee.

On May 6, Buddy Lamont
was laid to rest

next to the victims
of the 1890 massacre.

BANKS:
They asked me if I would
say a prayer for him,

which I did.

It said, "2000 people came
and one remained."

WARRIOR:
Buddy Lamont's death

becomes, really, the final blow
to a lot of people

inside Wounded Knee, especially
the Oglalas from Pine Ridge.

He was somebody
that everybody knew.

Everybody knew his mom.

And he was there for all
the right reasons,

fighting for something
that he cared about.

And for Buddy Lamont to die
was more of a tragedy

than most people could bear.

NARRATOR:
Fools Crow and the other Oglala
leaders had had enough.

Despite AIM's objections,

they insisted on bringing
the occupation to an end.

NARRATOR:
On May 8, 1973,
after 71 days,

the siege of Wounded Knee
was over.

In final talks with
the government,

AIM leaders agreed to disarm
and submit to arrest.

But many of the protesters were
already making other plans.

(drumbeat)

ROBIDEAU:
We asked the medicine man,

we said, "We want to get
out of here.

We don't want to leave
no weapons here."

So, he says, "We'll have
a ceremony tonight

and we're going to pray."

So we prayed all night long.

RICHARD WHITMAN:
We sang the American Indian
Movement song.

An honor song.

A memorial song.

(singing)

(singing)

(thunderclap)

ROBIDEAU:
So, it started getting cloudy

and then that evening,
it started raining.

Wind. Rain.

So they couldn't shoot
the flares.

ARLENE MEANS:
Lots of people walked out.

The spirits had a lot
to do with it.

The one that brought us out
was the owl.

And every time he'd hoot
in a direction

and then we'd go that way

and they did it right
under the marshals' noses.

(singing continues)

NARRATOR:
As the protesters fled
Wounded Knee,

a triumphant Dick Wilson toured
the remains of the town.

REPORTER:
Dick, are you surprised
by what you're seeing?

I expected this.

Why?

They're hoodlums.
Clowns.

This is the way they live.

NARRATOR:
Not only was Dick Wilson
still firmly in charge,

he would exact revenge

on his opponents as the federal
government looked the other way.

WILSON:
The Oglalas don't like
what happened

and if the FBI don't get them,
the Oglalas will.

We have our own way of punishing
people that way.

REPORTER:
Shooting on
the reservation?

You said it.

We'll take care of them.

HENDRICKS:
After Wounded Knee,
it was a period of time

that the dissidents called
"The Reign of Terror."

It was a time when Dick Wilson
truly unleashed his forces

on the folks who had supported
Wounded Knee.

NARRATOR:
In the three years following
the siege,

two FBI agents and more than
60 AIM supporters were killed,

giving Pine Ridge the highest
per capita murder rate

in the country.

As the reservation spiraled
into violence,

the government went after AIM
in the courts.

HENDRICKS:
One thing that Wounded Knee gave

the federal government
an excuse to do

was to try to litigate
the American Indian Movement

out of existence.

You and your bunch of hoodlums
take over down there,

you destroy
people's property...

NARRATOR:
Within months,
more than 500 indictments

were brought against
AIM members,

most on minor charges
that were later dismissed.

HENDRICKS:
They succeeded in tying up
AIM in court,

and AIM, at this point,
with all those resources

going into court, lost its way.

NARRATOR:
AIM fell into disarray
and violent infighting,

and would never again
have the impact it had in 1973.

But the hopes inspired
by the siege would echo

in the decades to come.

Despite the chaos
that followed in its wake,

Wounded Knee would prove to be
a turning point

in the history of Native people.

THUNDER HAWK:
We needed to let the rest of the
world know what was going on.

Two states over, they had
no idea about Indian people.

We were just invisible.

We were the ones that kicked the
doors open on the Indian issue

and let the world see.

WARRIOR:
The good that came out
of Wounded Knee

was the entry into American
Indian political life

of people who had not
been there before,

who had not had a real voice.

People learned they could tackle
problems, create opportunities.

And I think that coming out
of Wounded Knee,

people knew they could make
a difference.

(chanting)

TIGER:
There was a lot of sense of,

"We're important
and we can do something

within our own people,
our own tribe, our own homes."

I didn't go back to what
I was doing before.

I felt maybe I can do something
to help, not only my people,

but other people, too.

NARRATOR:
Native activism would spur
the revitalization

of Native cultures.

In the years following the siege
at Wounded Knee,

Indians would create
tribal schools

and cultural institutions

charged with preserving Indian
traditions and passing them on.

CHAAT SMITH:
In the late '60s and early '70s,

these were still emerging ideas
about reconnecting

with traditional culture,
language, religion

that was starting
to happen.

But this became
the majority sentiment

in the space of just
a handful of years.

It was really about identity.

It was about affirming we're
still here, we want to be here,

and we want to be here
on our own terms.

Whatever went on
in the '60s and '70s,

it's an extension,
it's a continuation.

It's no different than what
King Philip was about,

or Crazy Horse was about.

And whatever means
and manner we could,

since the Europeans
arrived here,

we've had to fight
for our survival.

BLACK ELK:
What the 1973 occupation did

was people started saying,
"Hey, we're Indians.

"It's okay to be Indian.

We are Indian,
we really should be who we are."

The struggle that we have
in the 21st century

is to remain ourselves.

Every one of us has to do
our part to remain Lakota,

to remain Indian,
and to teach our children,

to teach our grandchildren,

and make sure that there will be
children sitting in sweat lodge,

standing at the sun dance
in a thousand years.

CC ripped by Tantico (Croatia) 2011