Ojibwa Warrior Dennis J. Banks. Photo from the Banks collection. Ojibwa Warrior Dennis Banks and the Rise of the American Indian Movement Dennis Banks with Richard Erdoes Selected titles by Richard Erdoes (with John Fire Lame Deer) Lame Deer, Seeker ofvisions: The Life ofa Sioux Medicine Man (New York, 1972) (with Alfonso Ortiz) American Indian Myths and Legends (New York, 1983) (with Mary Crow Dog) Lakota Woman (New York, 1990) (with Leonard Crow Dog) Crow Dog: Four Generations ofSioux Medicine Men (New York, 1995) (ed.) Legends and Tales ofthe American West (New York, 1998) (with Alfonso Ortiz) American Indian Trickster Tales (New York, 1999) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Banks, Dennis. Ojibwa warrior : Dennis Banks and the rise of the American Indian Movement / Dennis Banks with Richard Erdoes. p. cm. ISBN 0-8061-3580-8 (cloth) ISBN o-8061-3691-X (paper) I. Banks, Dennis. 2. Ojibwa Indians-Biography. 3. Ojibwa Indians-Civil rights. 4. Ojibwa Indians-Government relations. 5. Wounded Knee (S.D.)- History-Indian occupation, 1973. 6. American Indian Movement-History. 7. Civil rights movements-United States. 8. United States-Race relations. 9. United States-Politics and government. I. Erdoes, Richard, 1912- 11. Title. The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.- Copyright O 2004 by Dennis Banks and Richard Erdoes. Published by the University of Oklahoma Press, Publishing Division of the University. All rights reserved. Manu- factured in the U.S.A. To all the brave men and women of our movement who have passed on to the spirit world This page intentionally left blank Contents List of Illustrations A Night to Remember At the Center of the Universe The Yellow Bus Interlude Machiko We AIM Not to Please Crow Dog On the Warpath Yellow Thunder Fishing in Troubled Waters One Hell of a Smoke Signal The Town with the Gunsmoke Flavor A Place Called Wounded Knee The Siege A Nation Reborn The Stand Down The Waters of Justice Have Been Polluted The Symbionese Liberation Army The Informer 20. Fields of Terror 21. Outlawed CONTENTS 22. Exile 23. Onondaga 24. Freedom 25. Suddenly I Am an "Elder" 26. Looking Back Illustrations Dennis J. Banks Frontispiece FoZZoving page 66: Dennis Banks's mother, Bertha Jane Banks, with her mother and sister, October 1918 Dennis Banks at Pipestone Indian School in Pipestone, Minnesota, I947 Housing conditions on the Rosebud Siow Reservation, South Dakota, 1970 John Fire Lame Deer, Lehman Lee Brightman, and Minnie Two Shoes on Mt. Rushmore reclaiming the South Dakota Black Hills for the Lakota tribe, 1971 John Fire Lame Deer praying with peace pipe at Mt. Rushmore, 1971 Henry Crow Dog, Lakota Indians on top of the presidents' heads at Mt. Rushmore, 1971 John Fire Lame Deer during a Yuwipi Ceremony, Rosebud, South Dakota Johnny Strike being tied up for a Yuwipi Ceremony Leonard Crow Dog tied up in a star blanket for a Yuwipi Ceremony, Rosebud, South Dakota Leonard Crow Dog in a sweat lodge, Rosebud, South Dakota A healing ceremony performed by Leonard Crow Dog, Rosebud, South Dakota ILLUSTRATIONS Henry Crow Dog smoking sacred pipe Henry Crow Dog eagle dancing Dennis Banks Sun Dancing at Pine Ridge, South Dakota, 1972 Sun Dancer at Wounded Knee, South Dakota Russell Means Sun Dancing at Pine Ridge, South Dakota, 1971 Chief Bill Eagle Feathers, Sun Dancing at Winner, South Dakota, 1969 Dennis Banks Sun Dancing at Pine Ridge, 1972 Merle Left Hand Bull Sun Dancing at Rosebud, South Dakota, 1971 Pierced Sun Dancer at Crow Dog's Paradise, South Dakota, 1971 Pete Catches Sun Dancing at Winner, South Dakota, 1969 Dennis Banks at the takeover of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) building, Washington, D.C., November 1972 Russell Means at the takeover of the BIA building, 1972 Vernon Bellecourt, Clyde Bellecourt, and Russell Means speaking in the assembly hall of the BIA building, 1972 Floyd Young Horse in war paint at the takeover of the BIA building, I972 Clyde Bellecourt Outside the BIA building during the takeover, 1972 Floyd Young Horse guarding an entrance to the BIA building during the takeover, 1972 "No Indians Allowed" sign, saloon at Scenic, South Dakota, 1975 Demonstration in Custer, South Dakota, February 1973 State troopers subduing protesters at Custer, 1973 Passive resistance at the Custer protest, 1973 State troopers dragging a young Lakota woman through the snow, Custer, 1973 Follo W ing page 235: John Fire Lame Deer studies a commemorative sign at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, 1971 A Cheyenne coup stick planted at the headstone of one of Custer's men, Little Big Horn Battlefield, South Dakota, 1971 Dennis Banks and Russell Means at Wounded Knee, 1973 Carter Camp, Ponca, at Wounded Knee, 1973 Dennis Banks sighting federal positions outside Wounded Knee, 1973 Armed Indians atop the roof of the Wounded Knee trading post, 1973 ILLUSTRATIONS Armed Indian atop the Gildersleeve and Son Wounded Knee trading post7 I973 Indian occupiers outside a bunker at Wounded Knee, 1973 Armed fortifications at Wounded Knee, 1973 Armed Personnel Carrier at Wounded Knee, 1973, manned by FBI agents and U.S. marshals Dick Wilson and his goons at the Wounded Knee perimeter, 1973 Dick Wilson The offering of the Peace Pipe, Warrior Honor Ceremony at Wounded Knee, I973 The Wounded Knee sweat lodge with the Sacred Heart church in the background, 1973 Armored Personnel Carrier near Wounded Knee, Sacred Heart church in the background, 1973 Leonard Crow Dog at Wounded Knee, 1973 Wallace Black Elk, Rosebud Sioux medicine man, at Wounded Knee, I973 The Iroquois Delegation is greeted by an Armored Personnel Carrier at Wounded Knee, 1973 Chief Oren Lyons heads the Iroquois Delegation's arrival at Wounded Knee, 1973 Dennis Banks singing and drumming at Wounded Knee, 1973 Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. Sacred Heart church in background. Wounded Knee, 1973 Ghost Dance at Crow Dog's Paradise on the Rosebud Sioux reserva- tion, South Dakota, May 1974 Leonard and Mary Crow Dog, 1975 Leonard Crow Dog during a Peyote Ceremony of the Native American Church, 1975 Dennis Banks, his daughter Janice, and actor Marlon Brando at a benefit at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco, California, 1976 Dennis Banks at a meeting in Central Park, New York City, New York, I975 Clyde Bellecourt Oren Lyons, Onondaga A demonstration to free Leonard Crow Dog, Richmond, Virginia, 1976 Mary Crow Dog speaking at demonstration, Richmond, 1976 OJIBWA WARRIOR The "Longest Walk" demonstration, from coast to coast. Marchers entering Washington, D.C., 1978 Richard Erdoes surrounded by AIM marchers taking a rest along the "Longest Walk," 1978 Tokala, Tiopa, Tasina, and Tatanka Banks with Kamook and Dennis Banks, 1982 Dennis Banks carrying coup stick Dennis Banks Dennis Banks and son Minoh, 1993 The twenty-fifth anniversary of Wounded Knee on February 27,1998 Dennis Banks Unless otherwise noted, photographs are by Richard Erdoes. xii Ojibwa Warrior This page intentionally left blank CHAPTER 1 A Night to Remember On a dark night you could hear the ghosts crying, the ghosts of three hundred women and children killed by the soldiers, so long ago. -Dennis Banks, Ojibwa May 8,1973-Stand down at Wounded Knee. For seventy-one days we had held out against an army of U.S. Marshals, FBI, a corrupt tribal chairman's private gang of thugs called "the goons," and a bunch of vig- ilantes, cowboys, and ranchers eager to "bag themselves an injun." Ele- ments of the 82d Airborne had been standing by in the vicinity-just in case they should be needed. The Feds had brought against us a swarm of armored cars, an occasional jet fighter to get a look at us, .SO-caliber machine guns, M-79 grenade launchers, high-powered searchlights, and "Snoopy," their helicopter, to spy on us. We had killed our last steer. We were down to one meal a day, sometimes a meal every other day. We had only rice and beans left, and even that was running out. No flour, no sugar, no cigarettes. Gladys Bissonette had found a can of some fatty seasoning used to make pop- corn and a box of powdered spuds. She mixed these together with some odds and ends and managed to make a meal of it. We still had some root tea for the warriors. That was it. Our lifeline had been the few miles between Porcupine and Wounded Knee, a sparsely wooded area that gave some cover to our runners who OJIBWA WARRIOR brought supplies to us in their backpacks every night. But now the whole place was full of marshals with sniper scopes and infrared night- vision scopes, non-barking attack dogs, and trip-wire flares, which could turn night into day. On top of that, the Feds had started huge brush fires to burn off the cover, making it easier for them to detect anyone going in or out. Supplies were down to a pitiful trickle. Starva- tion was staring us in the face. Almost every day now we had fierce firefights. The Feds fired thousands of rounds at us. At night their tracer bullets made a big show, crisscrossing the village from all directions. We were almost out of ammo-our guys were down to about ten bullets per man. A good many of our warriors had been wounded. Miraculously, only two had been killed. Frank Clearwater had been sleeping inside the Sacred Heart church when a bullet crashed through the wall and hit him in the head. He never woke up. Buddy Lamont, a thirty-one-year-old Viet- nam veteran, was killed near the Last Stand bunker.