Identity Enactment and the Occupation of Wounded Knee

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5-1-2002

MENDING THE SACRED HOOP: IDENTITY ENACTMENT AND THE OCCUPATION OF WOUNDED KNEE

Sheryl L. Lindsley California State University, Stanislaus

Charles Braithwaite California State University, Stanislaus, [email protected]

Kristin L. Ahlberg University of Nebraska - Lincoln

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Lindsley, Sheryl L.; Braithwaite, Charles; and Ahlberg, Kristin L., "MENDING THE SACRED HOOP: IDENTITY ENACTMENT AND THE OCCUPATION OF WOUNDED KNEE" (2002). Great Plains Quarterly. 39. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/39

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Quarterly by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Published in Great Plains Quarterly, vol. 22, no. 2 (Spring 2002). Published by the Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Copyright © 2000 Center for Great Plains Studies. Used by permission. MENDING THE SACRED HOOP IDENTITY ENACTMENT AND THE OCCUPATION OF WOUNDED KNEE

SHERYL L. LINDSLEY, CHARLES A. BRAITHWAITE, and KRISTIN L. AHLBERG

I can still see the butchered women and children lying heaped and scattered all along the crooked gulch as plain as when I saw them with eyes still young. And I can see something else died there in the bloody mud, and was buried in the blizzard. A people's dream died there. It was a beautiful dream. And I, to whom so great a vision was given in my youth you see me now a pitiful old man who has done nothing, for the nation's hoop is broken and scattered. There is no center any longer, and the sacred tree is dead.

- John G. Neihardt, Black Elk Speaks (1961)1

This account by Oglala holy man Black Elk KEY WORDS: American Indian Movement (AIM), Ghost Dance, Oglala, protests, rhetoric, Wounded of the 1890 US cavalry massacre of three hun Knee dred Sioux Indians, mainly women and chil dren, helps us understand the rhetorical Sheryl L. Lindsley was an Associate Professor of importance of the American Indian Move Communication at California State University, ment's return to Wounded Knee eighty-three Stanislaus, at the time of her death in February 2000. Among her many honors for work in intercultural years later. The occupation ofWounded Knee, communication were the B. Aubrey Fisher Award from South Dakota, in 1973 by the leaders of the the Western States Communication Association, and American Indian Movement (AIM) repre the Outstanding Scholarship Award from the sented a culmination of frustration felt by International and Intercultural Division ofthe National Native Americans.2 Magazines as diverse as Communication Association. This paper was completed by Charles A. Braithwaite, Editor of Great Plains Time and National Review reported the inci Quarterly, and Kristin L. Ahlberg, doctoral candidate dent as a staged "pseudo-event" designed to in American history at the University of Nebraska amplify the oppressor/oppressed relationship.3 Lincoln. Ms. Ahlberg specializes in diplomatic history News coverage of Wounded Knee included and presidential history, and recently received a Moody headlines of mockery: "Of Fallen Trees and Fellowship from the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library. Wounded Knees," "Pain in the Knee," "Am bush at Credibility Gap," "Not With a Bang," [GPQ 22 (Spring 2002): 115-26] and "Bamboozle Me Not at Wounded Knee."4

115 116 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SPRING 2002

Therefore, many national media responses may groups of the 1960s. As rhetoricians within be characterized as minimizing the seriousness movements such as black power and women's ofthe event and discrediting the rhetors them liberation became increasingly frustrated that selves. However, the historical significance of their concerns were not being addressed, their the Native American occupation of Wounded demands would often escalate "far beyond the Knee, as well as the ensuing trial, which was ability of the authorities to act." viewed as a major civil rights case for Native Intercultural barriers to understanding were Americans, justifies their rhetorical analysis another major hurdle faced by AIM rhetors. and augments understanding of the American As Cragan argued, "The Indians lacked expe Indian protest movement.s rience in creating rhetorical dramas which From a rhetorical perspective, these afore could be understood by white Americans ... mentioned news headlines may be viewed as a because of cultural differences."ll This gen failure by AIM leaders to achieve a rhetorical eration of urban Native Americans, the first identification with their audience in estab to be educated in Euro-American higher learn lishing broad-based support for their goals of ing institutions, were forced to try to make Native American sovereignty and return of convincing use of their newly acquired intel Native lands. When viewed through a tradi lectual and rhetorical skills in communicat tional rhetorical perspective wherein a rhe ing with a predominantly Euro-American torical transaction takes place in order to affect audience. the perception, beliefs, and goals of listeners, The final barrier consisted of multifaceted it is clear that the AIM rhetors failed to achieve forms of institutionalized racism which the desired changes in US government poli marginalized Native Americans' political and cies.6 Previous studies have identified a num economic positions within society and lim ber of issues that negatively impacted the ited opportunities for communicating their success of AIM members, including timing, own perspectives (e.g., Native American's lives "excessive demands,"7 and intercultural barri were often interpreted through Euro-Ameri ers to understanding.s Undoubtedly, multilay can ethnocentric perspectives). In addition, ered structural inequalities between Euro dominant society's stereotypes of Native Americans and Native Americans also con Americans as either "noble" or "ruthless" sav strained the enactment and interpretation of ages symbolically negated Native American the rhetorical message. identity through popularized mass media. The first major problem faced by members Jamake Highwater explained the Native of AIM, timing, was illuminated by John F. American dilemma in this way: Cragan in his dramatistic analysis of the failed rhetoric surrounding occupation of the Bu We had to release a tide of communication reau ofIndian Affairs (BIA) building in Wash between two worlds, and to do this we had ington, D.C., orchestrated by AIM in late to be a kind ofpeople who had never before 1972.9 Although this method of confronta existed. We had to abandon both Andrew tion through occupation had experienced some Jackson's "Wild Indians" and Jean Jacques successes in other social movements through Rousseau's "Noble Savage" and emerge as a out the 1960s, Cragan argued that "by 1972, cultural mutant-the "Intellectual Savage" the novelty of such dramas may have worn who was capable ofsurviving equally in two thin." In addition, he characterized the de worlds by tenaciously retaining the ritual mands by AIM members who occupied the apparatus ofprimal people at the same time BIA building as "excessive,"l0 and pointed out that we were attaining the intellectual and that making excessive demands follows a rhe communications paraphernalia ofthe domi torical pattern established by other protest nant societies. l2 MENDING THE SACRED HOOP 117

Therefore, each of these issues-timing, ment for better general education, more voca "excessive" demands, cultural communication tional training, adult education, and economic styles, and institutionalized racism-nega development plans, and it was another av tively impacted Native Americans' success in enue for federal withdrawal from the Indian this rhetorical event. In reviewing the nega business."14 tive news coverage of the occupation, and the Dwight D. Eisenhower's successors-John Native Americans' failure to achieve their F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson-rejected pragmatic goals, Wounded Knee can be seen the premise of federal abandonment of Indian as a rhetorical failure. However, rhetoric may tribes and instead advocated collaboration be viewed as multifunctional; it exists to in between tribes and the federal government. form, to influence, and also to express iden Kennedy, shortly after his inauguration, tity. The responsibility of the critic, therefore, charged his Interior Secretary Stewart Udall lies in determining if any rhetorical goals were with appointing a committee to study issues met by the Native American rhetors. Richard relevant to native populations. Members of B. Gregg's "ego-function of rhetoric" lends the resultant Task Force on Indian Affairs valuable insights into the psychological needs including former Wisconsin Lieutenant Gov fulfilled by protest rhetoric, that is, its role in ernor and future Bureau of Indian Affairs head expressing identity.13 In applying the ego-func Philleo Nash-concluded that the admin tion model to the discourse of AIM members istration should promulgate economic and and their supporters, we will explain how, from social development programs for Indian popu one very important perspective, the event can lations. Prucha noted that this stance was con be viewed as a success. sistent with the Kennedy administration's This success will be illuminated in the fol overall focus on development. The Task Force lowing ways: first, we will provide the histori report made the connection explicit by stat cal background for the 1973 takeover. Second, ing "[W]hat we are attempting to do for those we will examine the forum the Native Ameri in the underdeveloped areas of the world, we cans established to protest their grievances. can and must also do for the Indians here at Third, we will apply Gregg's ego-function home."15 analysis to show the rhetorical success Like Kennedy, Johnson also convened achieved by the Wounded Knee occupation; meetings of tribal leaders, university profes and finally, we will describe the uniqueness of sors, government officials, and business lead Native American cultural perspectives and, ers in order to generate ideas for subsequent by using their own accounts, explain how the reforms. One manifestation included the 1966 Native Americans perceived rhetorical suc Presidential Task Force on the American In cess in identity affirmation. dian. The task force recommendations for implementing additional social programs on SETTING THE STAGE reservations reinforced Johnson's belief that termination was undesirable and that the fed Debates surrounding tribal termination and eral government and tribal leaders should seek Indian self-determination comprised the back a collaborative relationship. In March 1968, drop for the occupation of Wounded Knee. Johnson became the first president in Ameri Throughout the 1950s, the Eisenhower ad can history to send an address to Congress ministration pushed for the termination of deliniating the conditions faced by Native reservations and the urban relocation of Indi Americans. Johnson's "Special Message to ans. According to historian Francis Paul Congress on the Problem of the American Prucha, relocation "was a corollary of termi Indian: 'The Forgotten American'" promised nation. It was directly related to the move- the creation of a National Council on Indian 118 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SPRING 2002

Opportunity comprised of tribal members and unnerved by the display at Pine Ridge, re cabinet secretaries and the implementation of quested federal support. additional educational and health reforms. 16 Legislative reforms aside, various Native THE FORUM groups bypassed collaboration in favor of po litical protest. An important development was In the winter of 1973, several hundred the 1968 creation of the American Indian Oglala Sioux, along with supporters from other Movement in St. Paul, Minnesota. AIM's suc tribes, returned to Wounded Knee, the scene cess in attracting adherents and gaining sup of the 1890 massacre. 1S Vine Deloria Jr. ar port on reservations would playa large role in gued that for 105 years, the Sioux had peace the siege at Wounded Knee. In February 1972, fully petitioned the United States government the body of Raymond Yellow Thunder was for redemption of these territories. 19 Finally, found in Gordon, Nebraska-located approxi after the tribal government and federal agen mately twenty miles from the Pine Ridge Res cies (particularly the Bureau ofIndian Affairs) ervation in South Dakota. After local officials took oppressive measures against Sioux people, released the two men held responsible for the two hundred AIM members headed to the town beating death ofYellow Thunder, family mem ofWounded Knee to establish a forum for their ber and Tribal District Chair Severt Young grievances. AIM leaders had scheduled a Bear appealed to AIM leaders at a meeting in peaceful protest in the form of a news confer Omaha. AIM members, in a show of support, ence to express carefully deliberated concerns. traveled to Pine Ridge and mounted a series of However, as they were preparing for the meet protests against the death of Yellow Thunder. ing (e.g., notifying press and government offi During this time period, Richard Wilson un cials of the conference for the next morning), seated Gerald One Feather as chair of the the BIA, US Marshal Special Operations Oglala Sioux Tribal Council. In the words of Group personnel, and FBI observers were set historian Akim Reinhardt, the election would ting up roadblocks, preventing all access to prove decisive: "What remains indisputable is the hamlet.20 These police officers and mili that as the political tensions he inherited tary personnel were supported by nineteen quickly worsened ... Wilson gravitated to armored personnel carriers, 130,000 rounds of wards the reservation's mixed blood constitu M-16 ammunition, 41,000 rounds of M-40 ency and the OSTC's federal sponsors, while high-explosive (for M-79 grenade launchers), simultaneously ruthlessly seeking to quash his helicopters, and Phantom jets.21 These offi full blood political opponents by any means cials were under orders not to let any newspa necessary.17 per or television personnel into the area. As Wilson, after facing a series of impeach the AIM leaders became aware of the possible ment proceedings, succeeded in banning AIM threat to their security posed by the surround from the reservation in late 1972. Transfer ing armed forces, they obtained guns and am ring energy to the public arena, AIM members munition from the local trading postY They staged a "Trail of Broken Treaties" caravan also compiled a list of demands and notified with Washington, D.C., and the Bureau of the government of the options: "1. They wipe Indian Affairs office as destination. AIM re out the old people, women and children, and turned to South Dakota in 1973 after learning men, by shooting and attacking us. 2. They of another Native murder in Buffalo Gap, negotiate our demands." Thus, what outsiders South Dakota. In addition to orchestrating labeled as an AIM "takeover" of Wounded boycotts and demonstrations, AIM aided Pine Knee, AIM participants labeled as a "siege."23 Ridge residents in forming the Oglala Sioux The semantic associations with these two dif Civil Rights Organization and lodging addi ferent labels are important. "Takeover" im tional complaints against Wilson. The BrA, plies AIM acted aggressively and intentionally MENDING THE SACRED HOOP 119 in the occupation, whereas "siege" denotes a refurbishing and affirmation. Based on this situation in which the AIM rhetors reacted perspective, protest spokespersons may also defensively in safeguarding themselves from a become surrogates for others who share their perceived threat. From the AIM actors' per feelings of inadequacy. This self-directed spective, their intentions had been peaceful, rhetoric, as a form of intrapersonal and/or in and they found themselves in a situation in tragroup communication, fulfills an ego-func which they perceived limited choices, con tion as it establishes, defines, and affirms strained by government forces. Although they selfhood through expression. In the context had initially planned an event that would be a of the Wounded Knee village, this particular "symbolic confrontation" in the form ofa news form of rhetoric-one that is self-directed-is conference, AIM members found themselves especially relevant, given that the AIM rhetors in a situation in which rhetorical expression were often blocked from communicating with was curtailed and a linguistic confrontation news journalists. had turned into a military one. In refusing to Three essential components of the ego leave the village, AIM members took a stand, function analysis can be applied to the AIM and Indian leaders Russell C. Means and Den rhetoric to show how it satisfied an ego-func nis J. Banks repeatedly vowed that authorities tion in the expression of Native American must either meet their "basic human needs" or identity: (1) an expression of a strong psycho "massacre them."24 Thus, the stage was set rhe logical need, recognizing that one's ego has torically for a reenactment of "the cavalry been somehow ignored, damaged, or disen versus the Indians," escalating the occupation franchised; (2) a description through an exag of a small village in South Dakota to a scene of gerated fashion of the superior strengths and national importance. The seventy-one-day virtues of the ego sought after; and (3) an occupation that followed was described by the attack on the ignorance or malicious qualities media as a "symbolic war."25 After countless of an enemy, that is, a foreign ego that stands negotiating sessions and battles, in which a in juxtaposition to the desired ego. 27 number of people were killed or wounded, the Native Americans were finally forced to sur "No INDIANS ALLOWED" render and AIM leaders were arrested, chang ing the rhetorical scene from a small village to Application of the first component of the a US government courtroom. ego-function analysis reveals how the Native Americans rhetorically expressed their dam WOUNDED KNEE AND aged ego. The theme of the AIM rhetoric held THE EGO-FUNCTION OF PROTEST that the Native Americans had been stripped of their heritage and culture and therefore Gregg illustrated many instances in the suffered from a lack of self-identification. An 1960s and early 1970s where frustrated pro understanding ofthis perception is gained from test groups made "illogical" demands that a historical perspective dating back to the eliminated all possibility of establishing nec European settlers' redefinition of the Native essary identification between the protesters Americans and their subsequent dehumaniza and the authorities. 26 He argued that although tion. Haig A. Bosmajian has analyzed how meeting these "excessive" demands was often the Euro-Americans' labeling ofNative Ameri unachievable, there were other important cans as savages, heathens, barbarians, and functions served by these rhetorical events. other derogatory epithets, thus enabled the The concept of Gregg's ego-function of rheto colonizers to enslave, torture, and murder ric rests on the premise that protest rhetoric is them. 28 Zealous Christian missionaries per at least partially aimed at the protesters them ceived the Native Americans as uncivilized selves, who feel the need for psychological victims ofSatan who either needed to be saved 120 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SPRING 2002 or destroyed. This extended process of physi multiple ways, through both physical and sym cal and ethnic genocide gave rise to govern bolic annihilation of Native American iden ment policies that can be summarized in the tity and the loss of control over their future. aphorism "The only good Indian is a dead In This condition was exacerbated by the Native dian." Bosmajian argued that once a group has American perception of forced assimilation as been categorized by this type of language of the equivalent of a living death. The resultant suppression, the group loses most of its power. struggle for the recreation and revitalization Edgar S. Cahn elaborated this view with his of a positive identity may be seen in their rhe argument that "Ultimately, self realization re torical response to this condition. quires the power to shape one's future, and to control one's destiny, to chose from a variety "RED POWER" of alternatives. The Indian has no such power, no control and no choice."29 An examination of the second component AIM members' feelings about Euro-Ameri of the ego-function analysis, the sought-after cans' oppression of their cultural identities ego, requires a multidimensional view of the appears in the AIM rhetors' trial accounts. Native American scene at Wounded Knee and For instance, Alvin]osephy's testimony stated: the trial that includes their ceremonies, style, "The Indians were literally consigned to star and rhetoric. The importance of analyzing vation, disease, poverty, and death by a coun these elements in their entirety comes from try of white conquerors who wanted to know Native Americans' cultural perspective of a nothing about them, and by a government holistic view of reality. In his description of that was waiting for them to think, act, and the Wounded Knee occupation, Bill Zimmer live like whites, or die off. 30 Roxanne Dunbar man argues that the Sioux made no functional Ortiz, expert witness at the Wounded Knee or philosophical distinctions between their trial, also argued that the government's forced day-to-day material life or culture and their assimilation policy comprised cultural geno spiritual existence.J2 Therefore, in critiquing cide-an extension of the physical genocide the "rhetoric" of the occupation of Wounded policy of Euro-American settlers. She ex Knee, one needs to considercontextual elements plained that Native Americans saw that their that include not only what was said, but also the cultural identity and heritage in such sacred symbolism ofthe religious ceremonies and other traditions as their oral history and their view events that occurred in this setting. of a holistic reality was disappearing as new One of AIM's goals was the return of Na generations were forced to attend Euro-Ameri tive American sovereignty: the establishment can-dominated schools and learn Euro of a separate Native American nation. Al American ways of thinking. In this process, though they failed to accomplish this goal prag Native American youth in school were being matically, they experienced nationhood taught to pay homage to the very people who symbolically through their declaration of an suppressed and killed their ancestors. This independent Oglala nation and a cultural re practice of demanding that the oppressed naissance of tradition. honor and pay homage to the oppressor was, The Oglala constitution, ratified by 1,400 in itself, part ofthe dehumanizing process. She Oglala during the Wounded Knee occupation, described the Native American struggle for declared the Indians a free people.33 One could survival in terms of limited choices: "The argue that in patterning their declaration of People see two roads available: nationhood or freedom after the Constitution of the United genocide. The People are choosing nation States, and rhetorically identifying themselves hood."3l as patriots, the Native Americans appeared to Therefore, the Native American rhetors be working to achieve identification with their described a mass destruction of identity in audience, to sanctify the validity oftheir move- 122 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SPRING 2002

"WHITE DEVILS" This application of Gregg's model shows how the Native Americans were able to sat An analysis of these elements of "style" re isfy a deeply rooted psychological need to re veals the inseparability of Native American establish their cultural identity. A fuller spirituality from identity and reinforces the understanding of this element of success in centrality of spirituality in Native Americans' the Native American rhetoric can be achieved rhetorical struggle for survival. In this struggle, through an analysis ofNative Americans' cul the Native Americans clearly expressed their tural perspectives and rhetorical standards. sought-after ego, thus rhetorically purging the Native images of the damaged ego. In order to MITAKU OYASIN (WE ARE ALL rhetorically elevate the superiority of their RELATED): NATIVE AMERICAN identity over whites even further, and estab PERSPECTIVES lish selfhood, required a rhetorical juxta positioning of the foreign ego or the enemy. First, it is important to understand the The Native Americans' oral testimony, as schisms between Native American and Euro well as the confrontation rhetoric, illuminates American cultures and relate these to the ways this component of the ego-function, the iden Native American concerns were rhetorically tification of the enemy. The AIM rhetors cas expressed. Central to understanding their tigated the US government and their policies, rhetoric are the Native American concepts of including, "genocide, colonialism, exploita sense of place and inclusivity. tion, and other forms of Indian mistreat Previous studies of Apaches and Navajos ment."42 Additionally, defense witness Wilbur have found that a sense of place is very impor Jacobs described the white settlers as corrupt tant in their cosmology.45 According to one, ing the Native Americans with alcoholism "by "Even the most minute occurrences are de introducing liquor as the chief item of scribed by the Navajos in close conjunction trade.... It would almost seem that the offi with their physical settings, suggesting that cial government policy at these factories unless narrated events are spatially anchored (posts) was to drown the Indians in a Niagara their significance is somehow reduced and of liquor."43 In another account, AlvinJosephy cannot be properly accessed.46 Likewise, we attacked the "government supported violence would argue that Sioux spirituality also and intimidation," or in his description, "US teaches the importance of a sense of place government-financed storm troop units of and this concept is important in understand goon squads [that] continue to arrest, beat up, ing the occupation of Wounded KneeY The and murder many Sioux patriots."44 return to Wounded Knee expressed the Na This rhetorical identification of the enemy tive Americans' ties to both their ancestors helped the Native Americans symbolically and their land. This place was symbolically establish selfhood in several ways. By identi imbued with multiple layers of meaning. The fying the enemy-the US government-they place was rich with historical symbolism; this were able to delineate their own position was the site of a war crime committed by the the independent Oglala nation-by contrast. US government against the Native Americans. Linguistically painting the enemy in the dark Thus, the land was symbolically linked to hued imagery of vice, evil, and corruption Native Americans' struggle for survival against enabled them to easily juxtapose their own European colonialists. By Native American superior virtues and thereby gain a symbolic standards, the setting should have evoked victory of ego enhancement. The rhetoric of moral considerations for justice in the minds self-building, and the very act ofassuming such of those US government officials who knew a stance, is argued by Gregg to be simulta their history. This was the site of the "last neously self-persuasive and confirmatory. great battle" between whites and Indians, so MENDING THE SACRED HOOP 123 to return to this place was another way to say Highwater has argued that the Native that Indians were not dead or defeated. The Americans' holistic view of reality maintains context alone makes a poignant statement the capability of sustaining utter faith in the from a Native American perspective. most contradictory realities, refusing to be Second, the former Sioux territory sur lieve there is one fixed and eternal truth. They rounding this land, including the Black Hills believe there are many different and valid which were confiscated by European settlers truths. In elaborating on the Native Ameri when gold was first discovered there, had can relationship to this reality, Rupert Ross deep spiritual significance for the people. As argues that although life consists of compet a place consecrated with the blood of ances ing and contradictory life elements, traditional tors, its ancestral spirits would protect the pro Native American experience testors. The rhetorical message conveyed by the place they chose for their press confer lay in understanding the workings of the ence, therefore, was properly structured in the dynamic equilibrium of which they were a Native American rhetorical system wherein part, then acting so as to sustain a harmony the importance of the land as a symbol con within it, rather than mastery over it. One veyed certain implicit messages. These seman aspired to wisdom in accommodating one tic understandings, fundamental to the Native self to that equilibrium, and that pursuit American perspective, were lost on a Euro quite clearly promised unlimited scope for American audience whose sole understanding exploration and self-development.5o of land was determined by the laws ofproperty and property acquisition. However, despite this This holistic faith in all the elements of the lack of understanding, the occupation of the universe and the belief that life efforts should land was important in reinforcing a positive be directed toward understanding and achiev Native American sense of identity. This sig ing harmony between conflicting elements nificance was expressed by AIM leader Den helps to explain the ways the Native Ameri nis Banks when he recalled his experience at can rhetors expressed themselves in court: by Wounded Knee: telling their story. Vine Deloria, trial defense attorney, highlights their perspective by com [It was] the ultimate in a man's life, to see paring the Euro-American and Native Ameri your own people moved to that type of ac can approaches to rhetoric within the tion. Looking back, I really believed that Wounded Knee trial context: the broken hoop was mended at Wounded Knee, and that the water was being given A federal court is not designed to decide to the tree of life. Wounded Knee was an either legal or moral issues. Rather it is an attempt to help an entire race survive.48 arena wherein parties contest, in an intel lectual and rhetorical "trial by combat," for Another important cultural consideration a victory. The Indians, coming to court to is the concept of inclusivity, which is funda contest essentially legal and moral issues mental to the Native American philosophy of (expressed by oral tradition), did not con a holistic reality. In her introduction of the ceive of their role as adversaries nor of the trial accounts, Ortiz described this holistic proceedings as an effort to make points reality as a value system based upon a rela against the other side. They were concerned tionship with all things-a responsibility for that the whole story of their suffering the whole universe-the antithesis of the emerge.51 dominant Euro-American value system which is exclusive and finds useful only those parts Therefore, the Native Americans' rhetori that gain precedence over others.49 cal strategies did not employ either argumen- 124 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SPRING 2002

tation or persuasion techniques. Their strat only reaffirmed their ego identity but gained egy was to inform. This can be understood as national attention in their struggle against rhetorically sound by their own standards; that becoming the "vanishing" peoples. This event in increasing the audience's knowledge about drew together people of sixty-four different this situation, it was possible that a moral de tribes in support of Native American issues. cision would be made to bring conflicting The rhetorical effectiveness of the occupation forces into harmony with one another. of Wounded Knee was seen in the massive The feeling of some success of the trial by turnout ofNative Americans, mostly non-AIM Native American standards was conveyed by members from all over the United States, for expert trial witness Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz: the trial of two AIM leaders, Dennis Banks and Russell Means.53 The motion to dismiss remaining charges Although Gregg's model helps to illumi against Wounded Knee defendants on the nate the successes of AIM members and their basis ofjurisdiction was denied. Despite the supporters, it is also apparent that it is impor denial, which was expected, a sense of vic tant to understand cultural communication tory pervades, for it was the Great Sioux norms when assessing the rhetorical effective Nation sitting in judgment on America, not ness of communication processes and out the reverse,sz comes. Native Americans' perceived victory cannot be understood without interpreting CONCLUSIONS their rhetoric in consideration of their spiri tual beliefs relating to inclusivity and sense of In examining the forum and the ego con place. Therefore, this paper extends our un cept in the rhetoric of Wounded Knee, one derstanding of how these concepts can facili can see the importance of Gregg's theoretical tate analysis and interpretation of Native model for highlighting successes in rhetorical American rhetoric. events. Although the pressing needs of AIM This analysis reveals that in the Wounded members for return of Native lands and sover Knee court case, judges made their decisions eignty were not met, this analysis facilitates about the Native Americans' claims based on understanding of another kind of success. In rhetorical and judicial standards of dominant contrast to Cragan's analysis of the failures of Euro-American society. Both cultural and AIM in achieving rhetorical identification political considerations impinged on the Na with their audience, this analysis has used tive American rhetoricians' abilities to rhetors' own descriptions and evaluations of achieve successes in the context chosen by their experience in order to highlight the the US government for evaluation of their rhetors' self-perceived successes. In analyzing claims. In this courtroom context, in which the rhetors' accounts of their experiences, one people of two vastly different cultural systems can comprehend how the occupation of were brought into dynamic interplay with one Wounded Knee and the ceremonial expres another, the burden was placed on Native sions of spirituality and tradition served an Americans for cultural accommodation. How essential function in the rhetorical enactment ever, the Native Americans clearly did not and reestablishment of a positive, unified, and capitulate and pay homage to their oppressors intertribal cultural identity. In rhetorically by adopting Euro-American ways. They nei expressing the three components of the ego ther adopted Euro-American dress, nor hair function-the damaged ego, the ego sought, styles, nor swore their oaths on the Christian and the enemy-they were able to recreate a Bible, nor used argumentative styles. They positive sense of ethnic identity. In telling proudly maintained their own sense of cul their story and explaining their most impor tural dignity and self-worth by expressing tant moral values, the Native Americans not Native identity in multiple ways. In so doing, MENDING THE SACRED HOOP 125 they expressed their power in deciding for 20. Ward Churchill, andJim VanderWall, Agents themselves how to act and symbolically carved of Repression (Boston: South End Press, 1990), p. 139. out a space for cultural expression of Native 21. Rex Weyler, Blood of the Land: The Govern American identity within a Euro-American ment and Corporate War Against the American In courtroom. dian Movement (New York: Vintage Books, 1984), pp. 102-3. NOTES 22. Churchill and VanderWall, Agents of Repres sion (note 20 above), p. 143; John William Sayer, 1. John G. Neihardt, Black Elk Speaks (Lincoln: Ghost Dancing the Law: The Wounded Knee Trials University of Nebraska Press, 1961), p. 276. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2. See Akwesasne Notes. Voices from Wounded 1997), p. 33. Knee (Rooseveltown, NY: Akwesasne Notes, 1974). 23. Churchill and VanderWall, ibid.; Mary Crow 3. "Trap at Wounded Knee: Television Cover Dog and Richard Erdoes, Lakota Woman (New York: age of Sioux Protest," Time, 26 March 1973, 67; Grove Weidenfeld, 1990), p. 128. "Of Fallen Trees and Wounded Knees: New Cov 24. Peter Matthiessen, In the Spirit of Crazy Horse erage ofWounded Knee," National Review, 27 April (New York: Viking Press, 1983), p. 67. 1973,464-65. 25. Rolland Dewing, Wounded Knee: The Mean 4. Ibid.; "Pain in the Knee," National Review, ingand Significance ofthe Second Incident (New York: 11 May 1973, 512; "Ambush at Credibility Gap: Irvington Publishers, 1985), p. 12. Wounded Knee Trial," Newsweek, 9 September 26. Gregg, "Ego-Function" (note 6 above), pp. 1974,26; "Not With a Bang," Newsweek, 21 May 71-91. 1973, 31-32; T. Schultz, "Bamboozle Me Not at 27. Ibid. Wounded Knee," Harper's, June 1973,46-48. 28. Haig A. Bosmajian, "Defining the American 5. "Wounded Knee: A Major Civil Rights Case Indian: A Case Study in the Language of Suppres for Indians," New York Times, 26 September 1973, sion," The Speech Teacher 22 (1973): 89-99. 26. 29. Edgar S. Cahn, ed., Our Brother's Keeper: 6. Richard B. Gregg, "The Ego-Function of the The Indian in White America (Washington, D.C.: Rhetoric of Protest," Philosophy and Rhetoric 4 New Community Press, 1969), p. 123. (1971): 71-91. 30. Ortiz, Great Sioux Nation (note 19 above), p. 26. 7. John F. Cragan, "Rhetorical Strategy: A Dra 31. Ibid., p. 10. matic Interpretation and Application," Central 32. Bill Zimmerman, Airlift to Wounded Knee States Speech Journal 26 (1975): 4-11. (Chicago: Swallow Press, 1976), p. 15. 8. Jamake Highwater, The Primal Mind (New 33. Akwesasne Notes (note 2 above), p. 263. York: Harper and Row, 1981), p. 12. 34. Ibid., p. 88. 9. Cragan, "Rhetorical Strategy" (note 7 35. Ibid. above), pp. 4-11. 36. Ortiz, Great Sioux Nation (note 19 above). 10. Ibid. 37. Munro S. Edmondson, Nativism, Syncretism 11. Ibid., p. 8. and Anthropological Science, Middle America Re 12. Highwater, Primal Mind (note 8 above), p. 12. search Institute, Publication No. 19 (New Orleans: 13. Gregg, "Ego-Function" (note 6 above), pp. Tulane University, 1960), pp. 181-204. 71-91. 38. Crow Dog and Erdoes, Lakota Woman (note 14. Francis Paul Prucha, The Great Father: The 23 above), p. 153. United States Government and the American Indians: 39. Gregg, "Ego-Function" (note 6 above), pp. II (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1984), 71-91. pp. 1079-80. 40. Ortiz, Great Sioux Nation (note 19 above). 15. Ibid., p. 1090. 41. Ibid., p. 14. 16. Akim D. Reinhardt, "A Government Not of 42. Ibid., p. 28. their Choosing: Pine Ridge Politics from the In 43. Ibid., p. 87. dian Reorganization Act to the Siege of Wounded 44. Ibid., p. 28 Knee" (Ph.D. diss., University of Nebraska, 2000), 45. KeithH. Basso, Western Apache Language and p.132. Culture: Essays in Linguistic Anthropology (Tucson: 17. Ibid., p. 160. University of Arizona Press, 1990); Charles A. 18. Akwesasne Notes (note 2 above). Braithwaite, "Sa'ah Naaghi Bik'eh Hozhoon: An 19. See Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz, ed., The Great Ethnography ofNavajo Educational Communication Sioux Nation: Sitting in Judgment on America (Ber Practices," Communication Education 46 (1997): 219 keley, Calif.: Moonbooks, 1977). 33; Highwater, Primal Mind (note 8 above), p. 12. 126 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SPRING 2002

46. Basso, ibid., pp. 107-8. 50. Rupert Ross, Dancing with a Ghost: Exploring 47. See William K. Powers, Oglala Religion (Lin Indian Reality (Markam, Ont.: Octopus Publishing, coln: University of Nebraska Press, 1977). 1992), p. 92. 48. Peter Nabokov, ed., Native American Testi 51. Ortiz, Great Sioux Nation (note 19 above), p. 18. mony (New York: Penguin Books, 1991), p. 362. 52. Ibid., p. 48 49. Ortiz, Great Sioux Nation (note 19 above). 53. Matthiessen, Spirit of Crazy Horse (note 24 above), p. 67.