! The FBI Takes AIM THE FBI's SECRET WAR AGAINST THE AMERICAN INDIAN MOVEMENT Ward Churchill and Jim Vander Wall "Th;; iJ the t:(',diet: light bttJ fome ;nlo Ilu attention to rhe splinter in ~nolher n<1ri on'$ eye world; bllt people preftrred darkll(,H 10 li1!,bt, be(o/ll( without lik ewi~e eXflmini n~ the heam in nur tbeir deedJ were e,'i/. Tbm e rob" do n;;! bale fbe own. lir.ht and will nol rome nrnr tbe light, Inr Itdr And a beam it is , for that whi ch fhe FBI Ibal Ibeir deed, ",,11 be expoJrd" Uolm 3: 19- 20). encouraged and undertook in South D<1knl:t in the mid-seventies was truly <lppalling. Law <lfter or more than ten years, the Federal 13W was ignored in an effort to destro)' the new Bureau of Invest igation has systeln<1ti c<1l1y <lnd growing American Indi<1n Moveme nt. An covered up and hidden (rom the Americ<1 n indigneous movement of n<llive people, AI"'I, F__ people its outr<1ge()us hehf1vior in and rh rougll irs milit<1nt defense of Ind i<1f1 right.~ <1nd around the Pine Ridge Sioux Indi<1n Reservtl­ its vigorous <1dv()(<1cy of Ih e notion of $o \' c r<; ign Ward Churchill Is li o n. For more than ten years, it has sought the Indif1n nalions, was Ihreatening to destroy this codIrector of the cover of darkness . for its illcgtll "nd immo r,,1 muion's comfortable status quo. Centuries of Colorado chapter of persecutio n of Ihe American Indian Moveme nt, explicit and implicit exploitaT ion were heing the American including tl ho st of ,, ( (ions antithe tical to the ch<1.lIenged . IndIan Movement. very ideal of government which rh e PDI swears The w ll in rhe FBI's "secret war" <1gainst th e He was a delegate to uphold. Indian pco ple W<1.S astounding. More th ;m two to the Interna· This ankle, longer and more d ct"iled th<1n hundred AIM mcmhe rs and supporters were tlonallndlan rimse normall y pllhlished in T bf Olb",. Sid", is assaulted o n or ncar the Pine Ridge rescrv:Hi o n Treaty Council and has written more an ancrnpr to .~ hin e some light where there h"s from 1972 through 1976. Close to .<evcnrr died than eighty ar­ been only tbrkne55. Simuittlneollsly . it is ~ plea as a result of ac tio ns t<1ken <lg ainst the m. Th:u tlefes and essays for Chri stians and all those ",, ho love the light givcs Pine Ridge a violent death ratc, /1t1ud n"~r on Indian Issues, to join us in calling fo r a new cong ressional on dO(lImenled pOlili(ai dealb ... of 170 pe r Including several invesrig<1 tion inro FBI abuses on the Pine Ridge 100,000. (By comparison, in 19 74, Detroit, for The Other SIde. ResCfv<1tion from 19 72 throllgh 1976. These then consid ered Ihe "murder c<1p itnl of the Jim Vander Wall., a abu.ses arc nOliling new in the hislO ry o f U .S. United States," demonstrated <1 violent de<1th graduate of the Onl· (rcalment of n<1tive peopl e. OUI the)' are abuses rateJor nil (dllm , of onl y 20.2 per 100,000.) verslty of Michigan nevertheless, tl.buscs incomp<1t ible wi lh dem­ In fa ct, the political murder rate on Pine at Ann Arbor. Is a ocratic values, abuses more likely to be re pealed Ridge fr om March I, 1973, to M"ch I , 197(" long-time political if they h"ve never heen prope rl y brought (Q is almost equivalent to Ih"t which prev:liled in activist with a spe­ cial Interest In pris­ light. C hile during the three years (ollowing rh e oners. He Is the co­ We may ri ,g hriy complain "bollt <1trociti es U .S.-supponed coup led by Augusto Pinnchet. director of the committed by the South African government These politically motivated murders, almost Oenver-Area against bl<1cks in the impoverished "home l,,"ds" exclusiv e ly directed against A 1M , occurred ;H <1 leonard Peltier to which they htlve heen "ssignei.l . Out if J esus' lime w hen the FBI was deeply obses.scd with Support Group. teachings hilve "fly me<1ning, we ought not c,,11 suppressing any and all polidc<11 nrg"nizing on 14 THE OT HER SIDE 'he paT! of Ame ri can Indians. "They [,he Indi­ ically mo tivated murde rs. it simultaneously The federal pres­ ans] arc a conque red natio n," explained N o rman amassed three .hundred and sixteen thousand ence on Pine Ridge Zigrossi, special agen, in charge of 'he FBI's fil e class ifications in its detailed investigation was consistently Rapid Ci,y, So u,h Dakora, o ffi ce. "And whe n of the political and personal activities of AIM marked by Viet­ you arc conquered, the people you are con­ members and sympalhizers. While dozens of nam-type equlp­ 1 ment-ln this case, quered by diclale your fUlure. This is a basic murde rs of AIM me mbe rs and sympathizers an armored person­ philosophy of mine. If I'm pa" o f a conquered were being ig no red, Ihe FBI made 562 arresls nel carrier. camou· I nadon, I've gOI 10 yield 10 aUlhorilY .... [The of AIM people in conjunClio n wilh ils ongoing "age uniforms, and FBI must funclio n as] a colo nial police force." investigatio n o f the o rganization, Of (hese, only a macbre cow's From mid- 1972 10 mid- 1973, Ihe number of fift een resulted in convictio ns of any sort, usu- skull. personnel assigned 10 Ihe FBI's Rapid Cily ally fo r pelly o ffe nses. ~------------~ J o ffi ce nearly quadrupled, from Ihree 10 eleven. "The purpose o f all Ihis," ex­ The work or these agents focused primarily o n plained an AIM attorney in Pine Ridge. During 1973, Ihis g really expanded 197t1. "is not to obtain con­ II "colo ni al poli ce forcc" was again almost doubled vic tions o r punish people the wil h Ihe addilion of a le n-me mbe r Special Weap­ bureau b e li evc~ guilty o f crimi­ ons and Tacd" (SWAT) leam , assigned 10 Ihe nal act s in rhe st ri ct sense. I! tiny village of Pine Rid ge, on the resc rv ;uion R'lIhe r, it is '0 ne utralize an it se lr. Ev en thi s wasn't enough to meet FDI o rf!ilniziuio n whose politics the objcnivcs. L,lc in 197'), (he FBI again tripled FB I ohjecrs to by ,ying Ihe it s staff of agents, giving weste rn South Dakota organization up in an unending the highest ratio of agents (0 ci tizens anyw here seri es of trials and pre trial in car· in the United Stales. ceril linns. bankrupting the orga· As a result of the Sevcn Major Crimes Act. ni 7.a ti o n by forcinp; it to meet I ho mi cid es ilnd armed ass:m hs o n rcscrv;tr ions milssivl' amount s of bail." arc maneTS ovcr which the rl31 has leg:t! juris­ This is precisely the method diction. But despite the in o rd inate numbe r o f the POI used during the CO IN· people it had at its disposal throughout this TF.l.rRO e ra. As a senior FBI period, linn, o f Ihe murders of AIM people has age nt sai.d after the assassination been solved hy Ihe FDI- nor one. As Ihe re.. o n of l3lack Panlher leaders Mark for its spectilculilr lack o f success, rh e FD I hilS Clark and Fred l-IamplOn, "You pleaded "lack o f manpower." don', measure success in this Presumilbl y this same "'ack o f mil npower arCil in I~ rm s of apprehension prevented the bureau from properly investigil t. hut in te rms of neutralization." ing fund s assigned to a "Highway Safety Pro· CO INTEl.rRO is foB I sliln,g fo r grilm" and il "Tribal Rangers Program," both mi sappropriated hy ,he n Pine Ridge Itibal pres­ id e m Ri chard "Dick ie" W il son. These funds-as II the fetle ral govcrnment was aware-were being used to arm, equip, :t ile! pay a p rivate army known as the Gutlrdialls of the O~lala Niltioll (GOONs). \'(f il son, fi rst v(}[c(1 illlO office in 1972, won a seennd Itibal p resid e ncy in 1 97~ . That elec­ tion, occurring at the hc i,l!iu of the FBI presence o n the reservation, W;1S lare r characte rized by the U.S. C ivil Rights Commissio n as "permeated , wi,h fraud ." lJy 19 7 ~. W il son's GOONs, expres­ /' s· ly anti· AIM in purpose, werc armed with U.S. military-type M- I <) riA es. Equipped wilh h i~ h . qlla lir y. milita ry· sty le communi cations gear, they were also regularly supplied with ,goveftlfn e nt · i .~s u e ha.ll ammunition. How Wilson's private army came to be armed with U.S. milirtlry weapons remains unclear. "domeslic counte rintelligence program, a sys· " Dickie·· Wilson lin J But his GOONs we re arguably 'he p rimary telllalic effort tn subve rt o r destroy po litically the dark gla"., I force responsible fo r th e assaults on hundreds ohjecrionablc o r,l!a ni zatinns.