Occupation of Wounded Knee Is Ended By Andrew H. Malcolm Special to The New York Times
Wounded Knee, S.D., May 8 -- The Second Battle of Wounded Knee ended Today.
After 70 days, two deaths, numerous injuries, countless meetings, bureaucratic bickering and a last-minute gunfight, more than 100 militants lay down their arms and surrendered this occupied reservation town to wary Federal officials.
With helicopters clattering overhead, United States marshals swept through the bullet-pocked hamlet looking for booby traps and holdouts. At 10:19 A.M., the voice of William Hall, deputy director of the marshals, crackled over the radio: "Gentlemen, the village of Wounded Knee is clear."
Seizure of Town
It was the end of a dramatic bitter and bizarre episode in recent American history. And it ended somewhat differently than that cold December day in 1890 when Big Foot's band of Sioux gathered at Wounded Knee, someone fired a shot and 153 Indians died at the hands of the Army.
It was a cold Feb. 27 this year when about 200 armed members of the American Indian Movement and its supporters seized the old town on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Theirs was a struggle to overthrow the elected Pine Ridge Indian Reservation government headed by Richard Wilson. The youngster militants, who seemed to yearn somehow for a certain tribal identity that they have never really known, said Mr. Wilson's government was corrupt and dictatorial.
For many days, except for the danger involved, the seizure was like some strange carnival with hundreds of policemen surrounding the Indians, who staged and then restaged events for television camera crews in their mobile campers. Chartered planes swooped in and out, some dropping supplies to the town.
Hundreds of newsmen speaking dozens of languages, swarmed over the reservation's headquarters here, annoying the militants' opponents and fighting for both telephones. Negotiations, sometimes held by an old teepee, dragged for weeks. A Federal negotiator smoked a peace pipe. Hostages were released. A tentative agreement was set April 5, but then collapsed.
Delay in Settlement
The talks continued, centering on the manner of disarming, but negotiations were punctuated and embittered by a vicious fire fight in which two A.I.M. supporters, Frank Clearwater and Lawrence Lamont, were shot fatally and Lloyd Grimm, one of more than 300 Federal agents here, was paralyzed.
Then late last week, Kent Frizzell, Solicitor General of the Interior Department, secured a letter from Leonard Garment, counsel to President Nixon, reaffirming an earlier guarantee of a meeting between at least five White House representatives and Oglala Sioux tribal elders here next week -- if the confrontation at Wounded Knee ended by this Friday. The representatives would discuss Indian grievances such as broken treaties and compensation for lost lands.
The elders, supporters of A.I.M., who included Frank Fools Crow, took the letter to the occupiers, who then said they were convinced that their aims would be served best by ending the confrontation. On Sunday both sides announced agreement and set a Wednesday disarmament, a date advanced to this morning at the occupiers' request.
During the occupation, more than 300 persons were arrested trying to enter or, in recent days, to leave the village. Dozens of others eluded Federal perimeter patrols and escaped, apparently with a quantity of arms.
Late night, Federal officials said, two more homes in Wounded Knee were burned down, four persons surrendered at a roadblock and four more tried to escape. However, they were discovered and fired their guns as they retreated to the town. Marshals in a bunker returned the fire wounding one person, officials said.
This morning at 4:30 off-duty marshals, Border Patrolmen and F.B.I. agents were picked up at their motels in chartered buses and taken to the perimeter.
There, at 5:30 A.M., the sun rose in a bright blue sky as men on both sides stamped their feet in the crisp 35 degree weather. It was, as the Sioux chief Crazy Horse once said, a good day to die. But today no one did.
A few minutes after 7 o'clock, by agreement, the Government's armored personnel carriers withdrew from sight and the occupiers left their bunkers.
Also by agreement they gave up what they said was all their weapons. According to Richard Hellstern, Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department, the surrendered arms totaled 15 old guns, far fewer than the sophisticated automatic weapons that Federal officials say the militants had.
"These guns are a lot of crap," said an irate Mr. Hellstern, "the arms dispossession part of the agreement has been violated."
One Indian headsman (of office that the elected Indian officers say is nonexistent) was flown by helicopter to each Government bunker as an observer. "We have peace today," said Mr. Fools Crow, "I am happy."
Carload by carload the 120 remaining occupiers were ferried to a Government road block. Mr. Hellstern said that one-half were Indians. Some were freed. Fifteen others were arrested and taken to Federal Court in Rapid City, 120 miles northwest of here. The better known A.I.M. leaders were not present. They either were seized earlier or escaped by night.
At 9:51 the order to advance went out to the marshals. In a skirmish line, they moved over the hill and down from the west.
At the crossroads, a Federal spokesman said, they came upon and took into custody a four-man television camera crew from Columbia Broadcasting System, the same men who entered the town last week, were seized and then evicted from the reservation by tribal officials. Mr. Hellstern said they would be charged with aiding a civil disorder, a felony.
Inside the town, the cautious marshals, who were covered by agents in hovering helicopters, found the bunkers empty. Late tonight a tour of this town by a newsman disclosed that many of the houses were heavily damaged and much garbage and trash lay strewn about.
At 12:27 the specially trained force of marshals radioed that all was clear for F.B.I. agents to begin their criminal investigation.
Almost as one, the heavily armed agents leaped into their rented Plymouths and Fords and sped down the dusty hill to the town. Their U-Haul trucks followed and then came a Winnebago camper van, bouncing across the rutted pastures now littered with spent shell casings, empty flare packages, abandoned bunkers and tin cans.
After 70 days, two deaths, numerous injuries, countless meetings, bureaucratic bickering and a last-minute gunfight, more than 100 militants lay down their arms and surrendered this occupied reservation town to wary Federal officials.
With helicopters clattering overhead, United States marshals swept through the bullet-pocked hamlet looking for booby traps and holdouts. At 10:19 A.M., the voice of William Hall, deputy director of the marshals, crackled over the radio: "Gentlemen, the village of Wounded Knee is clear."
Seizure of Town
It was the end of a dramatic bitter and bizarre episode in recent American history. And it ended somewhat differently than that cold December day in 1890 when Big Foot's band of Sioux gathered at Wounded Knee, someone fired a shot and 153 Indians died at the hands of the Army.
It was a cold Feb. 27 this year when about 200 armed members of the American Indian Movement and its supporters seized the old town on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Theirs was a struggle to overthrow the elected Pine Ridge Indian Reservation government headed by Richard Wilson. The youngster militants, who seemed to yearn somehow for a certain tribal identity that they have never really known, said Mr. Wilson's government was corrupt and dictatorial.
For many days, except for the danger involved, the seizure was like some strange carnival with hundreds of policemen surrounding the Indians, who staged and then restaged events for television camera crews in their mobile campers. Chartered planes swooped in and out, some dropping supplies to the town.
Hundreds of newsmen speaking dozens of languages, swarmed over the reservation's headquarters here, annoying the militants' opponents and fighting for both telephones. Negotiations, sometimes held by an old teepee, dragged for weeks. A Federal negotiator smoked a peace pipe. Hostages were released. A tentative agreement was set April 5, but then collapsed.
Delay in Settlement
The talks continued, centering on the manner of disarming, but negotiations were punctuated and embittered by a vicious fire fight in which two A.I.M. supporters, Frank Clearwater and Lawrence Lamont, were shot fatally and Lloyd Grimm, one of more than 300 Federal agents here, was paralyzed.
Then late last week, Kent Frizzell, Solicitor General of the Interior Department, secured a letter from Leonard Garment, counsel to President Nixon, reaffirming an earlier guarantee of a meeting between at least five White House representatives and Oglala Sioux tribal elders here next week -- if the confrontation at Wounded Knee ended by this Friday. The representatives would discuss Indian grievances such as broken treaties and compensation for lost lands.
The elders, supporters of A.I.M., who included Frank Fools Crow, took the letter to the occupiers, who then said they were convinced that their aims would be served best by ending the confrontation. On Sunday both sides announced agreement and set a Wednesday disarmament, a date advanced to this morning at the occupiers' request.
During the occupation, more than 300 persons were arrested trying to enter or, in recent days, to leave the village. Dozens of others eluded Federal perimeter patrols and escaped, apparently with a quantity of arms.
Late night, Federal officials said, two more homes in Wounded Knee were burned down, four persons surrendered at a roadblock and four more tried to escape. However, they were discovered and fired their guns as they retreated to the town. Marshals in a bunker returned the fire wounding one person, officials said.
This morning at 4:30 off-duty marshals, Border Patrolmen and F.B.I. agents were picked up at their motels in chartered buses and taken to the perimeter.
There, at 5:30 A.M., the sun rose in a bright blue sky as men on both sides stamped their feet in the crisp 35 degree weather. It was, as the Sioux chief Crazy Horse once said, a good day to die. But today no one did.
A few minutes after 7 o'clock, by agreement, the Government's armored personnel carriers withdrew from sight and the occupiers left their bunkers.
Also by agreement they gave up what they said was all their weapons. According to Richard Hellstern, Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department, the surrendered arms totaled 15 old guns, far fewer than the sophisticated automatic weapons that Federal officials say the militants had.
"These guns are a lot of crap," said an irate Mr. Hellstern, "the arms dispossession part of the agreement has been violated."
One Indian headsman (of office that the elected Indian officers say is nonexistent) was flown by helicopter to each Government bunker as an observer. "We have peace today," said Mr. Fools Crow, "I am happy."
Carload by carload the 120 remaining occupiers were ferried to a Government road block. Mr. Hellstern said that one-half were Indians. Some were freed. Fifteen others were arrested and taken to Federal Court in Rapid City, 120 miles northwest of here. The better known A.I.M. leaders were not present. They either were seized earlier or escaped by night.
At 9:51 the order to advance went out to the marshals. In a skirmish line, they moved over the hill and down from the west.
At the crossroads, a Federal spokesman said, they came upon and took into custody a four-man television camera crew from Columbia Broadcasting System, the same men who entered the town last week, were seized and then evicted from the reservation by tribal officials. Mr. Hellstern said they would be charged with aiding a civil disorder, a felony.
Inside the town, the cautious marshals, who were covered by agents in hovering helicopters, found the bunkers empty. Late tonight a tour of this town by a newsman disclosed that many of the houses were heavily damaged and much garbage and trash lay strewn about.
At 12:27 the specially trained force of marshals radioed that all was clear for F.B.I. agents to begin their criminal investigation.
Almost as one, the heavily armed agents leaped into their rented Plymouths and Fords and sped down the dusty hill to the town. Their U-Haul trucks followed and then came a Winnebago camper van, bouncing across the rutted pastures now littered with spent shell casings, empty flare packages, abandoned bunkers and tin cans.
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0508.html
Questions:
1. After reading this article, what is the significance of protesting at Wounded Knee?
2. How is the protest at Wounded Knee different from the previous three protests you have studied?
3. Those who were injured or died - were they heros or criminals? Explain your answer.
1. After reading this article, what is the significance of protesting at Wounded Knee?
2. How is the protest at Wounded Knee different from the previous three protests you have studied?
3. Those who were injured or died - were they heros or criminals? Explain your answer.
Siege at Wounded Knee with Red Cloud Quote
http://babylonfalling.tumblr.com/post/258539754/wounded-knee-1973-photo-by-camilla-smith
1. What do you see in this picture?
2. What is impact of the quote from Red Cloud above the photograph?
3. Using your previous knowledge, as well as, the above article and picture, discuss the importance of Wounded Knee to the AIM Movement.