Anna Mae Aquash Investigation Reopened, Attempt to Keep Leonard Peltier in Prison December 31, 2007

Anna Mae Aquash Investigation Reopened

Press Statement
November 7, 1994

FEDERAL RE-OPENING OF ANNA MAE AQUASH MURDER APPEARS TO BE AN ATTEMPT TO KEEP LEONARD PELTIER IN PRISON FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE

For the past several months, the United States government has been engaged in an aggressive re-opening of the investigation of the 1976 murder of American Indian Movement (AIM) member Anna Mae Pictou Aquash. The investigation has taken the form of impaneling a federal grand jury in Pierre, South Dakota, and interrogating dozens of current and former AIM members across the United States, by the FBI and US Marshall Bob Ecoffey, once a member of the violently anti-AIM “GOON Squad” on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

Anna Mae, a Micmaq Indian from Canada, was murdered in late 1975 or early 1976, her body discovered on February 25, 1976, about ten miles from the town of Wanblee, on Pine Ridge. Initially, federal contract coroner W.O. Brown, of Scottsbluff, Nebraska, ruled she died of “exposure” to the winter elements. After a demand by her family for an independent autopsy, the cause of her death was found to be a .38 caliber gunshot wound in the base of her skull.

Given the violent political climate on Pine Ridge at that time, centering on a severely hostile relationship between AIM and the FBI, there is substantial reason to believe the FBI was, either directly or indirectly, involved with the murder of Anna Mae Aquash. After all, during the period of her death, more than 60 other AIM members and supporters were murdered on Pine Ridge in what the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights officially described as a “reign of (political) terror.” Considerable evidence exists that the FBI was deeply involved in this ugly pattern of atrocities.

The AIM Confederation remains more interested than anyone in seeing justice done to the murderers of our sister, Anna Mae. The current investigation, however, seems especially curious and suspicious. There are many indications that the FBI is more interested in carrying out a vendetta against AIM than in achieving justice in the case.

Why, for instance, is the FBI suddenly so interested in “resolving” the Aquash case and not the scores of other unsolved murders of AIM members dating from the same period?  And why, if it is genuinely interested in finding out what happened to Anna Mae , has the FBI never bothered to interview coroner Brown or agents such as David Price, who is known to have threatened her life shortly before she was killed?

The FBI has made it clear that it has never forgotten another infamous date in 1975: June 26, the day two FBI agents and AIM member Joe Stuntz were killed in a firefight on Pine Ridge. As a result of that event, AIM member Leonard Peltier is serving two consecutive life sentences in federal prison. The AIM Confederation believes that, despite Peltier’s unjust imprisonment, the FBI’s desire for revenge will remain unsatisfied until AIM is finally and entirely destroyed.  Consequently, we believe that the present investigation, rather than seeking to find the killers of Anna Mae, is designed and intended to cast suspicion upon our leadership and to sow distrust and confusion within our movement and among its allies.

In sum, it appears that, far from seeking justice for Anna Mae, the FBI has gone back to its old COINTELPRO tactics of the 1970s, casting its net far and wide in a concerted attempt to disrupt the work of AIM and to keep Leonard Peltier in prison for th e rest of his life by suggesting that he and AIM are nothing more than “a band of thugs and killers.”  This is indicated by two recent ads in the Washington Post and Indian Country Today placed by current and past FBI agents asking President Clinton to reject a petition for clemency for Leonard Peltier.  In the ad, the FBI repeats lie after lie, in an attempt to paint Leonard as a cold-blooded killer from a murderous gang - the American Indian Movement.

Daughter of extradited man speaking up for her father December 23, 2007

Daughter of extradited man speaking up for her father

APTN National News Daytime
Wednesday, December 19th

APTN National News Primetime
Tuesday, December 18th

“Think about it. When has the United States government ever put so much energy and effort and money into finding the murderer of an Indian woman on a reservation?”
- John Graham, interview with Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, April 2007, re-aired Tuesday, December 18th, 2007, and Wednesday, December 19th, 2007

John Graham Graffiti, Vancouver, Canada December 23, 2007

John Graham Graffiti, Vancouver, Canada
Posted to Ottawa Indymedia by Anonymous on 19.12.2007

More photos at: http://ottawa.indymedia.ca/en/2007/12/6468.shtml

Trial date set for John Graham December 21, 2007

Trial date set for man accused in 1975 slaying

Black Hills FOX News [South Dakota]
20 Dec 2007

The United States Attorney’s Office says the murder trial of John Graham is scheduled to start in Rapid City on June 17, 2008. Graham was recently extradited back to South Dakota from Canada after the Canadian Supreme Court refused to review his case. He’s accused of killing Anna Mae Pictou Aquash on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in 1975.

Free John Graham graffiti continues December 19, 2007

Taken on December 13, 2007

(Spotted on Hastings Street, Downtown Eastside,

Vancouver, Coast Salish Territory)

John Graham has recently been extradited to the US, Leonard Peltier met the same fate December 16, 2007

“Along with the Green Scare victims, John Graham has recently been extradited to the US, Leonard Peltier met the same fate, and natives across Turtle Island (Tyendinaga, Six Nations, etc.) have also been subjected to conditions created by the very repressive system that Bell, Linamar, Scotiabank, CN Rail, and others reinforce through the policies they create (like the SPP) with State leaders throughout North America. These policies, which have no jurisdiction in the sovereign territories of these natives, are policed by an armed mafia of badge wearing extremists who see no injustice in their application of electrical, chemical, and lethal weapons that have injured and killed so many; but the weapons are not the problem.”
- Guelph, Ontario: Hanging Up on Bell Canada! (Dec 12, 2007)

Security Note on Writing to John Graham at Pennington County Jail December 16, 2007

Security Note on Writing to John Graham at Pennington County Jail

Please be aware that any mail sent directly to John Graham at Pennington County Jail is more than likely read and copied by jail authorities and please take care regarding how this may affect his trial (date to be announced).

To write to John Graham, imprisoned at Pennington County Jail, address envelope as follows:

John Graham
307 St. Joseph Street
Rapid City, SD 57701
USA

To write or call the jail:

Pennington County Jail
307 St. Joseph Street
Rapid City, SD 57701
(605) 394-6116

To contact the sheriff’s office:

Don Holloway, Sheriff
Pennington County
Sheriff’s Office
300 Kansas City Street
Rapid City, SD 57701
(605) 394-6113

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“In the past five years, there’s been a 29% increase in the number of inmates at the Pennington County Jail, 44% of which are Native American.”
- Pennington County Jail over capacity (Nov 28, 2007), KOTA Territory News

http://www.kotatv.com/global/story.asp?s=7423317&ClientType=Printable

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Protesters say jailing Indians illegal

Around 100 held a rally and march on April 13, 2001, in Rapid City, South Dakota, to protest injustice against American Indians in the US legal system.

By Jim Holland

Rapid City, South Dakota, April 13- Marie Lange says incarceration of American Indians in local jails is not only illegal but also an ineffective way to promote healing between victims and offenders.

Lange, of Rapid City, was one of about 100 marchers attending a rally Thursday in downtown Rapid City. The demonstrators spoke out against what they called continuing abuse and injustice against American Indians at the hands of the American legal system.

Lakota culture has better ways of dealing with those who commit offenses against society, Lange said.

“We never had to resort to jails and prisons,” she said. “Our system of restorative justice put families face-to-face with families.”

The European system of punishment and incarceration deprives individuals of their dignity, Lange said.

The intent of jail “is to take the Indian out of the Lakota instead of restoring the individual,” she said.

Lange and other marchers claim that jailing American Indians constitutes the taking of political prisoners, because tribes are independent sovereign nations. “Jail is no different than slavery,” she said. “The colonists here are on the wrong side of international law.”

Thursday’s march began at Roosevelt Park, then proceeded to the Pennington County Courthouse and jail complex.

About 50 marchers, carrying an inverted American flag, placards and a flag of the American Indian Movement circled the courthouse and adjacent jail complex several times, shouting encouragement to inmates inside.

Inmates could be heard yelling in reply and pounding on the narrow windows of their cells.

Marchers proceeded to the City School Administration Center, then concluded the march at Memorial Park.

Richard Grass from Rapid City said he was working to bring a United Nations War Crimes tribunal to Rapid City to investigate allegations of abuse of American Indians.

“This is a war of attrition,” he said. “The United States needs to rectify this situation.”

Pennington County Jail officials deny that inmates are denied rights based on their race.

Following recent claims of mistreatment by two Lakota inmates, officials contacted a Lakota spiritual leader to find ways to serve the needs of those who follow traditional Lakota spirituality during incarceration.

Charles Fast Horse of Rapid City also agreed to serve on the jail’s Religious Advisory Committee to review jail policies and procedures and train jail personnel to be aware of religious practices.

Grass admitted that progress had been made, but addition of more liaison officers to monitor treatment of Indian inmates was needed, he said.

Pennington County Chief Deputy Sheriff De Glassgow said the legality of jailing Indian inmates is a federal issue, not a local one.

Source: Rapid City Journal

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“Traditional Lakota warriors Garry Rowland and Darren Brings Plenty, both of the Pine Ridge Oglala Lakota Nation, are receiving inhumane treatment and inadequate medical attention at the Rapid City Pennington County jail, as well as being denied traditional Lakota Pipe religious ceremony, and they have taken their cases to the traditional healing and elders’ societies. Both men have serious heart conditions and should be hospitalized but transfers to the Regional hospital have been denied.”
- Lakota Warriors Resistance “At Rapid City Jail” (February 1, 2001)

Quick trial expected for Canadian accused of Pictou-Aquash slaying December 12, 2007

Quick trial expected for Canadian accused of Pictou-Aquash slaying

Tuesday, December 11, 2007
CBC News

U.S. prosecutors in the trial of Canadian John Graham, who is accused in the decades-old murder of aboriginal activist Anna Mae Pictou-Aquash, say they are aiming for a fair and speedy trial.

A former Yukoner, Graham was living in Vancouver until Thursday, when he was extradited to South Dakota to stand trial in the 1975 slaying of Pictou-Aquash, a Mi’kmaq activist from Nova Scotia. Graham was whisked out of the country hours after the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear his appeal of a lower court ruling granting the extradition.

Graham pleaded not guilty Friday in a court in Rapid City, S.D. A trial date has not been set.

“I don’t have an exact time frame of which the trial will occur,” South Dakota district attorney Marty Jackley, who is prosecuting the case, told CBC News on Tuesday.

“I mean, it could occur as quickly as within 70 days. However, it would be anticipated that certain motions will be filed in matters that need to be addressed during the process that may toll or delay that time frame.”

Jackley said prosecutors will seeking a maximum punishment of life in prison, but they won’t be calling for the death penalty.

Pictou-Aquash was shot dead on Dec. 12, 1975, during a time of protests in South Dakota by the American Indian Movement (AIM).

U.S. prosecutors allege Graham killed the 30-year-old woman on orders from AIM because they believed she was an FBI informant.

In protests by the group, two FBI agents had been killed by the demonstrators who had seized control of the village of Wounded Knee.

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[Our Freedom note: Although the US government and FBI are now apparently claiming Anna Mae was killed on December 12, 1975, or in early December 1975 as they claimed in Arlo Looking Cloud's trial, Johanna Brand wrote in 1978 that Anna Mae made a phone call to Paula Giese in Minneapolis on December 20, 1975. Giese worked with the Wounded Knee Legal Defense/Offense Committee (WKLDOC). See Johanna Brand's "The Life and Death of Anna Mae Aquash".]

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THE LIFE AND DEATH OF ANNA MAE AQUASH, Johanna Brand, second ed. 1993 (original, 1978), James Lorimer and Company, Publishers, Egerton Ryerson Memorial Bldg, 35 Britain St., Toronto, Ont, Canada, M5A 1R7, paperback, $14.95 US, $19.95 Can. 172 pp, source notes, photos, forword by Warren Allemand MP, chronology, map. 1-55028-422-3

Reviewed by Paula Giese [Date of review unknown]

Here’s another book — long unavailable after supplies of the original were exhausted, and never well-distributed in the U.S. — that not a single NA [Native American] Studies academic mentioned on their top 10 essential books list. Anna Mae Pictou Acquash was a Canadian Micmac woman who became active in the cause of Indian rights and was murdered by the U.S. government in early 1976. For the short time I knew her I considered her a good friend and a brilliant person. Apparently others — officials — considered her from the point of view that she was a threat to entrenched interests. The FBI’s entire file on her and on whatever they call investigation of her killing remains in Minneapolis, inaccessible to Freedom of Information attempts, because, the FBI says, they’re still investigating. Of course they’re not, they’re preventing any clues which might slip through whatever purging they gave those old files from getting into the hands of someone who might use such info to identify the killers. There have been some attempts to force a reopening of the investigation, but in my opinion, if the government arrested someone, their case against such a person would most likely be a frameup of someone they still considered a threatening Indian leader today.

Brand (who was a researcher for CBC in the 1970’s) is nowhere near the writer that Matthiessen is, so this book does not qualify as litrachoor, only history — history of a woman who was assassinated by the U.S. government, which also covered it up afterwards. Many of the same events are covered ( in less detail) as in Matthiessen’s book as regards the “incident at Oglala” but Johanna (and Mohawk Shirley Hill Witt, who wrote an eulogy for her after her death) are the only ones to try to show Anna Mae alive, as a person, from her early life to what led her into the activism, and an intellectual leadership, which caused her to be targeted and killed. Anna Mae’s sister, Becky Julian, writes in a 1993 afterword: “I believe that the knowledge Anna Mae accumulated did in fact lead to her execution-style killing…The courage and spirit that my sister Anna showed should be brought out in each of us.”. So maybe even if the NA Studies profs don’t think this is an important book and you can’t find it in your campus bookstore, you’ll get it anyway. It can be ordered through Native Book Centre. This is another one that should be read by every Indian person. Wouldn’t hurt any white people, either, except those with blind faith in their governments.

Statement by Graham Family December 9, 2007

December 8, 2007
Statement by Graham Family

The Canadian Supreme Court of Canada has denied the extradition appeal made by John Graham. On Thursday morning, John was moved from the North Fraser Pre-trial Centre in Port Coquitlam BC, to Rapid City South Dakota, where he has been indicted for first degree murder of Anna Mae Pictou-Aquash. Her body was found in 1976, in South Dakota.

On December 1, 2003, John was arrested in Vancouver, for indictments for the first degree murder of Anna Mae Pictou-Aquash. In January 2004 he began living under house arrest in Vancouver during his legal struggle against the extradition. In 2005 the BC Supreme court approved John’s extradition to South Dakota, based on positive identification of his photos, despite discrepancies in his height, weight and race. The Canadian/US Extradition Treaty does not challenge the evidence provided by the country seeking extradition. Despite the fact that 3 of the 4 testimonies the US provided proved faulty, this was not taken into consideration by the Canadian court. The fact that the US has no legal jurisdiction over indigenous nations, especially one currently occupied by British Columbia, was never brought up in court.

On June 26 2007, the BC Supreme Court dismissed his appeal and John Graham turned himself in. He was transferred to North Fraser Pretrial, a high security facility where he waited for the appeal decision on the Supreme Court of Canada. We, his family, were granted one hour daily visits separated by glass. While in the pretrial center he was treated as though he’d already been convicted. He was not allowed to receive any books or put up pictures.

We were not contacted when John was transferred from North Fraser Pretrial to the airport and extradited to Rapid City SD. We were lead to believe the John Graham would receive a personal message and be able to set up a visit with the family before extradition. The family was not able to see John before he was taken away. We were not allowed to say our good byes or even give him his personal belongings.

His first court appearance was held December 7, 2007 in Rapid City, South Dakota. John is now being held in the Pennington County Jail, where it will take a week to get settled and have account and phone card to phone his family. John Murphy was the appointed lawyer at the hearing and John Graham pleaded Not Guilty.

The elders of the Yukon are praying for John’s safety, who is treated with respect and a safe return home.

We are in need of financial support to mount a legal defense in South Dakota, and support John and our family so that we can be there for him as much as possible. If you are able to offer donations or other support in Vancouver or Rapid City, please contact us at grahamdefense[at]hotmail[dot]com or www.grahamdefense.org .

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Rally for Aboriginal Man Facing Murder Charge

Dec, 09 2007 - 12:30 AM

VANCOUVER/CKNW(AM980) - Family and supporters turned out in Vancouver on Saturday to rally against the extradition of a 52-year old native man wanted in South Dakota for the murder of a woman more than 30 years ago.

Singing and drumming marked the sombre rally for those who know and love John Graham.

Graham was one of two men charged with the first-degree murder of a fellow Indian Movement activist, Anna Mae Pictou Aquash, on the Pine Ridge Indian reserve in South Dakota in 1975.

Graham’s daughter Naneek tearfully pleaded for justice for her father, “We can’t let this happen again. My dad is innocent…he’s always maintained his innocence.”

Graham was escorted across the Canadian border on Friday and flown to South Dakota where he has been jailed to face trial.

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Accused killer extradited to U.S.

The Province
Published: Sunday, December 09, 2007

Some 50 family members and friends of accused murderer John Graham protested his extradition to the U.S. yesterday at a rally at the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Graham is charged with the 1975 murder of American Indian Movement activist Anna Pictou Aquash in South Dakota. He was extradited after the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear his appeal of earlier court rulings.

Graham appeared in court Friday in Rapid City, S.D., where he pleaded not guilty.

Vancouver: Probation Office Locks Glued on Night of John Graham’s Extradition December 8, 2007

Vancouver: Probation Office Locks Glued on Night of John Graham’s Extradition - Graffiti - Dec 6
“Jails are not a solution to problems” Anna Mae Aquash, 1975

On the night of December 6, 2007, the locks of the probation office on commercial drive were glued shut and ‘FREE JOHN GRAHAM!’ was spray painted on the roof. This morning, John Graham, of the Tuchone nation, was extradited from Vancouver, Canada to South Dakota to be tried for the 30 year old murder of his friend and fellow warrior, Mi’kmaq Anna Mae Aquash.

“I am a warrior. I was a warrior when I went to south Dakota the first time and I’ll be a warrior this time if I have to go to south Dakota”- John Graham, June 26, 2007, before going into custody.

John reported to the probation office every week under house arrest for the last few years .

John took part in resistance to land exploitation, specifically to uranium mining and exploration. In the 70’s John went to South Dakota to learn about the survival schools, teaching Indian people about Indian ways in a modern context. This is where he met Anna Mae. In 1980 John helped set up a survival camp named after Anna Mae on the Key Lake mine road in northern Saskatchewan to build resistance to uranium interest in the area. The Key Lake mine later became the worlds largest uranium mine.

On June 26th, 1975, an eighth of the Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota was signed over to the US government, so it could pursue it’s valuable uranium interests. The same day Joe Stuntz, a Lakota, and two FBI agents died in a shoot out at an American Indian Movement elders protection camp on Pine Ridge, for what Leonard Peltier has served over 32 years of hard time for.

John is facing life in prison as a hostage of the US government. Anna Mae once said, “I am not a citizen of the United States, nor a ward of the Canadian government.” Neither is John.

The imprisonment of John Graham is part of hundreds of years of colonization and ongoing warfare against indigenous people and against others who engage in an ongoing struggle for autonomy and resistance to the interests of capital. “The FBI today is yesterdays cavalry, is yesterdays Custer…no different.”- John Graham

Carry on the struggle for the land and for freedom!

FREE JOHN GRAHAM! HONOUR THE SPIRIT OF ANNA MAE!
info about John at:

http://ourfreedom.wordpress.com/
www.grahamdefense.org/

More info on Uranium:

Cash Minerals drilling 100’s of holes in John’s territory, just outside of Champagne, Yukon.

Testing for uranium, and exposing the radioactive radon gases. After exploration comes mining, refinement, tailings (the radioactive waste leftover), coal fires reactors, and nuclear ‘accidents’ like Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania; mass irradiation.

Nuclear energy is anything but clean. The irreversible effects of uranium mining contaminate water, air, animals and plants. The radiation travels on the wind and in ground water. The uranium market is heating up again.

The moratorium of the 80’s is long over. Uranium exploration is happening right now in BC. There has never before been a uranium mine in BC.

Some info on www.uraniumfreebc.org

[Above text found at:

http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20071208010356995

Saturday, December 08, 2007]