41 Years Ago Today: Wounded Knee, '73

Photo Copyright Wings, 2014; all rights reserved.

Note: A version of this was first posted at Daily Kos on March 4, 2014, as part of my weekly series, This Week In American Indian News; it appears here with minor edits for currency.


Wounded Knee '73:  41st Anniversary of Occupation's Start

Today, February 27, marks the 41st anniversary of the beginning of the American Indian Movement's occupation of Wounded Knee, on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Its conception and launch were led primarily by two of AIM's founders: Carter Camp (Ponca) and Dennis Banks (Ojibwa). [Note: This is not to say that others did not play major roles, both during the planning and execution; it simply credits the two most significant driving forces appropriately, as most media never do. Please also note that the link above implies no endorsement on my part of the article's content — on many grounds. Finally, I include here a link to the wiki on both the 1890 massacre and the 1973 occupation — and again, inclusion does not imply endorsement of all content.] 




We were fortunate to have as fellow Kossacks two AIM members who were part of the occupation. Carter [cacamp] and Meteor Blades have both written on the subject from their vantage point in the middle of a 71-day ground war for the safety and sovereignty of our peoples. I know that I cannot do justice to the substance of the 1973 occupation - nor to the 1890 massacre - in this brief format. To try to shoehorn synopses into this small space would be a grave disservice to those who fought in either conflict. Instead, I highly recommend reading navajo's and MB's First Nations News and Views diary from last year (also linked below), which includes Carter's first-hand account. Before we get to that, though, I'd like you to take a look at a couple of images from the 1890 massacre, of Chief Big Foot and medicine man Yellow Bird. Fix these images firmly in your mind. Then think about everything we (Carter, MB, navajo, Ojibwa, Nulwee, Winter Rabbit, and myself) have written over the years about what conditions are still like at Pine Ridge. Then read Carter's account below, followed by the next piece.

Last year, Carter described the occupation through the lens of his own life experience:

In some areas of conflict between our people and those we signed treaties with, it is best to negotiate or "work within the system." But, because our struggle is one of survival, there are also times when a warrior must stand fast even at the risk of one's life. I believed that in 1973 when I was 30 and I believe it today at 70. But to me Wounded Knee '73 was really not about the fight, it was about the strong statement that our traditional way of living in this world is not about to disappear and our people are not a "vanishing race" as wasicu (white) education would have you believe. As time has passed and I see so many of our young people taking part in a traditional way of living and believing, I know our fight was worth it and those we lost for our movement died worthy deaths.

. . . 

[I]n the cold darkness as we waited for Dennis and Russ to bring in the caravan (or for the fight to start), I stood on the bank of the shallow ravine where our people had been murdered by the 7th Cavalry [in 1890]. There I prayed for the defenseless ones, torn apart by Hotchkiss cannons and trampled under hooves of steel by drunken wasicu. I could feel the touch of their spirits as I eased quietly into the gully and stood silently, waiting for my future, touching my past.

Finally, I bent over and picked a sprig of sage — whose ancestors in 1890 had been nourished by the blood of Red babies, ripped from their mothers' dying grasp and bayoneted by the evil ones. As I washed myself with that sacred herb, I became cold in my determination and cleansed of fear. I looked for Big Foot and YellowBird in the darkness and I said aloud:

"We are back, my relations, we are home."

Carter was interviewed in the PBS series "We Shall Remain." Again, I highly recommend watching and listening to Carter's words - and reading the words of both Carter and MB on this seminal moment in our peoples' contemporary history.

A NOTE FOR 2014:

Posting this today is all the more bittersweet with the loss of Carter Camp. I loved and honored that man more than words can express. But in the words of the warrior himself:

"We are back, my relations, we are home."

Yes, Brother, you are home.



Copyright Ajijaakwe, 2014; all rights reserved.