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A History of Oppression
- A synopsis of Native American history from the 1800s to the
present day case of
John Graham
by Bob Newbrook, revised August 10, 2004.
Bob Newbrook was a municipal police officer for the town of Hinton, Alberta at the time of Leonard Peltier's arrest in 1976, and has direct knowledge of the case. Mr. Newbrook is one of the five volunteer supervisors that signed John Graham’s bail release documents in January 2004.
Some of the following information was taken from the book “In the spirit of Crazy Horse” by Peter Matthieson. The remainder is from personal knowledge gained as a result of the examination of FBI documentation obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, other research and my involvement with the arrest of Leonard Peltier as a member of the Municipal Police Department in Hinton, Alberta, Canada.
History | The Present Day | The Next Frame-Up
We cannot return to the past; neither can we change it. In order to heal,
however, we must redress the mistakes of history and not repeat them.
The following quote is from the Lakota Sioux war chief Sitting Bull in
1890;
“What treaty that the white man has kept has the red man broken? Not one.
What treaty that the white man ever made with us have they kept? Not one.
When I was a boy, the Sioux owned the world. The sun rose and set on their
land; they sent ten thousand men to battle. Where are the warriors today?
Who slew them? Where are our lands; who owns them? What white man can say
I ever stole his land or a penny of his money? Yet, they say I am a thief.
What white woman was ever captive or insulted by me? Yet, they say I am
a bad Indian.
What white man has ever seen me drunk? Who has ever come to me hungry and unfed? Who has ever seen me beat my wife or abuse my children? What law have I broken? Is it wrong for me to love my own? Is it wicked for me because my skin is red? Because I am Lakota, because I was born where my father died, because I would die for my people and my land.”
In 1835, five white prospectors who entered the old silences of the sacred mountains were attacked by Native Indians; their fate was scrawled in a last note, “All kilt but me”. Probably Erza Kind’s small expedition was the first to pursue the sunny glint of gold in the earth and streams of the Black Hills, an isolated ridge of Pine-dark peaks and high blue lakes that rises strangely from dry plains on what is now the Wyoming-South Dakota border. It has a mystery and power, as if it were a sacred place at the center of the circle of the world. It was a place for shelter and hunting deer and birds with sparkling clear water for the Lakota people, where great tribal gatherings would take place for renewal ceremonies such as the sun dance, where one takes the decision to meet one’s self.
The first white men to appear from the North and East in the 18th century were tolerated, if not welcomed, by the strong and warlike buffalo people of the plains who were to become known as the Sioux by white people. As the whites increased in numbers, Indians began dying of measles or smallpox, which was explained to them by their white visitors as the work of God, clearing the way for his own people in the wilderness. As time progressed, the U.S. cavalry began a policy of setting one tribe against another which, together with the awful plagues, killed thousands of Native people all over the Great Plains.
The onslaught of whites forged muddy trails across the sacred hunting grounds, slaughtering buffalo and elk along their way, mainly for the skins to be transported back East for export to Europe and the resulting riches it would bring the white man. That the meat was left to rot while Indians began starving was of no consequence. The U.S. government, eager to adopt a friendship policy permitting safe passage of pioneers and trappers, signed a treaty in 1851 at Fort Laramie. In 1854, Colonel William Harney responded to a bloody skirmish over a Mormon cow by killing more than one hundred warriors and marching the rest into Fort Laramie in chains. Four years later, a party of soldiers reconnoitered the Black Hills in what is now Dakota.
Red Cloud of the Oglala, the most powerful band of the Lakota Sioux nation, stalked out in the middle of a discussion with the whites about opening up a trail which came to be called “Thieves Road” by the Indians. He consequently made the statement “The great father sends us presents and wants us to sell him the road, but the white chief comes with soldiers to steal it before the Indian says yes or no! I will talk with you no more. I will go - now - and I will fight you. As long as I live, I will fight you for the last hunting grounds of my people”.
According to the terms of the treaty signed by Red Cloud at Fort Laramie on November 6, 1868, the Indians were guaranteed - quote - “absolute and undisturbed use of the Great Sioux Reservation. No persons…..shall ever be permitted to pass over, settle upon or reside in territory described in this article, or without consent of the Indians pass through the same…..No treaty for the cession of any portion or part of the reservation herein described…shall be of any validity or force…..unless executed and signed by at least three-fourths of all the adult male Indians, occupying or interested in the same.”
Congress, in its Christian duty, had set forth to ‘civilize’ the Indian with the trusty mix of guns and bibles. The purpose of the reservation system was to – quote-“reduce the wild beasts to the condition of supplicants for charity.” Already, white mountain men and prospectors were passing through the Black Hills without the Indian’s consent, and the rumor of ‘gold in them thar hills’ was confirmed in August 1874 by a reconnaissance expedition led by a jubilant colonel George Custer. In 1873, Custer had been condemned by his superior officer as a cold-blooded, untruthful and unprincipled man, universally disliked by all the officers of his regiment. Custer, on the other hand, depicted the Indian as a “cruel and ferocious wild beast of the desert” and did not deserve to be treated like a human being.
Gold-crazed miners who shot their way into the Black Hills in defiance of the Indian war parties were termed by Sitting Bull in 1875 as “The greedy ones. Their love of possessions is a disease with them. We want no white men here. The Black Hills belong to me. If the whites try to take them, I will fight.”
That year, a commission was sent out from Washington to ‘treat with the Sioux’ for the relinquishment of the Black Hills. Sitting Bull refused to attend, as did Red Cloud and Crazy Horse. Since the Sioux were being ‘so unreasonable’, President Grant sent General Crook to expedite matters. He was asked, prior to leaving, if it was hard for him to go on yet another Indian campaign, to which he made the famous reply, “Yes, it is hard. But the hardest thing is to go and fight those whom you know are in the right.”
The ‘hostile’ Sioux had now been joined by numerous bands of Cheyenne, Arapaho, Minnecojou and Blackfeet which has been described by historians as the greatest gathering of Indian people ever assembled. A great sun dance was held at Medicine Rocks in what is now Montana, where Sitting Bull stood all day staring into the sun when through his vision he saw the bluecoats falling.
On June 25, 1876, on a windy ridge known as Little Big Horn, General Custer, in his greed and haste for the glory, ignored orders to wait for re-enforcements and led a column of two hundred pony soldiers to their deaths.
On December 29, 1890, more than two hundred Sioux women, children and men were slaughtered by the 7th cavalry at Wounded Knee, South Dakota on what is today the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The regiment received twenty congressional medals of honour from a grateful government.
In traditional times, the Sioux formed 3 geographical groups: the Santee in what is now Minnesota, the Yanktons and Yanktonais in North and South Dakota and the Tetons West of the Missouri river (Part of the information in this section was taken from the book “In The Spirit Of Crazy Horse”, by Peter Matthieson. The rest is from direct personal knowledge and research, including the perusal of FBI documentation obtained under the Freedom of Information and Privacy Acts).
The following quote is from the Lakota Sioux war chief Sitting Bull in
1890;
“What treaty that the white man has kept has the red man broken? Not one.
What treaty that the white man ever made with us have they kept? Not one.
When I was a boy, the Sioux owned the world. The sun rose and set on their
land; they sent ten thousand men to battle. Where are the warriors today?
Who slew them? Where are our lands; who owns them? What white man can say
I ever stole his land or a penny of his money? Yet, they say I am a thief.
What white woman was ever captive or insulted by me? Yet, they say I am
a bad Indian.
What white man has ever seen me drunk? Who has ever come to me hungry and
unfed? Who has ever seen me beat my wife or abuse my children? What law
have I broken? Is it wrong for me to love my own? Is it wicked for me because
my skin is red? Because I am Lakota, because I was born where my father
died, because I would die for my people and my land.”
In 1835, five white prospectors who entered the old silences of the sacred mountains were attacked by Native Indians; their fate was scrawled in a last note, “All kilt but me”. Probably Erza Kind’s small expedition was the first to pursue the sunny glint of gold in the earth and streams of the Black Hills, an isolated ridge of Pine-dark peaks and high blue lakes which rises strangely from dry plains on what is now the Wyoming-South Dakota border. It has a mystery and power, as if it were a sacred place at the center of the circle of the world. It was a place for shelter and hunting deer and birds with sparkling clear water for the Lakota people, where great tribal gatherings would take place for renewal ceremonies such as the sun dance, where one takes the decision to meet one’s self.
The first white men to appear from the North and East in the 18th century were tolerated, if not welcomed, by the strong and warlike buffalo people of the plains who were to become known as the Sioux by white people. As the whites increased in numbers, Indians began dying of measles or smallpox, which was explained to them by their white visitors as the work of God, clearing the way for his own people in the wilderness. As time progressed, the U.S. cavalry began a policy of setting one tribe against another which, together with the awful plagues, killed thousands of Native people all over the Great Plains.
The onslaught of whites forged muddy trails across the sacred hunting grounds, slaughtering buffalo and elk along their way, mainly for the skins to be transported back East for export to Europe and the resulting riches it would bring the white man. That the meat was left to rot while Indians began starving was of no consequence. The U.S. government, eager to adopt a friendship policy permitting safe passage of pioneers and trappers, signed a treaty in 1851 at Fort Laramie. In 1854, Colonel William Harney responded to a bloody skirmish over a Mormon cow by killing more than one hundred warriors and marching the rest into Fort Laramie in chains. Four years later, a party of soldiers reconnoitered the Black Hills in what is now Dakota.
Red Cloud of the Oglala, the most powerful band of the Lakota Sioux nation, stalked out in the middle of a discussion with the whites about opening up a trail which came to be called “Thieves Road” by the Indians. He consequently made the statement “The great father sends us presents and wants us to sell him the road, but the white chief comes with soldiers to steal it before the Indian says yes or no! I will talk with you no more. I will go - now - and I will fight you. As long as I live, I will fight you for the last hunting grounds of my people”.
According to the terms of the treaty signed by Red Cloud at Fort Laramie on November 6, 1868, the Indians were guaranteed - quote - “absolute and undisturbed use of the Great Sioux Reservation. No persons…..shall ever be permitted to pass over, settle upon or reside in territory described in this article, or without consent of the Indians pass through the same…..No treaty for the cession of any portion or part of the reservation herein described…shall be of any validity or force…..unless executed and signed by at least three-fourths of all the adult male Indians, occupying or interested in the same.”
Congress, in its Christian duty, had set forth to ‘civilize’ the Indian with the trusty mix of guns and bibles. The purpose of the reservation system was to -quote- “reduce the wild beasts to the condition of supplicants for charity.” Already, white mountain men and prospectors were passing through the Black Hills without the Indian’s consent, and the rumor of ‘gold in them thar hills’ was confirmed in August 1874 by a reconnaissance expedition led by a jubilant colonel George Custer. In 1873, Custer had been condemned by his superior officer as a cold-blooded, untruthful and unprincipled man, universally disliked by all the officers of his regiment. Custer, on the other hand, depicted the Indian as a “cruel and ferocious wild beast of the desert” and did not deserve to be treated like a human being.
Gold-crazed miners who shot their way into the Black Hills in defiance of the Indian war parties were termed by Sitting Bull in 1875 as “The greedy ones. Their love of possessions is a disease with them. We want no white men here. The Black Hills belong to me. If the whites try to take them, I will fight.”
That year, a commission was sent out from Washington to ‘treat with the Sioux’ for the relinquishment of the Black Hills. Sitting Bull refused to attend, as did Red Cloud and Crazy Horse. Since the Sioux were being ‘so unreasonable’, President Grant sent General Crook to expedite matters. He was asked, prior to leaving, if it was hard for him to go on yet another Indian campaign, to which he made the famous reply, “Yes, it is hard. But the hardest thing is to go and fight those whom you know are in the right.”
The ‘hostile’ Sioux had now been joined by numerous bands of Cheyenne, Arapaho, Minnecojou and Blackfeet which has been described by historians as the greatest gathering of Indian people ever assembled. A great sun dance was held at Medicine Rocks in what is now Montana, where Sitting Bull stood all day staring into the sun when, through his vision, he saw the bluecoats falling.
On June 25, 1876, on a windy ridge known as Little Big Horn, General Custer, in his greed and haste for the glory, ignored orders to wait for re-enforcements and led a column of two hundred pony soldiers to their deaths.
On December 29, 1890, more than two hundred Sioux women, children and
men were slaughtered by the 7th cavalry at Wounded Knee, South Dakota on
what is today the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The regiment received
twenty congressional medals of honour from a grateful government.
_____________________________________________________________
Leonard Peltier was born on September 12, 1944, at Grande Forks, North
Dakota. His maternal grandmother was a full blood Sioux and his father ¾ Ojibwa
and ¼ French. In 1968, the American Indian Movement (AIM) was formed
as a direct result of the relocation of bewildered Indians into the cities,
facing open racism and discrimination, the conflict over fishing rights,
continuing land transgressions by corporate interests and the longstanding
policies of government in dealing with Native people. Leonard became an
active leader of AIM, as opposed to a self-appointed spokesman for their
cause, and faced increasing malicious persecution by the FBI.
Through the use of sophisticated NASA satellite technology, the National
Uranium Resource Evaluation Program of the U.S. Geological Survey had
located major uranium deposits in the northwest corner of the Pine Ridge
Reservation in an area called Sheep Mountain. Multinational energy corporations,
such as Kerr-McGee, wanted that uranium but, once again, the Indians
were in the way.
In 1973, a standoff between Natives and the U.S. army and police authorities at Wounded Knee resulted in the deaths of two Indians. Over the following two years, a government financed, FBI armed and trained group of vigilante militants known as the ‘Guardians Of the Oglala Nation’ (GOONS), mostly of mixed blood and led by tribal chairman Dick Wilson, conducted a reign of terror and oppression against the Lakota people of Pine Ridge. Road blocks were erected throughout the reservation and the constant harassment included assault, drive by shootings and executions. During this time, 64 deaths were officially recorded, although none was ever investigated by U.S. authorities.
The FBI created a national campaign against the AIM movement within their secret counterintelligence program (COINTELPRO) and established itself on Native land as a paramilitary force with all other government agents subject to FBI control. In May 1975, a buildup of FBI SWAT, GOONS and other police took place on Pine Ridge. The Lakota had asked for help and in June of 1975, AIM members set up an encampment on the property of the Jumping Bull family near the village of Oglala on Pine Ridge.
Around this time Dick Wilson was in Washington, illegally signing away that part of the Pine Ridge reserve containing uranium deposits. On June 26, 1975, two FBI Special Agents, Ron Williams and Jack Coler, drove onto the private property of Jumping Bull, ostensibly in pursuit of a Native man named Jimmy Eagle, who was alleged to have stolen a pair of used boots after a fight (hardly an FBI mandate). Given the prior two year history of violence and killing on the reservation, this could have been perceived by the occupants as another offensive. Although no one is sure of exactly what happened, both agents and one Native, Joe Killsright Stuntz, were killed in the ensuing gunfight.
A large contingent of police authorities, who just happened to be in close proximity, swarmed the property and began firing indiscriminately at the fleeing residents, including women, children and elders as well as AIM members. Two Native men, Dino Butler and Bob Robideau, were subsequently arrested and brought to trial in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The defense was allowed to present evidence of the circumstances of the oppressive tactics by the GOONS leading up to the firefight, and both men were found not guilty by an all white jury on the basis of self defense. Leonard Peltier, who had also been present during the incident, escaped.
The evidence presented to the Canadian Court which approved the extradition was an affidavit by a Native woman named Myrtle Poor Bear, who stated that she was Peltier’s girlfriend and witnessed him kill the agents. It was subsequently ascertained that she had never met Peltier and was not present at the scene at the time of the gunfight.
At trial, Ms. Poor Bear attempted to recant her evidence citing coercion by the FBI using scare tactics, such as showing her photos of a Native woman’s corpse with the hands cut off. She said the agents had told her that the same would happen to her if she didn’t co-operate and sign the affidavit. However, her testimony was barred on the basis of mental incompetence, although the original affidavit was accepted and allowed to stand.
Critical ballistic information was withheld from the defense team. Specifically, a report by Evan Hodge, an FBI ballistics expert, showed that he had, in October 1975, conducted an extractor mark test on the .223 bullet shell casings allegedly recovered near the agent’s vehicles and found that none matched the AR-15 rifle belonging to Peltier. During the trial, however, Hodge testified that he had performed a test on the same casings in February 1976 and had found them to match. Also, he stated that a firing pin test is far more conclusive than a shell casing test, but could not be performed owing to damage to the weapon. However, the documents showed that the October 1975 ballistic testing had, in fact, included the more precise firing pin test and that the results were negative. At trial, defense counsel was not aware of this conflicting information.
In a ‘Fifth Estate’ television program interview broadcast in 2003, Mr. Hodge was shown a copy of his ballistics report which contradicted his evidence given in court. He stated on camera: “No one told me it was an important case and I didn’t pay much attention to it”.
There are several thousand FBI documents still being withheld in direct violation of Leonard Peltier’s rights to a fair hearing. Mr. Warren Allmand, then Solicitor General of Canada, wrote in consequence: “It was only after the extradition and Peltier’s return to the United States that we learned that the affidavit submitted to the Canadian court was false, and that certain other evidence had been concealed. As a Minister of the Crown at that time, I consider myself and the Canadian Government to have been misled by the authorities of the American Government. This is not the treatment one expects between friendly sovereign nations and as a result, I have been pursuing this matter for over 12 years.” August 17, 1992.
As of the time of writing, Leonard Peltier continues to serve two consecutive life terms in Leavenworth, Kansas. The demands for justice over the years by world human rights organizations and individuals have been ignored by the United States government.
The charge by the FBI against John Graham, a Tuchone Native of the Yukon, for a murder which occurred around 1975/6 on the Pine Ridge Indian reservation in South Dakota, USA, is again a blatant fabrication of evidence.
According to FBI documents, the frozen body of a Native woman was found on private land near Wanblee, South Dakota on February 24, 1976. The following day, a pathologist for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), Dr. W.O. Brown, performed an autopsy which included, by his statement, “the removal of the brain from the body” and determined the cause of death to be exposure. The corpse’s hands were severed and sent to FBI headquarters for further finger print analysis. The body was buried as Jane Doe and subsequently identified as that of Anna Mae Pictou Aquash, a Mi-Kmaq Native of Nova Scotia, Canada, who was a member of the AIM and a U.S. federal fugitive at the time of her death.
On demand by the legal counsel acting for the family of the deceased, Bruce Ellison, the body was exhumed on March 11, 1976 and a pathologist of the families choosing, Dr. Garry Peterson, determined the cause of death as a bullet wound to the head.
Mystery and intrigue have surrounded the case for years. On September
16, 1999, a distant cousin of Anna Mae, Robert Pictou-Branscombe, convened
a press conference in which he stated that FBI provocateur Douglass Durham
had planted rumours about Anna Mae being an FBI informant. He further alleged
that she was taken to a house on the Rosebud reservation in South Dakota,
where she was interrogated by other AIM members, and a self-proclaimed
Executive Director of AIM, Vernon Bellecourt, had ordered her execution.
Branscombe also alleged that she was killed by Graham.
The FBI quickly responded by stating that new evidence would be put before
a grand jury. In 2003, a homeless alcoholic named Arlo Looking Cloud
was arrested, tried and convicted of the first degree murder of Anna
Mae. The evidence was a video showing Looking Cloud being interviewed
by police officer Alonzo, stating that he saw John Graham take Anna Mae
past a fence near the embankment where her body was found and kill her
there on December 12, 1975. Looking Cloud had visited the scene with
police officer Bob Ecoffey shortly before the trial, ostensibly to re-enact
the crime for police evidence.
There are many discrepancies associated with the evidence at trial, which the government appointed lawyer for the defense, Tim Rensch of Rapid City, did not broach. For example, the pathologist, for the BIA, Dr. W.O. Brown, had stated in his March 11, 1976 report of the autopsy which he had performed on February 25, 1976, that the body had been dead for 7 to 10 days, putting the time of death around February 18 to February 15, 1976, and not December 12, 1975 as stated by Looking Cloud. Also, had the body been laying in the cold open countryside for over 2 months, the flesh would have been scavenged by coyotes and crows. The owner of the ranch who discovered the body, Roger Amiotte, stated that the fence in question had not been erected until some 15 years after he found the body. Additionally, Mr. Amiotte stated that the body was wrapped in a blanket when he found it. He also stated that he felt it was intended that the body be found, as there are many places on his property where it could easily have been concealed.
A witness, Kamook Nichols, testified that she heard Peltier brag about killing the agents and that she had been paid about U.S. $46,000 as expenses. What this information had to do with the trial of Looking Cloud is a conundrum and was completely irrelevant, designed only to smear Peltier. However, it was accepted by the court.
In an FBI document titled “A summary of investigation of the murder of Anna Mae Aquash”, it is stated that “During the crime scene search, the earth below where Aquash’s head had rested was spaded in an effort to obtain physical evidence of which none was located and no earth was removed from the scene”. The document also stated that there was no evidence of foul play, and specifically noted that the body “was not wrapped in a blanket”.
In a separate document, reference is made to the hospital staff who received the body noting matted blood in the corpses hair on her head.
John Graham’s extradition trial is scheduled for December 6, 2004 in Vancouver, Canada. Anna Mae’s family are understandably anxious to bring this painful event in their lives to a conclusion, but where is the evidence; the unfabricated, unambiguous, physical evidence such as blood, powder burns, hair, DNA samples etc? The onus lies with the prosecution to prove guilt, as opposed to with the defense to prove innocence. Court is not necessarily a crucible for the truth, and witnesses are routinely coached prior to testifying in order to achieve predetermined results; nuances are shaded, memories reprocessed and vulnerable suspects can be intimidated into confessing to something of which they are not guilty.
Given the power and privilege of the FBI, and their record of subterfuge, the persecution of John Graham provides the U.S. with the opportunity to turn AIM members against one another, effectively diminishing traditional Native opposition to government and corporate interests in Indian land and resources. The attempt by the FBI to vindicate themselves with respect to this shameful and abhorrent chapter of history is also a clear motive.
Bob Newbrook
August 10, 2004