[Fifty years have passed but for American Indians the struggle for
recognition of the nation-to-nation treaties continues to be seen as
survival.]
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WOUNDED KNEE AND TODAY’S FIGHT FOR TREATY RIGHTS  
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Sand Brim
March 7, 2023
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_ Fifty years have passed but for American Indians the struggle for
recognition of the nation-to-nation treaties continues to be seen as
survival. _

A child leans against the Wounded Knee Memorial on Feb. 27, 2023, in
South Dakota after joining marchers commemorating the 50th anniversary
of the occupation of the town of Wounded Knee., Stewart Huntington/ICT


 

The 1973 Siege at Wounded Knee is the longest “civil unrest” in
the history of the US Marshal Service. For 71 days, the American
Indian Movement (AIM) and members of the Oglala Lakota (Sioux) nation
were under siege in a violent standoff with the FBI and US Marshals
equipped with high powered rifles and armored personnel carriers. 
Two people were killed, over two dozen wounded.  At stake,
sovereignty and self-determination guaranteed through treaty rights.

Fifty years have passed but for American Indians the struggle for
recognition of the nation-to-nation treaties continues to be seen as
survival.  At the end of February, young Indian leaders joined older
activists to gather at Wounded Knee to commemorate the violent events
that began on February 27, 1973, and renew their call for
self-determination and recognition of their treaties.  At the
Commemoration Wounded Knee veteran leader Bill Means emphasized that
the failure to honor these treaties stems from “continued acts of
colonialism.”

The Lakota Indians are not fighting for civil rights. Their fight is
for their land and those guaranteed rights of self-determination
agreed to in the 1868 Ft. Laramie Treaty. As one Wounded Knee veteran
put it, “We were trying to get out of the system.”

American Indians see their responsibility under the treaties linked to
the health of the land and water.  Lakota leader and Wounded Knee
veteran Madonna Thunder Hawk explained, “When we step up as a people
to protect land and water, what we stand on are our treaty rights.”

To understand their struggle, you must understand the history.

The 1973 Siege at Wounded Knee is rooted in the abrogation of the Ft.
Laramie 1868 Treaty between the U.S. Government and the Great Sioux
Nation.  This Treaty sets aside a large swath of land west of the
Missouri River and designates the Black Hills, sacred land of the
Indians, as “unceded territory” for the “absolute and
undisturbed use and occupation of the Indians.” The American Indians
justly understood the Treaty as the right to self-determination.

But the discovery of gold in the Black Hills by George Armstrong
Custer in 1874 followed by the Battle of Big Horn in 1876 galvanized
the illegal confiscation of Indian lands and the enforcement of the
reservation system.    After failed attempts to convince the Tribes
to cede the Black Hills, the Government simply took the land as an Act
of Congress via the 1877 Dawes Act. It was an egregious violation of
the1868 Treaty and set the stage for the massacre at Wounded Knee in
1890, where as many as 300 unarmed Native Americans were
slaughtered.  Nearly half were women and children.  

Not until 1980 did the U.S. Supreme Court acknowledge that the taking
of the Black Hills was illegal, and compelled compensation, today
estimated to be at over one billion dollars.

But the Lakota People have rejected the Court’s decision. They
are clear. The Black Hills are sacred and not for sale.  

For the Lakota this fight for survival, the preservation of their
nation and its land, were the central demands of the siege at Wounded
Knee.  During the negotiations the local Oglala leaders were
frustrated with the Justice Department’s refusal to grasp the
central issue of the Treaty.  Gladys Bissonette, a revered Oglala
activist admonished the Government negotiators, “In the past there
were a lot of violations of the sacred treaties . . .This is real.
We’re not playing here. So all you people that go back to
Washington, think real good, because our lives are at stake. It
concerns our children’s children, the unborn.”

Oglala Lakota County is one of the poorest counties in the United
States.  The Lakota people live in extreme poverty.  Their children
were subjected to cultural genocide through forced assimilation in
Bureau of Indian Affairs schools. Their life expectancy is nearly six
years less than white Americans. But they were not poor before their
land and resources were taken. The Lakota understand Indian poverty as
a direct result of colonialism.

Much has been written about the aftermath of the 1973 siege, including
the murders of 60 AIM sympathizers and activists in the following
year, known as the Reign of Terror, carried out by a local vigilante
group self-titled “Goons” (Guardians of the Oglala Nation). U.S.
District Court Judge Fred Nichols viewed this as the FBI colluding
with vigilantes to target AIM sympathizers. The continued imprisonment
of Leonard Peltier despite universal calls for clemency - even by the
prosecutor - demonstrates the FBI’s intent to eliminate Indian
activists even at the cost of truth.

At the end of the nine-month trial of AIM leaders Dennis Banks and
Russel Means the jury polled unanimously to acquit. But an illness of
one juror prevented the required courtroom polling. Judge Nichols then
simply dismissed the charges.  “[T]he misconduct by the government
in this case is so aggravated that a dismissal must be entered in the
interests of justice," he wrote. “The waters of Justice have been
polluted.”

The new young Indian leadership is educated both in traditional ways
and at American colleges and universities. They call for solidarity
with other colonized peoples of the world. And they identify the
continued denial of self-determination and pressure to assimilate as
an ongoing strategy of cultural genocide. They easily traverse both
worlds, but they do not accept the label of “American”.  They are
members of their respective Indian Tribal Nations. And return of their
lands under the treaties remains their priority. Oglala Lakota leader
and N.D.N. Collective President Nick Tilsen adds, “ “The Waters of
Justice have absolutely been polluted. The issue of the Black Hills is
one of the longest unresolved legal, political, treaty and human
rights matter’s in the History of the United States. This president
says he’s about a reckoning with the past and healing forward yet no
effort has been made by the White House to have open dialogue about
the return of Public Lands in the Black Hills. It’s time to talk
about LandBack. If this country wants to authentically engage a
restorative and just healing process with this country’s Indigenous
peoples it must start with the return of stolen indigenous lands back
into indigenous hands. That’s our ask, it’s very clear return all
public lands in the Black Hills to the Lakota. It will halt the mining
claims and projects that are polluting the water and destroying the
environment and move us all closer to justice.”
Corporate extraction of critical metals and minerals from American
Indian lands and the growing impact of the climate extremes give
impetus to their demands for the return of their lands.  
These are warriors of a new era committed to the protection of their
land, their waters, and their people, and they are fueled by the
urgency of climate change.

“The waters of justice have been polluted.”

The fight continues.

[Sand Brim was at was at Wounded Knee 50 years ago. She stayed two
years on the reservation collecting evidence for the Federal Trials.
She just returned from the 50 Year Commemoration.]

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* Wounded Knee; Nation to Nation Treaties; American Indian Lands;
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