American Indian Movement founded 50 years ago

The beginnings of AIM in Minnesota were rooted in efforts to combat police brutality in Minneapolis, but it quickly expanded and committed itself to uniting all Indigenous persons to uplift their communities, and promote cultural pride and sovereignty.

Other points addressed such matters as land reform law and the restoration of a land base which would permit those Indians who wished to do so to return to a traditional way of life. From the U.S. government’s point of view, recognizing or negotiating treaty claims all over the country might necessitate the return of vast tracts of America to the true owners, a very dangerous idea indeed!

When the government refused dialogue with the Indians, the protestors occupied the Bureau of Indian Affairs building. The government negotiated with the Indians then, but only to end the occupation, not to resolve their original 20-point list of grievances. The government promised to look into the grievances (it never did) and not to prosecute the Indians for the BIA takeover (a promise broken like all the others).

Following the BIA takeover, AIM chapters nationwide were the focus of an intensive investigation, and individual members were targeted for arrest and prosecution. A few weeks after his return from Washington, D.C., in November 1972, for example, Peltier was accused of the attempted murder of a Milwaukee police officer. His claim that he had been set up by the police was eventually supported by several witnesses, including the police officer’s girlfriend, who said the officer had waved around one of Peltier’s pictures, sent to the local police from FBI headquarters, announcing his intention of “catching a big one for the FBI.”

In relation to Wounded Knee II, the FBI caused 542 separate charges to be filed against those it identified as “key AIM leaders.” This resulted in only 15 convictions, all on such small offenses as interfering with a federal officer in the performance of his duty.

Having identified AIM as an extremist threat to the United States, the Department of Justice conducted such prosecutions over a two-year period, jailing AIM members and ensnaring them in lengthy court proceedings, thereby preventing further political activity. As noted, this strategy met with only limited success, and the FBI’s war against the American Indian Movement escalated.

In May of 1975, the FBI began a sizable buildup of its agents, mostly elite Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) members, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. In June 1975, SWAT teams from numerous divisions were designated for special assignment at Pine Ridge.

A June 1975 FBI memo, discovered much later, referred to the potential need for “military assault forces” to deal with AIM members. (It should be noted that the use of military force by the U.S. government at Wounded Knee in 1973 was ruled unlawful by the courts.)

At the same time, the FBI “aided and abetted” Tribal Chairman Dick Wilson, who was intent on stamping out any opposition to his administration by any means. The Bureau, it has since been discovered, provided weapons to Wilson’s vigilantes — the Guardians of the Oglala Nation (GOONs) — and stood by as the politically motivated injury and murder rates on the reservation climbed.

As there was no corresponding AIM buildup on the reservation, nor preparation on the part of AIM members for a confrontation with the authorities (despite the FBI’s later false claim of the presence of bunkers at the Jumping Bull compound), there is little doubt that the FBI alone set the stage for the tragic shoot-out at Oglala on June 26.

The American Indian Movement survived the turmoil of the 1970s. The FBI failed in its mission to destroy AIM largely because it is not an organization as such, but what its name states outright — a movement, a continuous series of actions moving towards an objective. Regardless of mistakes made during that time or the personalities involved, there is no doubt that the men and women of AIM raised the consciousness of Indigenous peoples, sparked cultural pride, and engendered the Native activism seen today.

AIM forever! Forever AIM!

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