TEACH-IN

The scalping at

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THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL
Field NewspaprSynic ~te. 1975
'Well, first you have to hit him between the eyes
with it just to et hi ttention!'

10

Regina Brave Dixon will be speak-
ing at 7:30 on Monday, November 3rd
as part of the Teach-In.
By JENNIE VANDERWALL
IN THE WINTER of 1890, U.S. govern-
ment forces brutally massacred nearly
300 Indian people, mainly women and
children, who had surrendered all but
one of their weapons. The site of the
massacre was Wounded Knee on the
Pine Ridge Reservation, in South -Da-
kota. In the winter of 1973, about 300
Indian people, most of them Oglala Sioux
of the Pine Ridge Reservation, but with
the support of over a hundred Indians
from 75 different tribes, liberated
Wounded Knee. This stand by Indians on
Indian land for Indian rights was met
by the U.S. government with armored
personnel carriers, helicopters, high-
powered rifles. and other Vietnam-era
weapons. The IndependentrOglala Nation
existed for 71 South Dakota winter days
despite the government's blockade of
food, water, health and medical equip-
ment and a constant barrage of bullets.
Many of the Oglala who participated in
the liberation say that for those 71 days
they felt free for the first time in their
lives. Two men died in defense of that
freedom-Apache Frank Clearwater and
Oglala Buddy Lamont.
THE INDIAN PEOPLE who took this
stand were seeking to stop the forces of
a 20th century massacre, a massacre
more subtle than Custer's, but equally
as effective. The facts of Indian life
include the following: male life expect-
ancy is 44.5 years; the suicide rate is
15 times the national average; the un-
employment rate is nearly 90 per cent;
school drop-out rate is 75 per cent; the
average family income is $1000; and 95
per cent of reservation housing is sub-
standard.
The Oglala people of the Pine Ridge
Reservation have had their land, money
and freedom stolen. In fact, the Bureau
of Indian Affairs (BIA) has leased In-
dian land without tribal approval to
white ranchers for a fraction of its
proper rental value. Illegal trades have
been permitted to enter the reservation
and overcharge residents who cannot
afford to travel long distances for food
and supplies. In 1973, grievances mounted
with the fraudulent election of Dick
Wison as Oglala tribal chairman. With
BIA assistance, Wilson limited polling to
difficult to reach places on the reserva-
Ltion. In the months that followed Wil-
son's victory, his opponents lost their
jobs and suffered continual harassment.
ON FEBRUARY 6, 1973, more than
100 Indians gathered at the Custer, South
Dakota courthouse to consult with the
local prosecutor and demonstrate against
his 'failure to prosecute the white man
who murdered Wesley Bad Heart Bull,
an Oglala. Police attacked the demon-
strators. Despite clear photographic
evidence that the police initiated the

incident, three Indians (including Wes-
ley's mother Sarah) were convicted and
17 others indicted for their presence at
the courthouse.
Because of these grievances and their
desire to protect their treaty rights,
traditional people and long-time residents
alone, over 40 Indian activists identified
as having ties to AIM were arrested.
An article by Richard LaCourse in
Akwesasne Notes (early winter 1974)
outlines the cooperative effort then qe-
veloping between the BIA and the FBI.
The information came directly from
documents released by Attorney General
William Saxbe during the Wounded Knee
trials. From the FBI documents, La-
Course listed as a goal of the FBI's,
program against what it terms Indian
"militants" to "have local police put
leaders under close scrutiny and arrest
"Despite clear photograph-
ic evidence that the police
initiated the incident, three
Indians (including Wesley's
mother Sarah) were convict-
ed and 17 others indicted for
their presence at the court-
house."
leaders on every possible charge until
they can no longer make bail."
DESPITE ALL THESE arrests, law
and order has not come to Pine Ridge
Reservation. According to Senator James
Abourezk, the Reservation leads the
nation in murder per capita. Last year,
there were 23 unsolved murders on the
Reservation, most of which went com-
pletely uninvestigated. Since January
1975, there have been more than 18
murders and 68 assaults. In the first
months of 1975, Indians were being mur-
dered at the rate of one per week. By
March it had jumped to two per week.
All this averages out to a homicide rate
that is six times that of Chicago. As
former BIA superintendent Albert Trim-
ble said, "The real victims of law and
order on the Reservation are the full-
blood Indians who are cycled and re-
cycled through this damn jail for the
most menial of violations. If you're a
friend of Wilson's you can do any-
thing." (The BIA removed Trimble early
this year for expressing such views.)
of Pine Ridge formed the Oglala Sioux
Civil Rights Organization (OSCRO).
OSCRO met at Wounded Knee on Feb-
ruary 27, 1975. There they were sur-
rounded by federal officers and the
occupation began. In May the govern-
ment finally agreed to negotiate the
Indians' original demands, and the de-
fenders of Wounded Knee allowed them-
selves to be arrested.
Over 400 people were eventually ar-

Wounde
rested because of Wounded Knee, and
317 were charged with federal offenses.
The Wounded Knee Legal Defense/
Offense Committee was formed to assist
those who took part in the liberation of
Wounded Knee. Over two years, the
government spent millions of dollars try-
ing to convict these people. Over 80
cases were won on acquittal or dismissal
by the court. However, no sooner does
a defendant get acquitted or have his
case dismissed (usually due to lack of
evidence, illegal wiretaps or gross mis-
conduct on the part of the government)
than another indictment is handed down.
Russell Means, a leader of the American
Movement, who has himself been ar-
rested numerous times and shot twice,
says, "Since Wounded Knee '73, 1000
AIM members or supporters have been
busted." In the month of October '75
The only case of violence on the Res-
ervation which has occasioned much
governmental concern was the' June 26
shooting in the town of Oglala, in which
two FBI agents and one Indian man were
shot to death. The deaths of the agents
were originally described as resulting
from an ambush and "execution-style"
killings, with the bodies of the two
riddled with bullets; later evidence
proved this story to be false. However,
a young Indian man, Jimmy Eagle, is
being held on $250,000 bond for the shoot-
ings. The sole evidence against him is
the testimony of one of his cellmates,
who supposedly overheard conversations
in which Eagle described the June 26
events "in terms of we and they." In-
terestingly, the story attributed to Eagle,
while fitting the original FBI description
of the incident, is also contradicted by
the later evidence. Since June 26, FBI
harassment has intensified on the South
Dakota Indian Reservations, with agents
now present at Pine Ridge, Rosebud and
just recently at Mission, S. D. The FBI
raids all follow a similar pattern, with
agents being backed up by helicopters
carrying jeeps.
ONE OF THE most important demands
enentioned in the agreements which
ended the 1973 occupation of Wounded
Knee called for a treaty commission to
re-examine the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty
signed between the U.S. government and
the Sioux Nation, which gave the Sioux
control of their Reservation. Since the
end of August, chiefs, headmen and
their supporters from the Oglala Lakota
Nation have been waiting in Washington,
D.C., to see Gerald Ford about the
Treaty and other issues of sovereignty
on the Reservation. They have put up
with the difficult climate, bureaucratic
runarounds, serious financial problems
and violent attacks on their family mem-
bers on the Reservation. After more than
six weeks, the larger delegation returned
home to discuss the situation with the
other members of the tribe (the tradi-
tional way of taking direction from those
governed) and left a core group of rep-
resentatives who will continue to work to

Knee

see the President. As of yet, not only
have they been unsuccessful in getting to
see him, but there has been a complete
mass media news black-out on their
presence in Washington.
IT IS EASY to speculate on the eco-
nomic considerations which could be
prompting Ford's unwillingness to meet
with the Sioux representatives. In the
1868 Treaty, the victorous Sioux reserved
to themselves all of what is now North
and South Dakota, Montana and Wyom-
ing, west of the Missouri River. In 1889,
South Dakota became a state; the Sioux
got 2.8 million acres originally, one third
of the state, they managed to keep only
about half of that over the next several
years. Theft of Indian land did not stop
with the end of westward expansions.
In the 1940's, the large number of whites
who had settled in the eastern part of
the reservation now called Bennett,
County lopped off the Reservation so
they would not have to live on Indian
land. On June 26, 1975, Tribal Chairman
Dick Wilson ceded one eighth of the
Reservation to the U.S. Department of
Parks and Recreation, without . tribal
approval or consent of the people. One
half of the land which was given away
was in the White Clay District, where
the FBI shoot-out interestingly enough
occurred on the same day.
The U.S. "energy crisis" is having
grave repercussions on the Indian chance
for land rights. During the occupation of
Wounded Knee, a group of corporations
appeared before North Dakota's Water
Commission, which granted leases on
water from Lake Skakauea and the
Missouri River. This is to be used for
coal gassification plants, the first of
which is to built by Concolidated Coal
Comoany (owned by Continental Oil) at
Rapid City, S.D. As to the environmental
impact of coal gassification, a University
of Arizona professor told a mining sym-
posium that "the smoke doesn't bother
anything but the Indians and a few
sheep." Mining, timber and oil resources
on all Indian reservations have attracted
attention from big business as profit-
making energy sources.
REGINA BRAVE DIXON, who will be
speaking at Hill Auditorium this Monday
as part of the Ann Arbor Teach-In, was
born and raised on the Pine Ridge
Reservation. She took part in the Custer
demonstration for equal justice in South
Dakota, and was charged with arson as.
a result of the police riot following that
demonstration. A participant in the 1973
liberation of Wounded Knee, she is pres-
entlv a member of the media committee
of the Wounded Knee Legal Defense/
Offense Committee. Regina Brave Dixon
says of the liberation, "We went into
Wounded Knee together-men, women
and children. We remained in Wounded
Knee because we are a Nation fighting
for survival in the 20th century."
Jennie Vander wall is a member of the
Wounded Knee Legal Defense.

Eighty-Six Years of Editorial Freedom
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan

Saturday, November 1, 1975

News Phone: 764-0552

420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mi. 48104
Participate In the Teach-In

THE ANN ARBOR Teach-In offers
t h e University community a
unique opportunity to gain access to
information o f t e n ignored by the
media and classroom curricula. But
more importantly, it p r o m i s e s to
stimulate a long overdue discussion
on American society, and the manner
in which' it represses dissent.
The purpose of a University is to
ask questions about society which
are not being asked by public offi-
cials. In 1965 the University of Mich-
igan introduced the teach-in concept
to. focus attention upon the war in
Vietnam. Teach-ins attempted to de-
velop serious discussions concerning
U.S. involvement in Vietnam in re-
sponse to the barricade of lies and
deception emanating from the White
House, State Department, and Penta-
gon.
The Ann Arbor Teach-In, which
begins on Sunday night, represents
TODAY'S STAFF
News: Gordon Atcheson, Mitch Dun-
itz, Stephen Hersh, Cheryl Pilate,
Cathy Reutter, Jeff Ristine
Editorial Page: Marc Basson, Bruce
Braverman, Debra Hurwitz, Tom
Kettler, Robert Miller
Arts Page: David Weinberg
Photo Techniciarn: Ken Fink

the end of an era as well as the be-
ginning of a new period of activism,
questioning, and dissent. Many of the
issues and movements w h i c h grew
out of the sixties-the anti-war move-
ment, the women's, black, and Indian
movements w i 11 be seriously ex-
amined. The Teach-In will document
the subversion of these movements
which stemmed f r o m the govern-
ment's denial of their cause of jus-
tice and equality.
RUT IF THIS is all that the Teach-
In can do, it -will be a failure. Its
general topics, "Assassination," "Cor-
porate Manipulation," "Subversion of
the Forces of Dissent," "Polce Repres-
sion"' may lead to depression, not
activism. The University community
and the Teach-In speakers must face
the challenge of technocracy and ask
s i m p 1 y, "how can the situation
change?"
The speakers f e a t u r e d at the
Teach-In, H e r b e r t Marcuse, Eqbal
Ahmad, Frank Donner, Richard Bar-
nett, Regina Brave Dixon, and David
DuBois, to name a few, carry im-
peccable credentials.
The Daily once again expresses its
disappointment with the Executive
Committee for denying mini-course
credit to the Teach-In and urges
anyone interested in the future of
American society to attend.

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7

TEA C H-IN

Hunting the Panthers: An FBI plot

4 ME IMPO$SI8LS IEAM

ZOO

David Du Bois will be speak-
ing at 7:30 on Monday, Novem-
ber 3rd as part of the Teach-In.
By DAVID WEINBERG
TUST BEFORE DAWN on the
morning of December 5th,
1969, there came a knocking on
Fred Hampton's door. Hampton,
then leader of the Illinois Black
Panther Party stirred heavily
in his sleep, long enough per-
haps to hear the first moments
of the drama that ensued.
"Police-open up!" came the
flat shout, from others within
the apartment came a brief
flurry of motion, then a high
coursing fear, as all suddenly
realized that what was transpir-
ing was to be not just a routine
interaction with the police, but
a raging battle.
Fred Hampton died in that
battle, as did one other mem-
ber of the Black Panthers. Sev-
eral others were wounded. Po-
lice said at the time that they
had come to the apartment to
search for a cache of arms.
Many people, no doubt, thought
it was just one of numerous
battles fought between police
and radicals.
But Black Panther Party
spokesperson David Du Bois
doesn't think so. Du Bois thinks
that the death of Fred Hampton 7
and other similar occurences
since then are part of a calcu-
Letter
To The Daily:
BY NOW WE HOPE most of
the campus is aware of the
Teach-In which will take place
on this campus next week. En-
titled "The Bicentennial Dilem-
ma: Who's in Control?" the
conference, featuring over twen-

lated FBI conspiracy to wipe
out the Black Panther Party.
"THERE'S A VICIOUSNESS
against the Black Panthers,"
said Du Bois in a recent phone
interview, "and it's not to be
compared to any other group in
the country, not the Socialist
Workers or anyone. It is our
belief that the Black Liberation
movement has been the target
of an organized conspiracy."
On the telephone, Du Bois,
stepson of historian and teacher
E.B. Du Bois, maintains a re-
strained and fluid tenor to his
voice, but as he continues to
sneak of the Party members
that have died, of the damage
done to the Party in 1969-70,
one senses a chord of urgent
intensity.
"There has been a concerted
effort to knock the party out.'
By assassination, by infiltration,
by money used to buy people
off, and by provoked confronta-
tions with the police," he as-
serted.
"We count twenty-six fallen
comrades," he added, "or mar-
tyrs that have fallen because of
this." The Fred Hampton death,
said Du Bois, was one such as-
sassination. ~
"THAT RAID ON the apart-
ment was long pre-planned.
Hampton's bodyguard was a
paid agent and a member of

"'There has been a concerted effort to knock
the Party out. By assassination, by infiltration,
by money used to buy people off, and by pro-
yoked confrontations with the police'."
>..::;....i:">?sJ:w.m .} ? : :'." }

the party at the time ... there
wasn't any shootout. Every shot
in the place was fired by the
police except one. And Hampton
never woke up - he couldn't
wake up - some kind of drug
had been used to knock him
out," Du Bois said.
And this was just one inci-
dent in a season of attacks
against the Black Panthers, Du
Bois believes. "In L.A. four days
later, the same kind of thing
happened. The Party Headquar-

Hampton it shows that the FBI
was behind it," Du Bois stated.
The Cointelpro documents,
memos from J. Edgar Hoover
released last summer, indicate
that most of these operations
were directed by the FBI from
the White House.
THOSE OPERATIONS had
their toll on the Black Panther
Party. As Du Bois maintains,
"We were severely hurt by
those years. For three and a

And we've been getting requests
-'Where is the Party? What's
going on?'"
More recently, Du Bois ac-
knowledged, things have not
been as bad for the Party, but
he maintained that "subtle bru-
tality" has persisted. In Du
Bois' words, "The methods may
have changed, but the goal is
the same."
He added, "Things are differ-
ent now, and the Party is differ-
ent. We don't have the same
kind of harrassment, but we do
have petty 'harassments and
things like FBI inquiries into
members and where they live.
Evenain the case of Huey New-
to ,lastyear where he was
framed on a murder charge and
had to leave the country."
DAVID DU BOIS spent twelve
years in Africa, 1959-72, in the
countries of Ghana and Egypt,
and recently published a novel
based on his African experience
entitled And Bid Him Sing. His
appearance in this week's
Teach-In will be of critical im-
portance in assessing and bring-
ing to light some of the more
frightening and lesser - known
realities of the Afro-American
experience.
David Weinberg is a Daily
staff writer.

ters was surrounded by 200 po-
licemen. There was no provoca-
tion and the comrades were or-
dered to surrender and come
out. In Omaha, Nebraska the
headquarters was bombed and
it's clear now that it was by
police. In New Orleans the same
thing happened and a few broth-
ers were beaten almost to death.
Not to mention the brothers who
turned up dead," he added.
"These were operations direc-
ted by the local enforcement
agencies, but in the case of

half years since then, the Party
has been cleaning itself,
analyzing our circumstances."
But now, after a long period of
regrouping its forces, pulling in-
ward, the Panthers seem at last
to be moving outward again.
"Many chapters were closed
for an extended period of time,"
said Du Bois, "But for the past
six months we've been working
outward again, to the south and
east and midwest. We just open-
ed a new chapter in Chicago ...

Professors praise

Teach-In

N%

of dissent, behavior modifica-
tion and mind control-
This teach-in was put together
entirely by students. It repre-
sents, we think, a major event
for the campus this year. The
issues it touches on are critical
ones for contemporary America,

to ignore the questions they ask
or the issues they touch.
IN THIS LIGHT, we think it
significant that the University
has provided no assistance
whatever to the Teach-In. Even
the efforts to organize a mini-
course around the Teach-In

to be political aspects of the -
Curriculum Committee's rejec-
tion of the mini-course proposal,
and by the Committee's insist-
ence, as a requisite to approv-
how to process information.
WE SHARE THE belief that
freedom of speech and freedom

mann, William Aosenberg, Hen-
ryk Skolemowski, Thomas Wers-
kopf, Marilyn Young, Robin Ja-
coby.
Andre Mogdigliani, William
Gamson, Zelda Gamson, Robert
Weisbuch, Harold Livesay, Wal-
ter Wilder, Charles Wolfson.

Ti

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