Twenty-five years ago today, a federal judge in St. Paul dismissed charges against two American Indian Movement leaders stemming from the 1973 occupation of the Wounded Knee site in South Dakota. Russell Means and Dennis Banks were the first AIM members to go to trial for their part in the 71-day standoff that ended with two dead and a U.S. Marshall paralyzed. Judge Fred Nichol dismissed charges of conspiracy, arson and assault eight months into the trial, when a juror became sick during deliberations and the government refused to accept a verdict from an 11-member panel. The judge angrily criticized the prosecution, accusing the government of misconduct as he dismissed the charges. In many ways it was the high point for the American Indian Movement, which still exists, but has been fractured by internal disputes.
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BRIAN BULL: Clyde Bellecourt, along with Dennis Banks, Mary Jane Wilson, and others, formed the American Indian Movement in 1968, as a response to the rampant poverty, violence, and racism, that plagued Indians on and off reservations. The problems were going virtually unnoticed outside the Indian community. So Bellecourt says, the group turned to civil disobedience to get attention. In the next four years, AIM would stage takeovers of several federal properties, including Alcatraz, and the National Office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
CLYDE BELLECOURT: We looked at the federal government, and the churches, and White European education, as the three worst enemies of Indian people. That they work day in and day out to strip us of our language, our culture, our traditions, relocate us off our land. So we knew that we were on a collision course, and we challenged those institutions every day of the week.
BRIAN BULL: The armed occupation of Wounded Knee near the site of one of the last clashes of the US Army and the Lakota in the 1800s, launched AIM into the public spotlight. AIM leaders took over the village to call attention to the conditions on reservations like Pine Ridge. Russell Means emerged from the standoff as a recognized leader of the movement. Yet even though the charges stemming from the incident were dismissed, he says the victory came at a heavy price.
RUSSELL MEANS: They hamstrung the organization very effectively, and we resulted with all our energies going towards the trials, and of course, none to the communities where we were at. The United States government actually, through the trials, won the battle.
BRIAN BULL: The movement's work boosted Indian pride nationwide, but AIM was disintegrating. More trials, including another in which Dennis Banks was convicted on riot charges, depleted the organization's resources. By 1975, AIM chapters had sprouted nationally. Clyde Bellecourt's brother, Vernon, says many had their own leadership and agendas.
VERNON BELLECOURT: We seen people taking our name. I guess I could say using the name, AIM in vain. Frankly, play groups cropping up all over, many of them out of the wannabe community. These are people that want to be everything except what they are.
BRIAN BULL: The largest rift would split AIMs founder, Clyde Bellecourt, and its most prominent leader, Russell Means. The Bellecourt brothers formed the AIM grand governing council, based in Minneapolis. Means started the International Confederation of autonomous chapters of AIM, a cross-country network. Neither group officially recognizes the other. Russell Means.
RUSSELL MEANS: The American Indian Movement, in 1995 and '96, we held two tribunals. The Bellecourt brothers were convicted of high treason and banished from the American Indian Movement. So what did they do? They went out and created an internet AIM. And that's exactly what it is. I wish them well. No, I don't wish them well because they were banished.
BRIAN BULL: The rift may seem confusing to anyone not paying close attention. While both groups dispute the use of the AIM title, they still rally around many of the same causes. For instance, both have appeared recently at Whiteclay, Nebraska to protest the unsolved murders of two Indian men found on the neighboring Pine Ridge Reservation this summer. Both groups regularly criticized the FBI, the BIA, and Indian stereotypes in sports and media. And leaders from both groups say they want to make sure Indians don't forget their unified struggle. Vernon Bellecourt.
VERNON BELLECOURT: What tribal leaders today have to understand is there was a struggle took place. People died at Wounded Knee, like Buddy Lamont, Frank Clearwater-- others along the way died in this struggle. And yet today, hardly any of our tribal leaders even know this history of how they arrived at where they are today. They think it's like manna or bread falling from the sky. They have no idea where this empowerment came from.
BRIAN BULL: Both camps remain committed to using education, combined with tribal tradition, as the key to empowering Indian generations to come. Means operates the Treaty Immersion School in Porcupine, South Dakota, a kindergarten through third grade school, emphasizing Lakota culture and self esteem. Clyde Bellecourt's own model, The Heart of the Earth Survival School in Minneapolis, just began its 27 year of operation.
DOREEN DAY: Everybody line up here.
BRIAN BULL: For teacher Doreen Day, who identifies with the American Indian Movement, the mission of AIM outweighs the question of who's in charge.
DOREEN DAY: I think that the American Indian Movement has transformed itself into a spiritual movement. I don't see the division actively being prevalent in what we do. I'm a person that is a supporter, a staunch believer in what the movement does.
BRIAN BULL: Louis Gonzales, principal to the 236 Indian students, sees AIM's legacy living on in the school's growth.
LOUIS GONZALES: Heart of the Earth was one of the schools that was developed by the American Indian Movement, and has developed successfully to the point that Heart of the Earth Survival School is no longer about survival, but has now become Heart of the Earth Center for American Indian Education. We're pleased that the American Movement was instrumental in getting a lot of this thing to happen.
BRIAN BULL: Gonzales says the school teaches about the American Indian Movement in its history courses to give students an appreciation of what AIM gave them over 30 years. Gonzales hopes students will go back to their communities, and continue the work its leaders, however divided, began for Indian people everywhere. For NPR News, this is Brian Bull.