Clark Atlanta University
The Impact of the American Indian Movement on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation
Author(s): Philip D. Roos, Dowell H. Smith, Stephen Langley, James McDonald
Source: Phylon (1960-), Vol. 41, No. 1 (1st Qtr., 1980), pp. 89-99
Published by: Clark Atlanta University
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/274670
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By PHILIP D. ROOS, DOWELL
AND JAMES McDONALD
H. SMITH, STEPHEN
LANGLEY
The Impact of the American Indian Movement
on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation*
ORA YEARbefore the occupation of Wounded Knee in February,
1973, Pine Ridge Reservation was the site of an intensive organizing
drive. The American Indian Movement (AIM) engaged in propaganda,
agitation and organization reaching virtually everyone old enough to
talk. During and after the takeover of Wounded Knee village, many
Sioux children painted or scratched AIM on their skins, clothes, and possessions. The clenched fist with a V, symbol of AIM, came often and
easily from two year olds as well as from adults. Almost a year after the
occupation ended, close to half the votes for tribal chairman went to AIM
leader Russell Means. Though he lost the election, an inquiry by the Civil
Rights Commission' suggests he may have received the majority of the
legal votes.
By 1975, however, AIM's presence had diminished. The "normalcy" of
"unemployment, apathy, violence, drunkenness, hostility, dependency,
illness and factionalism"2 had returned to this small society of perhaps
eleven thousand Oglala Sioux3 Indians scattered across 4,000square miles
of plains, hills, ridges and badlands.
Almost before the insurgency had ended, a bookshelf of explanations
appeared pointing out underlying causes in broken treaties and the
forced immiseration of native peoples.4 During the event, there was
heavy media coverage. Our goal here is neither explanation nor description of the occupation itself. Rather, we are writing for social scientists
who, having followed the media coverage, are interested in a report on
the context of Wounded Knee II (WK II). While we are most interested
in subsequent events, we will first show that until the occupation
conflict was increasing.
In conceptualizing and presenting these data we must simplify by presenting in a linear form a welter of frequently overlapping and paradoxi*A shorter version of this paper was read at the meetings of the Society for the Study of
Social Problems, Chicago, September 3, 1977. Our thanks for critical readings of different
stages of this paper go to Murray Wax, Stephen Feraca, Jeanne Smith, Alene Terasaki, and
Jim Simmons. They are not, of course, in agreement with all our interpretations; and we
coauthors continue to argue. Thanks also go to the Peabody Library at Harvard University
for giving us access to its collection.
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Report of an Investigation: OgLala Sioux Tribal Election,
1974. Staff Report.
Ruth Hill Useem, "Rosebud Reservation Economy," in The Modern Sioux: Social Systems
and Reservation Culture, ed. Ethel Nurge (Lincoln, Nebraska, 1970), p. 4.
3In keeping with customary usage, and working from the smallest unit up, Oglalas refers
to that part of the Lakotas enrolled at Pine Ridge, and their descendants; Lakotas refers
to the Teton or western subdivision of the Sioux (and is the name of their language);
Sioux refers to the Lakotas and their originally more easterly affiliates who speak Nakota
or Dakota; and Plains Indians refers to such tribes as the Sioux, Arapahoe, Cheyenne,
Crow, etc. who made their homes on the Plains and, between about 1750 and 1860, shared
a number of cultural features which anthropologists call the "horse-buffalo-tipi complex."
Vine Deloria, Behind the Trail of Broken Treaties (New York, 1974); Robert Burnette and
John Koster, The Road to Wounded Knee (New York, 1974); U.S. Congress, Senate, Subcommittee on Indian Affairs of the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, Hearings on
the Occupation of Wounded Knee, 93rd Cong., 16-17 June, 1973.
89
90
PHYLON
cal behaviors. We further simplify the account by looking first at AIM,
then at the political economy of the reservation, and finally at ceremonial practices. Even in white society, such distinctions are merely analytic,
but many whites at least segregate their behaviors according to them.
For Pine Ridge, individual actors may be important in more than one
sphere. We doubt that Indians would see such a three-fold distinction as
valid.
In keeping with the attempt to report more than to analyze, we do not
espouse any particular theoretical framework. Wallace's broad notion of
revitalization movements5 is useful since every local public emphasizes
particular features of the Indian and the white heritages. Powers' theory
of Oglala leadership6 helps link the ceremonial, economic and political
spheres. We would add the theoretic notion that AIM was not a "causal
agent" but rather a few components of the many strategies continually
being negotiated among individuals, groups, collectivities and bearers of
interests. These existed before AIM's arrival and after its departure.
THE AMERICANINDIAN MOVEMENT
Wounded Knee II (WK II) is not a proper starting point for an understanding of recent flamboyant events. A year earlier, on February 20,
1972, Raymond Yellow Thunder was found dead in a used car lot in
Gordon, Nebraska.7 Unexplained Indian deaths are often considered routine in such little towns. Yellow Thunder's family found no immediate
support for an investigation, so they solicited the assistance of AIM.
AIM, until then primarily an urban8 group, responded to the summons.
Two whites eventually were found guilty of second degree manslaughter
in connection with Yellow Thunder's demise. AIM was seen by many as
primarily responsible for the convictions, and, true or not, the rarity of
such a conviction gave AIM great local prestige.
During the eleven months between AIM's appearance in the area and
WK II, the leadership solicited signatures on membership cards. Meetings were held throughout the reservation so that people without transportation could attend. The tribal administration was attacked for corruption and subservience to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), the BIA
for incompetence and destruction of the school children's heritage,
whites generally for treaty violations and racism. These were all old
themes: AIM brought to them a new vigor, a more militant rhetoric, and
a more active and urban style derived largely from the protest move5Anthony F. C. Wallace, "Revitalization Movements," American Anthropologist, LVIII (1956).
eWilliam K. Powers, Oglala Religion (Lincoln, Nebraska, 1977), 202-07.
7 Gordon is one
of several towns outside of but near the reservation with predominantly
white populations. Here residents of the reservations go to obtain goods and services not
available on the reservation. Of these, alcoholic beverages is one of the most important.
Prejudice and discrimination are rampant. Cf. Earnest L. Schusky, The Right to be Indian
(Vermillion, South Dakota: Institute of Indian Studies); Dowell H. Smith, "Old Cars and
Social Productions among the Teton Lakota" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Colorado,
1972).
sAIM was founded in 1968 in Minneapolis. Prior to 1972, there had been some local activity,
such as a June, 1971 protest atop Mt. Rushmore. But there was no full-time leadership
group in the area.
THE AMERICAN INDIAN MOVEMENT
91
ments of the 1960s. The style was particularly offensive to those Oglalas
who supported the tribal administration or to whom the historical
grievances were not salient.
Indeed, this period was AIM's heyday nationally as well as locally.
As part of the "Trail of Broken Treaties," the BIA's Washington headquarters was occupied in November, 1972. Locally, this was a period of
escalating conflict. Richard Wilson, who became tribal chairman in
April, 1972, harassed some AIM leaders and members. Some of Wilson's
political opponents attempted to impeach him through the tribal government and to attack him through the federal courts. By mid-February,
1973, federal marshals (in blue jumpsuits) had arrived to "protect" the
BIA and tribal offices in9 Pine Ridge from AIM10Tensions clearly were
rising among Indians and between Indians and whites.
AIM not only helped create tensions, it was also caught up in them.
From a U.S. governmental perspective, AIM was seeking radical change,
or revolution. To achieve this goal, an organization should be tightly
knit and closely controlled. But from a reservation perspective, even
that of its detractors, AIM
-
including
its non-Sioux
members
-
had
come to join the long-standing dream of the Great Sioux Nation." AIM
and traditional Lakotas consider their position legal, not radical or revolutionary. In soliciting members, the AIM leadership spoke at meetings
and social events and established ties with some local leaders. Procedures
to verify the loyalty of new members would have alienated some, probably many, reservation supporters. The need, by a group of outsiders, to
develop wide support in the already highly politicized reservation environment had to take precedence over any need for a "tight" organization. Morover, AIM tried to keep all its actions "legal" within the 1868
treaty. Because discipline and security were lacking, there was considerable gossip and backbiting. These are traditional means of social control,
common, general, and moderately effective on the reservation.
At the time, as in retrospect, some militant action was to be expected.
But the timing, location and form of WK II surprised everyone, including most, perhaps all, participants. The massive federal military reaction
was also unexpected.
It is a well-known social psychological principle that outside intervention frequently makes a group more cohesive. Although the presence of the military and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) did
bring some older full blood leaders closer to AIM, the general effect was
to increase the ever-present factionalism. Two examples will illustrate:
9In keeping with standard usage, on Pine Ridge refers to the reservation as a whole, while
in Pine Ridge refers to the town (agency), the seat of government and services.
?0For more, though hardly impartial, detail of this period, see Voices from Wounded Knee
1973 (via Rooseveltown, New York: Akwesasne Notes, 1974), pp. 14-34.
"The Sioux and their allies, under the leadership of the great Oglalas, Red Cloud and Crazy
Horse, defeated the U.S. Army 1866-68. The resulting treaty of Fort Laramie gave the
Lakotas and Nakotas all of what is now South Dakota west of the Missouri River, with some
hunting rights in surrounding areas of what is now Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana and North
Dakota. The text of the 1868 treaty is reproduced in Senate, Occupation of Wounded Knee,
pp. 291-300, and simple maps are on pp. 362-64. These are also available in other sources.
92
PHYLON
(1) At one point there were five separate roadblocks on the main road
between Wounded Knee and U.S. Highway 18. Reading from Wounded
Knee outwards, first there was the AIM roadblock; second, the FBImilitary roadblock; third, the Wilson supporters' roadblock; fourth, an
anti-Wilson roadblock; fifth and finally, a roadblock by a single disgruntled family which resided in Wounded Knee but was now unable to
get home.
(2) Before the occupation, Wounded Knee, with a population of 225600,12supported two factions divided largely on kin lines. During the occupation, most residents within the blockaded perimeter were removed
to a trailer settlement in Pine Ridge. As they gradually moved back
during the late summer and fall of 1973, this small population at various
times supported three, four, or five separate factions.
The occupiers' demands varied and were not always clear. But they
generally focused on political-economic issues: removing Wilson from
office, returning treaty lands, investigating treaty violations, and increasing money and employment for the Lakotas. Spectators took positions on such issues, with many shadings and changes over the course of
the occupation. Some people supported AIM, some supported "the Aims
but not the Means," some supported Wilson, some professed to take no
sides, and so on. Particularly during the occupation, positions appear to
have cut across faction, district,13blood,14and family.
After the occupation, the attention of AIM and its leaders shifted away
from the reservation. An unending series of trials in state and federal
courts at many locations absorbed much energy. There were off-reservation protests, at trials and elsewhere. The after-effects of the June, 1972
Rapid City (South Dakota) flood drew AIM's attention because Indian
residents were among the most severely victimized and the least well
rehabilitated.
The curious result is that AIM's high visibility and activity were concentrated in a few months, from March, 1972 through June, 1973. Since
its protest centered most clearly on the tribal government and the general poverty of the Oglalas, it seems reasonable to look for change there.
THE POLITICALECONOMY
For purposes of discussion we distinguish, among the Oglalas three
12The large range does not reflect inaccurate accounting but whether one includes the popu-
lation living inside occupied lines or the whole community extending some miles in every
direction from the Wounded Knee Trading Post and Post Office.
For administrative purposes, the reservation is divided into seven districts and Pine Ridge
village. The boundaries were set without regard to the boundaries between tiyoshpayes (bands
which settled in one particular area after WK I -see Stephen E. Feraca, "The History and
Development of Oglala Sioux Tribal Government," [mimeographed, Bureau of Indian Affairs, 1964]), but have now taken on cultural meaning in their own right.
4 For an excellent discussion of the grammar of "blood" see Murray L. Wax, Rosalie H. Wax
and Robert V. Dumont, "Formal Education in an American Indian Community," supplement to Social Problems XI (1964). Robert E. Daniels, "Cultural Identities among the Oglala
Sioux" in The Modern Sioux, op. cit. pp. 198-245, comments on and supplements the Waxes'
discussion, and, indeed, almost every treatment of the reservation-era Sioux takes up this
important issue. We will use blood much as the Waxes do, referring not just to genetic but
also to kin, personal, and ecological bases of identification.
THE AMERICAN INDIAN MOVEMENT
93
main interest groups,15which are further divided into sub-networks of
loyalty based on kinship and locale. One faction of the tribe has long
placed heavy emphasis on historical grievances, on the sovereignty exercised by the tribes less than one hundred years ago, and on the practice
and revitalization of cultural distinctiveness as such. Its leaders are
versed in the treaties, Supreme Court decisions and international law
as well as tribal traditions. We call this position "cultural nationalism."
A second faction, of relatively recent derivation from the cultural
nationalists, additionally emphasizes patriotism and allegiance to the
federal government. Their leaders, relatively young and well-educated in
both U.S. colleges and universities and the tribe, are concerned with
cultural revitalization of the reservation closely associated with economic improvement of its people. We call this position "cultural pluralism." Together these two sometimes intermingled factions comprise
about half the tribe, and are predominantly "full bloods" and speakers
of Lakota.
Roughly the other half of the tribe, the "mixed bloods," do not speak
Lakota and are not concerned greatly with either the historical grievances or the cultural heritage. They, somewhat like the Pi-non Navaho
studied by Downs, are involved in the value structure of the rural West,
particularly the cowboy and rodeo ethos.16Many would prefer to, and a
few of the more prestigious do, run cattle on leased reservation land.
More engage in clerical or wage work. They aim for the lifestyle of the
respectable lower-middle-class whites of the rural West. They consider
themselves more sophisticated than their more traditionally oriented
cousins.
While frequently disdaining and condemning tribal government,
leaders of the more traditional Oglalas have been able to determine the
tribal chairman through pre-election informal endorsement. In the 197117
election, however, no endorsement was made and Richard Wilson, a
mixed blood and bitter opponent of AIM, was elected chairman. To understand the significance of this failure to endorse we must go back two
tribal administrations.
Until the administration of Enos Poor Bear (1968-70), the tribal budget
was about $100,000. Under Poor Bear and his successor, Gerald One
Feather (1970-72), the budget increased to well over $3 million.18 One
major reservation interest group, BIA employees, is omitted from this discussion.
(Dowell H. Smith and Philip D. Roos, "The Political
We will argue at length elsewhere
that political process at Pine Ridge may
Economy of Pine Ridge, 1965-75," in preparation)
be understood in terms of the interplay between these major and several smaller interest
groups or publics. One of the smaller groups is the white ranchers who lease reservation
with the ma.ior groups see Kim C.
account of their relationships
land. For a perceptive
Rogal, "Bad Days on the Reservation." The Nation, November 20, 1976, pp. 525-30.
of the Rate of Ace6James F. Downs, "The Cowboy and the Lady: Models as Determinants
culturation among the Pifion Navajo" in Native Americans Today: Sociological Perspectives,
ed. H. M. Bahr, B. A. Chadwick and R. C. Day (New York, 1972), pp. 275-91.
17 Elections
years, while the chairman
tend to take place toward the end of odd-numbered
years and adis installed in the spring. Elections are thus referred to by odd-numbered
even-numbered
ministrations by
years.
for Pine Ridge increased from $8,655,000 in 1969 to $14,728,000
8The total federal expenditure
in 1972. See the letter from the Comptroller General to Senator Henry Jackson in Senate,
Occupation of Wounded Knee, op. cit., pp. 183-99. Only a small portion derives from land
leases and other local sources.
15 The fourth
94
PHYLON
Feather, Poor Bear and associates such as Calvin Jumping Bull, Birgil
Kills Straight, Gerald Clifford and Amos Bad Heart Bull were able to
secure federal grants for programs such as New Careers, Foster Grandparents, and VISTA,19 as well as direct assistance from OKEOto each
district. Hiring for most of these programs was done on a combination of
language preference and 'merit.' This policy upset two rough balances
which theretofore had existed.
Before about 1969, tribal chairmen and councilmen were usually full
bloods, while most of the Sioux employees of the tribe and the BIA were
mixed bloods. The employees tended to live in Pine Ridge, while the
officers were more likely to live in remote areas ("the districts"). Full
bloods, more in tune with the Plains Indian value system, received most
of the political offices, while mixed bloods, more in tune with the value
system of the whites, received most of the wages. On Pine Ridge, the
prestige of office and the prestige of money are less interchangeable
than in American society generally, and the limited resources of each
were allocated in rough accordance with the priorities of the two groups.
Hiring previously had been done on such 'universalistic' criteria as the
number of years of formal education, the length of one's hair, and willingness to adopt some of the ways of the whites, as well as on the basis
of friendship and kin. For the new programs, the administrators, who
were often Oglalas, had clear ideas about both the kinds of jobs they
wanted people to do and the kinds of personal characteristics and lifestyles they wanted the new jobholders to have. They wanted what
McFee calls "150%" people:20 individuals who, while knowledgeable
about both white and Lakota cultures, oriented their values and personal
lives toward the latter.
Because speakers of Lakota were given preference for most new
positions, most mixed bloods were excluded from consideration. Because
adherents to the lifestyles of whites were not selected for many of the
new jobs, Indians were hired whose personal conduct was not "respectvalues to
able" according to the rural Protestant lower-middle-class
which some mixed bloods aspired. Thus, the insult to the mixed bloods
was double: in the pocketbook and in the values. But the more traditional full bloods also were upset, because, compared with earlier times,
nepotism was no longer practiced. Some cultural nationalists were sufficiently angered that thye did not support One Feather's bid for reelection at the same time that Wilson's natural constituency of mixed
bloods was aroused to go to the polls because of the way that new jobs
were being filled.
Yellow Thunder's death (1972) came while One Feather was lame duck
tribal chairman. At least some of the nationalist and pluralist leaders
The authors of this report were all associated with VISTA or its successor, University Year
for Action. Smith was also associated with New Careers and Langley with Foster Grandparents.
20 Malcolm McFee, "The 150% Man, a Product
in Bahr, Chadwick
of Blackfeet Acculturation,"
and Day, op. cit., pp. 303-12.
19
THE AMERICAN INDIAN MOVEMENT
95
welcomed AIM to the reservation and became members. They were
motivated in part by the prospect of losing control of the programs and
jobs which they had established in the preceding three years. Many
supported the occupation, though few did so overtly.
In the 1973 election campaign, which started after the occupation
ended, there were thirteen candidates for tribal chairman. Russell
Means, the only Oglala AIM leader, was at one political extreme; the
incumbent, Richard Wilson, was at the other. Means sufficiently caught
the popular imagination and gathered enough endorsements from tribal
elders that he ran first in the primary, while One Feather ran third.
Substantially fewer voters turned out for the final election, which
Wilson won 1714 to 1514. Although Means won in all the districts, Wilson
overwhelmed him in Pine Ridge.2' We interpret these results as showing
support for Means from adherents of the two more traditional factions.
AIM had succeeded in establishing neither a separate political base nor a
firm coalition of equals with an existing faction.
Before WK II the relative influence of the BIA was decreasing, while
that of the tribal president, council and program administrators was increasing. Under the Poor Bear and One Feather administrations the tribe
had moved to supplant the BIA with its own programs and bureaucratic
apparatus. Wilson, in contrast, tried to introduce tribal control over the
BIA through supervision of budgets and personnel. While there is considerable difference between the approaches of Wilson and the cultural
pluralists, both sought to decrease the influence of the BIA and to increase Indian influence.
In the year following WK II, many of the new programs were cut
back or not refunded. While they had over 600 employees in spring 1972,
they had declined to less than half a year and a half later. The BIA, on
the other hand, had been given new reasons to justify its independent
role on the reservation. During 1974-75, it established sub-stations and
district managers in every main village on Pine Ridge. While funding
for social programs decreased, funding for law-and-order programs increased.
The cultural pluralists were weakened by the loss of programs
and jobs, as the BIA resurgence indicates. They were weakened further
by AIM's endorsement of the treaties as the fundamental political strategy. While the pluralists were sympathetic toward the coalition of AIM
and "real Indians" (i.e., nationalist full bloods), their gradualist position
was undercut by it. AIM, consequently, enhanced the nationalists' political prestige.
At the same time, and despite its political rhetoric, AIM enhanced the
social and religious prestige of the older nationalists as well. This seems
21Means claimed fraud and was able to get the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights to investigate.
but neither the FBI nor the
The report (op. cit.) urged that the election be invalidated,
BIA showed interest in supporting AIM's claims against Wilson. By the time the report
to be able to use it
AIM was not strong enough on the reservation
was published,
effectively.
96
PHYLON
a faint echo of WK I. Powers claims that leadership of the tiyoshpayes
shifted from the political (war) leaders to religious leaders after WK I.
The former having failed, the people turned to religious leaders for
guidance with everyday problems.22
CEREMONIALPRACTICES
Before, during and after WK II, AIM strongly endorsed traditional
ceremonies and practices and condemned Christianity. Leonard Crow
Dog, a yuwipi and medicine man from neighboring Rosebud Reservation,
became a vigorous spiritual leader for the group and was eventually the
only leader convicted for activity related to WK II. And as the occupation dragged on, AIM turned increasingly to older traditionalist leaders
to legitimate its presence and activities. Thus, both directly and indirectly, AIM fostered Sioux ceremonies before, during, and after the occupation. Directly, AIM participated in some ceremonies and helped
provide resources for them. Indirectly, through its partially successful
attack on Indians who tried to work with the whites' political processes,
and its unsuccessful attempt to establish a nation in accordance with the
1868 treaty, AIM turned people away from politics. In these ways the
hostile mutual dependency of the BIA, on the one hand, and on the other,
the cultural nationalists and many Lakotas, was strengthened.23
We list below five major Sioux ceremonial practices, describe them
briefly, and point out changes in them and in AIM's participation.
(1) The most important ritual for most Plains Indians prior to their
defeat by the whites was the sun dance. Among the Sioux, an important
feature of the sun dance was "piercing," the putting of one or two
skewers through the flesh of a man's chest or upper back. Thongs were
attached to both ends of the skewer(s) and these were in turn attached
either to a longer thong suspended from the top of the sun dance pole
or to buffalo skulls. The man danced until the skewers broke through
the flesh, or, if he danced all day without this happening, he then paid
someone to cut his flesh.
Whites were aghast at the practice and felt threatened by the large
gatherings and intense commitment it generated. They therefore outlawed it in 1881. In 1960,24however piercing was revived at Pine Ridge
and continued as part of a larger spectacle which was part tourist attraction and social event as well as part religious ceremony.25
From World War II until 1973 there was apparently only one sun
dance for Pine Ridge and Rosebud, sponsored by the Oglala Sioux Tribal
council and held just east of Pine Ridge (village), usually in early
August. For a fee, whites were allowed to use cameras, and tape re22 Powers, op. cit., pp. 202-03.
2 Wax, Wax and Dumont, op. cit.
24Powers, op. cit., p. 141.
e5Ibid., pp. 95-100; Stephen E. Feraca, Wakinyan: Contemporary Teton Dakota Religion. Studies
Montana: Museum of the Plains Indian,
and History No. 2 (Browning,
in Anthropology
Bureau of Indian Affairs, Blackfeet Agency, 1963), pp. 9-18; Thomas H. Lewis, "The Oglala
of its Structures and Function," Plains Anthro(Teton Dakota) Sun Dance: Vicissitudes
1968," Pine
pologist XVII (1972), 44-49; Thomas H. Lewis and Levi Mesteth, "Sun Dance, Sioux
(New
Ridge Research Bulletin No. 5 (1968), pp. 52-64; Robert H. Ruby, The Oglala
York, 1955), pp. 83-7.
THE AMERICAN INDIAN MOVEMENT
97
corders. In 1972,several thousand people attended. Thirty persons, mostly
younger members of AIM, were pierced.26However, when in the summer after WK II Wilson and the Tribal Council sponsored a sun dance at
Pine Ridge, almost no one came.
At the same time, Leonard Crow Dog and his father sponsored a sun
dance at Crow Dog's Paradise on neighboring Rosebud Reservation,
which was well attended. Whites were permitted to attend but had to
camp at a distance from Indians, and they were denied use of cameras
and tape recorders. The following summer the sun dance was again held
at Crow Dog's.
For the summer of 1975, things changed again. Almost every weekend
during July and August at least one sun dance was performed at Pine
Ridge, Rosebud, or other Sioux reservations. At least on Pine Ridge, the
tribal government sponsored some or all of the smaller sun dances in
place of a large one. Medicine men and traditional Lakotas, with some
tribal money, put on their own sun dances and attended each other's.
Comparison of the total attendance at these small sun dances and that
at the single large ones is impossible.
In the summer of 1976 there was one large sun dance on Pine Ridge
and few, if any, small ones. It was held at Porcupine, an AIM stronghold,
and the home of Russell Means. As at Crow Dog's in 1973, tribal (BIA)
police were not allowed to act in their official capacity; instead, the
event was policed by AIM. It was well-funded. According to rumor, the
money came from a large oil company's Bicentennial grant. Frank
Fools Crow, who often had been in charge of the ceremony when it was
held near Pine Ridge, was in charge of this one. He announced that he
would give up his power before the next sun dance and ceremonially
vested his powers and authority in four men from different parts of
the reservation.27
The sun dance, which had changed between the 1880's and 1936,28and
had remained fairly stable from then until 1972, since then has been
undergoing more rapid change in response to changing circumstances.
With the exception of 1973 and perhaps 1974, it is financially assisted by
the tribal government no matter who is in office. Since 1972, AIM members have participated as dancers and, at times, as police. While the more
commercial aspects have declined somewhat and religious elements
have taken a larger place, it is still an important social event.
While this resurgence of the sun dance is an obvious part of the
cultural nationalists' program, its almost universal support reminds that
the publics or interest groups discussed in the previous section of this
paper are neither distinct, rigid, nor in conflict on all issues at all times.
(2) Another major traditional practice is Yuwipi, a Sioux form of
shamanistic divination. Unlike the sun dance, which is discussed in all
26
Powers, op. cit., p. 141.
27 See ibid., p. 63 on the abdication
28
Ruby, op. cit., p. 83.
of sacred persons.
98
PHYLON
the earlier standard works on the Sioux, yuwipi is not mentioned - at
least under its present name.29Authors who discuss yuwipi disagree on
many particulars.30 Its actual practice is highly variable.31
Yuwipi ceremonies are held in case of need and not on the regular
basis of, say, Christian church services. Our informants agreed that the
number of yuwipi meetings rose significantly during WK II and decreased thereafter, although not to the level prevailing before the occupation. Since one of the several uses of yuwipi is to resolve uncertainty with divine assistance, and since the occupation was a period of
high tension and uncertainty, this increase and subsequent decrease is
not surprising.
(3) Purification in the sweat lodge (inipi) forms a part of the larger
sun dance and yuwipi ceremonies and can be partaken of in its own
right.32 This practice increased with the arrival of AIM, which had the
small amount of surplus resources necessary for the rite. And, unlike
yuwipi, the Lakota needed for full participation is highly ritualized and
and easy to learn. AIM members who did not speak Lakota could participate fully.
(4) The Pipe is a sacred object, used by itself in prayer or as part of a
larger ceremonial.33We do not know whether uses of sacred Pipes have
changed except that, on more than one occasion, Indians in federal or
state courts insisted on swearing with a Pipe rather than on the Bible.
(5) The hunka is an elaborate adoption and give-away ceremony in
which one or more children, who probably have natural parents and
other blood kin, are given adoptive parents whose role is partly to instruct the children in the traditions.34For the first time in living memory,
one occurred in summer 1972 and another in 1973.
CONCLUSION
The occupation of Wounded Knee brought excitement and drama to
the ordinarily difficult and tedious lives of the Oglalas. But its end removed the main protagonists (AIM and the military-FBI) from the
scene. What were the consequences?
If we look at AIM through the perspective of the media, focusing on
its political and economic goals, the occupation was counter-productive.
If we look at AIM in the light of its on-reservation activities, the judgement is mixed. AIM rejected white culture and society. The alternative
was to rediscover and reproduce an Indian culture and society. Some
steps in that direction occurred.
'9But see Powers, op. cit., p. 143, for early mention of similar practices.
80Ibid., pp. 144-54; Ruby, op. cit., pp. 62-6; Feraca. op. cit., pp. 26-40; Wesley R. Hunt. "A
V (1960), 48-52; Luis S. Kemnitzer,
Yuwipi Ceremony at Pine Ridge." Plains Anthropologist
"Yuwipi," Pine Ridge Research Bulletin No. 10 (n.d.), pp. 26-32; Elizabeth S. Grobsmith,
Power
in
Medicine
of
Uses
"Wakunza:
Contemporary Teton Dakota Culture," Plains
Yuwipi
XIV (1974); 129-33; Howard Bennett, "Black Crow's Camp: Summer 1975"
Anthropologist
(Unpublished).
1 Bennett, op. cit.; Powers, op. cit., p. 148.
82Powers, op. cit., pp. 89-91, 134-36.
asIbid., pp. 86-88, 164-65, 183.
84 Ibid., pp. 100-01, 184-85.
THE AMERICAN INDIAN MOVEMENT
99
But Pine Ridge is always the scene of intricate crosscurrents. In 1975,
Albert Trimble, a mixed blood former BIA superintendent of Pine Ridge,
gained some full blood support and defeated Wilson for tribal chairman.
By July, 1977, tribal programs employed over 1300 people and were
funded for about $6.5 million.
Another major goal of the cultural pluralists is local control of education. More than a decade ago, the Waxes recommended that BIA
schools be contracted to Indian school boards. Loneman school was
contracted in 1975 and Little Wound school in 1977.
Individuals, groups, and publics pursue their goals with various
strategies through diverse coalitions in difficult environments. Outcomes
are predictable neither for participants nor for interested bystanders.