Ashland, Or.  Oct. 10, 2008.  Beloved black lab dog.  Family siamese kitten. Ready for a road trip. Sitting in a car alone, in Portland, Oregon. Their owner goes inside to buy oil while a world out of balance steals the scene. Dog snaps, kills  precious baby cat. In four minutes flat. Blood splattered on the steering wheel.  Death everywhere. A glitch. Like inevitable. Fallout. From a Yucca Mountain wasteland.  The splintered human condition of don’t- mind -the -man -behind -the -curtain deflects truth. A mutant fall from grace persists. Life takes her victims while travellers stop for auto parts and let it bleed is blaring, unheard inside a lonely Ipod.  The sea of love is not immune. 

“Anna Mae was killed because of her bust here in Oregon, antoinette”.  Robert Robideau’s words are folded in my head  like a road map before GPS had everyone tracked.  I want to add “and killed because she loved Dennis Banks”.  Few wander that back road. 

  

Photo credits: photographer unknown “Northwest AIM, circa 1973”

Ruling to Dismiss

In both Indian Country and Federal Court, John Graham of the Yukon Territory has been accused of killing his friend and sister member of the American Indian Movement (AIM)--Anna Mae Aquash – in 1975. He pleas innocent, claiming he drove Aquash to Pine Ridge, to a safe house, and never saw her again. Graham  a teenager  at the time. This man in his fifties now. Was  ready. To face his accusers on October 6, 2008.  When, with something like an owl screech at lightning strikes, his trial was dismissed.

But all is never what it seems to be  when it comes to the American Indian Movement facing down the U.S. Government. When his trial was dismissed,  Graham was not released from jail, as his daughter had hoped. Rather. Judge Piersol in his ruling to dismiss Graham’s trial paved the way for further charges: " IT IS ORDERED that the Motion to Dismiss Indictment Doc. 200 is granted without prejudice to the government's right to reindict and reprosecute Graham. "  --Oct. 3, 2008

“Reindict and reprosecute”.  Nothing left to an imagination. Another trial will happen. And a request by the defense for  “release on bond” is unlikely to be considered, as a tenacious posse hovers over this case.

Within two hours of Graham’s original, scheduled trial being dismissed, the Prosecution—like Sam Shepard’s crew in the 80’s movie Thunderheart—kept the fight alive. U.S. Attorney’s office in S. Dakota  issued  a press release stating “three new charges” are now filed against John Graham, and at 2:15 pm Rapid City time, Oct. 3, 2008,  Graham was facing, again, “aiding and abetting in the killing” of  Aquash. Without a moment out of prison. In a Rapid City jail.  The events keep unfolding like a Prairie’s early winter storm. From which there is no escape.

According to public record, on Oct. 3^rd Graham faced “new” charges and on Oct. 7th was reindicted. On the same day a request for  an “expedited”  trial was filed by the prosecution. And the judge suggested Dec. 9^th. The defense requested an extension. And. No one is quite sure what is next.   All that is known for certain--Graham is not freed from  a post colonial case of twisted identities.

The recent  filings against him include a  “new”, key qualifier:  that Graham is “Indian”.  And so was Aquash. The obvious defies fiction and rewrites scenes which Hollywood might only let live on a cutting room floor.

Still. Why was the trial dismissed? The obvious question presses against common sense.

New Charges: and why??

It seems the Grand Jury who indicted Graham was not told he AND Aquash were  Indian. a fact  necessary to make federal jurisdiction possible.  A “white, purple or polka dot person”—as Corbin Harney, Shoshone Elder used to say---who kills someone has to be tried in state/city court. But Indians go to Federal Court.  The history of these laws is rooted in the archaic days of “manifest destiny”.  Laws, like a faded Curtis photo, best known as picture postcards of a railroaded version of justice. The new charges—which include a proof of  “being Indian”---are clearly a mirror of another time and place come back to haunt the land of man made boundaries. 

What role the Federal Government plays in tribal affairs has been in debate since the land grab, gold and diamond rush days. And how “being Indian” impacts Graham’s fate may not be resolved anytime soon. The U.S. and Canada might wish the French and Indian Wars had turned out differently.  But no one in this case gets to rewrite history.

Including the U.S. Attorney Marty Jackley as he presents a rewording of charges against John Graham:

 "Wanblee in Indian Country.  Count one alleges Graham to be an Indian that committed and aided and abetted others in the unlawful killing of Aquash, and Indian or other person. Count two alleges Graham committed and aided and abetted others in the unlawful killing of Aquash, an Indian.  Count three alleges Graham committed and aided and abetted an Indian in the murder of Aquash, an Indian or other person.  All counts  have a penality of mandatory life imprisonment.  The charges are merely accusations and Graham is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty."   --excerpts from press release U.S. Attorney, S. Dakota October 3, 2008

With prosecutors filing a new set of charges which repeatedly includes the word “Indian” Federal Court now appears to have the right to try Graham, again. This murder, this trial, has always been about being “Indian”. 

The dismissal solicited by Defense Attorney John Murphy was a surprise to some in Indian Country. Nothing more than “legaleese” to  many. Others saw it coming. The weeks leading to the scheduled trial date  were wrought with controversy, including new information about a UK author being revealled as a “paid informant” for the FBI. And the hearsay comments, as filed in Pacer court documents, regarding the whereabouts of “the murder weapon”.  In the end, the defense might have needed to buy time.

Barry Bachrach. Former attorney for Leonard Peltier. Current consultant for Arlo Looking Cloud—a Lakota man already serving life for murdering Aquash—Bachrach explains it like this: “The issue to be addressed was a technical issue as to the sufficiency of the {first} indictment. The consequences of the dismissal are simply a delay to permit the Prosecution to address the {Indian} concerns”.

It seems, what is etched into the new indictments was something neglected earlier: “The Indian factor”.

Indian Enough?

Like a petroglyph near Frijoles Canyon, close to where Aquash’s “friend” turned FBI informant, Kamook Banks once lived. Indian  may be easy to prove.  Or complex in context.  The process invokes Iktomi. Lakota for Spider, weave of life.  A myriad of webs emerges.   Because Aquash and Graham had ties to “Lakota Sioux” tribes via AIM, this may make them “Indian” enough for Federal Court.

But then.

Does working with the Lakota and AIM make everyone who has stood in unity with Indians, been in resistance to uranium mining on tribal lands  does that that make all  who have worked for and with AIM Indian?  I know a whole lot of tribal people who would start their own media wars if instant Indian status were suddenly granted to those who have been part of AIM  resistance over the years.  Let’s say this straight: credentialed imprints, a free ticket to Sundance or ceremonial ways are not given to AIM sympathizers. Necessarily. Aquash and Graham worked with Lakota AIM. Yes.  But that doesn’t define their roots.

Then. There is the “Indian by marriage” question. A recent news article  incorrectly claimed  that Aquash  “married a Lakota man” which then makes her a U.S. Indian.  The polka-dotted blood lines blur again and in fact Aquash got her last name from Nogeeshik Aquash, her second husband, who was from Walpole Island, Canada.  Not a Lakota man.  They were married at Wounded Knee by a Lakota Spiritual Leader Wallace Black Elk.  Does that make the U.S. Government the daddy that takes over prosecution of her murder? 

Maybe this case will force a familial rewrite of law books.  Maybe not.  But one thing is certain.

It will never define who an Indian is, who is called Indian and why.  That is out of the jurisdiction of the English language.

In fact. Graham still sits in a white man’s prison with white man lawyers.  He was born in Whitehorse, “way” up north. A Southern Tutchone by blood, in what is now named Canada.  Sometimes called a human being, sometimes called an Indian, often times, as child, punished in boarding school for trying to speak his Indian language, told as so many Indians were, “be white now, your tribe is over.  No more Indian”.  Anna Mae took her daughters to a takeover of the BIA building in Washington, D.C. back in the 1970’s.  So she could say to them being Indian was something to claim. No matter the risks to life it tallied.

A story about those missionaries taking away Indian names from children and reassigning ‘white names” comes to mind.  Klamath Modoc tribe. Southern Oregon.  1920’s.  One of the first stories I heard when I moved out west.  Indian children are renamed “Smith” or “Jones”. Stripped of their Indianess to help them manifest a prescribed destiny. According to Christian boarding school philosophy. 

So who is Indian and why becomes the question which presses, yet, against Graham’s family.  Aquash’s family.  All those in Indian Country who deal with a racist, fearful world. A tragic nuance now flippantly called “the obama factor” dovetails into complaints of 60’s weather underground activists.  And while “radicals” from the turbulent 60’s are targeted as terrorists. Most Americans think skin color when they sit on a jury.

A Barrack Obama quote comes to mind. “The American  justice system is not color blind”.  Courts and color.  Killing a mocking bird. Unspoken corruption of the human psyche and how this impacts the fate of Graham is easy to predict. How it impacted Aquash’s life  a tragic fact.

Razzle Dazzle Defense

But where does this rainbow coalition of race and ethnicity leave us?

For at least 8 years Aquash’s family has believed Graham  killed Anna Mae on Dec. 12, 1975. Others, including FBI authenticated documents,  claim she was alive after the date Graham was to have killed her.  Varied theories. Aquash  seen driving a Mustang  in January 1976. Being shot while sleeping next to her lover.  Bound in a garage or tossed, already dead,  down the ravine. Wrapped in her own blanket.  The brutal images unforgiving.  Her daughters, her family.  Suffering their loss over and over. Time a cruel master.   Anna Mae Pictou Aquash was murdered. An unequivocal, ultimate. Theft. Of life.

Graham Defense Committee organizer, Matthew Lien, when asked on the day Graham’s trial was dismissed about his sense of these events, said only this: “We're watching this closely.”  The implication being...mystery prevails. Federal Government, COINTELPRO, old AIM members, Special Agents. All have too much invested in this murder.  And investigation.   To let anyone escape the heat.  The burn is far from being contained.

Some believe. No matter what smoke, feathers and mirrors the defense provides for Graham, the “fact” that he killed Aquash will be resolved. The issue of “who’s Indian, who isn’t” is seen as a mere outmoded paradox.  Robideau, Anishanabe--acquitted  in the 1970’s for the murder of two FBI on Pine Ridge--claims “the Graham defense is all razzle dazzle, no substance”.

Before Halloween. Before day of the dead.   Graham will  be most likely sequestered within  a new trial date. How and when still remains uncertain.  But the masquerade of who is “chief “—the racial slur used for years to attempt to demean Indians--and who is a colonizer. Will prevail. And Graham remains in custody. Facing now a joint trial with Richard “Dick” Marshall, another AIM footsoldier recently (Aug. 08) arrested for the murder of Aquash.  Marshalls’ role.  Another story. Same ending.

 And there is no word on whether both will be tried separately, as some expect Graham will request.

Mostly. In all of this. There is no word that exists for the us we long to be.  Anna Mae sentiments continue to haunt from a declining past too painful to define. The complex matrix of imbalance lives.  In her own words: “...I am not a citizen of the United States or a ward of the Federal Government, neither am I a ward of the Canadian Government.  I have a right to continue my cycle in this Universe undisturbed”.

 

                       

 About the author:

antoinette is an author, freelance journalist and activist who met AIM when there were still Indian sundown laws out west.