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Wounded KneeBy The Liberation News Service (LNS)WOUNDED KNEE, S.D. (LNS) -- After 70 days, two deaths, and nearly 400 arrests, the occupation of Wounded Knee ended on May 8th when an agreement was reached between the Indians and the Federal government. The settlement came two days after Lawrence "Buddy" Lamont, an Oglala Souix from Pine Ridge Reservation, killed by federal gunfire, was buried in the mass grave that held nearly 300 India people who were killed in the original Wounded Knee massacre in 1893. The Indians agreed to lay down their arms and those who had warrants against them agreed to submit to arrest if the government would hold ot the original April 5th agreement. At that time, the government agreed to a meeting with the traditional chiefs and headmen from the reservation to discuss the treaty of 1868. The government also agreed to discuss the present conditions on the Pine Ridge Reservation. The Justice Department is also supposed to audit the books of the corrupt tribal government of chairman Dick Wilson, the BIA and the Tribal Council. In the past month or so, affidavits were collected from 45 Indians on the reservation testifying to corruption by Wilson or harassment from his "goon squad" men paid out of BIA funds to threaten anyone who stood up to Wilson. Though a few of the Indians who filled out the affidavits withdrew them out of fear, the government is only definitely bringing two of the cases to court. Many of the Indian negotiators pointed out to the government that in the past the United States government never lived up to all the beautiful promises that it made to Indian people. The government's negotiators' response was always, "Let's not rehash the past, let's go forward." But for the Indians who held the town where 300 had been slaughtered before, the past was very important. Red Cloud, an Oglala Souix, had said in the previous century, "They made us many promises, more than I can remember, but they never kept but one; they promised to take our land, and they took it." Though Wounded Knee was a symbol to many Indians, the occupation was not a symbolic protest. Bullets flew all the time (some days 30,000 rounds were fired into the settlement). "People would lay on the floor for seven hours afraid to raise their heads," said Lou Schaeffer from "The Rest of the News", who was there for most of the occupation. Bullets would come through three sides of the flimsey wooden shacks that many of the permanent residents of Wounded Knee lived in. Several times the government threw gas into Indian bunkers to try to gas the Indians out into the open so they could shoot them. On Tuesday morning, after all the occupants of Wounded Knee had been processed, 50 federal marshall with high powered rifles, lined up to be the government's side of the monitoring force. In contrast, the Indians had four men who had been security guards during the occupation. They were frisked for weapons before they started the operation. Part of the disarmament, it turned out, was taking down the AIM flag and putting up the American flag. As the American flag went up the marshals shot off their weapons and one shot off a couple of clips from his auto-matic. When one of the Indians made a remark to one of the others about the "ceremony" he was told by one of the marshals, "We could shoot you right now and say you tried to attack us." The significance of Wounded Knee, now that it is over, will be found in the future of the Indians' struggle from human rights. For the Indian people, Wounded Knee is the first in a long series of rebellions against the U.S. government. AIM people have said that it will be a hot summer. Now comes the legal battle for those arrested at Wounded Knee. As with the Attica rebellion we must see that the crimes again were committed by the U.S. government, and that these people had the right to rebel against the injustices. Send money for the legal defense to:
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