**************************************************************
S.F. POLICE INTERVENE AT MEETING OF INDIANS
FRACAS INVOLVES COMPETING FACTIONS OF AIM
San Francisco Chronicle (SF) - TUESDAY, March 29, 1994
By: Stephen Schwartz, Chronicle Staff Writer
Edition: FINAL Section: News Page: A20
TEXT:
A conflict over politics and ethnic authenticity that has split the ranks
of the American Indian Movement led to a fracas at the Press Club of San
Francisco yesterday.
A faction of AIM, led locally by Bobby Castillo, had rented the
President's Room in the Press Club at 555 Post Street for a news
conference closed to all but ``indigenous reporters.''
The event was held to publicize a tribunal held in San Rafael during the
weekend, which condemned an AIM faction led by Clyde and Vernon
Bellecourt.
San Francisco police Sergeant John Madden said that at 10:45 a.m., about
three-quarters of an hour after the Castillo group had begun its
presentation, four members of the Bellecourt faction arrived at the Press
Club. They demanded to be let in, but were stopped near the front door,
Madden said.
``Two ladies from the opposing factions got into an argument,'' he said,
and at one point one woman threw coffee at the other.
Two police officers intervened and eventually quelled the disturbance.
One of the officers had been assigned to the event in case of a problem;
the other was called to the scene for backup.
No arrests were made.
Press Club general manager Bill Mason said, ``All I saw was coffee
spilled in our doorway. I wasn't about to get in the middle of the
hassle.''
Handouts from the competing groups described a complicated factional
disagreement over racial authenticity and the American Indian Movement's
internal politics.
The Castillo faction, supported by AIM leader Russell Means, accuses the
Bellecourts and their supporters of seeking ``centralized political control
. . . contrary to indigenous tradition.''
The Bellecourt faction contends that the Castillo followers are a
``radical group'' that acts as a front for writer Ward Churchill, whom
the Bellecourts say is ``a non-Indian masquerading as an Indian writer.''
Churchill, in an interview after the incident, said: ``Their faction (the
Bellecourts) considers AIM to be a corporation -- a career -- but we
consider it to be a national liberation movement.''...
Copyright 1994 The San Francisco Chronicle
*************************************************