"Dark Night" in the publication's title recalls the words of Seattle =
who, two
generations before the slaughter at Wounded Knee, forecast a future f=
or
his relatives which promised to be long and dark. The Morning Star s=
ymbol
of our Cheyenne Relatives has been incorporated into the title and na=
meplate
of the publication to indicate that the end of this long night is app=
roaching.
Those whose words appear in the publication, the Dark Night Relatives=
, are
engaged in ending the darkness.
Submitting field notes or comments: Those wishing to submit field no=
tes
or to comment on notes which have been published are encourged to do =
so.
Notes and comments should be sent to: Dark Night Press, PO Box 3629,
Chicago, IL 60690-3629. The receipt of materials cannot be acknowled=
ged
and submitted matierals cannot be returned (so please keep a copy!) =
Not
all materials so submitted can or will be published.
Subscriptions: $10/yr USA, $20/yr Int'l, $5/yr Seniors, Free to
Prisoners. Send Subscription requests to above address.
You Don't have to be a Cop to do a Cop's Work
Over the past several months, there has been a lot of confusion
with regard to the activities of Dennis Banks, especially his
so-called "Walk for Justice for Leonard Peltier," which started in
California and is set to arrive in Washington DC July 15. What are
the Walk's goals and objectives? What is it's relationship to the
LPDC and Leonard himself? Under what authority is it being
conducted? Who or what stands to benefit from its existence? Should
Peltier supporters support it?
Numerous public statements have been made on such matters by a
variety of groups and individuals. Few of them have offered any
sort of background to the positions taken, however, and many have
been in direct contradiction to one another. One result of this has
been a steady and accelerating erosion of coherence and cohesion in
Peltier support work across the country. This article will address
some of these issues and answer some of these questions.
To begin, when the idea of a coast-to-coast walk was first
conceived by former AIM leader Dennis Banks (who "retired" in
1985), there was no particular emphasis on Leonard Peltier. During
preliminary organizing in 1993, the "Walk for Justice" was
consistently promoted as a multi-issue Indian rights action
intended to recreate AIM's highly successful "Longest Walk" of
1978. Both Leonard and the LPDC endorsed this concept with the
expectation that LPSGs might provide assistance to the walkers as
they proceeded across the country.
In late 1993, however, for reasons which have never really been
explained perhaps because public response to his original fund
raising appeals was at best lukewarm Banks began to add "for
Leonard Peltier" to his pitch. This was problematic at best because
it was done without any sort of consultation/coordination with
Leonard or the LPDC. If nothing else, it immediately placed the
Walk in direct funding competition with Leonard's own authorized
defense organization.
=46rom there, things went rapidly from bad to worse. The Walk was
scheduled to begin in January 1994 with simultaneous "kick-off"
events in San Francisco and Seattle. In San Francisco, the existing
Peltier support network including Leonard's sole authorized
International Spokesperson, Bobby Castillo was totally excluded
=66rom participation. Instead, Banks appointed Carole Standing Elk of
Oakland and Fern Matthias of Los Angeles, women whom Leonard has
repeatedly denounced over the years for undermining and ripping-off
his defense effort, to coordinate the event.
In Seattle, Leonard's cousin and codefendant Bob Robideau was
initially asked by local organizers to serve as Master of
Ceremonies. He accepted, and invited Ward Churchill, one of
Leonard's five authorized National Spokespersons, to speak at the
event as well. But Bob's invitation, and consequently Ward's, was
suddenly canceled. The upshot was that the Seattle event, like its
counterpart in San Francisco, was conducted without any sort of
direct involvement by Leonard's own defense/support network.
The way in which Robideau was removed is instructive. It occurred
on the basis of a phone call to the organizers, not from Dennis
Banks but from Vernon Bellecourt, a leader of "National-AIM, Inc."
(N-AIM). N-AIM is a federally and business-funded entity in
Minneapolis which incorporated itself under the laws of the State
of Minnesota in July 1993. Since then, it has been doing its best
to assert direct control over all AIM chapters in the country.
Alternately, it has sought to disrupt, discredit and destroy any
chapter which has rejected its self-proclaimed "central authority"
over the movement as a whole.
Banks has claimed that he had no role in establishing N-AIM, and
that he opposes its destructive behavior. Yet his name is carried
on the corporation's letterhead along with those of Vernon and
Clyde Bellecourt, Herb Powless and Carole Standing Elk. Banks is
also the signatory on a 1993 letter purporting without any sort
of consultation with or authorization from active AIM chapters in
the area to appoint Standing Elk and Fern Matthias as "Western
Regional Coordinators of AIM." These facts, in combination with
Vernon Bellecourt's role in removing Robideau and Churchill from
the Seattle event, reveal a deep linkage between Banks and N-AIM.
In any event, when LPDC followed up on the West Coast kick-off
events by trying to establish a working relationship in which
Leonard might be integral to decision-making, Banks responded by
issuing a letter in which it was explained that "the Walk for
Justice...is in no way associated with the LPDC." At the same time,
Banks escalated his fund raising appeals using the theme, "Free
Leonard Peltier! Make your checks payable to the Dennis J. Banks
Fund." This corresponds to a drop-off in the flow of contributions
necessary to sustain the LPDC itself.
Even worse, Banks began to create a national/international
"Peltier" infrastructure paralleling and apparently meant to
supplant Leonard's own. Dorothy Powless (Herb's wife) was, for
instance, appointed "International Spokesperson" of the Banks
organization. Meanwhile, people associated with the
Bellecourt/N-AIM group, notably Tony Gonzales of the International
Indian Treaty Council, Inc. (IITC), were busily informing European
Peltier supporters that "Bobby Castillo is no longer International
Spokesperson for Leonard Peltier." This false information caused
the cancellation of legitimate LPDC events involving Castillo, duly
authorized by Leonard, in Scotland and elsewhere.
Back in the U.S., as Banks appointed his own personnel in each
region, a nationwide campaign to undermine and discredit Leonard's
actual representatives was reaching a crescendo. In San Francisco,
Carole Standing Elk has taken to publicly labeling Bobby Castillo,
a Chiricahua Apache, as being "a non-Indian imposter...a Mexican
taco...a wannabe misrepresenting himself as an AIM member and
spokesman for Leonard Peltier." She also spread disinformation that
Castillo had never been in prison (he served 14 years, several of
them in Marion with Leonard). Contradictorily, she has charged that
he was "a known snitch" while in prison (Leonard and others who
served time with him have categorically refuted this lie). Just as
perversely, Standing Elk has endeavored to convince people that
Bobby is "a dangerous man" because he has been in prison (like
Leonard Peltier, perhaps?). Universities should disallow him from
speaking on campus, she says, because he is "a terrorist...who
belongs in prison."
Public announcements of Peltier events in the Bay Area have been
systematically torn down or disfigured. Anonymous calls have been
placed to "cancel" other events. Hecklers have been routinely
placed in the audiences of still others. On at least two occasions,
Carole herself has physically assaulted Bobby breaking his
hearing aid in one instance while trying to provoke an
altercation in which she can play victim and thereby "prove" her
allegations. Overall, her conduct has been such that, among other
things, she has been placed under a restraining order preventing
her from setting foot on the grounds of San Francisco State
University. But many institutions have opted to avoid potential
confrontations by not scheduling any sort of Peltier-related events
at all.
Elsewhere, the Bellecourts have taken the lead in concert with
Standing Elk and such notoriously reactionary figures as anti-AIM
publicist Tim Giago and federal lobbyist Suzan Shown Harjo in
mounting a campaign to "neutralize" Ward Churchill. More than a
thousand disinformational packets accusing Churchill of everything
=66rom being "a white man masquerading as an Indian" to "a New Ager"
to "a federal agent" have been sent out across the nation in an
effort to prevent his being invited to speak on Leonard's behalf on
university campuses. Both speakers bureaus Churchill works through,
as well as his publishers, have been contacted and threatened with
dire consequences unless they drop him from their rosters. Efforts
have been made to pressure the University of Colorado, where he is
employed as an associate professor, to fire him.
In Oklahoma, N-AIM representative Michael Haney has spread rumors
that Peltier National Spokesperson David Hill "works for naval
intelligence." Several LPSGs have been denounced as being "composed
exclusively of white people" (funny thing; we thought that was the
point of the LPSGs). Similarly, LPDC staffers like Lisa Faruolo and
Michelle Vignola have been targeted for disparaging commentary
because they are white. It has even been "leaked" by N-AIM's
"National Office" in Minneapolis that Bob Robideau was never
"really" an AIM member.
Tellingly, a center for this sort of activity now seems to be
Bank's home base in Newport, Kentucky headquarters for the Walk
for Justice from whence much of the material designed to discredit
authorized spokespeople like Bobby Castillo and Ward Churchill is
being disseminated. Lately, a young man from Louisville named Tom
Pearce, who claims to be a nephew of Vernon Bellecourt, has begun
to appear at Indian-oriented events in Chicago. While promoting
Banks, the Bellecourts, N-AIM and the Walk for Justice to anyone
who would listen, he has passed out N-AIM literature designed to
discredit Leonard's National Spokespersons.
Although Leonard has released two letters since February
reaffirming the authority and legitimacy of those under attack by
N-AIM and Walk for Justice organizers, the attacks have not only
continued, but noticeably intensified. While Leonard also stated
clearly in both letters that he does not wish his name to be
associated with the Walk, Banks and his followers have persisted in
using it to their own advantage. And, although Leonard has
repeatedly requested that Dennis speak with him by phone in order
that they might work things out, Banks has not bothered to respond.
Instead, Walk organizers have been repeating false statements to
the media that, during nonexistent phone conversations with them,
Leonard has reversed his written positions and now endorses the
Walk.
On the face of it, the activities engaged in by the N-AIM/Walk for
Justice group vis-=85 vis the LPDC/LPSG network have followed the
time-honored pattern of counterintelligence (COINTELPRO) methods
used by the FBI and related police agencies against the Black
Panther Party, Student National Organizing Committee, Puerto Rican
Independence Movement, New Left and other liberation movements
including AIM itself. That such disruption should come at this
especially crucial point in our efforts to free Leonard certainly
conforms to the needs of the federal government rather than our
own.
It may be that those involved in fomenting the currently ongoing
disruption of Peltier defense work are not literally government
agents although the Bellecourts openly boast of receiving upwards
of $4 million per year in federal funding, and another $3 million
plus annually from outfits like Honeywell but are instead
motivated by sheer political/financial opportunism. Nonetheless,
the effect is the same as if they were outright agents
provocateurs. "You don't have to be a cop to do a cop's work," as
the old saying goes.
Given all the above, it has until recently been the position of the
Region IV LPSGs that nobody genuinely committed to supporting
Leonard Peltier or the assertion of Indian rights more generally
can support the Walk for Justice, N-AIM, or anyone associated
with them. As of May 15, however, this changed to a certain extent.
On that date, Leonard and Dennis Banks arrived at an understanding
in which "for Leonard Peltier" would be dropped from the Walk
title, Walk organizers would publicly clarify that their appointees
do not supplant or replace representatives of LPDC, and that Walk
spokespersons would promote the upcoming national action around
Leonard's case to be conducted in Washngton DC on June 25-26. Under
these circumstances, Leonard has asked that all LPSGs end active
opposition to the Walk, and, where appropriate, render support to
it. LPSG/Region IV will, of course, comply with Leonard's wishes in
this regard.
It should nonetheless be noted that this new understanding in no
way alters our opposition to certain organizational initiatives
undertaken by Dennis Banks which have directly undermined the
effectiveness of LPDC work. Furthermore, it does not erase our
strong criticism of the various alliances discussed above linking
Dennis Banks and many of his organizers to N-AIM. We continue to
support the recent verdict of the Tribunal conducted in March by
the Confederation of Autonomous Chapters of the American Indian
Movement in San Rafael, CA, where it not only found N-AIM to be
illegitimate, but also found Clyde and Vernon Bellecourt guilty of
attempting to subvert AIM. We call upon all LPSGs across the nation
to join our endorsement of this verdict.=20
The stakes are too high - Leonard's freedom and the ongoing
struggle for native rights - to erase the prints of the past with
one shake of the hand as is being attempted in the new
understanding between Dennis Banks and Leonard. It is, indeed, time
to move forward. And we must, indeed, never cease repairing broken
bridges. But a broken bridge can never be restored without honest
assessment of the extent of the damage and what caused it in the
first place.
While the Walk for Justice will be a non-issue in a little over a
month, the motives behind Dennis Banks' actions - precisely
because they have not been addressed in this new understanding -
will remain an issue. Unacknowledged and swept under the rug now,
they will surely surface at another time, in another context.
Recognizing these forces for what they are is important so that, if
necessary, we can identify them in the future as we move forward
into a new era of struggle for Leonard's freedom.=20
The following document was recently published by Region IV of the Leo=
nard Peltier=20
Support Group network, and raises a number of fundamental questions=
=20
regarding Peltier support activities. While some of the surface issue=
s have
been temporarily resolved - for the purpose of this summer's
activities in Washington - the deeper questions will remain long
after those attending Peltier Weekend or participating in the Walk
for Justice have gone their separate ways.
Whether one agrees with the positions taken in the
Manifesto or finds them objectionable, one must acknowledge the
strength of those who took a clear, public stand on a number of
issues which confront the liberation movement.=20
Liberation is not the work of fence sitters!
Liberation is not the work of those too timid to make decisio=
ns!
Liberation is not the work of those who wait in hopes of fall=
ing
in behind the victor's horse -- once the victor is known!
Liberation is not the work of those whose minds change as
rapidly as the source of the next dollar!=20
Liberation is not the work of those whose tactic is badjacket=
ing!=20
Liberation is not innuendo and fancy two-faced talk.
Liberation requires courage, strength, conviction, and the=
=20
willingness to declare oneself.
These are the voices from the trenches...we
should listen...we should hear...
Woodlawn Manifesto of the LPSG/Region IV
Adopted at its Third Regional Meeting, Chicago, Illinois
January 22, 1994
The Leonard Peltier Support Groups of Region IV (LPSG/Region =
IV) are deeply
concerned about the current state ov divisiveness, disruption and con=
fusion
within the movement for the liberation of native people. In particul=
ar, we stand
firmly opposed to attempts by some to sow disruption and destroy cohe=
siveness
by attacking, so as to discredit, the leadership of certain LPDC repr=
esentatives
as well as others within the broader native rights movement whose wor=
k stands as
testimony to their integrity, their effectiveness and their devotion =
to the
people.
For these reasons, LPSG/Region IV agreed to the following poi=
nts
at its Third Regional Meeting held in Chicago, IL on January 22, 1994=
. We
call upon all other officially designated LPDC regions who agree with=
these
points and desire to come together in greater cohesiveness and streng=
th to
formally endorse this document.
1. LPSG/Region IV fully supports the objectives of the December =
18,
1993, Edgewood Declaration of the International Confederation=
of
Autonomous chapters of the American Indian Movement.
2. While LPSG/Region IV is in full agreement with the stated obj=
ectives
of the Walk for Justice to free Leonard Peltier, we are aware=
that
1) Walk for Justice Organizers have engaged in activities whi=
ch have
communicated disregard for the existence of the LPDC, its sup=
port group
network, and LPDC-designated national and international spoke=
spersons;
2) Walk for Justice organizers have appointed people to leade=
rship
positions who ahve been engaging in attacks discrediting LPDC=
-designated
representatives and; 3) Walk for Justice organizers appear to=
be=20
attempting to create an alternate structure to supplant the L=
PDC (in
effect undermining our work to free Leonard Peltier). For th=
ese
reasons, LPSG/Region IV cannot in good faith provide organiza=
tional
support for Walk for Justice as it exists in its current conf=
iguration.
3. It is incumbent upon LPSG/Region IV as well as other regions =
in the LPDC
network to provide full defense and support for LPDC-designat=
ed national
and international spokespersons (e.g. David Hill, Bobby Casti=
llo and=20
Ward Churchill) and the staff of the national office who are =
subjected
to attack which discredits them either as individuals or as m=
embers
of the LPDC.
4. LPSG/Region IV supports full and open discussion of political=
and
organizational issues and will work to ensure that the confli=
ct is
handled in a way that serves the ends of organizational growt=
h and
learning. However, we will struggle and speak out against an=
yone
engaging in activities, outside these guidelines, which threa=
ten
the integrity of the LPDC, its support group network, its nat=
ional=20
and international representatives, or any individual members.
=20
Adopted by unanimous vote by authorized representatives of the follow=
ing Region
IV Support Groups:
LPSG/Columbus, OH LPSG/Kalamazoo, MI LPSG/Chicago
LPSG/Akron, OH LPSG/Necedah, WI
Endorsed by Telephone
LPSG/Portsmouth, OH LPSG/Indianapolis, IN LPSG/Big Rapids, MI
LPSG/Lake in the Hills, IL LPSG/East Lansing, MI =20
We reprint the following document so our readers can see what precipa=
ted - in part -=20
LPSG/Region IV's Woodlawn Manifesto. Our work on behalf of Leonard P=
eltier is tied
in a tight historical know to the American Indian Movement, and it be=
hooves us=20
to be aware of the issues involved in the current struggle of our bro=
thers and
sisters within AIM to determine its future as they walk into a new er=
a. This walk=20
is not easy. This walk is filled with treachery. But it is a necess=
ary walk that
must be made if we are to shed the cynicism of the past and win hope =
for the future.
Liberation, indeed, requires courage, strength, conviction and the wi=
llingness
to declare oneself!
The Edgewood Declaration of the International Confederation of Autono=
mous
Chapters of the American Indian Movement
December 18, 1993
We are the American Indian Movement. AIM. We walk into the future
in the footsteps of our ancestors, following the principles of our
traditional spirituality, sovereignty, self-determination,
sobriety, and mutual respect. Hence, we are firmly committed to the
time-honored indigenous political perspective that the people hold
an inalienable and inherent right to decide for themselves, by a
grassroots democratic process, the nature of their destiny.
It follows that we hereby declare and reaffirm that we are, in the
manner of those who have come before us, an international
confederation, an alliance of fully autonomous but reciprocally
supporting chapters. Accordingly, each chapter of AIM agrees to
advance the cause of indigenous sovereignty and self-determination
within its own context and regional conditions. Decisions of
individual chapters are made independently and, given a legitimate
local base and constituency, such decisions are to be respected by
other chapters.
Our reasons for making this statement, regarding matters which many
might consider self-evident, concern certain recent assertions and
resulting public confusion fostered by a small group headquartered
in Minneapolis, Minnesota, calling itself the National American
Indian Movement, Inc. (N-AIM, or "Name"; a corporation founded, by
its own account, in July 1993).
Because of the nature of the false claims advanced by this clique,
and the publicity attending their lies, it has become necessary to
publicly address and repudiate them. This is especially true with
regard to the notion that there exists either a legitimate AIM
"National Office" or "National Officers" with authority to appoint
or remove local AIM members from whatever positions they may occupy
on the basis of chapter affirmation, or to dictate "policy" to the
movement as a whole.
Let us be perfectly clear. There has not been a genuine national
membership meeting of the American Indian Movement since 1974.
Therefore, no membership authorization for a national office or
national officers can be said to have been obtained since that
time. To the contrary, it has been specifically determined on at
least two separate occasions during the intervening twenty years
that such a structure and/or such titles are contrary to the
interests of the movement, and of American Indian people more
generally.
AIM leadership has always been from the bottom up - on a chapter
by chapter basis - not from top down. And the sporadic and
self-proclaimed "AIM National Leadership Meetings" conducted during
the 1980s and '90s have done nothing to alter this essential fact.
Again we must be clear. AIM is not - despite statements lately
issued by Vernon and Clyde Bellecourt, Carole Standing Elk and
others - a corporate body, under the laws of the United States,
the State of Minnesota, or any other foreign government. Nor is it
an entertainment enterprise, a personal fiefdom, a "career option,"
a medium for private profit, or any of the other things this fringe
element seems to believe.
Instead, <F64029M>AIM is a bona fide national liberation
movement<F255D> - open to the participation of all indigenous
people, regardless of the "status" or "recognition" bestowed upon
them by our oppressors - oriented specifically and exclusively to
reasserting the sovereign and self-determining dignity of our
nations.
Because of all these factors, we state without hesitancy or
equivocation that we collectively reject all pretense to legitimacy
or authority by N-AIM and those persons it has unilaterally
appointed to positions of regional, state or local "leadership"
over the past several months.
Let it be understood by all those reading this document that we
will no longer tolerate the divisiveness and disruption brought
about by N-AIM or any similar entity. We have begun the process of
doing whatever is necessary to maintain the integrity of the
American Indian Movement and the struggle it represents. Anyone
considering themselves an ally, supporter or advocate of indigenous
rights will respect our position, and respond accordingly.
Adopted by consensus of authorized participants representing the
following chapters (signatures on file):
Colorado AIM Florida AIM New Mexico AIM
Northern California AIM Northwest AIM Oklahoma AIM
Southeast AIM Southern California AIM Texas AIM =20
Also endorsed by telephone by Chief Billy Tayac,Mid-Atlantic AIM=20
Dark Night Press
Summer 1992
PO Box 3629
Chicago, IL 60690-3629
Subscriptions - $10/year USA
$20/year International
$ 5/year Seniors
$ 0/year Prisoners
AIM Supporters Convene in Minneapolis for Ceremony
by Paul DeMain
While supporters of the "new" International
Confederation of Autonomous Chapters of the American Indian
Movement (ICACAIM) were preparing for a tribunal hearing in San
Rafael, California, over 200 supporters of the American Indian
Movement met in Minneapolis March 20th to hold a pipe ceremony and
hear from community members.
The advice of the community members was that the
Bellecourts should not attend or respond to the allegations and
that the work the Bellecourts have accomplished in Minneapolis,
Minnesota and other parts of the country would speak for itself.
Spiritual leaders of several native religious groups
representing the Midewin and Sundance societies, elders and
community members recited the history of the formation of the
American Indian Movement and answered attacks against the movement
by what was characterized as the Edgewood group, led by an AIM
faction in Colorado headed by Russell Means, Ward Churchill and
Glenn Morris.
Time and time again, the memories of the original AIM
neighborhood patrol and organization that was founded by Clyde
Bellecourt, Dennis Banks, George Mitchell and Harold Goodsky was
touched upon by community elders who helped support its efforts and
build its community roots.
Russell Means, touted by the mainstream press as a
co-founder of the AIM, did not come onto the scene until later and
in 1969 was still known only as an accountant with the Cleveland
American Indian Center.
He is said to have since resigned from the American
Indian Movement at least six times. Once to run as Chairman of the
Pine Ridge Reservation in 1974. Once in 1984 to seek the vice
presidential ticket with Larry Flint of Hustler magazine, and again
in 1985 after saying he was tired of babysitting the Yellow Thunder
Camp in the Black Hills.
His most famous resignation from AIM was in January
1988 when, nationwide, his resignation from AIM was reported (from
Bakersfield, California) in order to write an autobiography
entitled "Where White Men Fear to Tread: Portrait of A Patriot."
And while some speakers said there was room for
reconciliation because AIM was more than any of the individual
leaders, that it was a spiritual, cultural and social movement that
went beyond egos, there were those that felt that people had gotten
ahead of the movement.
"Russell Means needs to come back home," said Edward
Benton-Banai, Ojibway and a founding board member of the National
American Indian Movement Inc., formed as a legal corporate entity
in order to receive educational, training and other funds through
legal channels.
"I have to ask Russell, who was it that you went into
the sweat lodge with? Who was it that sundanced with you? Who was
it that went with you to the BIA, Mt. Rushmore, the Abbey?" asked
Benton.
Benton said that if a tribunal should be held anywhere
it should be held in Minneapolis, where AIM was born, where the
first American Indian prison program in the nation was implemented,
where many of the elders who were part of the growth of the
movement are and where the membership of AIM would have an
opportunity to respond to the charges made against the Bellecourts.
A small delegation of AIM members comprised of Bill
Means, President of the International Indian Treaty Council, Clyde
Bellecourt, AIM National president, along with Ellie Favel, who
carried with her a medicine bundle and pipe from the Minneapolis
ceremony, traveled to the tribunal to try to come to terms with the
group.
They were joined by Northern California AIM director
Carole Standing Elk, Southern California AIM director, Fern
Mathias, CAIM publicist Patti Jo King, Floyd Westerman, and IITC
Information Director Yvonne Swan.
A request to move the tribunal to Minnesota was
apparently successful, but not before the tribunal declared the
Bellecourts guilty on some of the charges.
Bellecourt says Tribunal is a smokescreen for other
concerns
But, while some members of AIM were looking for
reconciliation, Vern Bellecourt in an earlier interview was
unrelenting in proclaiming the tribunal a smokescreen for other
issues within AIM, and in particular the sources of extra-legal
documents that only law enforcement, prosecutors and Peltier's
parole commission have been allowed to see.
At one time the FBI and several other intelligence
agencies had targeted AIM as a terrorist organization and spent
millions developing informants, infiltrating the organization and
wiretapping phones.
Some people in the community have characterized the
issue as AIM dirty laundry, and play out a "who done it" scenario.
Who actually killed at close range FBI agents Jack
Coler and Ronald Williams on June 26th 1985, people have asked; who
killed Anna Mae Aquash on February 24, 1976? Her murder has often
been blamed by AIM, on the FBI and vice-versa and the subject is
still an emotional issue to many AIM members.
It may be that only a handful of AIM members or FBI
agents know the true answer to either question.
Both issues were brought up during interviews with Bob
Robideau and Ward Churchill by News From Indian Country
correspondent Shelly Davis (Mid-Jan, 94) when Robideau claims that
the Bellecourts provocateured (or bad-jacketed) Aquash as an agent,
which eventually led to her death. In addition, Robideau goes on to
say that the now infamous Mr. X segment filmed for Incident at
Oglala was made in Ward Churchill's home.
"The American Indian Movement doesn't need whitemen
wannabes claiming to be Indians, claiming to be AIM directors
running around representing the movement" said Bellecourt.
"Who is Ward Churchill? Is he an agent, I don't know,
but look at the pattern. He admits infiltrating Soldier of Fortune.
It is he who has been disruptive and vindictive trying to set
himself up as an AIM spokesman, an AIM director and trying to take
editorial control of Leonard Peltier's Defense Committee
newsletter. Churchill is a man without a tribe. If this thing goes,
its going to go big," said Bellecourt moving through a stack of
information that he has been collecting on the man who is a
professor at the University of Colorado-Boulder and widely written
author.
Bellecourt said it was with the help of Churchill that
Means went to Nicaragua during the 1980s through Honduras and the
CIA contra pipeline, and that Bellecourt has heard that both met
with Elliot Abrams, the Asst. Sec. for Latin American Affairs and
close confident of Ollie North in the Iran/Contra-CIA connection.
The issue of supporting pro-Sandinista Indians,
negotiating for autonomy, or pro-Contra Indians fighting for
autonomy, led to a major split in AIM philosophy in the
International Indian Treaty Council in the early 80's and
eventually to Ward Churchill's expulsion from the organization.
Said Bellecourt, "Leonard Peltier does not need a
triggerman or Ward Churchill, he has been declared a prisoner of
conscience by Amnesty International and there are many good people
around the world who continue to work for his release."
"None of this has done Peltier any good," said
Bellecourt, who says he believes that both Bob Robideau and Russell
Means are being used by Churchill. "Hell, I keep saying...Russell
we love you, we just hate what you are doing."
Carole Standing Elk, who Churchill allegedly spit upon
at the California tribunal, adds, "Russell better stick to his
Hollywood scripts. He's not going to win any academy awards for
this act."
When AIM meets this September 1-4 at Fort Snelling in
Minneapolis, Minnesota, for its annual International Solidarity
Gathering and possible reconvening of the tribunal, Bellecourt said
he'd like to see the panel look at the disruptive tactics of the
federal government.
The Bellecourts have suggested for the panel names
like Rigoberto Menchu and others with an easily recognizable
international reputation.
"I doubt if this other group will even show up," said
Bellecourt, "the damage they wanted to inflict by repeating things
like the drug dealing issue, which is history and is not going on
now, has already been done."
But Robideau says that something had to be done about
the Bellecourts and what he calls self-imposed leadership. "Don't
think that I enjoy doing this," said Robideau, "but there hasn't
been a general membership meeting to decide AIM leadership in
years."
Open Letter to Paul DeMain
by Bob Robideau, Spokesperson for New Mexico AIM
(reprinted with Permission from Dark Night Field Notes
Summer, 1994)
I read with consternation and disgust what editor Paul DeMain
claims is his "balanced and objective" assessment of the recent AIM
Tribunal conducted in San Raphael, CA, and related matters ("Aim
Supporters Convene in Minneapolis for Ceremony," News From Indian
Country, April 8, 1994). In response, I would say that if DeMain's
article is what passes for balance and objectivity not to mention
accuracy in Indian Country, then the quality of native journalism
has gone astray.
The truth is that Paul didn't bother to adhere to even the most
minimal standards of professional even-handedness in writing his
story. For example, he provides Vernon Bellecourt with ample space
to make all sorts of ridiculous accusations <F64029B>against<F255D>
Colorado AIM leader Ward Churchill, without so much as contacting
Churchill to see whether there might be another side to the story.
This obvious bias translates itself into a number of inaccuracies.
One example is that Bellecourt is allowed once again to repeat as
"truth" the blatant falsehood that Churchill is a Non-Indian. The
truth is that Churchill's genealogy has been checked out by two
separate Cherokee researchers, both of whom have concluded that he
is indeed of Cherokee descent. Further, Ward has been formally and
repeatedly recognized as an Indian by significant sectors of the
Denver and Boulder Indian communities. The last I heard, naming
your relatives and community recognition were still respectable
ways of verifying Indianness...or are things done differently up
there in Great Lakes country?
Actually, if Paul had done the sort of homework he requires of his
reporters when it came time to write his own "analysis," he would
have known that there was something seriously wrong with Vernon's
story, right from the start. In the first place, Ward and Vernon
have had strong political differences since 1985. During that whole
period, Vernon has been trying to discredit Ward as being
everything from an FBI Agent to a CIA Agent. But never once during
the 1980s and early 90's did Vernon claim Ward was not an Indian.
It's only been within the past couple of years that he began saying
that.
There's something definitely rotten in Vernon's actions here. More
evidence can be found in how he keeps going on about how Ward and
Glenn Morris (also of Colorado AIM, and another target of Vernon's
"white man" charges) were expelled from the International Indian
Treaty Council. He seems to have forgotten that in order for them
to have become IITC delegates in the first place, they had to have
been accepted as Indians. At one point in 1982 or '83, Bill Means
even went to Harvard, where Glenn was in law school, and asked him
to take over as Director of IITC.
For Churchill's part, he says he was originally recruited into AIM
by Clyde Bellecourt way back in 1973, during one of Clyde's
speaking tours. So, since when did Clyde start recruiting "white
men" as AIM members? I remember Ward from Yellow Thunder Camp
during the early '80s (when I was LPDC director and we had a camp
in support of the effort), where he was accepted by all the AIM
members there as Indian. I don't remember either of the Bellecourt
brothers showing up to help defend the Yellow Thunder site, though.
Maybe, unlike Ward, they were too busy pushing drugs to Indian kids
back in Minneapolis. (This was, after all, the period of activity
which resulted in Clyde's arrest and confession of nine counts of
distribution; these were crimes against our people that we cannot
forget.)
=46rom here, things begin to get truly bizarre. Vernon insinuates
that Ward "must be" some kind of "CIA operative" because he and
Russell Means once met with Elliot Abrams. I seem to remember
hearing that Vernon himself met with Nixon aides John Ehrlichman
and Frank Carlucci during the 1972 Trail of Broken Treaties. Should
we therefore conclude that Vernon is a closet Republican? Frank
Carlucci went on to head up the National Security Council and CIA.
Should we conclude that Vernon must be a U.S. Intelligence agent of
some sort? Or, as Churchill himself put it, "I also met with Tomas
Broge and Fidel Castro in Cuba, why doesn't Vernon accuse me of
being a Sandinista or a Cuban intelligence agent?"
In another outlandish insinuation, Vernon has implied that Ward is
"government connected" because of the number of "secret" FBI
documents he's been able to access in researching two books he
co-authored with Jim VanderWall, Agents of Repression and the
COINTELPRO Papers. The reality is that none of the documents are
secret. Churchill reviewed 12,000 pages of documents pertaining to
AIM at the law office of attorney Bruce Ellison in Rapid City,
South Dakota. Another 21,000 pages of documents on AIM are
microfilmed at the University of South Dakota; 17,000 pages are
available to anyone who wants to review them at the FBI Reading
Room in Washington, DC. Perhaps Vernon has forgotten that he
himself caused about 10,000 pages of the material to be released
under the Freedom of Information Act in 1978 during the Longest
Walk.
Black Panther documents? Call the law offices of Jonathan Lubbell
in New York, where 170,000 pages are stored. Or try the Peoples Law
Office in Chicago for another 110,000 pages. Puerto Rican
Liberation Movement? The Center of Constitutional Rights in New
York has a whole file cabinet full of documents. The only thing
Ward is guilty of in going through all this stuff is a lot of hard
work.
About Ward's famous "association" with Soldier of Fortune magazine,
which Vernon throws out there from time to time to "prove"
something he's never been quite clear about. This boils down to a
less than 90-day period in late 1976/early 1977 when Ward hired on
with the magazine to find out what they were up to. He found out
quite a lot. And he published his findings exposing the recruitment
of U.S. mercenaries to fight in Southern Africa in one of the 1980
issues of Africa Today (look it up in the library, Paul). His
expos=82 of U.S. mercenary involvement in Central America was later
published in Covert Action Information Quarterly - hardly a "right
wing" publication - and then reprinted in The Best of Covert
Action Information Quarterly in 1990. Ward's only "crime" here
seems to have been to have succeeded at the kind of investigative
journalism Paul DeMain ought to be doing and encouraging rather
than condemning.
The most absurd part of Vernon's nonsense about Ward that found its
way into Paul's article was the idea that Ward "orchestrated" the
December 1993 AIM Summit meeting held in Edgewood, NM. The fact of
the matter is that the summit meeting was first proposed by Russell
Means, I coordinated it, and New Mexico AIM hosted it. Ward
Churchill attended it along with other members of Colorado AIM, and
representatives of a dozen other autonomous AIM chapters
nationally. The one thing we all agreed on at Edgewood was that
Vernon and Clyde Bellecourt have absolutely no authority to dictate
AIM policy, to appoint or remove AIM members in any chapter, to
call themselves "National AIM Leaders," or to run a "National AIM
Office." That's what we thought, that's what we said, and we didn't
need Ward Churchill to say it for us.
Vernon's misrepresentation of what happened at Edgewood is
indicative of a wider pattern of behavior on his part. The
membership of Colorado AIM has unanimously reaffirmed Ward
Churchill as a member of its Leadership Council on separate
occasions over the past several years. Each time, Vernon has been
off in Minneapolis, completely out of the picture and claimed that
Ward has "manipulated the outcome" or "duped" the membership (it
should be noted that on at least two occasions, Ward wasn't even
there when the vote was taken). When Russell Means wrote a letter
in 1993 stating that Ward, a "member of the leadership council of
Colorado AIM," was authorized by the membership to speak for
Colorado AIM, Vernon falsely asserted that Ward has "forged" it.
When the Elders Council of Colorado AIM put out a similar letter in
early 1994, Vernon lied again, saying that Ward had written it for
them.
What Vernon is really saying is that other Indians are so stupid
that we can't make our own decisions. If we disagree with him, he
calls us "naive" or "misled." Without his brilliant instructions,
so the story goes, we will repeatedly pick a non-Indian FBI or CIA
agent to be among our leaders. I, for one, am sick of his
self-serving, patronizing bullshit. And I'm really getting sick of
writers like Paul DeMain playing along with it. Nothing is true, or
even "partly true," just because Vernon Bellecourt says so. To the
contrary, as anyone familiar with his history can attest, he has
quite a record as an accomplished liar (e.g., Vernon's efforts to
portray Russell Means as a CIA agent in the mainstream press during
the 1980s. Now Vernon says he "loves Russ.").
This takes us to the AIM Tribunal conducted on March 26 and 27.
Paul allows Vernon to pass the whole thing off as yet another
undertaking by Ward Churchill. No mention is made of the fact that
sixteen separate AIM chapters signed on as plaintiffs in the
26-page indictment of the Bellecourt brothers which the Tribunal
assembled to consider. Paul contacted the representatives of not a
single one of these chapters in order to find out if they saw
things differently.
Nor is mention made of the fact that the five-member Tribunal
itself included such long time, respected AIM members as Joe Locust
(Cherokee, co-founded of Denver AIM, along with Vernon), Regina
Brave (Oglala Lakota, a Wounded Knee veteran), Dian Million
(Athabascan, of Northwest AIM and former spokeswoman for Leonard
Peltier), Sharon Venne (Cree, legal counsel to the Treaty 6 Chiefs
in Canada and former IITC delegate to the United Nations), and Cal
Poly University History Professor Donald Grinde (Yamasee).
How a group of this caliber might have been conned into
participating by a "white man masquerading as an Indian" is truly
mysterious, and Paul DeMain never bothered to contact any of them
to find out. Instead, he quotes Vernon Bellecourt who wasn't even
there - to the effect that the whole thing was just a sham
conducted by Ward Churchill, and, in boldfaced type no less, that
the "<F64029B>Tribunal is a smokescreen for other concerns<F255D>."
What other concerns? Well, according to Vernon, it's all part of an
ultra-high-level government plot designed to destroy the
Bellecourts because they are genuine Indian radicals.
Now, we've finally arrived at an element of truth. It appears that
there is some kind of conspiracy going on. And it does seem to be
aimed at genuine Indian radicals. But the question is: who are the
radicals, and who are the conspiring provocateurs who have been
assigned to destroy them. Maybe a couple of questions will help
clarify things in this respect. Ask yourself what kind of radical
is it that receives, by his own estimation, more than $4 million
per year in federal funding. What kind of radical is it that
receives, again by his own estimation, more than $3 million per
year in major corporate bucks. And what kind of radical would
accept money from Honeywell, a corporation that is responsible for
creating weapons capable of mass human slaughter. Answer: neither
the government nor big corporations fund radicals, because radicals
(by definition) are out to oppose both the government and the
corporation. But the above amounts are what the Bellecourt brothers
themselves acknowledge receiving from such sources.
Taking another direction, one of the standard techniques used by
FBI (the US government's political police force) operatives is to
"bad-jacket" genuine radicals. That is to say, they spread rumors
and false information designed to make real activists appear to be
agents. Now, go back and read the sort of unsubstantiated shit
Vernon Bellecourt has been spreading about Ward Churchill [and
Glenn Morris, Bobby Castillo (Leonard's International
Spokesperson), Russell Means, and me, among others]. If this isn't
a classic case of bad-jacketing...try this other fact out regarding
Vernon's behavior. I know that for a fact. I know because I was
there when Vernon put the bad-jacket on Anna Mae Aquash that
eventually cost her her life. My knowledge is first-hand. I was one
of the AIM security guys Vernon instructed to take Anna Mae out on
a mesa near Farmington, NM, in 1975, and interrogate her about
being a federal informant.
It's this kind of thing - not some kind of "manipulation" by Ward
Churchill which caused the AIM Tribunal to be convened. And it
was the proof of this kind of thing which caused all five members
of the Tribunal to find both Vernon and Clyde guilty of subverting
AIM at the end of the San Raphael session (Clyde was also found
guilty of being a drug dealer). And there still is a lot of
unanswered questions concerning this kind of thing which has caused
us to schedule a second session of the Tribunal for Minneapolis in
September. We are going to get to the bottom of this stuff, and
we're going to do so in a way which is open and above board, not
through whisper campaigns.
Here is just a sample of the questions we want answered in
September. Whatever happened to that million dollars Vernon claimed
to have brought back from Libya in 1990? How was Vernon Bellecourt
able to get all nine of his "political" charges against him
dismissed? (Every other AIM leader except Clyde has done time
because of their politics, including Leonard Peltier who continues
to be confined.) How much did Vernon receive for campaigning (as a
"Famous AIM Leader") on behalf of LaRouche-connected presidential
candidate Lenora Fulani in 1988?
Maybe I'll also get an answer to another set of questions which
have been bothering me for a long time now. Why didn't Clyde or
Vernon Bellecourt lift a finger to help Leonard Peltier, Dino
Butler and me during our trials after the 1975 Oglala firefight?
Why haven't the Bellecourts done anything at all to create a
platform for Leonard's freedom since he was railroaded into prison?
I mean, they've never to my knowledge contributed a dime, nor given
a radio interview on his behalf, nor written anything in his
defense in the 18 years he's been in prison. And I think if they'd
done anything I'd know about it, since he's my cousin as well as my
co-defendant, and I've served as the National/International
Director of his Defense Committee during two separate periods since
my release from Leavenworth Federal prison in 1979 after serving
four years for my political acts.
This brings up an even uglier question. Why is it that every time
the Defense Committee has started to get something going for
Leonard, the Bellecourts have gone into a frenzy trying to
undermine the credibility of key people involved? In this, Ward
Churchill is a perfect example. Over the past five or six years, he
has published two major books drawing public attention to Leonard's
case. He's also published a couple dozen articles on Leonard, made
hundreds of speeches, given interviews on radio, TV, and in the
newspapers, and even teaches a class on the topic at the University
of Colorado. He's done these things voluntarily, and he's not made
money from them (any "profits" go directly to the Defense
Committee).
All this readily explains why Ward has long served as one of the
handful of people authorized by Leonard to speak on his behalf,
while neither of the Bellecourts have ever been empowered in that
way. What it doesn't explain is why Vernon in particular has gone
to such lengths to try and convince us that a man with Ward's
record is "federal infiltrator." At this point, I won't say that
Vernon is himself an actual agent (although if I had to pick
between Ward and Vernon as to who is a cop, I'd choose Vernon every
time). And it is about time Paul DeMain begins reporting the way it
is rather than the way he wishes it was.
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