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At the beginning of the 70s, AIM was getting together with the Lakota Indians who were true to their ancient traditions and wanted to hold on to their culture and their lands.
The BIA, worried about AIM's growing influence in the area, imposed Dick Wilson as tribal chairman on the reservation, running roughshod over the will of the traditional elders and chiefs.
The puppet Wilson hated the AIM militants and allied himself with the FBI to destroy the movement that the agency saw as a threat to the American way of life. His paramilitary group known as the "GOONS" (Guardians of the Oglala Nation) had committed a long chain of abuses against the people.
On the night of February 27, around 300 Lakota and 25 AIM members occupied the town of Wounded Knee, joined by several Chicanos, Black, and white supporters. They opposed the murders of Native Americans on the reservation, the extreme poverty that the people lived in, and the corrupt tribal government. They demanded that the government respect the ancient treaties signed with native peoples to protect their territory and autonomy.
The next day, General Alexander Haig ordered an invasion. According to Ward Churchill and Jim Vanderwall in their book Agents of Repression, "In the first instance since the Civil War that the U.S. Army had been dispatched in a domestic operation, the Pentagon invaded Wounded Knee with 17 armored personnel carriers, 130,000 rounds of M-16 ammunition, 41,000 rounds of M-1 ammunition, 24,000 flares, 12 M-79 grenade launchers, 600 cases of C-S gas, 100 rounds of M-40 explosives, helicopters, phantom jets, and personnel, all under the direction of General Alexander Haig."
The operation also relied on 500 heavily armed policemen, federal marshals, and BIA and FBI agents. They surrounded Wounded Knee and set up barricades all along the road.
The occupation lasted 71 days and ended only after the government promised to investigate the complaints, something that never happened.
The next three years were known as the "reign of terror" on Pine Ridge. More than 300 people associated with AIM were violently attacked and many of their homes were burned. During these years more than 60 Native American people were killed by paramilitaries armed and trained by the FBI. There was also an increase of FBI SWAT team agents on the reservation.
It's now known, as a result of a suit based on the Freedom of Information Act, that AIM activities on and off the reservation were under FBI surveillance and that the FBI was preparing the paramilitary operations on Pine Ridge a month before the shootout at Oglala.
Oglala: The fatal shootout
In a situation that was getting worse all the time, the Council of Elders on the Jumping Bull ranch near the town of Oglala asked AIM to come back to the reservation to protect them. Leonard Peltier, along with many other AIM members and non-members responded to the call and set up camp on the ranch.
On June 26, 1975, two FBI agents, Jack Coler and Ron Williams, followed a red pick-up truck onto the Jumping Bull ranch. They were supposedly looking for young Jimmy Eagle, who was said to have stolen a pair of cowboy boots.
A shootout began between the FBI agents and the people in the pick-up, trapping a family in the crossfire. Several mothers fled the area with their children while other people fired in self-defense. More than150 FBI SWAT team members, BIA police, and GOONS surrounded approximately 30 AIM men, women, and children and opened fire. Leonard Peltier helped a group of young people to escape from the rain of bullets.
When the shootout ended, AIM member Joseph Killsright Stuntz was found dead, shot in the head. His death has never been investigated.
Coler and Williams were wounded during the shootout and then killed at point blank range. The two agents had in their possession a map with the Jumping Bull ranch marked on it.
According to FBI documents, more than forty Native Americans participated in the shootout, but only four were charged with killing the two agents: three AIM leaders--Dino Butler, Bob Robideau, and Leonard Peltier--and Jimmy Eagle.
