It’s been just over 40 years since the February 27 – May 8, 1973 occupation of Wounded Knee, South Dakota by the American Indian Movement and around 200 of its followers.
It’s been just a few weeks since September 10, 2013 when John Boy Graham’s secondary appeal of his conviction for the murder of Annie Mae Pictou-Aquash was rejected by the South Dakota Supreme Court.
Did the American Indian Movement crew and their supporters expect Graham to win his appeal so they could announce it at the ‘Tribunal to Free Leonard Peltier’ to be held at the Radisson Hotel & Conference Center on the Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin reservation from October 2-4, 2013?
Or did they figure they could try to raise money off of the situation either way?
Do they really expect President Barack Obama to grant Leonard Peltier a pardon or require a retrial, or is it likewise simply a money making endeavor regardless?
Tribunal sponsor Wind Chases The Sun, Inc. is owned by Oneida Tribe member Dorothy Ninham, former spouse of Oneida Tribe member and AIM co-founder Herb Powless.
UPDATE: Wind Chases The Sun, Inc. is now known as Blue Skies Foundation
IndianCountryNews.com says this regarding Herb Powless:
January, 1975:
FBI Operative Doug Durham is allegedly busy accusing people of being FBI informants according to Vernon Bellecourt, though it is clear from the interview record that it is Vernon Bellecourt who is making the accusations. AIM leaders Dennis Banks and Herb Powless confront several people about the accusations at the January 1, 1975 Menominee Warriors Society Novitiate takeover near Gresham, Wisconsin. Confrontations take place with several AIM supporters including Minnie Two Shoes and Iris Thundercloud during this period, who are told about the accusations and turned back from their support activities. Durham at the same time is being accused by some as being an informant. Annie Mae, who is involved in a relationship with Dennis Banks is a suspect as well, in particular by Attorney Ken Tilsen and his wife Rachael (both affiliated with the Communist Party USA) who proposes that Durham and Aquash have been inserted by the FBI to work as a team to get close to Banks.
A plot to kill Durham during the takeover is reportedly planned according to a recorded narrative given to author/writer Serle Chapman by Herb Powless, who indicates that Durham escapes the plot when he leaves Shawano, Wisconsin amongst rumors that he is working for the FBI as an informant. Powless is titled as the Great Lakes/Wisconsin Security and Intelligence Director and says that nobody is accused or judged as being an FBI informant in Wisconsin without his knowledge, including the Durham, Iris Thundercloud and Minnie Two Shoes accusations. The key AIM leadership connection in the questioning of Thundercloud and Two Shoes other than Powless is Theda Nelson Clark of Denver, Colorado.
February 28, 1975:
Herb Powless, Mark Powless and Phillip Bautista stop at Jumping Bull Compound and Ted Lames with AIM weaponry. Annie Mae is reportedly living at Ted Lames’ as part of the Wounded Knee Legal Defense/Offense Committee (WKLDOC), Oglala office.
March 1, 1975:
Herb Powless, Mark Powless, Philip Bautista and several others from Oglala are arrested at Hot Springs, S.D. on weapon charges. The arrest follows a police stop for a missing license plate on the van. The bust casts more suspicion on Annie Mae. FBI documents indicate the Powless van has been followed across the country for several days starting in Milwaukee, Wisconsin while it curried guns (in particular several AR-15s) and ammunition to various members of AIM. Herb Powless allegedly fingers Annie Mae as the most probable person responsible for removing the plates while at Lames. (MOTIVE #5)
The ‘Mark Powless’ mentioned is Oneida Tribe member Mark A. Powless Sr. who was recently elected to the Oneida Gaming Commission and currently serves as the Chair, meaning that at some point he supposedly received a pardon from the Oneida Business Committee allowing him to hold that position. The Gaming Commission determines who is upstanding enough to obtain a Gaming License to work at the Oneida Casino which just happens to be attached to the Radisson where the Tribunal hoping to free Leonard Peltier is being held. What a coincidence.
It seems at this point that’s the only kind of pardon anyone who was involved with the murder of Annie Mae Pictou-Aquash, Perry Ray Robinson Jr. and others, including two FBI Agents, should ever expect.
Consider this February 3, 2004 testimony by Darlene KaMook Nichols in light of the fact that Herb Powless was also caught transporting 600 pounds of dynamite:
Q, Where did you go in Oglala? A. To the Hill house. Q. Who was there? A. It was Dennis and Leonard and Dave Hill and then me. Q. Dennis Banks? A. Yes. Q. Leonard Peltier? A. Yes. Q. Dave Hill you said? A. Yes. Q. And Anna Mae? A. Yes. Q. What did you do then? A. It was in, it was late already, we got there and Dave and Leonard took Anna Mae in to the adjoining room and they were making her make bombs. Q. Why were they doing that? A. For the sake of the fingerprints being on the bomb. Q. What was going do be done with the bombs? A. There was discussion about where these bombs would be placed in Pine Ridge. Q. Were they placed somewhere then? A. Yes. Q. Were you there when they placed them? A. Yes. Q. Who placed the bombs? MR. RENSCH: Objection, relevance, 403. THE COURT: Overruled. A. Dave Hill and Leonard got out of the car and told Anna Mae to get out with them, and they laid the bombs by the two power plants in Pine Ridge.Whether it was Atty. Ken Tilsen, Vernon Bellecourt, Theda Clark, Leonard Peltier or Herb Powless who initiated, perpetuated or cemented the false belief that Annie Mae Pictou-Aquash was somehow an FBI informant, which resulted in her being kidnapped by AIM members and interrogated & terrorized by Leonard Peltier as well as eventually being murdered by John Boy Graham with help from Arlo Looking Cloud, it begs the question:
Who should really be on trial for ‘injustices toward indigenous people’?
It seems the Tribunal should be titled: ‘Dog Chases Its Tail.’
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