Not guilty plea in Am. Indian killing

[Scairp]

Source: AP

RAPID CITY, S.D. --A day after his extradition to the U.S., a Canadian man pleaded not guilty Friday to killing an American Indian Movement activist in 1975.

John Graham, a former AIM member, was charged with the first-degree murder of Anna Mae Pictou Aquash on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Her body was found in February 1976 north of Wanblee with a gunshot wound to the head.



Read more: http://www.charlotte.com/nation/story/395991.html

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Very upsetting case in that it took thirty years for any kind of justice for this woman's two daughters. Many people within AIM are of the opinion that Dennis Banks was the one who actually ordered her murder. Who knows.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

1. I hope full justice is done...

[uppityperson]

2. Graham is only 52? And why would AIM or DBanks want her dead?

Ah, I see "American prosecutors said some of the AIM leaders ordered Aquash's killing late in 1975 because they suspected she was a government informant. Those leaders have denied the accusation and blamed the government for her death." And that make Graham 19ish at the time? Whew.

I really hope they figure it out in my lifetime, with Leonard be freed also. Thanks for posting this, very upsetting.

[Scairp]

3. She had been his girlfriend

At one time anyway. They really didn't tolerate turncoats within this organization, and I think that either a)he really thought she was a federal informant, or b)he made others think it to get rid of her because he was married and perhaps she was making demands and he wanted her gone. Why is that so hard to believe? Anyway, it isn't me who believes it, it's people within AIM. And as for Peletier, there are also those within AIM and outside of AIM, who were involved peripherally with the group and were also in the area that day, who say he did shoot those Feds.

[uppityperson]

5. Of course it's those directly involved that matter.

There are also many within and without AIM that believe Peltier was set up, didn't shoot those feds. Having been next state over during, and followed much since, and having friends (not AIM) who have been there for generations and listening to their opinions, and knowing how the gvt is, it is really hard to know who did what, who was covert, etc etc.

[EFerrari]

8. I'll go to my grave knowing Leonard was set up and that the Feds

killed Annie, too.

There's no way Banks did this. I'm not a fan of his in any way but he and his projects would only stand to lose by this death.

[uppityperson]

9. I agree, but would change to "believing" since I really don't know. Just really really strongly

believe. And why did they cut off her hands to send for IDing? I never understood that.

[EFerrari]

11. To send a message. To create fear.

I have to go back and refresh on this because I haven't thought about it for 15 years. One of my teachers was working at the UN for indigenous rights and she was involved in this case, too, and used to talk about it. But, it's been a long time. Longer for the victims. :(

[Scairp]

16. Banks would lose nothing

It's been more than thirty years, and very few have even dared to say publicly that Banks may have been the one who ordered Annie Mae kidnapped, raped and murdered. If he did it, he has not paid and will never pay any price for this terrible act against a sister.

[EFerrari]

13. Leonard can't even be placed at the scene.

What's more likely is that AIM was infiltrated and that those opinions are coming from moles.

Annie was a huge community person and everyone knew it. No way you could mistake her for a mole. AIM didn't kill Annie.

[Scairp]

14. Leonard CAN be placed @ the scene

There were some teenagers who were camping near the area of the shooting on the day in question who say they saw him there. As I said previously, there are people involved with AIM who believe that he did do it. I myself cannot be sure as I was only a small child at that time, and I am only going by what I have heard people from the reservation say about both the killing of the Feds and the murder of Annie Mae. All the people involved in her abduction, rape and murder were all people within the Nation, people who lived on the reservation, whether they were official AIM members or not. It is not in dispute that people affiliated with AIM took her from the house where she was hiding in Denver and drove her to Sioux City where she was held for some number of days and sexually assaulted before being executed. Not in dispute. I don't think the Feds killed her; how could they when the people who took her were from the reservation?

[greiner3]

4. Knowing that freepers, the site and not the mindset;

Only came to existence after the death of Ana Mae, I can only wonder if John Graham is a current poster to that wonderful site. Stranger things happen.

[CountAllVotes]

6. K&R!!

:kick:

[EFerrari]

7. I'd forgotten all about this case.

[annm4peace]

10. thanks for posting

* I also think the Feds killed her.
What a another shameful part of our US history. After all these years, the FBI needs to come clean.

[EFerrari]

12. I first read about it In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, which was a book

about Leonard, mainly. But, Annie's story was in there, too. That was a dangerously truthful book that was banned in the United States for a number of years. That was one of my first adult run ins with government censorship.

[brentspeak]

15. Can you explain why you think the FBI killed her?

??????????

[Scairp]

17. I'd like to hear this too

Graham was AIM. Looking Cloud also, I believe was either AIM or hung with AIM members. Other people within AIM who have never been charged were involved in picking her up, which most people call kidnapping, holding her hostage and sexually assaulting her before Graham, allegedly, put a bullet in her head. They were either all AIM or people on the periphery of the organization. Where were these "Feds" who killed her? Did they wear some kind of "Mission Impossible" masks, disguising themselves to look like members of AIM? There is zero evidence the FBI murdered her, and plenty of evidence that people high up in AIM, namely Banks and Means, ordered and carried out her execution. Period.

[Scairp]

18. Interesting website

Has LOTS of stuff on the murder of Annie Mae, and about AIM higher ups. I urge everyone to please help keep this story in the forefront. I signed up for Yahoo alerts on this story, and the Graham extradition, about fours years ago just to keep up because I think this is very important; justice for Annie Mae and her daughters, who were robbed of their mother as very young children, can never come too late, and I do hope others here will help keep the focus on that goal.


http://indigenouswomenforjustice.org/compel.html

[Scairp]

19. Kick N/T