December 11, 1975:
A jury in the Herb Powless firearms case being heard in Rapid City, South Dakota is sent out to deliberate charges, deadlocks and the judge declares a mistrial on charges of interstate transportation of firearms.

December 11, 1975:
Bob Robideau, Keith DeMarrias and Norman Charles are convicted in Wichita, Kansas on illegal transportation of firearms.

December 12, 1975:
Annie Mae is taken to the offices of the Wounded Knee Legal Defense Committee in Rapid City and is questioned by members of AIM. Madonna Gilbert is director of the WKLDOC in Rapid City in December 1975, and Lorlie Decora-Means is allegedly at the office during this same period. NFIC sources say that Ted Means and Clyde Bellecourt are seen at the WKLDOC headquarters during the evening when Annie Mae is being held and leave a short time later with three others for Trials in Souix Falls. David Hill, who had been living with Thelma Rios-Conroy during 1974-75, shows up in the Rapid City area during this time from Salt Lake City, Utah, allegedly having come back from west coast meetings with Dennis Banks and Vernon Bellecourt. Candy Hamilton, legal assistant in the CBC - Fifth Estate special says she is working upstairs at the WKLDOC when she comes across Annie Mae, but is unable to do anything about her predicament at the time. Kathy James, Toby and Lucky Hollander, legal assistants are reportedly working at the WKLOC offices during this general period as well.

December 12, 1975:
Annie Mae is reportedly taken from the WKLDC offices and held at the home of Thelma Rios-Conroy at 1014 Milwaukee st. before being moved to another home owned by Thelma Rios-Conroy on Norwood Heights. Thelma's elderly mother allegedly tells other people she witnesses a woman being held at the house during this period. During this time frame NFIC has been told that several leadership members of AIM take part in discussions regarding Annie Mae being an informant and what they should do about it. Dennis Banks is allegedly part of these discussions and is said to be aware that Annie Mae is being held for questioning. In addition, WKLDOC attorney Bruce Ellison is named by NFIC sources as encouraging the idea that Annie Mae may have been an informant after her questioning. A document is produced, (belived to be the alleged Attorney Riter letter) which is said to outline a government offer to Annie Mae involving her cooperation.

December 12, 1975:
Herb Powless is featured in a picture in the Rapid City Journal smiling as he comes out of the courthouse the day before on December 11, 1975. Robert Pictou Branscombe puts the date and time of Annie Mae's death at 8:40 a.m. December 12, 1975.

December 13, 1975:
According to other NFIC sources Annie Mae is reportedly taken from Rapid City to the Rosebud reservation area near Pass Creek and then taken to Bill Means home nearby during the early morning hours. Several AIM members are allegedly at the home of Bill Means, including Clyde Bellecourt and David Hill. Russell Means in a November 1999 Denver press conference says that Vernon Bellecourt calls his brother Clyde from Minneapolis and orders the execution of Annie Mae. Bill Means says he doesn't remember if he even had a phone at the time. Vernon Bellecourt in an interveiw with several Native journalists in response to the Means' press conference says he called the home of Bill Means during that period on a daily basis, several times, as part of AIM business. Bellecourt also says he believed that he was in California at the time, and that his brother Clyde did not even know where the WKLDOC offices in Rapid City were at that time period. Dennis Banks is staying at the home of Lee Brightman in California during December 1975.

Theda Nelson Clark is driving the same Red Pinto they left in from Denver, Colorado with John Boy Graham and Arlo Looking Cloud and Annie Mae tied up in the back seat. John Boy Graham-Patton, allegedly shoots Annie Mae around daybreak on December 12 or 13, 1975, with Arlo Looking Cloud nearby. In the CBC - Fifth Estate special John Boy Graham denies shooting Annie Mae.

John Trudell in the CBC - Fifth Estate describes the scene told to him by one of the witnesses that was there. “Annie Mae was trying to pray for her daughters, and then John Boy shot her.”

Seven NFIC sources have now said that David Hill was on the Rosebud reservation and Bill Means' home. Four NFIC sources have said that Clyde Bellecourt was on the Rosebud reservation and at Bill Means' home when Annie Mae is brought there. Robert Pictou Branscombe says Arlo Looking Cloud has said that Theda Nelson is there in the car awaiting near the execution site, on the northeastern edge of the Pine Ridge reservation between Kadoka and Wanblee on Hwy 73. Annie Mae is executed at daybreak on top of the ridge and then pushed over, or falls over the edge. Not being killed instantly, she eventually curls into a fetal position before dying.

NFIC also reminds people that just because characterizations of Annie Mae are allegedly made within the chronology by certain people does not mean they had knowledge that Annie Mae would eventually be executed by other members of AIM.

December, 1975:
Another Anna Mae (Anna Mae Tonaquodle of Oklahoma) comes to Pine Ridge during this time. The FBI says Anna Mae Tonaquodle tells them that Annie Mae Aquash had been killed by AIM members because they thought she was an informer. Tonaquodle has denied she told the FBI anything.

January 16, 1976:
1976: Banks arrested in California.

February 6, 1976:
Leonard Peltier is arrested in Hinton, Alberta Canada with Frank Black Horse, also known as Frank DeLuca, Bruce Johnson, Richard Leon High Eagle, Richard Tall Bull, Mike Houston, Teddy Louis and Teddy Lewis according to police records. Peltier in a recent interview says that he first heard that Annie Mae was dead during December, 1975.

February 24, 1976
1976: Jane Doe is found 10 miles from Wanblee on Hwy 73 on the far northeast end of the Pine Ridge reservation close to Kadoka by Roger Amiotte. SA David Price responds.

February 24, 1976:
First autopsy - FBI/BIA contract pathologist Dr. W. O. Brown says Jane Doe “died of exposure” Several FBI agents are in and out of postmortem, according to Matthiessen in his book, In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, despite their official denial.

February 25/26, 1976:
John Trudell is testifying at the Butler/Robideau trial in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on June 22, 1976 and tells the court, according to transcripts, "Dennis (Banks) told me she had been shot in the back of the head. He told me this on February, about the 25th or 26th of February.... He told me this in California... I know it was within two days or so after they had found the body and I knew nothing about that". "I was setting in the car with Dennis and he said, 'You know that body they found? That is Annie Mae.' I didn't know about a body."

February 25-28 1976:
Gladys Bissonnette, picking up the remains of another relative offers to try to identify the Jane Doe held at the funeral home but is told by mortician Tom Chamberlain that only “authorized” persons are allowed to view the remains. During this period the FBI is claiming that they are trying to identify the body by circulating flyers in the Pine Ridge community. Dennis Banks allegedly tells several associates that he has heard that they have found the body of Annie Mae.

March 2, 1976:
Annie Mae buried at Holy Rosary Mission cemetery as Jane Doe.

March 3, 1976:
Severed hands of Jane Doe are identified as Annie Mae's by FBI Identification Bureau in Washington DC. That procedure is highly irregular according to other law enforcement officials involved with homicide investigations.

March 5, 1976:
Pictou family in Nova Scotia notified of identification of Jane Doe.

March 6, 1976:
FBI announces publicly the identification of Annie Mae.

March 8, 1976:
Atty. Bruce Ellison files for exhumation in morning, FBI requests the same exhumation order later in afternoon. FBI Agent William B. Wood signs an affidavit regarding the investigative process regarding the preceding handling of the Aquash case and notes:

“15. On March 5, 1976, I was informed by Eugene T. York, Special Agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, that he had interviewed Anna Mae Tonaquodle on February 19, 1976, at Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Tonaquodle is a known American Indian Movement activist in the Tulsa, Oklahoma, area and was interviewed in an effort to establish the present whereabouts of Anna Mae Aquash. Tonaquodle stated that she was not personally acquainted with Aquash, but knew Aquash by reputation. According to Tonaquodle, Aquash was believed by American Indian Movement leaders to be a Federal Bureau of Investigation informant.”

A FBI report dated March 8, 1976 (70-11023) from Rapid City offices indicates that Bruce Ellison appeared at the office requesting information regarding the autopsy of Annie Mae Aquash. Ellison was requested by the agent “to furnish any information he might receive concerning the victim's death to the FBI.” His reply was “that depending on who they determined was responsible for the death would dictate whether or not this information would be furnished to the FBI.”

March 10, 1976:
Annie Mae exhumed. Second autopsy conducted by independent pathologist. Bullet entry wound in back of head and slug at the front of a discolored area of her cheek are found immediately, and death ruled a homicide. FBI agents William Wood, Gary Adams and David Price according to Matthiessen are present. Theda Nelson-Clark comes to Oglala from Denver to ask about the autopsy results on Annie Mae, then goes directly back to Denver.

March 11-13, 1976:
Days of mourning.
No leadership members of the American Indian Movement attend though Russell and Ted Means and a caravan of AIM members drive by the wake on the way to an Oglala basketball game. Russell Means later claims he was not on the reservation.

March 14, 1976:
Annie Mae reburied at Wallace Little ranch next to Joe Stuntz.

March 18, 1976:
First Federal Grand Jury convenes in Pierre, S.D. to hear evidence in Aquash case. Bruce Ellison claims that he is immune from Grand Jury inquiry because he had been representing Annie Mae (This was a child custody case involving her daughters) and any inquiry would violate the lawyer/client relationship.

May 17, 1976:
Attorney Ken Tilsen sends Annie Mae's billfold back to Pictou sisters in Nova Scotia saying in a letter to them, it came to him thru a circuitous route. The billfold was not found with Annie Mae at the site of her execution. Tilsen in a 1999 NFIC call confirms that the letter is written by him, but says, “For the love of him, he can't remember who gave him the wallet,” and that, “I have no recollection what-so-ever of having the wallet.”

©News From Indian Country

Go Back to Part I of Aquash Timeline by NFIC

Continue to Part III of Annie Mae Pictou Aquash Time Line