Over the years friends usually assumed she was killed in Denver or at some
location on the Rosebud Reservation and moved to Wanblee, but two AIM
sources say she was killed where she was found after being taken from
Denver, to Rapid City, to a site at Rosebud Reservation, and finally to the
Badlands near Wanblee.
If these assertions turn out to be true -- if the grand jury ever issues
indictments and a trial occurs -- then the FBI failed to identify a
well-known fugitive, give the correct cause of death, or handle
identification of Pictou's body humanely. They also missed all the evidence
at the site. Almost two weeks elapsed before they returned for a thorough
search of the area where her body was found.
Rather than talk to her friends, the FBI spent a lot of time questioning
Roger Amiotte, who found her body and have never met her. Even after he
took and passed a lie detector test, Amiotte says, agents continued to
accuse and harass him.
During that period Amiotte was not alone. "After the (June 26, 1976) shoot
out," said William Muldrow, "the FBI was incensed. They went -- all out --
with about 300 agents on the reservation using armored vehicles, automatic
weapons, wearing camouflage, manning roadblocks, surrounding homes, landing
helicopters in people's yards. It was not an unobtrusive investigation and
it terrified many reservation residents." Muldrow was then an investigator
for the U.S. Civil Rights Commission's Denver office.
Some AIM members say the inept 1976 investigation of Pictou's murder
doesn't indicate mistakes, but a buying of time to protect someone involved
in the murder -- presumably the real FBI snitch. The same AIM members go
ont to say that the person they storngly believe pulled the trigger did so
under orders, again probably from the FBI plant.
Presumably, the current investigation faces at least some of the same
problems reporters run into -- mainly plenty of people willing to talk,
speculate and accuse but unwilling to allow the use of their names or
provide any information attributable to them.
Unlike the media, however, the U.S. attorney and U.S. marshal dealing with
the grand jury can make arrests. Despite progress in the investigation, no
one has been arrested or even jailed "to cooperate with the investigation,"
as the saying goes.
U.S. Marshall Robert Ecoffey said he cannot discuss a case before the grand
jury, but now is the time for anyone concerned about this murder to come
forward.
AIM member Charlie Long Soldier, who worked with Pictou Aquash in Oglala,
says the current investigation should be thorough and complete, letting the
chips fall where they may. "I'd like to see the real people exposed. They
may be friends of mine, but something needs to be done," Long Soldier
said.
The one thing all agree on - even those accusing each other - the FBI
created the situation and climate where such a tragedy could occur.
Paranoia over informers and very legitimate concern over the safety of AIM
members, both fugitives and those still publicly active, had reached near
terror by late 1975. It took little to see off arguments, fights and
fears.
"It was hard to trust. Labeling separated people who were really on the
same side," said Melvin Lee, who worked closely with Pictou in AIM. Almost
no one, including Pictou, escaped occasinal charges of being an informer.
Many believed this level of fear endangered people the FBI actually had
planted within AIM grups - a documented situation with a number of people
already identified as informers. Pictou became their scapegoat.
The best known of the real informants was Doug Durham, who participated in
the Wounded Knee siege; assisted Dennis Banks to go underground as the
siege ended; worked with WKLDOC in St. Paul during the Means-Banks trial;
worked in AIM offices in Minneapolis; Des Moines, and Los Angeles; and
became director of AIM security - all while he actually was a white man
working for the FBI.
Durham's real identity emerged during the January 1975 Menomine Abbey
takeover in Wisconsin. Then during the high-tension fall following the June
26, 1975, Oglala shoot out where the two FBI agents and a Nez Perce man
were killed, the John Birch Society sponsored a speaking tour for Durham
through Rapid City and Pine Ridge Reservation border towns in Nebraska.
With his inflammatory speeches, Durham clearly intended to stir up the
goons on the reservation and their non-Indian counterparts in the area.
Both on and off the reservation ranchers were organized as the Posse
Comitatus, a well armed group similar to today's white supremicist
survivalists. Pictou's murder occured within two months of Durham's tour.
Since June 26, cars full of FBI agens carrying automatic weapons and
demanding answers and information from local people had become almost
routine for Oglala residents. After the discovery of Pictou's body, the
traditional leaders of the community issued a statement which said in
part:
"We are concerned because we feel that her involvement as our ally probably
brought her death. We want to know the truth about Anna Mae's death and the
possibility of the government's involvement in it. Anna Mae Pictou was
respected and loved by the people of Oglala. We mourn her and we urge all
law abiding citizens to demand the real truth about her death.
Then they waited to see if a friend's murder would bring any action from
the FBI. It didn't.
"If the Indians kill another FBI by golly they'll be coming in here like
fleas again, but Anna Mae's an Indian," said Loud Hawk. "Just proves
Indians are nothing to white people. I keep thinking a lawman got her
that's why they're covering up. That always in my mind," he said. Loud Hawk
is head of the traditional Tokala Society and one of the those who invited
the AIM group to come to Oglala.
It took 20 yers and the appointment of a Lakota as U.S. Marshall for South
Dakota before an efficient, through investigation began. It remains to be
seen if that investigation leads to a trial or more cover up by officials
who may fear at worst it will lead too close to the FBI or at least reveal
how poorly they handled the intitial investigations.
