The Unquiet Grave begins with the 1976 discovery of a
body in the South Dakota Badlands. She was Anna Mae Aquash, an American Indian
Movement (AIM) activist. She was executed by fellow AIM activists, allegedly on
orders from the organization’s leadership, because she was falsely believed to
be an informer for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The rest of the
book describes how AIM, an ardent Civil Rights entity, arrived at a place where
it could order and carry-out this murder and several other acts of violence.
The author, freelance investigative journalist Steve
Hendricks, is well-versed in the historical and current injustices against
Native Americans. Throughout his narrative, readers see ample illustration of betrayal
and genocide directed against the original population of North America, along
with the poverty of modern reservation life. Hendricks makes no secret of his
sympathy for the Civil Rights goals of AIM. But he follows the evidence where
it leads. Though Hendricks does not absolve AIM of violent, criminal behavior,
he presents the FBI as an intentional contributor to AIM’s descent.
During the 1970s, the goal of the FBI regarding political
movements was to quell what they saw as insurrection. In doing so, they
frequently violated the constitutional rights of citizens seeking social
justice. Most of the book’s activity occurs in the vicinity of the Pine Ridge
Reservation. There, Hendricks offers a portrait where repressive forces are
aligned against AIM: Tribal President, Dick Wilson, is a corrupt leader who
creates a “goon squad” that terrorizes residents. He sees AIM as competition
for leadership on the Reservation, which results in violence between supporters
of Wilson and supporters of AIM. The Bureau of Indian Affairs Police, charged
with maintaining order, viewed AIM as a disruptive influence. The FBI used both
Wilson’s gang and the local police to dismantle AIM. They colluded with Wilson
by refusing to prosecute his employees when they injured or murdered AIM
supporters, but arrested AIM activists who retaliated. Several instances of FBI
agents directly threatening the lives of Native American rights activists are
recounted. In addition, the FBI planted agents provocateurs within the Native Rights
organization. These individuals disrupted AIM by agitating for greater
violence, accusing innocent people of being FBI snitches, and performing
actions that would cause residents and Wilson gang members to despise AIM.
The environment was clearly one of suffocating repression,
paranoia and violence. Still, AIM could have made different choices. When AIM
activists (Leonard Peltier, Dino Butler and Bob Robideau) had a shoot-out with
FBI agents, they did not have to walk several hundred feet down a hill to
execute the two wounded agents who were begging for their lives. When AIM
thought that Aquash was an informer, they did not have to murder her. In fact,
AIM did not have to be at Pine Ridge Reservation at all. They were, and still
are, a national organization. There were numerous reservations throughout the
country, without oppositional goon squads; reservations where the vast majority
of residents and leaders were in alignment with AIM’s program. The FBI would
have had fewer allies among the populace. Activists could have remained focused
more upon their pursuit of justice, rather than defending themselves against
violence. In effect, AIM members sat in one end of a canoe, rowing in one
direction, while Dick Wilson and his gang sat in the other end rowing in the
opposite direction.
Some apologists for AIM have said that “the stratum of
Indian Country from which AIM sprang was too angry, too ‘ghetto,’ in the words
that AIMers often used, to answer the provocations of the FBI by turning the
other cheek” (Hendricks, p. 360). But that is a racist argument: it requires a
belief that the cultures of “Indian Country” are inferior, in both morals and
intellect, to other cultures who also faced oppression and whose movements for
justice did not become paramilitary. While one cannot always control one’s circumstances,
one can control how one responds to them.
Hendricks’ conclusion is a balanced assessment of
accountability. He begins by writing “Aquash was murdered because the
government of the United States waged an officially sanctioned, covert war on
the country’s foremost movement for Indian rights” (Hendricks, p. 360). He
finishes that paragraph by writing “AIM leaders” were “criminal not merely in
the legal sense but in their betrayal of the thousands of their race who had
entrusted their hopes to AIM. When AIM’s leaders killed Aquash, they killed
their own movement as surely as the FBI did” (Hendricks, p. 361).
The Unquiet Grave is a warning to Civil Rights
organizations to remain steadfast about their goals while facing both covert
and overt opposition. It is also another reminder to the citizens of the United
States that they cannot uncritically trust the FBI; and to citizens of all nations
that they cannot uncritically trust their governments. Hendricks’ thorough, carefully
researched inquiry, is an engrossing read with much to say about politics and
abdicating responsibility.
Hendricks, Steve. The Unquiet Grave. The FBI and the
Struggle for the Soul of Indian Country. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press,
2006.
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