Ojibwa Warrior: Dennis Banks and the Rise of the American Indian Movement by Dennis Banks

Author:Dennis Banks [Banks, Dennis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780806183305
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
Published: 2011-11-27T23:00:00+00:00

The people the Feds called “friendlies” — the goons and vigilantes—caused a lot of trouble. Both had set up their own roadblocks. The Feds ordered them to remove the obstructions, but without much success. Whenever things were quiet or the government and our people seemed close to an agreement, either the goons or the vigilantes began firing, trying to imply that we were shooting at the Feds and that the Feds were shooting at us. We knew they intentionally stirred up trouble and provoked firefights.

On March 7, the government’s ultimatum was still in force — “Get out or else!” Our warriors put on face paint. Crow Dog daubed red circles on their foreheads and blessed each man. Then for the first time we heard an ominous sound—the Feds opened up with a .50-caliber machine gun. The .50-caliber was a fearful weapon; a few rounds could knock a wall down. Firefights broke out all through the day, but suddenly, late in the day, we called a new cease-fire. It was quickly broken when shooting began again.

On March 9, a woman was hurt by flying glass when rapid fire caused havoc in the part of the trading post where she was staying. The Feds began shooting tear gas into some of the bunkers. As one of the Feds boasted to a newsman, “We want to flush them out in order to make them into better targets.” By that time, the ranks of the Feds had swollen to four hundred.

On March 10, John Adams, a sympathetic Methodist clergyman connected with the National Council of Churches informed me that he had brokered an agreement. The roadblocks would be coming down, and the media and whoever else wanted to could simply walk in. As we watched through our binoculars, it seemed as though the Feds were giving up their positions. A government spokesman announced, “We will not move on Wounded Knee tonight. The Justice Department will make every effort to arrive at a peaceful conclusion to the tense and dangerous situation.” I should have been tipped off by the fact that he added, “but we must enforce the law and that we will do.” I was happy. I was fooled, however. I thought we had won and so I declared victory. I thought, from what the Methodist clergyman had told me, that Washington was going to accept our demands.

There was drumming, singing, and cheering. More than a hundred of our people left and went home, while many new warriors, including chiefs and elders, joined us. But victory did not go smoothly. During the night vigilantes snuck in and set fire to the trading post. The fire was discovered and quickly extinguished. Just as it was now easy for friends to come in, it was also easy for enemies. We were forced to send out patrols and to put our roadblocks back up again.

The Oglala chiefs and headmen talked things over in the Peace Tipi and declared that, from that moment on, they would negotiate with the United States as one nation to another nation.

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