AMERICAN INDIAN: Reservation Murders: rebuttal to the FBI Report

Reservation Murders: rebuttal to the FBI Report

FBI REPORT:
RESMURS
REBUTTAL
{EXCERPTED FROM BLOOD OF THE LAND,
BY REX WEHLER AND OTHER SOURCES}

REBUTTAL: Buddy Lamont
The Government command post Red Arrow reached Wounded Knee Security by radio stating that they were honoring an agreed upon cease fire, but that their Roadblock-6 was "still receiving fire". Wounded Knee security answered that they were still taking almost continuous automatic weapon fire" from a hill near roadblock-6. Red Arrow answered: "Ten-four. A couple of our RBs [roadblocks] have reported firing and they don't know who is over in those positions. They report that it is being fired into Wounded Knee."

WOUNDED KNEE: "You're pretty sure we have a third party out there firing on us with automatic weapons?"
RED ARROW: " That's what it sounds like."

The vigilantes were in the hills with government issued automatic weapons, M-16s, firing on both government and Indian postions. {note: Janklow was with a group of vigilantes at this time}. The marshals began using M-79 gas grenades to clear the bunkers. Gas forced the two out gasping for breath..as he emerged, Buddy Lamont was hit with a burst of M-16 fire. Because of the heavy fire, medics were unable to reach him for three hours, at which time the government agreed to a cease fire and medics recovered his lifeless body. Buddy Lamont became the second fatality of Wounded Knee.

REBUTTAL: PEDRO BISSONETTE
Throughout the summer of 73 WKLO/DC were kept busy preparing hundreds of defense cases (11 people received felony convictions, 4 received misdemeanor..the rest were released) as a result of WKII. Pedro Bissonette's bail had been set at 150,000$. Lane, Lakota Attorney, Ramon Robideaux, and California attorney Marge Buckley had been barred from seeing their client. According to Buckley, she, Lane and Roubideaux were ordered to leave after being told "only court appointed attorneys could get in". The judge confirmed in a yelling match in the hallway that it had been his orders. While in jail, Pedro's court appointed attorney had brought to him the government's deal; if he agreed to turn state's evidence, to testify against AIM leaders on conspiracy charges stemming from Wounded Knee, he would be offered probation on his own charges. If he refused, he was looking at a 90 year sentence..
Bissonette refused the deal. The Wounded Knee legal defense staff began to make plans to call him to the stand to offer evidence that the government had conspired to solicit phony testimony in an attempt to frame Banks and Means. however, on Sep 6, the government brought further assault charges against Bissonette, based upon the testimony of a white man who claimed that the Indian leader had threatened him in a border bar in White Clay, NE..
Bissonette's bail was revoked and a bench warrant issued. He was described in the warrant as "armed and dangerous". He had been employed as a steel worker, but gave up this job in order to return to help his people. he had been one of the founders of the Oglala Sioux Civil Rights Organization which had sought the removal from office of Wilson and BIA superintendent Stanley Lyman.
"Pedro would come around here," recalls Matthew King, "after he got out of jail. I told him to be careful, not to drive alone. He said, 'I am not worried.' then they killed him; it was that Clifford." BIA policeman Joe Clifford shot Pedro Bissonette on October 17, reportedly with a 12 gauge shotgun. He reported the time of the shooting at 9:48 PM. Bissonette was pronounced dead on arrival at the Pine Ridge Public health Service Hospital at 10:10 PM, from multiple gunshot wounds in the chest. Clifford was Pedro's brother in law and working for Wilson.
Pedro was the most important defense witness at the upcoming trials. According to Lane, his examination of the body on the evening of the shooting revealed seven bullet holes in a remarkably small pattern (3 to five inches) in his chest, apparently fired by a .38 caliber pistol... Lane also reported a surface wound to the neck, three bullet wounds in his hand, various body bruises and tear gas burns. Though Lane and the family demanded that his body be brought to Rapid City for an autopsy, the BIA police chief Delmar Eastman arranged for the removal of the body to Scottsbluff, NE.
Eastman later told the Rapid City Journal that he had defied the families
instructions on direct orders of William Clayton, a Justice Department US Attorney in Sioux Falls...the removal taking place some time between midnight and 3AM.
The original report of Clifford was also challenged by a witness who reported a pool of blood at 9:00 PM about 45 feet from where the auto was parked.
MORE....

REBUTTAL: Jancita Eagle Deer
In October 1974 Janklow ran for South Dakota Attorney General against his boss, incumbent Kermit Sande. His campaign platform to "bring law and order" in the face of "AIM lawlessness". Sande attacked Janklow with juvenile charges brought before juvenile court in 1955 for alleged rape of a 17 year old girl. Janklow stated it "wasn't rape" but preliminary to "that sort of thing".
Then on October 16, AIM leader Dennis Banks publicly accused Janklow of another rape charge. According to Banks, in 1966 Janklow, working for the office of Economic Opportunity on the Rosebud Reservation, had been accused of rape by 15 year old Jancita Eagle Deer, the Janklow family babysitter. Eagle Deer alleged that Janklow had raped her at gunpoint while giving her a ride home.
Janklow accused Banks of a "smear campaign", Ken Tilsen felt further documentation necessary. Chief Justice Mario Gonzales, however, convinced there was sufficient evidence for disbarment initiated proceedings in Rosebud Tribal Court where Janklow was still licensed to practice law. Neither Janklow nor his attorney appeared on October 31. The court had subpoenaed BIA documents from the bureau's investigation of the incident. However, on the day before the hearing , BIA Acting Area Director Harley Zephier sent a telegram to Acting Agency Special Officer Norman Beare, ordering him not to deliver the documents to the court. The telegram read:

" Be advised that 68 I.A.M.5.6 reads as follows,'All reports listed above will be marked US Government use only.' Thus limiting access to such reports to appropriate officials. Furnishing of case reports to other than appropriate federal officials must be cleared prior to release with the US District Attorney. You are directed by Judge Mario Gonzales and respectively decline to produce the records on the grounds that the production is prohibited and are considered of a confidential nature."

Judge Gonazles whereupon found allegations properly founded...and Janklow disbarred.
Judicial Opinion, CIV NO. 74-2840 from the Rosebud Tribal court

Jancita Eagle Deer was found dead less than four months later.

Frank Clearwater...Eyewitness Account
Written by Carter Camp, Wounded Knee veteran
Ah-Ho My Relations,
The pig is trying to justify the unjustifiable. What is most insulting to those of us who survived the FBI reign-of-terror, is that these sick foreigners think they can dismiss the deaths of a person, a relation, with a mere sentence in their almighty legalese. They dare set their conquerors foot upon the homeland and attempt to wash their hands of the blood of fallen martyrs of the People. What did they say about Frank Clearwater? That he was killed in a shootout or that somehow his murder was justified? The truth is that the Cherokee patriot, Frank Clearwater, was murdered by indiscriminate FBI gunfire into a church in the community of Wounded Knee. Of the thousands of high-powered rifle slugs the FBI was raining down upon the families of Wounded Knee, one burst through the wall of the church and tore into the back of a resting Frank Clearwaters' head. When he fell, his comrades tried to carry him down to the medic hooch, Strawberry held in place a big square of Frank Clearwaters skull while Lance, Blackhorse, Tiger and several others carried his stretcher through a hail of FBI gunfire dispite their white flag. They stopped at the big church while I tried franticly to get the FBI to cease firing at the strecherbearers, the FBI continued firing, there was no time, the warriors once again carried his stretcher while cowardly FBI snipers dotted the ground with their full metal jackets. Over the radio I was using, I could hear the cheers of those who shot Frank Clearwater, echoing down the ravine of the 1890 massacre, I ran outside to relieve the carriers and put my hand in place of Strawberrys hand, we were holding the brain of Frank Clearwater in his head as we stumbled into the medics rooms, we wanted to save him but he slipped away from us.
That is how Frank Clearwater died, that is how the FBI killed him, they didn't know him, they were shooting at the COMMUNITY! They wanted to kill the community because we were a community who dared challenge FBI power over our people. And that is also how the FBI murdered so many of us, they used others to carry out the dirtiest of their work so they could put out their three sentences of denial as they attempt to deny the undenyable to the families of those they murdered. They hate our people so much they think we're stupid so they come among us with a few sentences, satisfied that we'll swallow it all because the 'great whitefella' says it's true. Hell no! We don't want two sentences. Release ALL the files, release everything, name the killers. Then we'll talk about clemency for some FBI agents after they spend twenty-three years in a cage.
Here is what we must remember my relations; their far too late, far too little, attempt to justify themselves is not being done out of concern for NDN people or a desire for justice. The FBI has a burning desire to keep at least ONE leader of the resistance in a cage. They need Leonard Peltier in a cage as a warning to all Red Nations that resistance will not be tolerated. Just like their sudden concern for my sister Anna Mae during Peltier month, the pig is saying these things now to counteract the rightous demands of the Nations to free Leonard Peltier. They intend to keep up their anti-NDN, anti-AIM tirades in a racist panic to stop true justice from being done in Peltiers case. The world is crying out for freedom and justice for Leonard Peltier, the FBI is scared, the truth is coming out and they know the truth will free our People.
Stay strong in the struggle my relations, we win by being,
Carter Camp

Martin Montileaux background
On February 27 wounded Knee lawyers - roger Finzel from SD, Martha Copleman from NJ, and William Rossmore from CT - flew into Pine Ridge airport in a private plane piloted by Rossmore.. they were accompanied by legal aides Eva Gordon and Keith james. they left the plane and spent several hours driving throughout the reservation interviewing witnesses in relation to their client Bernard Escamilla, 28, who was facing stiff charges resulting from the wounded Knee occupation. when the lawyers and aides returned to the plane they found it riddled with bullets. they unloaded the plane and packed their car in preparation for the one hour drive to Rapid City. however, before they could leave, fifteen cars sped into the parking lot, surrounded them, and goon squad gunmen jumped out, holding them at shotgun point. the five investigators and Escamilla locked themselves into the car, but the goons slashed open the convertible roof and smashed the windows.
     According to a statement which the six people filed with police and the press, Dickie Wilson himself appeared at the side of the car. Referring to Finzel, one of the goons asked Wilson:"What do you want us to do with him, dick?" Wilson's reply, as told by the lawyers and reported in the Rapid City Journal { Rapid City Journal, February 28, 1975} the next day, was :"I want you ...to stomp 'em."
    According to the lawyers' statement: "Occupants were pulled from the car an stomped, kicked, and pummeled to the ground. Others took turns stomping and kicking, while one goon slashed out at Finzel's face with a knife, cutting his hair and Eva Gordon's hand as she attempted to shield him." Escamilla was the most severely beaten; he spent two days in a Rapid City hospital, Finzel, Rossmore, and Gordon were treated for multiple concussions and released.

    The Associated Press version of the story quoted on wilson and BIA administrative manager Wayne Adkinson. Wilson said: "What I can gather mostly through rumor, is that it was a group of AIM people led by Russell Means. They shot at the airplane and also at two of our vehicles and then headed east." Adkinson's contribution to the AP story was that "since we have no data, we can't assign the blame to anyone." { Rapid City Journal, February 28, 1975} Both US Attorney William Clayton and the FBI were notified of the incident by the six victims who identified the assailants. There were no arrests.

North of the Pine Ridge on Highway 44, just across the reservation line, sits the small town of Scenic, SD. Scenic consists of a general store selling auto parts and Indian jewelry to tourists, and a bar. the Longhorn bar services local ranchers and reservation Indians. The floors are covered with a thick layer of sawdust; horns and skulls of cattle hang on the wall with trinkets and cowboy memorabilia. At the end of the bar is a small men's bathroom. There in that bathroom on the evening of Mar 1, 1975 Martin Montileaux was shot by a hidden assailant; he died six days later.
Montileaux had lived in Kyle, on the reservation. Some traditionals suspected him of having worked with Wilson and with the FBI. Before he died he described his assailant in a taped interview with Pennington county Deputy sheriff Don Phillips. He told Phillips that the man who shot him was hiding in the bathroom and that he had been shot as he entered. The "killer had "shaggy hair", and wore a "green coat". AIM leaders Russell Means and Richard Marshall, 24, an officer in the pro-traditionalist Pine Ridge Committee for Better Tribal Government, were arrested in the early hours of March 2, and charged with killing Montileaux. On March 3, the FBI issued a "Predication for Investigation of Members and Supporters of AIM."
The FBI memo, issued from Washington, DC stated that, "This investigation is based on information which indicate the subject is engaged in activities which could involve a violation of title 19, US Code Section 2383 (Rebellion or Insurrection) or 2384 (Seditious Conspiracy)...AIM has been actively involved in demonstrations and violent confrontation with local authorities...." Wounded Knee lawyers reported that at least 20 AIM leaders throughout the country were arrested within 24 hours, some of them supposedly in connection with the Montileaux slaying.
pp.172-74

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