The Death of Anna Mae Aquash

[Keith Millea]

Here is the first half of an interview with Antoinette Nora Claypoole.She is the author of the first book to be published about Anna Mae Aquash,"Who Would Unbraid Her Hair".I found it interesting that Antoinette was first turned on to American Indian Culture through Al Smith.I was involved in the local Indian community here through my ex wife who is Native American.Al Smith and his family were part of this local Native circle.

PS:I hit the maximize tab to get the full screen view.

http://www.heyokamagazine.com/HEYOKA.9.A...ypoole.htm



antoinette nora claypoole

John LeKay: How and why did you become interested in Indian country and when
did this interest first take place?

antoinette nora claypoole: Interesting question yet one which eludes me. Why? Because I never really "became interested" in Indian County. The phrase ecoming interested reminds me of something like "oh she became interested in pottery, so she took classes and bought a kiln". You see? So....Hmm....Maybe Indians just became interested in me, maybe that's what happened, hard to tell. . All I know is that a college friend was hanging out with an old Indian guy out west here, in Oregon. We all met, hung out in the same big old house together in Coos Bay, Oregon and Al Smith. He is a Klamath Modoc man, Smith his mission name who ended up taking the lawsuit against the U.S. gov't protecting Native American Church, peyote ceremony, as a religious right of all Indians. At the time he was a simple, random Indian guy my friend was living with, and.... well...... he talked alot about how Indian ceremonies were just made legal in 1978, Freedom of Religion Act, signed by Jimmy Carter, about a "pimpmobile" Al bought back in the late 1950's when feds showed up on his land in South eastern Oregon and were "buying Indians".

antoinette claypoole photo © Jaap Vanderplas

Offering 10 grand to each tribal person if they would sign away the rights to the reservation land. That was part of the big "last assimilation plan" of the 1950's. It happened all over the States at the time. But I didn't know ANY of this Indian history, and Al kept telling it like some kind of keeper of the legends, or something. FOr some reason he told us all this history and then one day said hey you want to go into lodge?
Hmm....what is a lodge anyway? So there we had many more sit out back in the pacific sun and wind and Al telling us what lodge is. Clean and sober for 3 days before going in. That was the part I remembered the most. It took me six months to go into ceremony with Al out on Seven Devils Road in Bandon, Oregon. My life flashed over me like a home movie, 8mm on white sheet hanging in gramma's front room. I saw things I didn't want to be doing, I saw things I wanted to become and heard things I would never repeat. When I came out of ceremony I asked Al what I could to thank him for sharing these ways, this ceremony with me. His answer? "Help my people. You have an education, you can write. WHen my people need help be there for us." Sounded simple enough. I said yes of course. A few years years later I was helping fight forced relocation of Dine (Navajo) grammas in Big Mountain, Az., camping in resistance with members of the American Indian Movement.

Another way to answer your question might be by quoting a once old Lakota friend and his endorsement to my book, historical fiction, about Big Mountain:"antoinette came from back East before the Freedom of Religion Act, before the changes for Indian Children in the Child Welfare System. Back in the 1970's. When she came to Oregon they were still arresting Indians in small towns. She started working on Indian rights when it was not popular to be Indian."
JL: At what point did you start writing about American Indians?


antoinette nora claypoole: Writing about Indians was never really my thing, my intention or passion. What WAS my drive, however, was writing about injustice in this world out of balance. My first small piece was written while I was a member of the SDS back in Indiana, Pa., in college. Then when I moved out west my first published piece--in a small bioregional paper--- was regarding the abuse of migrant farmworkers in the Rogue Valley, S. Oregon back in 1982.

About Indians? I have never written "about" Indians, but "for" their struggles,
reality and lives. In keeping my promise to Al Smith, to help when I could,
I wrote for various tribes and organized events regarding illegal and
genocidal tactics still being practiced by the U.S. gov't. Those writings
began in the 1980's. One of the first events i organized--wrote up various PR
pieces--was an event called "Apartheid in America". We radical and driven to
inform Southern Oregon and our bio region about various issues happening in
Indian Country which "mainstream" folks knew nothing about. This was of course before computers, when information about injustice and genocide in Indian Country was VERY difficult to disseminate. So. I Designed posters, wrote press, brought together Indian artists, poets, members of International Indian Treaty Council from San Francisco, had representatives of people helping David So Happy up north where fishing rights were being denied the tribes. So Happy he had been arrested for catching salmon. And we showed an old 8mm film about the murder of Anna Mae Aquash, "Bravehearted Woman" (now long out of circulation).

Anna Mae

This event was pulled together to try and bring focus and support to various Indian issues AND to support the struggle at Big Mountain, Az. Actually, my first published piece for Indians was one I wrote while in resistance at Big Mountain. The piece was my inside resistance camp article covering the first deadline for forced relocation, July 8, 1986, the event at which Ronald Reagan
had threatened to bring in the Nat'l Guard to destroy the lives and people of Big Mountain. The article was to bring attention to their struggle, the need for resistors, food, old CB radios an overall call for the cessation of military occupation of Indian land. That article ran in the "The Alliance"
out of Portland, Oregon.

JL: Was this around the time you wrote your book on Anna Mae and what inspired you to write that book? What triggered it exactly?

antoinette. nora claypoole: During the 1980's, Louise Benally, a young Dine' resistor to forced relocation at Big Mountain, decided to name the camp where we had all often lived in resistance--the land there near her family hogan--she decided to call the place "Camp Anna Mae". To this day that is the name for the land there. At the time I had only seen the old film I mentioned earlier, Brave Hearted Woman, and didn't know much at all about Annie Mae. So I asked Louise. And others there at camp, members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) who had known Anna Mae. I asked about what happened, who she was exactly and how they thought she was murdered.

My naiveté still astounds me. When I tell the story.

Actually believing her old friends would tell me things about her, her life and her execution. Of course no one said a thing to me about her. Just, "oh antoinette, she was a brave sister who helped with the movement. And the feds killed her". Well. Okay. That worked for me for a few years. But somewhere in the early 90's, after producing many of John Trudell's Northwest events, hanging out with him on tours and during poetry readings, something just got inside of me about Annie Mae. I started asking Trudell questions about her. I did an interview with him for one of our events in the Northwest here and I had asked him about being chairperson of AIM when Anna Mae was murdered. How that felt to him. How it sure looked like he was someone who might have been responsible for her death. Even though he was, back then, someone I called family and a friend, as a writer and journalist I had to ask the hard questions. His answers were about how Indians didn't have a hierarchy, that being an AIM leader didn't mean he had any real say as to what went down. In that interview he explained the intricacies of the movement at lengths. Reluctantly, but at length. Still. Triggered is a good word.
You asked what triggered this book. Even after and during talking with Trudell about all this. Something was pressing against me like heat before the desert winds of late summer. I asked more questions of more people and got less answers. It was becoming apparent, everywhere I went, that many people still believed--this was the early 90's-- she was a Federal Agent. An Indian turncoat. A woman who had betrayed her people. And even though Camp Anna Mae had her name, many of her old "friends" were still wondering about whether she was working for the government when she was murdered.

John Trudell

Anna Mae and her husband Nogeeshik Aquash

That kind of injustice is something that had always pressed me to write, create, and research. So. In looking to honor to Anna Mae's memory, to get the "story straight" I began the book project. It took 6 years of research, writing and random, scary expeditions. To bring to page an honoring for Anna Mae that could give the reader a sense of what was happening during the 1970's in Indian Country AND offer her a legacy other than silence or turncoat. For it was clear to me that she was not an agent and was set-up to look like one by the U.S. gov't.

What inspired me, then, to do that book you ask? A need, as a woman, to be certain Anna Mae's story was not lost. Was not buried with her somewhere east of dreams. That as a woman still alive I had a responsibility to present some history, sentiments, poetry and news articles that would help people seek their own truth about her commitment to the People. I wrote it for all the people everywhere who fight for "justice" and pay a price in this world out of balance. And for the next generation.

JL : How would you say this book was received by Indian country?


antoinette nora claypoole: There are many ways to tell a story. Even a story about how people tasted a story no one wanted to tell.

In the mid 1990's silence was the mantra of Indian Country about Annie Mae. How was my effort, my labor of poetic persistence, my ability to survive death threats which emerged as a result of the project, how was all that received? Hmm...this is probably best explained by those who reviewed it, those who read it then, read it now, and those who mark time as a cycle spiraling into infinity.

We are sometimes left with the remnants of what perception does to time. Still....there were many, many people in the movement who, back in the day, thanked me for having the courage to say what others wouldn't. And Anna Mae's family, most notably via her second cousin Bob Pictou-Branscombe, gave me a nod and thank you, without which the project would never have gone to print. At the time I actually never heard any complaints except that "all that poetry got in the way" and it was, according to one of her family members (a guy) " a girl's book". Hmm.....true that.

Who Would Unbraid Her Hair : the Legend of Annie Mae[URL="http://www.amazon.com/Who-Would-Unbraid-Her-Hair/dp/096738530X"]

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JL: How would you say your book differs from Steve Hendricks book about Anna Mae? That is, just from reading excerpts of your first book, about Anna Mae Aquash, I see that your vision, your art, like most art, is a form of healing. Through your truth and poetry. Do not see it as just laying out a legal argument in a deposition, or a summary proceeding as in some parts of the Steve Hendricks book. His book seems much more detached, removed. Colder. My sense is you have a much deeper connection here. A bond of another sort to these people. Like you really care about these people.

antoinette nora claypoole: hmm.... as I admittedly never read Hendricks book. I have no idea how he came at the topic, but you must remember mine was written earlier on, 1999, and it was one of the first efforts to speak her name in print and ask the hard questions. Perhaps Mr. Hendricks carried forward with that impulse in his presentation of facts, perhaps?

And yes John, there was an organic intention of healing which I imagined my art, this book, to be. I cared about all these people when I wrote the book. Cared very deeply. As the book was written before ANY indictments were handed down, any of my friends could be named as her murderer, any of HER friends. This is a very important piece to remember when reading the book. So yes. I DID care about what happened to all. John Trudell was family and friend in my life. HE was being fingered as her murderer. Others I knew and cared about were possible targets. And in the meantime there was still moccasin telegraph that she had worked for the Feds, which I never believed true.

In many ways, my desire to write Annie Mae's story was NOT so much that she was murdered but HOW she was being forgotten. as I said to you yesterday, as a woman living in a patriarchy I couldn't let that happen. We were all having a time of it, poetry, music, resistance gatherings, ceremonies, but she was dead. At the time I was writing the book I was deep inside Indian country, traveled w/Trudell, the kids, did ceremonies, it was a kind of charmed life. And I was aware that we were all ABLE to have these beautiful and intense experiences BECAUSE she was an activist and died trying to implement freedom of religion, for instance. Very important. The book was and still is a celebration of her LIFE, not her murder. and I was writing about it while celebrating my life. With some of the very same people she had known and loved.

JL: Didn't you get attacked for writing this book?
antoinette nora claypoole: No NOT AT ALL.... I did NOT get attacked for writing the book, though I was often warned by friends in the Movement to be careful, that the same thing that happened to Annie Mae could happen to me. That was while I was working on the project. Once it came into print, I / the book was honored. Attacks at me and my writing came about 4 years later when I covered the murder trial of Arlo Looking Cloud for Pacifica Radio. That is when the slander/libel against me began. After that, the book was not often mentioned much one way or the other.

Assimilation by antoinette nora claypoole

JL: How important were Anna Mae's efforts with gaining this freedom of Religion?

antoinette nora claypoole: As with so much of Indian History, many things changes during the 70's, many humane freedoms were finally reclaimed. All due to the actions and impulse of the American Indian Movement. Annie Mae was key figure in the movement, albeit near her end a controversial one. Still, she was involved in early AIM actions, was at the takeover of the BIA building in Washington, D.C. Was in resistance at the Siege of Wounded, was married there by the same man who I would later meet and have given to me healing ceremonies. Hers was a synergy which infused the movement, and it was her intent that her children, the next generation, could be proud to be Indian, be allowed to pray in the old ways, all ol it. So...in this way she was very much the matrix of change that would happen later for Indian People.

JL: Why did you get attacked for covering this Looking Cloud trial for Pacifica Radio?

Did you express a strong opinion of some sort? Listen to radio coverage here

antoinette nora claypoole: Hmm....I often wondered what happened, truly. Was totally blind sighted by the events, the death threats and random slander rants against me at that time.

It seems to me that the attacks came because I wasn't mantra chanting the party line.

That is, most everyone in Indian Country was glad to have the indictments against Looking Cloud and John Graham happening. They looked at it as some kind of "hurray, we get resolve". Many people looked at the arrests and trial, understandable, as a way to complete a painful chapter in Indian History--the murder of Annie Mae. But in my mind they had already tried, sentenced and executed (figuratively) these two men and I wasn't so convinced that a lynch mob was where I wanted to hang out. Mainly because I hadn't seen any evidence that convinced me they were her killers.

The entire case against them seemed to rely only on hearsay---he said she said he wanted
to say she was dead by what he said about....etc etc.

Vernon Bellecourt

So. When I covered the trial in Rapid City-- as a freelancer for KPFK, Los Angeles-- it was already known in Indian Country that I was NOT applauding the dog and pony show which was about to take front and center in our lives. My daily coverage of the trial DID include interviews with Russell Means, Vernon Bellecourt amongst others, an attempt to get varied perspectives out there. Have "opposing camps" represented. At the time Bellecourt was trying to help Graham and Looking Cloud, believed in their innocence.

Means was in another camp. My coverage attempted to give listeners a whole canvas of info. That in itself made it clear to those in Indian Country who once celebrated my work and efforts that I wasn't going into an unequivocal place of believing the murderers had "been found". It was and still is my role to keep people awake to asking themselves what they believe truth is and not be lead by any one dictate.

Did I express a strong opinion of some kind, you ask?
Perhaps it was simply that I made it clear that I did not necessarily believe the men indicted had actually killed Annie Mae.
" They might have, they may not have" was the matrix of my coverage and commentary.
Further, I explained I thought the government was simply putting AIM on trial, saying "this is what can happen to you if you join a radical movement" to the next generation of activists. Overall, at the time I made it clear that I wanted to see evidence, of which there was only hearsay. Not enough for me to jump into the mob mentality which was emerging.

This is really the only way I have ever been able to explain to myself why, out of the midday winter sky, this flare of toxic rants landed on my literary map.

JL : What are your thoughts on the upcoming John Graham trial and thoughts on Robert Robideau's views for example on Anna Mae?

antoinette nora claypoole: This case, these trials and hearings are all complex and stem from the denial by the Federal Gov't to own their role in sending in agents to AIM and making Annie Mae looking like a snitch, a turncoat. Everything else is what it is.

Complex. Creepy. Destructive. Divisive. Sad and despicable.

Still, overall, it is not my place to really say how this will play out and why. Anna Mae was murdered and will we ever know the truth about what went down? Perhaps not. There are people of course who differ with Robideau's perspective, but then there are people who differ with another and at different times they stop differing and agree. To differ again. As I say, It is complex and best left to those who were inside those last days of her life

John Graham

Robert Robideau

There are many stories are out there regarding the circumstances of her last few months in the Movement. For instance, I have always that it important for people to know that early on in my research (mid 1990's) I did speak with more than person who claimed to have seen and talked with Annie Mae over Christmas, 1975. That directly contradicts all the things said by the U. S. Attorney, Robideau and ALL who claim she was murdered on Dec. 12, 1975 by Graham and Looking Cloud, with Theda Clark also present. Simply stated, there were, before the indictments, people who put Annie Mae alive AFTER the supposed murder date. Even John Trudell in an interview around 2003 or 04 says she was murdered in January 1976. What does this mean? I can't tell you. I only know that a lot of people, including Bob Robideau, have done their best to try to bring resolve to this case. That also includes some of Graham's supporters who continue to try to find folks who can talk about their visits with Annie Mae at Christmastime, 12 days after she was supposedly executed.

So, you can see, there are varied stories about how true any of these indictments and testimonies are against Graham.

Simply, over the years I write and present info so people can make up their own minds about what they think truth is in all this. That has been my goal all along. And of course, to remember a woman who people had nearly forgotten.

JL: Who do you think killed her?

antoinette nora claypoole: Who killed Annie Mae is something known by the people who did it. Maybe this is the place where we get to listen to Annie Mae about what was happening right before she went underground, disappeared, and wouldn't be seen by many again. Here, from a letter Annie Mae wrote in jail, Vancouver, Wa. Nov. 1975...... an excerpt......

" ...I am writing to you from the Vancouver, Washington jail but will be transferred to South Dakota within the next day or so to face trial there. Monday, the 24th of November is the big day. Contact Rapid City and you can find out how I made out and where I will be sent (Ha, Ha) then write to me. Matheline--I gave my silver ring to our attorney "Beverly Axelrod" to give to you. You are to deliver it to John. She

^(here an arrow pointing to the name Beverly) went back to San Francisco where she lives but I gave her your number. My health is perfect, my moral and spirit are even more than perfect. I've become stronger than ever. Kamook and I are in the same cell and that's makes it worthwhile.

The whole incident happened because of informer A & B as the FBI refer to them in their report--which we saw yesterday--from the Seattle area--Informer A has informed on at least 100 incidents already and Informer B on 20 occasions. I hope the fuckers wake up some morning missing their jewels (depending on whether they're male or female) I'll have the lawyer send you the detailed report. I am going to drop my court appointed lawyer in Pierre and have my trial consolidated with Dino's and Nilak's. How did you like my new name? (Naguset Eask).It means Sun Woman. They asked my birthdate and I said In the Spring moon in the year 1945-They kinna thought I was obnoxious. What a redneck town we were arrested at--They thought Indians were reincarnated that nite (savage style of course)....... "

Anna Mae and Nogeeshik Aquash

This is from a handwritten letter which came to me from what I believe to reliable source. It circulates somewhat widely in Indian Country these days, and is something none of Annie Mae's family members has denied is her handwriting. It brings the idea of informants front and center and still makes me wonder if they still walk around us, threaded through the whole brutal story.

We can remember the story of her second husband, Nogeeshik Aquash. (1945-1989?) who died mysteriously after phoning his nephew with news "I figured out who killed Annie Mae". Nogeeshik was in a wheelchair, paraplegic. Spent everyday after her death searching for the answer. He was run off the road on one of his research missions. Terrible car accident, the wheelchair came after. Nogeeshik finally felt he had found his wife's killers he was found dead the next morning. A horrible fire in his home. Being parapglegic, he couldn't get out of the fire. So the story goes.

Who killed her? Maybe better asked, who gets killed trying to find out who wanted to kill her...."

Overall, there is the reality that those who really want the truth pay harshly, a sacrifice on the altar of seeking occurs. Was it Graham and Looking Cloud? I just can't say. For certain. One way or the other. The idea of informants still haunts me. And I only imagine resolve for those she loved and those who lost her love.