"Go to Wounded Knee ... "
In response to recent excesses of government corruption, on February 28, 1973, members of the
American Indian Movement, with their allies and supporters, including Fools Crow, seized and occupied the village of
Wounded Knee. It was here, in 1890, that the followers of
Spotted Elk, another, earlier traditional leader, had been massacred by the
United States Army's
7th Cavalry Regiment. Two weeks before that,
Sitting Bull himself had been killed, by police acting at the behest of these new rulers. Thus had begun the relentless suppression of the Lakota nation: their institutions, the religion, and even the language. Each decade since that "time of great melancholy", when hopes for sovereignty had "died in bloody snow", brought renewed demands for more Lakota land, always in violation of
treaty agreements.
Dick Wilson had become chairman of the
Pine Ridge Reservation in 1972. A heavy–drinking bootlegger known for corruption, he favored giving up more Lakota land, even the
Pahá Sápa itself. He soon used federal government funds to create
his own private vigilante "
goon squad", with which to terrorize his adversaries. Those who opposed Wilson and his regime formed the "Oglala Sioux Civil Rights Organization", led by
Pedro Bissonette, and worked to impeach him. One petition to impeach Wilson contained more signatures than the number of people who had originally voted for him. Wilson postponed impeachment hearings which were scheduled for February 14. Immediately thereafter, federal forces moved into the area, including a counter–insurgency "Special Operations Group", which set up and manned sand–bagged machine gun positions at the
BIA building. On February 23, thus reinforced and without a proper tribal council quorum, Wilson was "exonerated" and quickly banned "all public meetings and demonstrations" on the reservation. On the evening leading up to the occupation, the leaders of
AIM met with the traditional Oglala elders and leaders to discuss what to do next. As senior elder, Fools Crow spoke to the young leaders in his native
Lakota language (he never spoke English in public) and said to them, "Go ahead and do it, go to
Wounded Knee. You can't get in the BIA office and the tribal office, so take your brothers from the American Indian Movement and go to Wounded Knee and
make your stand there." On the list of demands presented to the
Justice Department, Fools Crow was listed along with other chiefs and medicine men as supporters of the movement. After the occupiers declared themselves to be the "Independent Oglala Nation", Fools Crow traveled with Matthew King, his interpreter, and
Russell Means to the
United Nations to make a speech. Though no official transcript of this speech remains, there is no doubt to its significance. The occupation lasted for 71 days, until an agreement was reached between federal officials and a Lakota delegation, which included Fools Crow.
Hank Adams, the personal representative of the President, arrived with an agreement to the proposal that the chiefs had sent to the White House on May 3. Adams met Fools Crow and a hundred others near a fence around the property. Adams handed a letter through a barbed-wire fence to Fools Crow, who was wearing the traditional attire of buckskin and a headdress. The letter appealed for the occupation of the village to come to an end. Fools Crow and the other leaders accepted the proposal, which stated that the White House would send representatives to Pine Ridge to discuss a treaty in the third week of May and would "get tough" on Dick Wilson, the unscrupulous chairman of the reservation. Fools Crow and the other chiefs delivered the letter to the AIM leaders and told them that he believed that it was time to end it. After the murder of
Frank Clearwater at Wounded Knee, and because the U.S. government would not allow his body to be buried there, his wife agreed to bury him on
Leonard Crow Dog's property on the
Rosebud Indian Reservation, and had the
wake at Fools Crow's house, where the body was placed in a
tipi and covered with a blanket for mourners to come to pay their respect. In an article in
The New York Times on May 8, 1973, the negotiations were said to have taken place at Fools Crow's house around the third week of May. In an interview, Dick Wilson said, "My people know that Fools Crow is a zero," plainly showing that he had no respect for the traditions that Fools Crow stood for. In Washington, D.C., on May 17, The Oglalas had their promised White House meeting, and Fools Crow was present. Of the five promised White House aides, two were there. Fools Crow was told that the historic treaties were dead. Fools Crow spoke at a congressional hearing on June 16 and 17, 1973, following the conclusion of the Wounded Knee occupation; he only spoke Lakota, as was his way, and used an interpreter, Matthew King, to translate for him. He gave his reasons for the occupation, the main reason being the removal of Dick Wilson. Senator
George McGovern said that he would try to remove Wilson, but was not sure if he had the power to do so. Fools Crow asserted that McGovern had promised earlier to remove Dick Wilson, yet the violence continued. ==Prayer before the United States Senate==