written by antoinette nora claypoole

history/Anna Mae letters


“Like Gold in those Black Hills”  

Another Indictment in old AIM/Aquash murder: Graham trial date still uncertain

Sept. 11, 2009. A First Nations man is fasting in Washington D.C. to bring to light the continued persistence of “Native Americans” to gain “justice”—personified in the decades long  case of Anishanabe political prisoner, Leonard Peltier. Ben Carnes. The man hoping to bring a dialogue of oppression into discussion with the Obama administration spends most of his time in the fight. One way or the other. This week has been more intense, and no different for him. Seeking truth in the choked mist. Health care smokescreens. That’s another story.

Ben Carnes explains, in response to recent denial of Peltier parole. And the reason he takes his life passages to the White House lawn: “We’ve been saying that we wanted to start a prairie fire of outrage to the Oval Office of the White House for Peltier, and now we have cause. Leonard Peltier should not have to spend one more birthday in prison for something the government admits they cannot prove.”

And Carnes isn’t alone. People around the world, from the Polish to WTO veterans of Seattle.  Came together.  This past week to ask for Peltier clemency.  And begin a campaign to Obama and his "czars". 

 
from "Open Fire" by Judy Gumbo Albert
the FBI agents shot at Oglala 1975
People who have followed the events of the American Indian Movement (AIM) with whom Peltier was a member and key security figure back in the early 1970’s, know how all this goes. Nothing is an accident. The fact that while Carnes was fasting, praying in Washington D.C. another old AIM member—Thelma Rios -- was indicted and sent to prison in Rapid City, S.D. is just no coincidence.  Rios was a member of AIM and the "pie patrol" who attacked and threatended Anna Mae Aquash in the summer/fall of 1975 (from an interview with Vernon Bellecourt). 

Back in the day. Rios  was also married to David Hill, former Nat'l Spokesperson for Leonard Peltier Defense Committee for many years.  Hill has been, over the years, named as Annie Mae's killer and called a "fed" by Rios and others in old AIM. But now passed away old friend  of Hill's --Robert Robideau--always trusted Hill.  "He's a good guy.  He's my friend and the name calling isn't true"  Robideau explained to me.  A couple summers back.  When the air was smacking of who's next on the list.  I can still feel Bob's adamance. 

So. Here  we are now. Three members of old AIM being held in Pennington County Jail, South Dakota for the murder of Anna Mae Pictou Aquash (1945-1975/6). A murder which was never much mentioned--some in Indian Country feel--until certain people  started getting information. About FBI complicity in her killing. But the FBI implications just never come up. Except in the Hill finger pointing. Which only ever serves to trivialize the brutal killing of Anna Mae.  


On Sept. 10th, 2009 John Graham, a Canadian citizen and member of the S. Tutchone tribe of the Yukon Territory was indicted, with Rios,  for the Aquash murder.  This time by the State of South Dakota. Graham says he never did it. His is a complex case of fighting and losing extradition hearings, release from sentencing, reindictments, 8th Circuit Court rulings, overall. The U.S. Attorney is committed to being certain he never leaves jail. Aquash’s family, and others are grateful for this persistence. And. The death sentence. Which isn’t an option, would be welcome. The only hope is push for a life sentence. Many not interested in a mere old AIM penance. 

No death for Graham, were he found guilty, was one of the only stipulations which Canada placed on their extradition of Graham back in 2007, after a long fought battle by he and his supporters. Would the Canadian government have extradited him if they had realized that U.S. Federal Courts, the folks soliciting Graham’s extradition, would have their jurisdiction challenged by laws.  Created when the black hills were first considered "pay dirt". 

A crime committed on an Indian "Reservation" is under federal law IF the people committing the crime are American Indian.  This old law has created a complexing set of rulings for Graham, because both Aquash and Graham were/are not Americans.  Tribal or not.  Canadian citizenry makes U.S. Federal rule less than solid.  A muddy slide over boundaries off the map.  Have slapped attornies and judges alike.  In this case. Strung together with the old mainfest destiny the laws just weren't clear.  This, the short version  of the complexities  can be augmented by viewing the mountains of papers filed in court docket.  Found at the Graham defense website.  In the end U.S. Attorney Jackley was forced by rulings laid out by a Judge Piersol in South Dakota and upheld by the 8th Circuit Court in July, 2009.

Would Canada have handed Graham over, had they known all  this?  Hard to say.

But. When  prosecution Jackley became aware that his case against Graham in Federal Court would be challenged and dominated by Jackley “proving”—per 8th Circuit ruling-- that Graham IS an Indian per American standards, the prosecution was relentless. They did what many, including Graham’s own attorney John Murphy expected. They pursued an indictment of John Graham in State Court.

Those indictments were handed down. And another member of AIM is in the stew. In a easy segue, U.S. Attorney Marty Jackley, Graham’s original Federal Prosecutor will try the case against Graham.

But how does that work?

Jackley was, “coincidentally”, sworn in just last week as the State of South Dakota’s “new” Attorney General. So he now has jurisdiction over all the Aquash cases on record. There are, apparently, laws which allow for prosecutors to work for both state and federal agencies and the prosecution has heralded these new indictments against Graham –which include the long speculated “rape” of Annie Mae Aquash--- as “...a cooperative effort that involves federal, state and local prosecutors to ultimately do what's right.”

The entire series of events in the pursuit of “who killed Annie Mae” is not a surprise. To most in Indian Country. Co-operation is not an operative word in the world of Indians in court. 

Graham explained in an interview I did with him back in 2004 that he was visited by Federal Agents who demanded he “name names of old AIM leaders, including John Trudell” who killed Annie Mae. Or, according to Graham, he himself would be indicted. That part came true as Graham refused to do something he said he knew nothing about. 

However. In 2004 Arlo Looking Cloud was convicted of her murder (hear audio clip from  trial coverage). No surprise. This is the Looking Cloud, who this writer reported--per close source--as being expected “to turn witness AGAINST Graham” in the upcoming trials --a fact refuted by some in Indian County but nonetheless recently verified by the prosecution. Further, in 2004 the U.S. Attorney’s office in Rapid City confirmed to this writer that in fact “we have other indictments in a drawer, ready to hand out”. Based on statements made in the series of Grand Juries that continued up through this summer.

Now. That another old AIM member is indicted while Ben Carnes is asking for Peltier’s clemency. Is no surprise. It attempts to solidify and rationalize the recent denial of parole for Peltier.

Peltier and Aquash were part of the old AIM movement which succeeded in establishing the Indian Child Welfare Reform Act of 1978 (which made it illegal for Christian organizations to take Indian babies from their parents), and forced the hand of Pres. Jimmy Carter to sign the Freedom of Religion Act, establishing legal protection for First Nations people to pray in their own ways without threat of arrest. Only about 200 years overdue. Old AIM accomplished these kinds of human rights for First Nations. 




And they were targeted by the FBI as “terrorists”, were infiltrated by informants (see Annie Mae's discovery on this--her letter from jail, 1975)  and became members of the FBI’s most wanted list. The FBI files released in recent FOIA law suits prove this as fact.   AIM continues to be on trial.

For John Graham it is a matter of when. Not if any more. His options were narrowed by the recent events.





As Washington D.C. is busy planning a mandate for health insurance “like car insurance” a mandate for all “working citizens” to pay big daddies for corporate drug company western medicine. The lives of the First Nations of this country continue to illuminate. What a government does to it’s people. From the words of that old Jackson Browne song we used to rant on the way to fight genocide of the Dine at Big Mountain, Az. 1986. Yes. A government lies to it’s people. The First Nations know this well. The rest of the country is just discovering that fact. Like gold in the Black Hills. The reason for the Wounded Knee massacre. Lies and greed . Killing. Wrecklessly. Movements and their members defy the truth of the lies time defies.

The date for Graham and Rios trial is still uncertain. 



















  "assimilation"  photo  by a. nora claypoole

And the man behind the curtain always gets what he requests.

written by antoinette nora claypoole

BIO things...

Peltier denied parole, John Graham Oct. 6 trial delay expected



Bloody Mr. X

by antoinette nora claypoole











photo of John Trudell at Peltier Rally, circa 1980; donated by Robert Robideau



“Mr. Peltier emphasized that the shootout occurred in circumstances where there literally was a war going on between corrupt tribal leaders, supported by the government, on the one hand, and Native American traditionalists and young activists on the other. He again denied -- as he as always denied -- that he intended the deaths of anyone or that he fired the fatal shots that killed the two agents, and he reminded the hearing officer that one of his former co-defendants recently admitted to having fired the fatal shots, himself.“

Eric Seitz ~ Leonard Peltier Attorney ~ Response on Parole Denial
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:42:10 -0700 (PDT)


Aug. 21, 2009. Today the fallout from the brown smog of an over populated desire for more took hold, once again, in Indian Country. Where it is apparent that new presidents and claims of progressive perspectives are mere opiates for the masses, much as Emma Goldman explained a century ago when she was deported for claiming birth control for women was civil right. At the time women were denied a right to decide what happened to our own bodies. Once I explained to a Taos Pueblo guy that I understood Indians a whole lot because the United States did to me, as a woman--did to my mother and grandmother as women-- the same things they have always done to Indians. Challenge our capacity for legitimacy and lock us up, in one way or another, if we can’t become part of the white man’s game.

And skin color has nothing to do with it. For as we see, a President of color can act like a white man very easily and a white chick can in fact develope compassionate logic for revolution.

But what does this all have to do with Leonard Peltier, a member of AIM who was yet again denied paroled today, Aug. 21, 2009, his next parole hearing scheduled for 2024, when he will be 79. His cousin Bob Robideau didn’t live that long—we lost him this past Feb.—so there is little chance parole hearings make any sense in the twisted fates of Indians. Peltier is a symbol of all that is wrong with America. And all that America loathes. A reminder that no amends have been made for massacres. That the destiny of this nation is doomed with or without a congressional medal of honor going to a survivor of Indian wars in the “old West”. There's always a Custer to eulogize. (recent Obama gesture to Joe Medicine Crow-High Bird: The last living Plains Indian war chief CNN Aug. 12, 09 ).

That is, Peltier represents the need for America to suffocate it’s history, to strangle it’s memory, to cut out the heart of a dream and feed it to machinery designed to banish life. "

There is no one for me to interview on this. Whole mess. But come with me anyway. My old friends are either dead or think I am a fed while others promise to google my name a bazillion times to prove that I’m alive. For the history of old AIM is not yet slain.

And. Peltier’s denial of parole falls on the skirt tails of the upcoming John Graham trial. I purposely don’t mention Graham’s “co-defendent” because in my mind smoke and mirrors are so outmoded and “Dick” Marshall has his own haunted house to clean. So. Back to Graham. Graham is intrinsically entwined with Peltier, whether Graham imagines this or is told by his attornies Kamook Banks, in her creepy testimony-- which I witnessed from the front row of the Looking Cloud dog and pony show -- blamed in her all her glory. Blamed Leonard Peltier for the murder of Annie Mae. Whilst being coached, according to courtroom rumours at the time, by John Trudell. Who then proceeded to name John Graham as the person who executed a woman some say was his lover. Strange how no one ever says that part out loud.

Who killed Annie Mae?

Consider. Peltier was on the lamb, Robideau in jail and ashes ashes we all fall down. But wait. Now Peltier goes in front of the parole board in July 09 and reminds them that his dead cousin (how did he really die?) co-defendent Robideau might had confessed to killing the agents Peltier is accused of slaying. I believe Peltier. Most of us do. I knew Vernon Bellecourt, Dave Chief (original member of Elder Council for Leonard), Robideau and all of them might have something to say about this parole denial. THis upcoming trial. But they are all dead. So where do we go from here.

"The government has gone to great lengths to keep the truth from coming out." About all these things. Peltier. Annie Mae. John Trudell words from a 2003 interview (click here).


There IS John Trudell, there is Dennis Banks, there is Russell Means. None of these guys are anyone who I have interviewed lately (Banks not ever), though Trudell came close to sharing alot with me at one point. Indeed. Back when I wrote my tribute for Annie Mae, back in the 90’s. When what he gained. Was my help in staging his “Bad Dog” shows. And then some. He was cryptic with me, as us poets are. He was alarmed at so much talk about Annie Mae. He was curious about her cousin and mostly what I remember. Are his eyes shifting from corner to corner of a dimly lit backstage hall. Those dark glasses...still. The darting eye thing was more about whether to wear a bullet proof vest or go on stage bare chested. So when Graham was arrested it made sense. Didn’t it. Someone had to be nabbed. Why not the guy who drove Annie Mae up north. Instead of the leaders of AIM.

Trudell never talked about Graham to me.

But Graham spoke of Trudell when I went up to Canada and covered Graham’s extradition hearings for Pacifica Radio. Back in 2005. Graham wanted to know why Trudell betrayed him. Pacing around over coffee at an old Vancouver B.C diner. Angry, searching. I had no answers for him. His people wanted more from me. And I didn’t have it to give. That’s when they started the whole “she’s a mole thing” up there. Lordie. Couldn’t escape their fears. The place where spirits are eaten.

Annie Mae wanted to know why most everyone she loved betrayed her. Graham said he helped Trudell and Dino Butler, took care of them up in Canada. When the heat was intense somewhere back in the early 80’s. But like Angelina Jolie in her Mrs. Smith flick. Like Ms. Jolie, producer of Trudell’s Blue Indians, the only question left for Graham is “who’s your daddy now?”

Trudell will most likely testify against Graham on October 6 in Rapid City. Unless the prosecution appeals and delays the trial, yet again, as is expected (see update here). Injust as it is. Peltier may grow old in Pennsylvania. Like my people have. Banks will continue to do the mum is the word thang. And Annie Mae, she loved them all. Only to die brutally with a hole inside her heart. Where a dream was supposed to be. If John Graham is nervous and pleading the fifth this October, and wishes his old friends from AIM would stand by him, imagine how us women feel. When the love they take is never equal to the hearts they slay.


I remember, Robideau kept telling me Over and over before he died suddenly last winter:

“she was cutting the labels off her clothes as they drove her that night. We all had a plan that if we thought the feds were going to take any of us down that we would remove the labels from our clothes. Cause the feds had listed us down to the clothes we wore. And Annie Mae she was loyal to the end. Thinking that cutting off the labels proved she was not going to be identified. Or something. Cutting, cutting, cutting on the way to her execution”.

It was an awful story Robideau told me.

To prove that he could be trusted? And to try and make me trust something other than my intuition. In the end, if my dad wasn’t buried at Arlington. I’ll bet. I would be deported. Just like Emma Goldman. For never doing what I’m supposed to do. I didn’t write about all things Robideau told me. But in the end we did part friends.



(artwork: "An unforgiving daughter" by Robert Robideau for Anna Mae)

I can’t write a story, do a piece, interview an attorney and pretend that truth is in. The mix. Never. Again. Peltier’s parole denial says it all.....someone has to pay when a murder happens. The only brutal truth. Is that innocence is not an option. When you aren't part of the white man's game. And yes. I believe Peltier. And his plea to the parole board. I feel the truth of the lies. Inside all the prisoners of this ongoing war. Eric Seiltz, Peltier’s lawyer, says it well. In his statement about the FBI and courts, Peltier (and Indians):

“ This is the extreme action of the same law enforcement community that brought us the indefinite imprisonment of suspected teenage terrorists, tortures, and killings in CIA prisons around the world and promoted widespread disrespect for the democratic concepts of justice upon which this country supposedly was founded”.

Oh my. All some of us do these days is hope—that awful opiate—hope. That the death march misses our house. Maybe a bloody red X on the doorstep. While Quiltman does that Incident at Oglala soundtrack in the background.

And then consider the words of Ben Carnes: "We’ve been saying that we wanted to start a prairie fire of outrage to the Oval Office of the White House for Peltier... As most everyone has heard, the White House phone lines were shut down today immediately after the news came out. The fact they shut down the lines is proof of how they were overwhelmed. You know that was brought to the presidents’ attention. I hope he leaned back in his chair and looked out the window of the Oval Office, and really thought that day about Leonard Peltier. And how much he obviously means to the people to shut down his hi-tech phone system."

CALL TO ACTION from Peltier support Groups:
sign a petition demanding clemency for Leonard Peltier


dark glasses Trudell photo courtesy of heYoKa magazine
photographer unknown

Robert Robideau passes......

by antoinette claypoole
a Robert Robideau tribute click here

Graham trial date pushed to October 6, 2009
scroll down for more info about Anna Mae Aquash murder....

In Sound Proof Rooms: new piece about upcoming Trial


covers events leading up to the Rapid City, S. Dakota, John Graham Murder Trial, Oct. 6, 2008 including....

"In Sound Proof Rooms"
dedicated to Anna Mae Aquash (1945-1975/6)
by antoinette nora claypoole
photo: "NW AIM, circa 1972" photographer unknown


"My eyes drift like a death walk.

Back into the heartbeat of a Pacific Northwest audience. An event myself and local activists organized: “Apartheid in America”.

One night that late winter weekend International Treaty Council person Tom LaBlanc brought an 8mm flick up from San Francisco. It was called “Brave Hearted Woman” and there I heard Annie Mae’s name.

Saw her death in the eyes of all of us, like headlights on an Oregon highway which Robert Robideau still claims 'did her in. That November (1975) bust here in Oregon was her death sentence, antoinette' ". read complete piece


home

Writings Index



various writings about Anna Mae Aquash murder
by antoinette nora claypoole


2007/8
The Border Crossing of John Graham, part one
The Border Crossing of John Graham, part two
Murder, Wrapped in a Blanket
Rock Garden Hearts: John Trudell and Anna Mae

earlier
Arlo Looking Cloud Trial: chronicles for Pacifica Radio
America's Addiction to Lynching Indians






books
Who would Unbraid Her Hair: the legend of annie mae (1999)
Ghost Rider Roads: People and Stories from the American Indian Movement (upcoming)


graphic from Ghost Rider Roads used w/permission from Judy Gumbo Albert

Civil Liberties in Upcoming Trial


Trial UPDATES


John Graham readies for trial -- Oct. 6, 2008
NEW...Aug. 08 court documents
Sept.Rulings re: "Anna Mae Alive in 1976"





About the upcoming trial...
"Civil Liberties Statement"

"civil liberties of writers are very important in these times of Patriot Act realities. Currently I am stepping into a simple, important process of protecting our rights while adhering to/learning about the new "laws of the land". All this in regards to events in Indian Country, ie the upcoming trial of John Graham, extradited from Canada to the U.S. in Dec. 2007 for the murder of Annie Mae Pictou Aquash. I believe media rights will be part of our new landscape...a textured fight or a raging river, undammed. EIther way, we'll witness and create like emdangered osprey in the reeds of summer's heat..." (more, click here)


peace
antoinette



top photo: "self-portrait, desert spring" 3.08
AIM graphic donated by Robert Robideau from Peltier files: "John Trudell in protest"



INDEX (use search, the top left of this page...)

History of this Case: click or scroll down
 Pictou Family re: Murder of Anna Mae
 (antoinette book excerpts here)
all rights reserved
antoinette nora claypoole

updates and history



"a sense of it all"

some history of this murder case
(scroll down for more)


about Anna Mae Aquash
in Heyoka Magazine




PHOTO:Anna Mae and her husband Nogeeshik, at Wounded Knee, 1973




Read in Heyoka Magazine


Ikons of the Past
by antoinette nora claypoole

Ashland, Or. Dec. 12. According to most sources, 32 years ago tonight--Dec. 12th 1975-- is the date Anna Mae Pictou Aquash was murdered. And now we await a trial date for John Graham. Her accused murderer. Some wonder, some know, how the landscape looks from his cell.

Only a brief public “statement” by Graham supporters. Words of nothing new. Posted on a website. While Indian Country waits for word of when the lost ikons of AIM activism will emerge. To testify against a man they barely knew.

Like deer in headlights of an old Ford it seems tonight has an eerie frozen in time theme. Where are the unsilenced people? How did Annie Mae fight for her life?

There are many who have investigated this brutal piece of Indian history for over a decade. And most put missionary style faith into key investigators, Who claim the Dec. death doctrine. Like papal mandates during the witch hunting Inquisition. There are ‘facts’ which are considered sacred to this case. Information which emerged from the hard conquests of secrecy which Annie Mae’s death eluded for nearly 20 years. A time before anyone took “interest” in the case.

Paul Demain (ed. News from Indian Country) and Robert Branscombe (second cousin to Annie Mae) were the first to emerge. They spent years of their lives trying to follow the trail of corruption which lead to Annie Mae’s murder.

Yet. The ghost of her second husband, Nogeeshik Aquash (1944-1990?) cannot be forgotten. His research notes may have burned down with the house, but the pursuit of a timeline for Annie Mae’s death persisted. Only to continue to defy the sensibilities of the rare few who can’t make two and two be five. For time is still a mystery to those of us certain life is a circle of worlds unnamed but to the best of dreamers.

What do I mean?
What in the world Carmen San Diego am I talking about, you ask?

I mean some people believe Annie Mae did not die in December 1975. Despite the efforts of writers and others.

Nonetheless, John Graham awaits trail based on ....the One timeline which dominates. Like a patriarch in a village resisting the inevitability of electricity. A light in the late 90’s was shined into the corner of Annie Mae’s death. Emerging and prevailing research placed today, Dec. 12th,, as the day 32 years ago that John Graham shot a mother. And activist. The rare kind of woman who believed in what she knew others had forgotten. “Being Indian” was something to claim. Or die trying to defy.

But let’s go back.

Consider Annie Mae’s estranged husband, Nogeeshik. Not the father of her daughters but a man she married at the Siege of Wounded Knee (1973). He spent the rest of his own life—after her murder-- trying to find the killers. Family rumour had it (interview of Mickey Aquash, 1995) that Nogeeshik had discovered who killed his wife the night before HE died in a “mysterious” house fire. In the early 90’s.

Nogeeshik had already been paralyzed in an odd car accident while he searched for clues to Annie Mae’s execution. Silkwood style. The night he died he apparently phoned a family member from his wheelchair and announced the frayed truth of his search. Because Nogeeshik couldn’t walk, he didn’t survive the house fire. And died with this info he had found. He said he knew who killed Annie Mae. And died with that “truth” bleeding inside of him. Most likely died because names and photos were folded too neatly into his vest pocket.

Like family albums there are other stories I found inside the Aquash camp, way back when. Stories which haunt me. Stories that cut and paste me into pages and pages of writing about Annie Mae and her accused murderer John Graham.

Is there a reprieve for any of us?
Perhaps not.

Long before I heard Graham’s name, someone sent me an internet link. It was the mid 90’s and computers were not what they have become. Like naive teens picking berries in Maine for a living---as Annie Mae did when she met the father of her “girls”---those of us looking for information on the “net” were locked into a late autumn’s harvest. After the freeze. That is, there was little if anything online about Annie Mae in those days.

Nonetheless, a guy named Jordan Dill had replied to my call for interviews of people who knew Annie Mae. He sent me a link to pages by/of a woman named Paula Giese. The pages told of Annie Mae and their Christmas visit. Paula Giese was remembering. In 1975. Two weeks after Dec. 12. “Here” I wrote, “ finally someone with a good story to tell about Annie Mae before she died. A great beginning of a timeline to her last days”. It was only later that the Dec 12th death date was named.

3 or 4 years later Paul Demain approached Dill and a new timeline emerged. One which said Annie Mae was killed before Christmas and her body had been in the ravine in Wanblee for over 2 months before being found.

The fact is, Paula Giese died sometime before this new timeline (far as I can tell) and there seems no one around to dispute the Dec. 12th date which places John Graham--and his admitted ride to Pine Ridge with Annie Mae (interview 2004)-- into the context of death.

There is no footnote to offer you here.

Only pieces of an inconceivable brutal act of betrayal. By someone. Perhaps John Graham. Perhaps another unnamed clan. Of would be dream lovers of her life.

Anna Mae’s daughter Denise has been a spokesperson for her mother’s legacy since her distant cousin, Bob Branscombe visited Denise and family. Bob’s mother was first cousin to Annie Mae. Had heard stories of the death but it was Bob who set things in motion for the family. In Nova Scotia in the mid 1990’s.

Denise Maloney has been clear on many occasions that she believes Looking Cloud’s confession to murder via Graham’s “gun” --and has many reasons to believe all the stories which have been told her. About her mother’s death.

Today, on the day Annie Mae is said to have died, I tried to honor Denise and asked her for a “statement” about Graham in S. Dakota. But she chose not to reply.

Instead a new piece of info came my way.

According to a source close to this case—a person who asked to remain anonymous--Arlo Looking Cloud HAS been in communication with Denise Maloney. Rumour has it that Looking Cloud may be ready to testify against John Graham. At the upcoming trial. The prosecution obviously could use a "witness" so this idea is nothing new. Is Looking Cloud back to stating that Graham did indeed fire a gun at Annie Mae 32 years ago today? TIme will reveal what humans deny. His story runs both ways.

Looking Cloud would be an obvious witness for the prosecution, but his statements have been corrupted by a video confession during which he told the investigators he was drinking. He never took the stand. At his own trial. One thing we know.

The ups and downs of Looking Cloud are like the badlands weather. Take shelter. More storms ahead.

There is no safety zone. We really have no where left to go.

No Nogeeshik. No Paula Giese. No reliable coroner’s report. We have Looking Cloud, a self-proclaimed “drunken” Indian telling a story. And we have most of old AIM saying nothing. That Looking Cloud hasn’t said already.

Most of old AIM never mentions tribunals against Annie Mae, as she was suspected of being a Federal Agent. Rather. We have old AIM claiming everything from denial that Annie Mae was important in the movement to open air statements that her lawyer used her own cold jail cell letter. Against her. Her jail letter about informants. Was used as proof, some say. Proof that Annie Mae was a Fed. At an AIM tribunal that many people attended.

Indeed. The same people who point fingers at John Graham sat in an old house 32 years ago and listened to Annie Mae sentenced to death by gun and they did nothing. To stop it. It took over 20 years for some people to finally say out loud "she was one of us". She was not an agent. There are still others who remain silent. And the rare few unafraid to speak.

Enter Robert Robideau of NW AIM. Who was at the time of Annie Mae's murder being held for the killing of FBI at Oglala. Robideau's unique place in history makes it crucial that we hear his concerns (click here for details). For he is neither threatened with an indictment by the U.S. nor is he invested in “protecting” anyone. The idea that he lives with a concern that he was too “naive” to know Annie Mae needed protection back then. Is haunting enough for Robideau. But he was in jail. He could do nothing.

An old rumour in Indian Country says that some folks had a sudden pang of guilt and raced out to stop the execution. But they were too late. To save her from the sins of “mob” behaviour.

Are there bystanders, a peanut gallery of activists who are so easily acquitted in all this? Does a search for those who saw Annie Mae at Christmas change any of this? Does John Graham have someone he is protecting?

These are the questions people might want to start asking.

Answers which I can imagine merit a “virtuous” voice. If only for a a new generation who has inherited the “sins of the fathers”.

Whether Annie Mae was killed on Dec. 12, 1975 or Mid February 1976 makes all the difference to John Graham’s daughter, Naneek. Who believes her Dad when he says he did, yes, ride with Annie Mae. And drove her to Pine Ridge. Around Dec. 12th. Naneek believes her dad when he says he dropped Annie Mae off at a safe house. There. And that was the last time he saw her.

Is it so unconceivable that someone else killed Annie Mae
If so, why?

Is it so impossible that the AIM leadership, which is often mentioned by Robert Robideau had plans to kill Annie Mae?

Could those plans—perhaps—have excluded John Graham?

These are the questions some may be asking.
These are the questions that say “tell me answers.”
Before any trial can be deemed fair.
We deserve more.
Before any trial can write the history of the life and death of Indians.
We need a jury of more than one wanabee Indian.
We need a place where racism is not the credo of courtroom drama.

And.
We need to hear from Old AIM.

Thanks to Robert Robideau for taking up one of the tasks.
And to Nogeeshik Aquash for trying.

The verdict is far from being in on how South Dakota plans to break it’s own addiction to lynching Indians.



to be continued......

all people are one
copyright 2007
a. nora claypoole

Twilight Inferno: GRAHAM APPEAL FAILS

read various updates (2004-present)

Twilight Inferno: The Extradition of John Graham
by antoinette nora claypoole

“…the American Justice system is not color blind…”

-- Barack Obama
from a debate at Howard University
June, 28, 2007


On a quest for the next place to write. About a Communist writer/activist, Louise Bryant (1885-1936). Nearly lost to history. Like so many women of our country. I sit in W. Hollywood, visiting a friend. News arrives. That John Graham, Southern Tuchone from the Yukon Territory. Will be sent to S. Dakota and tried for the murder of a woman he claims he knew but never killed. Anna Mae Pictou Aquash.

A jury in South Dakota trying an Indian for killing an Indian. Is like a Black Man in a white woman’s novel being freed for killing a mockingbird. It just doesn’t happen. Harper Lee knew that. The truth is. Stories of surviving as a person of color are rare.

Graham will most likely be sent to a fate no film in this industry town has ever dared describe. And I, held hostage by the haze of W. LA. I wonder at how someone would write the script. For all this.

OPENING: Camera circles a camp like wagon trains at sundown. Surrounding buffalo. Hides. Drying in the summer sun. Dreams dead as chokecherries in nuclear winter.


June 26, 2007. John Graham ordered extradited to the United States. To S. Dakota from Vancouver, British Columbia. He is pulled from his house arrest situation, placed in jail where he awaits a fated effort by his attorneys. Now. An appeal to Canadian Supreme Court. To deny extradition. According to law, a 30-60 day process. One which no one believes will remedy Graham’s plea to be saved from a trial scripted by lynch mob mentality.

Indicted for the murder of Annie Mae. Losing this first appeal to avoid extradition. Graham enters the corridors of rusted justice. For Annie Mae’ s brutal death warrants resolve but is not necessarily unearthed with the schlepping of Graham to S. Dakota, a racist state who can’t be trusted with it’s own memory of Wounded Knee and massacre of children. It slays history, bending facts to suit the guilt it would rather nuke at Diablo Canyon than admit exists. That is, acknowledging acts of violence toward Indians has been neither sustenance nor necessity. In S. Dakota.

Though some say Graham killed Annie Mae and will “find justice” now, gold diggers have never been known for their honesty. Consider broken treaties Red Cloud. The list is longer than the history.

ACTION on an Indian Reservation. Dusty Dakotas, casinoed nations. Jackson Browne song playing the background.

Guns fire into the twilight of an inferno. Children hide under formica table tops like their grandmothers once hid inside the folds of hollowed earth. Hoping to survive attack. Sound like Iraq? Or an old tour inside Universal Studio’s back lot? Yes. But it’s not.

This picture is the petroglyph of tribes throughout “America” since the arrival of Europeans. And just like any one day in the history of indigenous people, June 26, 2007 holds it’s own macabre story. Like it’s sister date of June 26, 1975 Lakota are involved. MicMaq are in the scene. And Southern Tuchone from the upper Yukon Territory.

Converging to freeze frame time. And survive the bullets cutting into the lives of everyone who dare cross the demands of a government founded on revolution. Some dreams die young. As do their keepers. Their players and the plot.


FINAL SETTING Dim. People scattering. A city in fire.

In this script, this twilight. There would be no happy ending. It would be Babel in reverse. The village would be armed by the doctors who kill the patients they can’t save. And I am not afraid to say that the beautiful woman who is murdered brutally leaves traces of who her killers were but no one really listens. In the end a man is taken to trial but the lookely loos of this case cannot erase the facts. Racist places have an agenda. Killing Indians any way they can,

John Graham and his self-proclaimed innocence will be muted. Not by justice but by those who know little else than Covington’s “the only good Indian is a dead one”.

Taking the audience to a back room where evidence of truth lives. Is like film laying on the edit floor. The cut is deep. The editors asleep. Someone always forgets to save the best for last. Gunshots scattered the cast and at some point we are all hiding from the past. Shrapnel some call it. The past. A mine field. Shrapnelled vets abound.


EXIT all characters. The set is empty.

Broken chairs, empty shoes. Purses full of placemats. There is no evidence. Of human existence. Truth. Compassion. Love. Is all we need. John Lennon haunting us. Playing in the background. On an old stereo. Black vinyl. The needle broken. Stuck on repeat. Matrix of a Cirque de Soleil performance.

Maybe Robert Robideau, veteran of these Indian Wars says it best: “This should be exiting to see all the rats scurry about, maneuvering to save their respective asses.”


FLASHBACK: to dead. Young Woman. Children crying. In the background. Circus song still playing.





www.antoinetteclaypoole.blogspot.com
www.johngrahaminterview.blogspot.com
www.anniemaeletter.blogspot.com
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2007/06/26/graham-extradite.html






antoinette nora claypoole
June 28, 2007
Pasadena, Ca.

copyright 2007

May 2007

click here for history/overview of these hearings

PRESS RELEASE
May 17, 2007

GRAHAM RELEASED PENDING JUDGEMENT


May 17, 2007. Ashland, OR. In Vancouver, British Columbia, after a day of challenging the extradition laws, 3 judges did in fact opt to "reserve judgement" regarding the case of John Graham. That means they will take as long as they like to decide whether Canadian Laws uphold an earlier ruling to extradite Graham to the U.S.

According to Ms. Kronin, attorney in the office of Graham's counsel Terrance LaLiberte, the judges could issue a decision "in a week or at the end of the year". She explained, from her Vancouver office, that " there is no deadline date for their decision" and they could offer a mere one day lead time when they are ready to announce. Graham was rereleased under house arrest at the end of the session.

back home

Robert Robideau and John Graham

(scroll down or read sidebar for index of entire blog)

As tomorrow, May 17th, 2007 is an important day in court for John Graham, supporters and old AIMsters have surfaced. Fighting with a fury. Here is a piece I wrote explaining the lastest series of events in this ever painful case.

Murder, Wrapped in a Blanket
by antoinette nora claypoole


"It is wonderful to write to you. I am actually pleased to be able to take the time to write to you all. I love you all very much."

--Anna Mae Pictou Aquash, Mikmaq, Nov. 1975


A 21st century interview. With a survivor of the Indian Wars, 20th century style. I sit in a humble duplex on the eastern edge of Portland, Oregon. Fog shifting around like the shadows of ancestors. Haunted by the murders of their People. Another time and place consumes our talk. Sitting with Robert Robideau, member of the American Indian Movement who has worked tirelessly for his cousin, Leonard Peltier. Remembering when they all had so much to gain.

"She asked me once, there at the Jumping Bull Camp, 'Can I be part of the Northwest AIM group, with you?" Annie Mae Pictou Aquash. Talking to Robert Robideau back in 1975. Just a few months before she was found brutally murdered. They were young warriors trying to survive the FBI agents sent to destroy the movement. Robideau remembers more: "She was in with so many of our leaders. I didn't know then that she was in danger. I live with the fact that we in the Northwest could have protected her".

Robideau takes this knowledge, this memory seriously. As he tours for his cousin, Peltier, he talks about who killed Annie Mae. He believes John Graham, Tuchone from the Yukon Territory is guilty. And said so on a recent tour in Vancouver, B.C. There Robideau met attacks on his position. He was confronted by people who called him a Fed. And mostly he realized that supporting his cousin, Peltier, is as dangerous now as it was when he first met Annie Mae.

Robideau is currently being attacked by supporters of John Graham. Some people loathe him. Others know that his work and committment to his cousin's freedom are undying. Peltier distanced himself from Graham, the accused murderer of Anna Mae and Robideau has supported that position. Something which causes stirs into a pot ready to boil over. Peltier's recent attorney, Barry Bachrach, stepped down due to Peltier's inability to track/trust efforts made on his behalf. Still, his sentiments run deep. Today I say: "Robideau certainly created quite a stir while supporting his cousin, Leonard Peltier, would you agree?" Bachrach's reply a wellspring, a generosity of spirit: "Yes he does, and for me it has been my privilege to know him."


Despite the controversy which surrounds the murder of Annie Mae Pictou Aquash, and Peltier's understandable struggle to remain lucid after 30 years of wrongful incarceration, Robideau continues to believe his work is essential. His recent tour to Vancouver, B.C. a testament. To the worldwide efforts to free his cousin.

Robideau says he didn't go north to talk about Graham, as his opponents accuse him of doing. A serious, perplexed explanation prevails. " They didnt want to hear about the freedom campaign for Leonard..only about Graham. I went to Canada to speak solely about the freedom campaign for Leonard, which Graham's supporters disrupted". But where is Graham in all this? "I offered to meet with Graham under any conditions they choose. They declined", Robideau explains with a certainty he knows to be fact. I couldn't get a clear response from Graham or his supporters about whether he himself was aware of Robideau's wanting to meet.

And now. A random letter Peltier wrote in late April. Surfaces. On May 13th Graham supporters begin blasting Robideau. Again. The letter is posted publicly. A sad rant by Peltier, against his cousin. Robideau says he will resign from the committee. Peltier refuses to accept and as I write this is suppposedly preparing a public apology. To his cousin and to former attorney, Barry Bachrach. At best it will relect the fact that Leonard Peltier trusts his cousin with his life". And at least we imagine it will reveal what happens to someone who has been suffering under the gun of injustice.

The entire story is complex. Represents the nature of living in Indian Country. On both sides of any border indigenous people continue their struggle to survive all that has been to done to them.

The story keeps repeating itself. The paradoxes of a Patriot Act foreshadowed in Wounded Knee. So long ago by now. A replay, agents of fear abound. One person claims innocence while others yell “lynch”. Me? I keep saying let's not silence truth. The words of Matthew Lien, an in-the-trenches friend, a Graham supporter, resound: "I'm only hoping for justice and truth, which translates into John's (Graham) freedom, and that those responsible for Anna Mea's death be identified.”


The tape recorder not quite an MP3 player. Robideau says alot more to me. About what he believes of Graham’s guilt. But why all this fury against you, I ask him. His reply resonates still... “ They are afraid of me. Fear can be your worst enemy......"

Yes fear our great demise. Love the reprise so many fear. Still. We want to keep oursleves safe from the heat, the turbulance of this flight. Into desire. For resolve.
Maybe Anna Mae can help with this. She explains it best. From a jail cell in Vancouver, Wa. Nov. 1975:

“ This jail is so cold I am sitting at this table with a blanket wrapped around me. We have a broken window that they tried to patch up but the winds are strong today. It dropped to 15 degrees last nite and I’m sure it colder today. On our way over here yesterday I had the opportunity to gaze upon Mt. Hood. What a beautiful sight. Got to sign off-lawyer to take letter out.Love forever
Annie Mae (Aquash)“Naguset Eask” Sun Woman.


The years have eased none of the pain. Her murder. Our loss will resound 200 years beyond the end of time.

May 16, 2007
Ashland, Or.



MORE INFO:

Leonard Peltier's website
http://www.leonardpeltier.net/newsroom.htm

read John Graham's words:
www.johngrahaminterview.blogspot.com

read Annie Mae's words:
www.anniemaeletter.blogspot.com



BACK HOME

A Sense of it All

Annie Mae & Nogeeshik Aquash wedding
Siege of Wounded Knee, 1973

written by antoinette nora claypoole
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use SEARCH this blog...great tool!



ABOUT THELMA RIOS
ANOTHER OLD AIM indicted for the murder of Aquash Sept. 10, 2009

Thelma Rios, the most recent Indian arrested for the murder of Annie Mae Aquash was a member of the "pie patrol", a group of women who hated Anna Mae and attempted to threaten and harass her back in the summer of 1975.  This info came to me via an interview with AIM leader Vernon Bellecourt, a number of years before he passed away. 

Thelma Rios was married to David Hill, also know as "Mr. X" in Indian Country.   Some old AIM have claimed that David Hill is a fed, an FBI agent.  Robert Robideau was close to David Hill and repeatedly defended Hill, never believed the story against Hill. 

 Rios was probably arrested because she is just old enough and weak enough to name names, just like Looking CLoud--found guilty of killing Annie Mae in 04--is doing.  Rios will probably co-operate with the prosecution of John Graham.  But her naming a former husband--Hill-- as FBI/fed who "killed Anna Mae" --according to an interview she did with David Seals in 2004---well.  That's just downright  ludicrous.  Att'y General Marty Jackley would not arrest a woman who was then going to talk about her former husband being an FBI responsible for the murder of Annie Mae.  Is she? No. I don't imagine that in a million years.                                                                                                                                 

a.c. 9.12.09



SOME basic, old blog HISTORY
John Graham was arrested in Dec. 2003, accused of murdering his friend and fellow member of the American Indian Movement, Anna Mae Pictou Aquash. Annie Mae had been threatened by the FBI, was an active leader and had been arrested for "running weapons"--released without bail-- at one point soon before she was found executed in Feb. 1976.
Graham is the second of two Indian men accused of killing Annie Mae. The other, Arlo Looking Cloud, has been sentenced to life in prison after a trial which last 3 1/2 days in Rapid City, South Dakota, Feb. 2004. He was convicted based on hearsay evidence. Currently he is appealing his sentence and has retracted his original statement that John Graham killed Annie Mae.
The case is complex. This blog intends to encourage people to think for themselves. I offer information which comes to me, with a bias toward believing that people are innocent until proven otherwise. AND that nothing is what it seems to be. In these times.
website for John Graham by his family

SUMMARY
as of Spring 2007

The hearings to extradite John Graham to the United States from British Columbia, Canada began in December 2004. They continued into late 2006. Some of the hearings were synchronistically right around the timeAnnie Mae's body was found, 29 years ago.

At that time, Feb. 21, 2005, the Canadian Government ruled to send John Graham to the U.S. to be tried in Rapid City, South Dakota. Graham's attorney, Terry LaLiberte, plans an appeal to that ruling and John Graham was set free on bail, under house arrest, from March 2005 until November 7, 2005. He has to return to court then. To see what the powers that be will provide. Next. In November, 2005, exactly 30 years after Anna Mae "went missing", John Graham's extradition appeal was delayed until June, 2006. He was released on bail, under house arrest.

In June 2006 his appeal to the legality of Canadian extradition laws allowed for an extension of hearings, Graham's next court date being October, 2006. Click here for update from June 2006. Graham remains released on bail, under house arrest.

...Graham's last court date October, 2006 Click here for details
Graham remains released on bail, under house arrest


Please note: some of these pieces were written as part of my coverage of the hearings for KPFK Pacifica Radio, Los Angeles. A far-out public radio station committed to covering issues other media won't touch. Including the trials of former members of the American Indian Movement.


contact info:
po box 3026
ashland, or. 97520
watersongs@gmail.com
copyright 2007
antoinette nora claypoole

response to Trudell: Rock Garden Heart

Anna Mae and Nogeeshik, 1973
(photo credits below)

Rock Garden Hearts
by antoinette nora claypoole

And so there are a few things. Which keep the moon in her Sky and the leaves turning yellow. Red. Falling. Seasons. Of the mind and heart. Flash forward and back. 2012. 1975. Time, the coyote. The trickster. We have been together before. We will be together again. We are always here. The circle is like Northern Lights returned from the oracle at Delphi.

Now. Then. A jump start into a two lane road trip. Skipping truck stops and heading into an old Esso station. A paper map and three fingers clasping a Mars bar. The trip is full of sustenance. Shooting star reality. To keep the miles piling high. Like a Warhol painting it is the 1970’s. Bottled mountain dew, no pull top cans. And sand between the heels of his feet and stones scattered in the dusty parking lot. On his way to Duck Valley Reservation. Nevada. Home to the loneliest road in the west. Her guess is that he loved all women. A six year old boy losing his bandito mother is like etching petroglyphs of desire’s fire into his eyes when any woman walks by.

Maybe. John Trudell was Annie Mae’s lover. Maybe not. What we know for certain is that he loved his wife Tina on that road trip. That fall. And that Annie Mae was still alive. Trying to get help from the young AIM guys who found her ahead of her time. In some ways she is still alive. In their paradox of love her/fear her, is she really one of us? In those days with that wild sense of destiny undoing what all the daddies designed, Annie Mae was beyond time and place. Wrong place. Right time. Right place. Wrong time. Once we delete us and them, right and wrong, then we come to knowing something true. No matter what happens on the road, someone’s car wreck is everyone’s crumpled candy wrapper. Tatooed on an arm. For all the lovers to take home.

photo from Voices at Wounded Knee
Anna Mae and Nogeeshik wedding, 1973


But okay. Back to Trudell. And Annie Mae. She figured he was someone who could keep her from being murdered. They had that kind of connection.

Someone up in Canada said, not too long ago, that Trudell could even get you to kill someone, he was that powerful. Just by ….well just by being who he is. Pluto and the Moon. On his ascendant. Consider Hiroshima and how the world is never the same. After women and Sky meet uranium. Like that. Trudell now, so many years later, is on a road trip south. He has no “on Star” in his car. He is his own Milky Way big dipper following the skymarks to the answer. The mysteries like ancient Greece and Ariadne prevail. The minotaur awaits his freedom from their cages. It is woman through the ages who can save a man from death. Even half man half beast receives his reprieve, if like a magpie to the mesa he believes the Earth provides.

Okay. Trudell says. Graham. Once a friend, a brother in resistance. Was "told" to kill Annie Mae. By gov't infiltrators in the Movement. Great. Trudell's talking Feds. But. He is still assuming that guys who say they didn't kill anyone. Killed a sister. And I still ask. Who could have saved Annie Mae? Give me those names on some parchment or indictment sealed in a Rapid City envelope dated time out of mind.

Trudell, in his wild desire. To resolve the merciless past. Forgets to remember what I really do wish I could forget. An eerie screech, a winged howl. This. "Fact". That the accused murderers (and others) claim Annie Mae was alive that winter. After they left her at a house out on Pine Ridge. Trudell himself is known to have said "she died in Jan. or Feb. of 1976" . It hurts to write this. It has been over 10 years now. Books of once blank pages. Written at night. In the back of a car. On the side of that highway with no flashlight. My fingers cramp in the moth eatten mittens.

But it gets worse. Now emerges. Trudell's new theory that “Arlo couldn’t stand the guilt” and so had to talk about the killing. Confess. But Arlo Looking Cloud, following his conviction for the murder of Annie Mae requested an appeal. Based on new information. He says...he never saw Annie Mae shot.

Some say Looking Cloud sang in Lakota all night after he was convicted. And woke up requesting that appeal. Some feel. Looking Cloud. Was SAFE enough within the confines of a pressing life sentence in jail, to tell HIS truth. Like poetic epic passages from Sophocles. The underbelly of the beast. Is the mystery itself. Blown to the outer limits. Whose reality is the dream? Whose dream denies reality?

And then we have John Graham. Denying that he murdered anyone. AND, though it sounds convincing when Trudell suggests Graham will not be extradited because the “gov’t finds it best to leave him in Canada...so the infiltrators won't get named”, the facts are that the ruling to extradite John Graham happened 18 months ago. And the main reason Graham is still in Vancouver is. He has decent attorneys. And yes. The U.S. hired a new prosecutor. But wasn't it mostly because they never imagined Graham would have such a legal epiphany? A direct challenge tp the extradition laws in Canada. A unexpected delay in the courts addiction to racism. Getting a fix. In South Dakota.

So. Where does all this leave Trudell in his claims that the “boys” did it, but that the government is to blame?

He’s almost there. The wind stirs up a dust devil. The highway calls home. Duck Valley is still a night away. From where he longs to be. The government did send in agents.

Annie Mae did know who they were (see a letter written by her from jail, Fall 1975). Yes. Trudell’s got the turn in the road happening. But a narrow stretch is blinding. Could it be those agents themselves who killed Annie Mae, not the “boys” John Graham and Arlo Looking Cloud? It's like a repeated dream. That wondering. And I just want to hear Trudell's answer. His voice inside the concept. Why is that so hard to imagine? Because it is twilight now, the dust devil blocks the road signs. So many things get turned around and steering wheels jam when tightened in a fist. That is, as much as some of us are taken by Trudell's talk about gov’t operants within AIM, there are still some missing milepost markers.

So what do we do, without an oasis? People claim. To have seen Annie Mae AFTER Dec. 12, 1975, the alledged day she was murdered. And what about those who tell the story. About Looking Cloud being taken to several Federal prisons in the late 80’s. And told to talk about killing Annie Mae. If he ever wanted to live on the streets of Denver again.

There are many stories which pop up. Like road signs hammered into the desert of our longing. Ripped by the wind. Landing in the lobby of a casino the LA side of Vegas. The stories cannot be ignored. The stories become the bet. The hand. No one wants to fold. John still. A long way from home. Curved road rising. Up ahead. Sage and soda lids. On the dash. Almost eclipsed. Some of us remember he makes it back alive. While others die. To help him from the other side. This much of the story is all we really know. Annie Mae was killed because of gov’t operants. And some of her friends and lovers are haunted by her will to survive.

We’ll make up the part about someone driving to Denver to save her. We’ll remember that part about how she was called a fed. And that a caravan to rescue her. Might have been the death sentence. For anyone. And yet the final story washes these words. Like a monsoon rearranging arroyos. Some people say a carload of people tried. At the last minute. But it was too late.

Is there anything but painful destiny. In any of this. One thing certain. Coyote takes a fox and never looks back. These are the ravages of time.


(this piece is a response to “Who killed Annie Mae” John Trudell Interviews ....variation of Letter to the Editor sent to Indian Country Today, Sept. 24, 2006)

BLOG menu/links
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Home

copyright 2006
antoinette nora claypoole
All People are One

who killed Annie Mae?

NEW interview w/John Trudell
.

Annie Mae Pictou and Nogeeshik Aquash
marriage at seige of Wounded Knee, S.D. April 12, 1973


scroll down regarding a call for help
or click here

Annie Mae alive at Christmas, 1975...?


A call for help regarding the whereabouts of Annie Mae
during Christmas 1975, early 1976

.
Annie Mae Pictou and Nogeeshik Aquash
marriage at seige of Wounded Knee, S.D. April 12, 1973

Some say she was already dead. Killed Dec. 12.
Others have always believed she was alive.
John Graham Defense Committee, headed up by Matthew Lien,
is now searching for info about Annie Mae.
Anyone who might have seen her, helped her, had coffee and talked family.

More Info
Please contact: info@grahamdefense.org
(see their appeal by scrolling down on this page)
(posted Aug. 2006)

BLOG menu
more about these events...click here
NEW.......Annie Mae's Family RESPONSE, 07
read Annie Mae letter, from jail...click here
click here..interview with John Graham .
a link to a NEW interview with Annie Mae attorney,
Bruce Ellison June, 2006 in Vancouver, B.C.

Here is the actual "appeal"
from John Graham Defense Committee
sent out on August 3, 2006:

---------------------------------
Dear friends of John Graham,

APPEAL TO COME FORWARD

We would like to relay this important and personal
appeal from John Graham, with respect to the

whereabouts of Anna Mae Aquash from the time when she
was left at a house on Pine Ridge, where she thought
she would be safe, until the time when she was found
murdered. We believe there must be people who saw her.
during that time, and any information would be
extremely helpful as we seek the truth.

Please, anyone who had contact with Anna Mae Aquash
between late 1975 and when she was found murdered on
February 24, 1976, come forward and contact the John
Graham Defense Committee.

All communications will be kept strictly confidential.

John Graham Defense Committee
15 Firth Road
Whitehorse, YukonÊ Y1A 4R5Ê Canada


Tel: (867) 633-2480
E-mail: info@grahamdefense.org
Website: www.grahamdefense.org



ALSO from the Graham Defense Committee
BRUCE ELLISON INTERVIEW

We are also pleased to tell you about the posting of a
transcript from a 25-minute video interview of Bruce
Ellison, Leonard Pelletier's first lawyer, which was
taped on June 26, 2006 by Daniel Gautreau
(www.danieltv.com). The interview was taped while
Bruce Ellison was attending the World Peace Forum in
Vancouver, B.C., Canada.


Following is an excerpt from the interview:


Bruce Ellison: "The [US] government is not seriously
interested in solving the murder of Anna Mae Aquash
Pictou. What the government is trying to do is to
utilize her murder, currently, in an effort to paint
the American Indian Movement as a terrorist, violent
organization rather than being so many of the victims.
One of the questions that many people have had for 30
years has been, why has there been no interest in all
of the murders, including Anna Mae's, on the Pine
Ridge reservation? To select her murder out alone is
to suggest, and in fact has shown to be, a politically
motivated manipulation of both her family and of the
community, in an effort to ignore the other murders
that the government was so directly complicit in."


The transcript is now available at
www.grahamdefense.org

letter from friends of John Graham

written by Matthew Lien
John Graham defense committee
June 25, 2006

posted here as current update to the ongoing fight against extradition, by John Graham. His recent court appearance... in the Jumping Bull shootout time of year.

(please click here --scroll down--for more information on the John Graham case)

June 25, 2006

Dear friends of John Graham,

As you may be aware, John appeared at the Supreme Court of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, on Friday, June 23. This hearing was procedural and lasted only a few minutes. The purpose of the hearing was simply to extend the conditions of John's bail and to set another appearance date. This next date, set for October 30, is expected to be another routine appearance as John's legal team continues to prepare their appeal of the lower court's decision.

We had hoped the court would review and redefine John's bail conditions to allow him greater freedom as he continues to develop his defense. But to our great dissatisfaction, the court continues to impose extremely restrictive conditions of house arrest which deny John's right to seek employment. The contributions which some of you have provided are thus greatly appreciated and so important. We thank you sincerely for this heartfelt assistance.

In other developments, John's legal team had made a formal appeal to the Minister of Justice Vic Toews, urging him to intervene based on a number of legal arguments. On June 13, the Justice Minister ruled that he would not intervene based on these arguments alone. While the decision is a disappointment and reflects what we feel is a lack of awareness of the broader realities driving this case, the information provided in his decision sheds some light on the Minister's thoughts about this matter facing John Graham, and also points to key aspects of importance which we intend to build on. John's legal team plans to appeal the Minister's decision.

While the law permits separate proceedings for both of these appeals, John's lawyers may present their arguments for both appeals during the same appearance, which will likely occur sometime next year.

In the Justice Minister's explanation, he makes reference to the letters of support, stating that "hundreds of people have written in support of Mr. Graham. It is commendable that Mr. Graham is so highly regarded and enjoys the support of so many." Your letters of support are making an impression, and we do intend to have hundreds more delivered in the coming months to reaffirm John's broad support among Canadians and others in the international community who are watching this case closely.

While the United States' case against John attempts to throw up a smoke screen and distract us from powerful indicators pointing to the involvement of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the murder of Anna Mae Aquash, it remains John's sincerest hope that his struggle will bring more attention to the truth of what really happened to his friend, and to so many others working for a common cause.

The worldwide forceful confiscation of native lands for mineral and other resources has a long and bloody history ― as is reflected in the matter facing John and its connection to the uranium-rich native lands of South Dakota ― a struggle which continues to this day. Around the world, aboriginal people are striving to retain their heritage and their connection to the land; be it on the shores of eastern Taiwan where the Amis tribe is working to reclaim their age-old ceremonial site under the threat of tourism development, or on the shores of arctic Alaska where the Gwich'in people are striving to protect the sacred caribou calving grounds in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from oil and gas development.

The case against John Graham reflects all such struggles and the atrocities which are often committed in such confiscation of sacred lands.

In recent years, the United States government has shown itself to be largely unconcerned with the sovereignty of foreign countries and has demonstrated grave human rights abuses. It is therefore alarming that the Canadian government implemented an Extradition Act in 1999 which allows extradition of Canadian citizens to the US with merely a summary of evidence, while disallowing any examination of that evidence to ensure it is sufficient, accurate, and not fabricated.

In John's case, it has already been shown that key witnesses and evidence are not available (or never were), bringing a cloud of suspicion over the United States' entire case and judicial process ― it seems the US government would prefer the Canadian justice system were blind, deaf and mute to their true intentions.

But the people of Canada are not!

And so we ask those of you who believe in truth and justice to speak out now! To aid in this effort, our website provides an updated postcard with Canada's newly appointed Minister of Justice Vic Toews addressed as the recipient, and a leaflet to help educate more people about the matter facing John Graham.

Your letters to Canada's Minister of Justice and to your Members of Parliament, opposing the extradition of John Graham and requesting full disclosure of the United States' evidence, are crucial. Only the Minister of Justice has the ability to demand disclosure. Your Members of Parliament have the ability to further encourage the Justice Minister to do so, and to demand that no extradition shall be granted without such disclosure and a thorough inspection of the evidence. If the case against John Graham were truly so watertight, then what does the United States government have to fear?

It would also be helpful to remind the Justice Minister in your letters that Leonard Peltier's extradition from Canada was based on fraudulent affidavits which are known to have been given under coercion and duress administered by the FBI. And while the Justice Minister appears to consider the Peltier conviction as evidence that a fair trial can be achieved in the United States, we wish to remind the Minister that human rights groups around the world view the Peltier conviction as one of the gravest miscarriages of justice ever witnessed in a United States courtroom, and one that was fraught with racism against aboriginal people. It is a feather in the hat of those who championed the FBI's COINTELPRO campaign against Native Americans.

And so, too, would be the wrongful conviction of John Graham.

We also urge you to encourage other individuals, organizations, First Nation governments, and unions, to send their own letters. Additionally, letters to the editors for publication in your regional newspapers are a powerful method of informing the public about the alarming lack of evidence required for extradition, and to remind the Canadian government of its responsibility to protect its citizens from a zealous neighbouring nation with a track record of racism and abuse, especially with respect to the matter facing John Graham.

The case against John Graham has become a symbol for those who believe in human rights and sovereignty, and it will surely set a precedent ― for better or worse ― as to how much power the United States government has to pluck any Canadian from this sovereign soil.

This case also remains a shining light of hope that the truth about Anna Mae's death shall one day be known.

Contrary to the likely intentions of those who have fabricated historic events in hopes of concealing the truth, we remain convinced that the case against John Graham will further entrench the Federal Bureau of Investigation and its conspirators in their culpability for the death of Anna Mae and scores of others.

We remain deeply grateful for those who stand with us in solidarity for aboriginal justice everywhere. Our commitment to the truth remains unshaken, so that Anna Mae's death and the important cause for which she lived and died, will not have been in vain.

Matthew Lien
President and Media Relations
John Graham Defense Committee

Website: www.grahamdefense.org
E-mail:info@grahamdefense.org

ways to move around

BLOG links
2006...click here
2004-2005 see below

Introduction to the Blog........

John Graham was arrested in Dec. 2003, accused of murdering his friend and fellow member of the American Indian Movement, Anna Mae Pictou Aquash. Annie Mae had been threatened by the FBI, was an active leader and had been arrested for "running weapons"--released without bail-- at one point soon before she was found executed in Feb. 1976.

Graham is the second of two Indian men accused of killing Annie Mae. The other, Arlo Looking Cloud, has been sentenced to life in prison after a trial which last 3 1/2 days in Rapid City, South Dakota, Feb. 2004. He was convicted based on hearsay evidence. Currently he is appealing his sentence and has retracted his original statement that John Graham killed Annie Mae.

The case is complex. This blog intends to encourage people to think for themselves. I offer information which comes to me, with a bias toward believing that people are innocent until proven otherwise. AND that nothing is what it seems to be. In these times.

contact info:
po box 3026
ashland, or. 97520
watersongs@gmail.com

FOUR WAYS TO NAVIGATE ALL THE John Graham EXTRADITION PAGES:
... you can scroll down and locate the sidebar
... use SEARCH button at the TOP OF THE PAGE to locate facts/info
... read and click on links in the following few paragraphs
... click here for access to other work by me, created as a result of these events

OVERVIEW
Over the months until John Graham has to appear in court again (Nov. 2005) I'll be adding things which keep people's hearts, minds awake. To the ravages of Time. And how we can collectively heal. Through love and respect of self and other. Becoming, in this way, One.

If you are new to these pages, you might want to read a piece by me, antoinette nora claypoole, as an overview/commentary on the events surrounding the arrest of John Graham. It can be found here.... America's Addiction to Lynching Indians.

CURRENT SUMMARY
The hearings to extradite John Graham to the United States from British Columbia, Canada began in December 2004. They continued into late February 2005. Synchronistically right around the timeAnnie Mae's body was found, 29 years ago.

At that time, Feb. 21, 2005, the Canadian Government ruled to send John Graham to the U.S. to be tried in Rapid City, South Dakota. Graham's attorney, Terry LaLiberte, plans an appeal to that ruling and John Graham was set free on bail, under house arrest, from March 2005 until November 7, 2005. He has to return to court then. To see what the powers that be will provide. Next. In November, 2005, exactly 30 years after Anna Mae "went missing", John Graham's extradition appeal was delayed until June, 2006. He was released on bail, under house arrest.

In June 2006 his appeal to the legality of Canadian extradition laws allowed for an extension of hearings, Graham's next court date being October, 2006. Click here for update from June 2006. Graham remains released on bail, under house arrest.

...Graham's last court date October, 2006 Click here for details
Graham remains released on bail, under house arrest

website for John Graham by his family


Please note: some of these pieces were written as part of my coverage of the hearings for KPFK Pacifica Radio, Los Angeles. A far-out public radio station committed to covering issues other media won't touch. Including the trials of former members of the American Indian Movement.

30 years later...



Recently I have received emails which inquire as to my current position on John Graham. As well as people concerned about the authenticity of the letter written by Anna Mae Aquash posted via this blog. I believe it to be hers. It came to me from what I consider a "reliable" source. And. If anyone has a copy of Annie Mae's handwriting and wants to compare it with the handwritten letter I have, do be in touch.

So. Here are some replies:

1. about Graham. Yes I did recently say that I wonder about a government that continues to allow an accused murderer to be free for so long on the streets of Vancouver.

This does not mean that I have changed my opinion that John Graham will never receive a fair trial in racist South Dakota. I support his and the defense committee efforts to fight extradition to the United States.

For no evidence against Graham (from the U.S.) has been authenticated.

That means few of us can see/know if the claims are substantial. Graham inisists on his innocence. And even the courts of Canada have not looked into whether there is anything but video of a drunk man convicted of murdering Annie Mae, naming Graham as the actual killer. There is no review of evidence, at all, under the new Canadian extradition laws.

And even though in the case of Leonard Peltier the evidence was horribly fabricated (ie Mytle Poor Bear affadavits), at least back in the 1970's the United States had to PRETEND to offer tangible evidence against someone they wanted to try in their courts. Now, with the new Canadian law, there is little accountability regarding WHY a person is extradited.

So. I totally support the appeal of Graham's attorney, which challenges the legality of their Canadian law, and suggests that people not be sent stateside without a substantial review of the charges/evidence.

As many know, the evidence against Graham in the murder of Anna Mae Aquash has NOT been examined by Canadian court. Which is what disturbs me greatly. The ruling last March to extradite Graham to the U.S., "trusted" unseen/unexamined evidence the U.S. claims to have against him.

How appalling, unjust and perplexing.

For Graham and his family deserve the right to know/see "proof" of these charges (if there IS any, other than hearsay). Annie Mae's family deserves to know that U.S. governement in fact DOES have evidence which substantiates their claim about Graham. Yes. Arlo Looking Cloud was convicted of her murder. And he, in his drunkeness named Graham. But is this really evidence. Anyone can say anything. We all know how that works.

A friend of mine and I have this joke. We say "hey. Let's go down to the coffee shoppe this morning mingle around and find out what we did last night..."

He said she said is NOT evidence about a murder. Not reviewing evidence against Graham is, to me, cause for an appeal. Based on the Canadian extradition laws being unsubstantial. Which IS all in the making. For Graham.

So what about my statement regarding "walking the streets of Vancouver". (seen in a prior post in this blog). As some of us awaited whether Graham would be re-released, I put myself deeply inside the reality that no trial has yet ocurred. No evidence has been reviewed. And wondered how a government can NOT require review of evidence before extraditing thus not really know if the accused is IN FACT dangerous. I am not saying Graham is necessarily dangerous. What I am saying is the Canadian government admittedly has not seen evidence against the accused, so how can they live with the fact that they keep re-releasing people while an appeal happens?

This is a rhetorical question. I don't expect any answers.

It is just alarms me that the Canadian government on one hand loosens their extradition laws, says "yes. go to the states they say you killed someone" with no authentication of evidence, and at the same time lets the accused people wander around in their country. That is, the law does not match their actions. By rereleasing people on bail Canada seems to be saying we don't take the accusation from the States very seriously. Okay. But what if the U.S. DOES have authenticated evidence against a person. And no one has taken the time to examine it. Then there might be something for which a person needs to be extradited. Before more crimes happen.

What I mean here is that no one but the prosecutors in South Dakota know what type of evidence is held against Graham, and even though various independent journalists etc have claimed to hear confessions, tapes and the like, no Canadian courts have truly reviewed the evidence. Thus, they really don't know what/who they are dealing with.

So. What all this means is that I still support the fight against extradition and believe that Canada needs to be more accountable to their citizens AND the concerns of her neighbors. If a person is accused of murder, the courts should be examining that accusation IMMEDIATELY. NOT releasing someone on bail for endless months/years.That means the law needs to be changed. To require examination of charges/evidence against anyone. And that is what Graham's appeal is designing.



2. about Annie Mae's letter. It came to me a few years ago via Paul Demain, a reliable source in these matters. A journalist with an honorable history of investigating the murder of Annie Mae. I have not heard from Demain that he now claims it to be false. Still. I have suggested for those still wondering, to contact Demain directly.

Or perhaps find family/close friends of Annie Mae who may have copies of her handwriting. And i am certainly willing to compare the writing. With my copy. I myself believe it is a true letter and yet would certainly welcome the opportunity to compare/share thoughts on this.

Also, it has come to me that one of Annie Mae's daughters read the letter a couple years ago. She did not dispute that her mom wrote it. If any more info comes to me about the letter, I will post it here.


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Meantime, closing in on everyone is the 30 year mark of Annie Mae's murder. Honoring her words. Her wild young committment to Indian sovereignty. Is the way. I will spend the next 2 weeks. Also. Imagining that more of her writings/letters come to us. So we can know the woman FROM HER OWN WORDS. Not the dead icon saint martyr reality to which her memory sometimes gets fed. Like the beast that eats women who are strong. The wrong here is in forgetting the woman herself.

For nothing quenches thirst like the watersongs of truth. In her letter she talks of being happy. During those radical years we knew were doing something "right" if the system bothered to track us down. We were glad to make them crazy pissed and felt a sense of family in it. Like that. Somehow now. Years later. The toxic air will clear. To breathe. To save the roots of any medicine alive. As Annie Mae can be known. For all the things she did. And was. Not buried beneath all the talk. Of all the people. Who never could protect her well enough.

There is just this way she was. Watersongs that become the flowers over all the graves of death walk. Still bittersweet inside the talk of justice. Is there anthing but Sun rising to set to rise again? To pull the ocean tides inside sometimes truth is the turn around. The other day a 10 year nephew asked me, "if the Earth is always spinning why aren't we?" My reply. "We are. Feel it. We are part of the whole dance." He smiled deep. Relaxing into the reality that we are all in this together.

antoinette nora claypoole
copyright 2005
All People are One

official extradition policies from Dept. of Justice, Canada

for those who want to know the facts of extradition, here is a document
solicited from the Chris Girouard, Dept. of Justice, Canada. CGirouard@justice.gc.ca

Fact Sheet

Canada’s extradition Process
Request from the United States


PROVISIONAL ARREST

The United States may make a request for the provisional arrest for a person who is wanted to stand trial for the extradition of sentence or the enforcement of a sentence already imposed upon the person. Extradition can only be granted for conduct which constitutes an offence punishable by the laws of Canada and which is punishable in both countries by a term of imprisonment exceeding one year.

Upon arrest, the person will be brought before a judge. This person is entitled to a bail hearing.

The United States has 60 days from the date of provisional arrest to provide Canada with its formal request for extradition and supporting documents.

Counsel with the International Assistance Group, on behalf of the Minister of Justice, must determine within 30 days after the deadline for the receipt of the request and supporting documents, whether an Authority to proceed will be issued.

The Authority to proceed authorizes an extradition hearing to be held to consider whether the arrested person should be committed for extradition.

Counsels with the Federal Prosecution Service have carriage of cases on behalf of the United States. They initiate and conduct proceedings before a judge of the court of jurisdiction to seek an order of committal for extradition.

(IF SOUGHT TO STAND TRIAL)

At the extradition hearing, the judge determines if the evidence provided by the United States is such that the person would be committed for trial in Canada if the conduct had occurred in this country.

(IF SOUGHT FOR THE IMPOSITION OR ENFORCEMENT OF SENTENCE)

At the extradition hearing, the judge determines if the conviction was in respect of conduct that would be punishable in Canada.

If the presiding judge is satisfied with the evidence, he or she will order the person detained or dictate bail conditions pending the decision of the Minister of Justice on surrender. Otherwise, the person is discharged and released.

The judicial phase of the extradition process is a determination only that the evidence is sufficient to warrant that the person be extradited. It is not a trial. If the person is wanted for prosecution, a trial will take place in the United States, if surrender is ordered.

HERE IS WHERE WE ARE NOW IN THE SCHEME OF THINGS
JOHN GRAHAM is now awaiting an appeal hearing.
The date has NOT been set yet.
His case has NOT GONE to the Minister of Justice, back east, for a final decision.
According to Girouard, the Minister Justice HAS NOT ruled on the case of John Graham, yet.

John Graham will have a hearing in
Vancouver which appeals the constitutional legality of this entire extradtion process.
AFTER his appeal his case goes to Minister of Justice.

Here are the rest of the procedures:
(from the original document sent by GIrourard)


The Minister of Justice makes the ultimate decision with respect to whether the person will be surrendered to the United States.

At this phase of the process, commonly referred to as the executive or ministerial phase, the Minister will receive submissions from the person committed for extradition or counsel with respect to why he or she should not be surrendered, or concerning any conditions that should be attached to that surrender.

The person may appeal the decision of the extradition judge and/or apply for judicial review of the Minister’s decision to a Court of appeal.

If the appellate court upholds the decision of the judge and the Minister, the person may seek leave to appeal either or both decisions to the Supreme Court of Canada.

The above does not take into account the possibility for any person to waive all or part of the extradition process.

October 2001

Graham Bail extended to June 2006

As you read this blog, educating yourself on the facts and designs of John Graham as accused murderer of Annie Mae, create your own opinions about who and how and why. Start this process of self knowing by reading ANNIE MAE herself. www.anniemaeletter.blogspot.com. Read this letter she wrote from a jail cell, thirty years ago, just before she disappeared. Then read the rest. Of all this complicated brutal reality.
antoinette
nov. 28, 2005

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And so just as the defense had hoped. A one hit wonder of a bail review. This morning John Graham surrendered to Canada, at 9 am. To be released within the hour, his bail extended until June 23, 2006. Unless his appeal hearing is scheduled earlier. He would then be required to "surrender" to the courts. On the appeal date. Robert Robideau, with whom I spoke following the ruling this morning, said "It is frustrating. For all of us who want to see resolve in her murder. Annie Mae was a member of our group, Northwest AIM. I feel personally responsible for seeing that this case comes to trial".

Still. The news of Graham's easy bail extension is obviously like the tempermental November skies. Much more complicated than appears.

Graham's "Freedom" depends on various timelines/dates being met. (none of which involved the Minister of Justice in Ottawa, at this time). Consider.....the notes below. Are from a series of phone conversations I had today with various Court "officials", including the Court of Appeals in Vancouver, B.C. and Chris Girouard, Media Relations with the Dept. of Justice in Ottawa.

1. by Nov. 14th, 2005 Graham's defense must present an argument regarding his appeal. The Crown ( prosecutor) than has 30 days to present THEIR argument. At that time an actual appeal hearing DATE will be set.

2. On whatever date that appeal is scheduled to ocurr, Graham will be required to surrender and his current bail extension will be null and void. That is, if the appeal date is BEFORE June 23, 2006 Graham will be required to surrender to Canada.

3. The appeal will be heard by three judges who may rule THAT day regarding the legality of Graham's extradition. AT which time the committal order would sit with the Minister of Justice for final approval. However, the judges may choose to way for unlimited amount of time, to rule. Whether Graham is AGAIN released on bail is determined at that time.

4. Minister of Justice, to whom Annie Mae's daughter suggests people write, will not rule on the case until the all of the above events happen.

5. all this means that if people want resolve in this case, they might consider contacting the Crown in Vancouver, B.C. and encourage a speedy ruling once the date is set.

By Dec. 14th we should know when the appeal hearing will happen.
But what none of us know is whether or not John Graham will in fact be free unitil June 23, 2006. There is a chance, if the Crown pushes for speedy appeal, that the hearing would happen sooner and destiny be written differently.

All the need and desire for resolve in this case rests with how effectively AND quickly judges decide the legality of an appeal. Remember. This is NOT sitting with the Minister Justice yet. Contacting his office might be like playing telephone with the power out. However.

A group in Ottawa, assisting with international extradtion IS acting as liason in cases like this, the ARE aware of the Graham case and might in fact welcome comments/questions. According to Chris Girouard of Canadian Dept. of Justice "all extradition goes through the international assistance group. We all work under the same umbrella".

When I move away from this Portland Oregon public library into a place where the clock is not ticking me away, I will post a link with phone number/email to this int'l group. They just might be the place where people with desire to comment on the extradition of John Graham can be heard. And. I know no Canadian court can really create a trial for John Graham. Imagining justice is just so impossible. Still. When does the world shift away from notions of consequence to motions of balance.

Perhaps some international extradtion fairness group can pull clouds away from this quarter moon night. Or decode events which keep so many in this haze of uncertainty. Meantime, I do wonder, seriously about a goverment who allows accused murderers to keep wandering about the city. Yes. It is house arrest. But most unsettling still. To imagine how a person accused of murder. And all involved must feel. Time so long between what appears to be freedom and what so quickly became death. Bails extended into what seems like eternity. How do they serve the truth?


&*&*&*&*&
copyright 2005
antoinette nora claypoole
All People are One.

Annie Mae's words....if not extradited, a trial where?

Here. A LINK to aa letter supposedly written by Annie Mae.
In November 1975.
Perhaps reading it can help.....

Some people want John Graham extradited to the United States.
To establish his guilt or innocence in the murder of Annie Mae Pictou Aquash. Others of us feel that a trial in the U.S. would prove to be nothing more than a collection of hearsay he said she saids set up by government agents who still hate the American Indian Movement. So. What is left to do? Either support Annie Mae’s family and call for Graham’s extradition. Or support Graham and his supporters in their claim that his extradition is illegal and unfair.
Yet. in my mind in heart there is yet a third action people can take.

Read Annie Mae's own words. Do the the math. Educate yourselves on dates and times. Silver rings and friends in the night. Make your own decisions. Based on some things Annie Mae writes. From a jail cell. Not long before she "disappeared". Here. An offering from Annie Mae.

BlogThis!
Annie Mae (Naguset Eask, Sun Woman)
Saturday, November 05, 2005
Letter Written in November 1975
(Please Note: This letter came to me about 4 years ago. I have kept it within a manila envelope, wondering when/how to share it with others. As this weekend presses against many maybe Annie Mae’s own words can put things into a necessary perspective. I assume it is a legitimate letter, as the source was reliable, and the copy from which I typed here, was of the handwritten original. I have NOT made any spelling changes, nor changed the format of Annie Mae’s letter in any way). a.claypoole 11.5.05.

Letter by Annie Mae (Aquash)
November, 1975


Hello my family,

It is wonderful to write to you. I am actually pleased to be able to take the time to write to you all. I love you all very much. I am happy and doing fine. 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) The goddam state patrolemen almost shit their pants-They almost shot Kamook & baby. She had to roll out of the patroleman’s line of fire with baby-just 3 weeks from delivery too.


Page two

Of course they try to impress the public that they did not know and do not mention it in their report. But anyone 3 weeks from delivery is certainly going to be big and obvious especially 10’ from a glaring spotlight-coming out with hand up and facing barrel of a shotgun and then being forced to lay on ground after reaching for baby. And that fucker knew about the baby because not only did he see the baby but the baby was screaming when he started firing directly at us. This is my only chance to swear at those bastard chicken-shit fuckers. My letter is going out through my lawyer and it will be the last uncensored letter I can write out so I am taking advante of it . After this all my letters will be read-going out & coming in. I would appreciate a personal hello to Ernie & Mark for me. And all my friends. I am already thinking of all sorts of games to pass the time away (like the moccasin game) One disadvantage of cutting my hair was-the patrolman that made me & others lay face down on highway kept referring to me as “feller.” That insidious son of a bitch-if I was a feller-he would have know it for sure. They are of course going crazy in Oregon-They haven’t had anything violent or vicious to do –(that they can justify, anyway) for at least 6 years, other than deny the poor, pick on drunks and refer to the Spanish as “wetbacks.” They’ve been sitting around hating other states and growing wrinkles. The 2 patroleman were claiming that they got shot at-“I can hear the bullets whiz right by my head!”, yelling into radio they became famous and brave overnight. That baby had more guts than they did. They are (words unreadable)


Page three

how they treat us here in Washington. There is a big Indian support group here. But I’m sure that as soon as I return to South Dakota I will be harrased. I am expecting some surprises there. They did not charge Kamook or I in the Oregon incident. But we are waiting for something sneaky. The FBI walk around with mirrors on their shoes in Oregon. They really watch their ass’s (Ha, Ha) The State Patrol are naturally running around in confusion (like a chicken slaughter house scene) no heads. Being inferior to the FBI of course and then the U.S. Marshalls acting so diplomatic. And since we are in the custody of the U.S. Marshalls the Co. jail we are in are looking like a bunch of nuns and priests trying to impress the Pope who just flew in from the Vatican. These “enemy” are sure fucked up. Well so much for that. This jail is so cold I am sitting at this table with a blanket wrapped around me. We have a broken window that they tried to patch up but the winds are strong today. It dropped to 15 degrees last nite and I’m sure it colder today. On our way over here yesterday I had the opportunity to gaze upon Mt. Hood. What a beautiful sight. Got to sign off-lawyer to take letter out.

Love forever
Annie Mae (Aquash)
“Naguset Eask”



Contact Canadian authorities, as suggested by Annie Mae’s family.
But request that if Graham is not extradited, he be given A TRIAL IN CANADA.
Is that even an option?

in the Heart the mind decides....Rapid City trial looms

LETTER FROM JOHN GRAHAM (while under house arrest)
November 2, 2005

To All My Friends and Supporters:

I would like to take this time to extend greetings to you and am hoping this letter finds you happy and healthy.

First I want to say thank you from myself and family to all of you out there that have been supporting me. Your support has all helped my family and myself in getting through this ordeal. From the time of my arrest up to the present, family, friends and good people from all over have stepped forward and offered their support in one form or another.

For helping get the word out about what has been happening, I thank family and very close personal friends. Thanks to everyone who took the time to write immediate letters of support or make phone calls and e-mails to the right people on my behalf. This aided me in my getting bail. I am grateful for all those family members and close friends who managed to come up with property and cash to secure my bail even though I have no criminal record. I was put on a very short leash (house arrest) and am not allowed, other than for legal reasons or a medical emergency, to leave the house. I am not allowed to work even though my employer was more than willing to employ me and has work for me.

Throughout all of this so far the experience has taught me valuable lessons about true friendships and for this I will always be grateful to all of you who have stepped forward - thank you.

I would like at this time to ask you all for your continued support and efforts to stop this extradition. Letters to the Federal Justice Minister are important at this time requesting that he request full disclosure on several matters in the USA’s summary of evidence. At this time, only the Justice Minister has the ability to demand disclosure. All Canadians should be concerned that the Extradition Act 1999 disregards and dismisses Canadian Sovereignty and our Canadian Constitutional rights and allows the United States to seek and be granted extradition on the basis of hearsay and other evidence that does not meet the legal standard to warrant a trial in Canadian Courts. Again, I thank you for your continued support with your letters to the Justice Minister and copies to the Prime Minister as well your local member of parliament.
I would also ask that you visit our Website www.grahamdefense.org and sign our online petition to stop this abuse of process. I thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

John Graham



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Today some inside Indian Country are wondering, awfully, about Monday, Nov. 7th.
And everyone is now being called to help decide the fate.

Though John Graham and his supporters consider, as do I, an extradition stateside a dog and pony show reminiscent of corrupt Cointelpro times..there is an essential question which resounds in my mind and etches intself into my heart:

If Graham does NOT come to the states, where IS the trial which deals clearly with the accusations made about his involvement in Annie Mae's death????

Is there talk of a trial in Canada? Not that I can hear. Only the echoes of unfairness and sovereignty. But nothing speaking to the resolve Annie Mae and her family deserve. In this brutal mess. How can we be asked to guess as to her last days? Does Graham say, "give me a trial in my own country". Is that what his letter (posted below) suggests? I can't find that request. Yet I so hoped to find such. And I feel deeply that Anna Mae's people deserve some answers. Again. To the Graham supporters: Where is the trial, if not in Rapid?

So. This is the hard place where I live. In all this. Like cave dwelling during the deluge. I seek answers to how we survive. Times of such complex betrayals. And I believe together we can undo what governments have tried to slay. Still. The dark of day looms. And the letters from both families design haunting petroglyphs. Consider.......

Annie Mae's family/daughters have, themselves, created a call for help. They delivered, via a webpage created by Jordan Dill, a plea on Nov. 3, 2005 asking for Graham to be sent south (click to view). Even as John Graham himself wrote a letter to his supporters the day before (Nov. 2, 2005), after many months of silence. Asking for letter writing regarding Canadian sovereignty. With all this, still, the entire outcome is clouded. (see end of this entry for copies of these letters).

As the haunting of Annie Mae's murder continues, quite unresolved. As so many wonder whether her accused murderer will stand trial in Rapid City. Will a judge in Vancouver, British Columbia rule to send John Graham south? The uncertainty unnerving.

The question really is, simply, will a Canadian court find it essential to delay Graham's extradition. Based on an appeal his attorney has created. Claiming that Canadian extradition laws are illegal and deserve to be challenged. Will a judge say " let the guy fly around Vancouver while the legalities of extradition are discussed" OR will s/he rule that enough time has been bought. That a trial about Graham's supposed involvement in Annie Mae's murder must now go forward.

How can the fates of so many families rest in the mind of one person?

Like a storm looming, once again, over the Olympic peninsula, the truth in all of this seems horribly elusive. And a phone call to Vancouver finds that silence seems to be the mantra of the day. Neither Defense Committee members nor attorney are talking much about this upcoming court date.What I could snag is that it appears that Monday is a one hit wonder. No one expects there to be a series of hearings next week. Monday is it. John Graham is up for "bail review". According to his attorney's office.

That is legal talk for deciding whether the "house arrest" bail under which Graham has been living will be continued. While an appeal is presented/created. Will the courts deny an extension of Graham's current bail conditions? Will he be sent south to be tried for the murder of Anna Mae Pictou-Aquash. A woman, his friend, who disappeared 29 years ago this month. A woman he drove to Rapid City and claims to have never seen again. How will anyone know if no one speaks of this again. And so decide to write someone. About all this. Together we can make voice an honoring song. Long. And into the night.

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copyright 2005
All People Are One
antoinette nora claypoole
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LETTER FROM ANNIE MAE'S FAMILY

The Maloney Pictou Family asks for Support to insure the Extradition of John Graham

November 3, 2005

Annie Mae Pictou Murdered mother, sister, woman, human and native rights advocate who was viciously beaten, raped and then executed.

Annie Mae Pictou Aquash was a member of the Mi’kmaq Nation from Nova Scotia, Canada. A dedicated womens’ and native rights activist, she traveled in the early 1970s’to South Dakota to participate in taking a stand in defending the rights of indigenous people who could not help themselves. Her dedication and ability to stand strong in the face of adversity eventually would get her taken out and executed. Because she questioned the actions and morality of a few individuals it was decided that she no longer needed to have a voice and did not deserve the right to live.

In the last few days of her life Annie Mae suffered indignities no human being or woman should ever have to suffer. Her murderers have walked free for 29 years.


In March 2003, the United States Department of Justice indicted, one of two suspects, Arlo Looking Cloud. Looking Cloud was tried and convicted by a jury in Rapid City, South Dakota of First Degree Murder on February 6th, 2004. A second suspect arrested December 1st, 2003 and charged with murder is John Graham a.k.a. John Boy Patton. In December 2004 Graham was brought before a B.C. supreme court Judge for an extradition trial. On February 21st 2005, Judge Bennett ruled that John Graham should be extradited to the United States to stand trial in his involvement in the Murder of Annie Mae Pictou Aquash. He currently waits out on bond with restrictions for Justice Minster Irwin Cotlers final decision on surrender.


We are asking for a letter of support to be sent to Justice Minister Irwin Cotler asking for the timely surrender of John Graham to the United States. We are at a critical stage in this travesty and need your voice and words, in support of ours, addressing the Canadian Government in knowing that after waiting for 29 years we will no longer accept delays in allowing this severe violation and neglect of human rights to continue.


The Honourable Irwin CotlerMinister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada
284 Wellington Street
Ottawa, OntarioCanada
K1A 0H8
Email: The Honourable Irwin Cotler

Please send a copy of your correspondance for our files as well to: Denise Pictou-Maloney

In memory of our Mother, Sister, and Aunt, The Maloney Pictou Family





wandering

...inside her eyes the shade of river tasted spring....

entire blog written, created, breathed with heart
for Anna Mae Pictou Aquash
and all who died at Pine Ridge during the Reign of Terror, 1970's
by antoinette nora claypoole

Intro

John Graham was arrested in Dec. 2003, accused of murdering his friend and fellow member of the American Indian Movement, Anna Mae Pictou Aquash. Annie Mae had been threatened by the FBI, was an active leader and had been arrested for "running weapons"--released without bail-- at one point soon before she was found executed in Feb. 1976.

Graham is the second of two Indian men accused of killing Annie Mae. The other, Arlo Looking Cloud, has been sentenced to life in prison after a trial which last 3 1/2 days in Rapid City, South Dakota, Feb. 2004. He was convicted based on hearsay evidence. Currently he is appealing his sentence and has retracted his original statement that John Graham killed Annie Mae.

The case is complex. This blog intends to encourage people to think for themselves. I offer information which comes to me, with a bias toward believing that people are innocent until proven otherwise. AND that nothing is what it seems to be. In these times.

contact info:
1257 siskiyou blvd. #180
ashland, or. 97520
antoinettenora@yahoo.com

FOUR WAYS TO NAVIGATE ALL THE John Graham EXTRADITION PAGES:
... you can scroll down and read from most recent post to the very first entry
... find the table of contents at the end of this section ( a work in progress)
... read and click on links in the following few paragraphs
... click here for access to other work by me, created as a result of these events

OVERVIEW
Over the months until John Graham has to appear in court again (Nov. 2005) I'll be adding things which keep people's hearts, minds awake. To the ravages of Time. And how we can collectively heal. Through love and respect of self and other. Becoming, in this way, One.

If you are new to these pages, you might want to read a piece by me, antoinette nora claypoole, as an overview/commentary on the events surrounding the arrest of John Graham. It can be found here.... America's Addiction to Lynching Indians.

CURRENT SUMMARY
The hearings to extradite John Graham to the United States from British Columbia, Canada began in December 2004. They continued into late February 2005. Synchronistically right around the time Annie Mae's body was found, 29 years ago.

At that time, Feb. 21, 2005, the Canadian Government ruled to send John Graham to the U.S. to be tried in Rapid City, South Dakota. Graham's attorney, Terry LaLiberte, plans an appeal to that ruling and John Graham was set free on bail, under house arrest, from March 2005 until November 7, 2005. He has to return to court then. To see what the powers that be will provide. Next.


TABLE OF CONTENTS

a work in progress........

Please note: some of these pieces were written as part of my coverage of the hearings for KPFK Pacifica Radio, Los Angeles. A far-out public radio station committed to covering issues other media won't touch. Including the trials of former members of the American Indian Movement.


"Star stitching...back in the States"


links to recent blogs:
"The Place Where Spirits are Eaten" ...Feb. 24, 2005
for Anna Mae Pictou Aquash

"Twisted Bend in the Road: Graham Extradition"....Feb. 21, 2005
"Glass Box Realities: Graham freed on Bail"....March 2, 2005

Back in the States
March 5, 2005

After covering these hearings over the past three months--broadcasting periodic updates on KPFK, Pacifica Radio Los Angeles--only one thing is clear to me. That the process of naming someone guilty in the murder of Anna Mae remains one of the most difficult and painful realities of these times in Indian Country. And that the entire process reflects one of the most difficult and painful events to have emerged from the turbulent and revolutionary 1970's.

My coverage of these events has been intended to inspire justice. For all. Yes. Somewhat corny a paraphrase from the allegiance credo.

But a patriot I am at heart.

I believe in the original manifesto of the Thirteen Colonies. Written with the assitance of the Iroquois Nation. Because some of those founders are in my blood. The Claypoole brothers were part of why America became who she is. Those renegades sailed from oppressive England to the new world in the late 1600's. To become key players in the Revolutionary War.

One of them ended up married to Betsy Ross. Ah yes the star stitcher. Her husband, Claypoole's best friend, died in jail for being a revolutionary. Claypoole married her as a favor to his friend. These guys were in the Revolution. And I believe their quest for democracy and freedom lives within me.

What IS the flag I fly in all of this? Allegiance ???? It's "Indivisible." My entries and coverage. With the dream of " liberty and justice for all". I mean...it's a DNA thing.

antoinette nora claypoole
All People are One
copyright 2005

Graham released from jail...into custody of his daughter

link to March 2, 2005 Glass Box Realities: Graham freed on Bail

PLEASE NOTE: None of my writings in this blog are affiliated with nor intend to be"endorsed" by The John Graham Defense Committee. This blog is a "rant". Ideas and events presented are meant to inspire creative, free thinking in the heart and mind of the readers. That is, this blog is meant to encourage readers to discover their own truths about the murder of Annie Mae Pictou Aquash.

Family time
Vancouver, B.C.

Naneek is a brave young woman who will be responsible for the whereabouts of her father, John Graham. Her resolve and spirited committment to his well-being is an inspiration to anyone who meets her. From now until Nov. 7 Naneek Bear Graham will be living with her father, keeping him under "house arrest". This is a huge and loving task. Keeping Dad from jail while being clear that it is resources from family which will keep him going. Not only will Graham being unable to take a job but under the conditions of bail he is restricted to very little activity beyond the confines of Naneek's apartment.

Most of Graham's time will obviously be spent with family. Baby sitting his granddaughter perhaps. Or helping Naneek stay clear and focused on her college studies.

House arrest or not the Graham family waited all day to greet John Graham and were all very grateful that he will not spend more nights in prison. While his appeal is being compiled the hope is that Canadian sentiment against America will crystallize to a point where Graham will never be sent into the racist zone of South Dakota. Gemstones of hope live within the Graham family this day.

antoinette nora claypoole
All People are One
copyright 2005

John Graham will be free on bail tomorrow...March 3...until Nov. 7, 2005 if all goes as planned....

Glass Box Realities: John Graham freed on Bail
March 2, 2005
Vancouver, British Columbia
by antoinette nora claypoole


"I Chief Te Kapilano of the Squamish Nation exercise my inherent right from the Creator, I issue a Royal Decree for John Graham (Shad leetz):

1. Chief Te Kapilano state that John Graham (Sahd leetz) is under my terrirorial protection and trust.....

5. John Graham (Shad leetz) has assured me, he is not a flight risk and wants to see truth and justice prevail for Annie Mae Pcitou Maloney Aquash

6. To assure this Chief Te Kapilano exercise my inherent right from the Creator, to call for a Tribunal to be conducted to look at all apsects of this extradition case.

---- Chief Jerry Kapilano, Squamish nation
excerpts from an affadavit filed in Canadian court March 2, 2005


There is an eerie quiet that comes over places when the sun goes down. Flocks of crows gather here in Vancouver at twilight. The Squamish land of the North Shore peaked with snow. While crows push through to some place of repose. For awhile. Things like a Friendship Center drum and song from another time and place fill up the night. All this helps pass the time as family and friends wait for the release of John Graham.

Which will be tomorrow, March 3, 2005. As long as a promised signature arrives at the courthouse.

Tonight Graham awaits the final paperwork to be filed by one of his assurities, Jennifer Wade of Amnesty Int’l. She is the last of four people to "sign on"—just as they have this past year--taking responsibility for "watching over" Graham while he lives under house arrest. Wade did not arrive at the courthouse yesterday to sign and does not plan to go downtown until later this afternoon. This last signature is essential for Graham's release. Once Wade signs on, Graham bail terms will be similar to those of the past year.

House arrest, check in with authorities--twice a week instead of everyday AND to a more "official" spot. . Graham until now was required to go the police station. He'll now have something like a "probation officer". One of the few demands the prosecution attained in this hour long bail hearing. Graham still has limited provisions for doing much more than staying at home. No work, only a visit, three days a week, "to the gym". How 21st century we have become.

Grahams bail was approved in what was at times a tense and uncertain court hearing. Still, in the end the Judge ruled in favor of release. Jail is only an overnight stay. He will eventually be released to the home of his big-hearted daughter who moved to Vancouver from the Yukon to support her Dad through this. .

Terry LaLiberte, Graham's defense Counsel, said today in the courthouse lobby: "I gave him some prison songs to sing. While he is waiting for tomorrow". Everyone laughed with that sense of bittersweet relief that comes from such things as "free" on "bail". Graham will be released and does not need to appear in court again until Nov. 7, 2005. At which time the court will review the status of his appeal of extradition to the U.S.

As Graham was lead away from the courtroom this morning, he sensed that his release would be imminent. All along his counsel, Terry LaLiberte was "cautiously optimistic" about Graham being granted bail in the form of house arrest. While he awaits what promises to be a very long, thorough, appeal process. Graham’s sister Joan, whose prayers were with both Graham and the Pictou family, was not surprised when a Judge ruled to release Graham on bail later in the day. "The Creator is watching over my brother. I know this".

As Graham was lead away from the courtroom this morning, he sensed that his release would be imminent. All along his counsel, Terry LaLiberte was "cautiously optimistic" about Graham being granted bail in the form of house arrest. While he awaits what promises to be a very long, thorough, appeal process. Graham’s sister Joan, whose prayers were with both Graham and the Pictou family, was not surprised when a Judge ruled to release Graham on bail later in the day. "The Creator is watching over my brother. I know this".

And as Sheriff security took Graham to a holding facility this morning, Graham turned to the half filled courtroom and confidently flashed the peace sign. With arm raised in the air. It was as though, for a moment, the strength of another era overtook the place. Chief Jerry Kapilano was seated in the courtroom, supporting Graham and proud to have offered an affidavit in support of Graham’s release.


As the appeal process begins, more people surface in support of repealing the Canadian Extradition Act come forward. Charles Boylan, reporter/commentator for CFRO 102.7 FM "Co-op Radio" in Vancouver, B.C. believes that the current Extradition Act "denies Canadian sovereignty and bows to the bullying of the U.S". Much of the emergent support for Graham’s appeal was boosted last week when the presiding Judge over Graham’s extradition hearings-- Madame Justice Elizabeth Bennett—presented her decision. She explained that "certain evidence {from the U.S.} is not satisfactory; their sources are not justified".

According to the new Extradition Act of 1999 Bennett was restrained from any ruling based on evidence presented. Still, there are two other cases pending in the Canadian Supreme Court of Ottawa. Which claim similar problems as those which exist with the Graham case. That is, the denial of constitutional rights in regards to extradition to the U.S.

In the uncertain halls of a glass roofed court building family, friends and supporters will continue to wait for the release of John Graham. From the grasps of a justice system trying to be just. Although some mainstream media reported today that Graham was "incarcerated", few seem to ever take the story to it’s proper reality.

What this all means is that try as the United States has, John Graham has the fair and clear right as a Canadian citizen to NOT be incarcerated while his appeal is being built. "It was the only common gesture that COULD be done" says Counsel Terry LaLiberte regarding the ruling this afternoon.

Still. In Canada the accused sits alone. In the courtroom. The defendant is NOT seated next to their Counsel, as happens in the States. Rather, s/he is placed in the center of the court in a wood and "glass" box booth. Awaiting statements about truth. From Barristers and Crowns. The old colonizer world hovers over BOTH man made borders of North America. This morning Graham sat in that glass box which flanks Canadian courtrooms. Seeing him there felt like one of those stark winter twilights out near the Black Hills. Where his life took a hard turn as Graham helped his friend Annie Mae find a "safe house". What a concept. Safe. Seems like no matter where people find themselves there is that old Jackson Browne song which tries to haunt through all of this. "In the end there is one dance we do alone". The threat of jail continues to loom. Perhaps for many years. As the appeal date for John Graham will not entirely begin until October, 2005. Another road on this journey has barely just begun.

Still. Graham is to be released tomorrow. Like those flocks of crows coming together at twilight, gathering ways to keep from being extradited to the U.S. will take an enclave of strong hearts and minds. Here in Canada that support for John Graham is already happening.


antoinette nora claypoole
All People are One
copyright 2005







from Vancouver, B. C.


covers events leading up to the Rapid City, S. Dakota, John Graham Murder Trial, Oct. 6, 2009 including....

"In Sound Proof Rooms"
dedicated to Anna Mae Aquash (1945-1975/6)
by antoinette nora claypoole
written in Aug. 2008
photo: "NW AIM, circa 1972" photographer unknown


"My eyes drift like a death walk.

Back into the heartbeat of a Pacific Northwest audience. An event myself and local activists organized: “Apartheid in America”.

One night that late winter weekend International Treaty Council person Tom LaBlanc brought an 8mm flick up from San Francisco. It was called “Brave Hearted Woman” and there I heard Annie Mae’s name.

Saw her death in the eyes of all of us, like headlights on an Oregon highway which Robert Robideau still claims 'did her in. That November (1975) bust here in Oregon was her death sentence, antoinette' ". read complete piece


home

Graham extradtion will be appealed

Twisted Bends in the Road: John Graham to be extradited
by antoinette nora claypoole
Feb. 21, 2005
Vancouver, British Columbia

"They were going to surrender, now they decided to go to war"
--Terry La Liberte, atty for John Graham

This morning in a packed and emotional courtroom Judge Bennett ruledthat John Graham was to be extradited to the United States. Perhaps this was not a surprise to most. But there was one very odd twist to the story. Or maybe even two.

Like a rock thrown through the glassed courtyard of a legal system security squad,the hopes for Graham's release were shattered this past weekend. LaLiberte explained to the Judge and the courtroom that the Dept of Justice contacted him "late Friday" with a change of agreement. He explains: "they were going to surrender, but now they decided to go to war". The defense was told that the Dept of Justice " will be opposing the release of John Graham on house arrest bail".

That is, at "the eleventh hour" the Dept. of Justice notified LaLiberte that all prior arrangements for the bail of John Graham were rendered null and void. And it took LaLiberte by surprise. With this change of position, John Graham and his defense team requested and were allowed an extension until March 2. Time to prepare appeal briefs. But on that date Graham will be taken into custody under NEW bail terms. The prosecution AND the United States Attorney in South Dakota do NOT want Graham free while he awaits appeal. NO news here.

The appeal is inevitable and will be based on "constitutional rights"....Do they exist?

And then another eery irony, a splintered destiny. Is enacted. Like a Shakespeare tragedy. Or rather, a colonizer history book. After quoting case law after case law the Judge explained that hearsay evidence IS admissable in this extradition, and that though it appears most of what the United States has IS just that "hearsay "--Graham's identity was confirmed and he must now attend trial in the United States. Based on a very key witness. Repeatedly the Judge mentioned John Trudell as providing " pivotal testimony" in her decision.

She singled out the identity proof Trudell provided at the time of Graham's arrest. And emphasized that Trudell's testimony at the Looking Cloud trial impressed her as sufficient to extradite Graham. As some people realize, Trudell's story was based on something Looking Cloud told Trudell late one night in a hotel room. Was Looking Cloud coherent? Was he loaded and saying random things like people do when they are using? The story was "told", after all, late at night after a Trudell spoken word gig in Denver....."He said she said he did..."

But why did I say irony???

Because over 10 years ago Trudell himself was accused of murdering Annie Mae Pictou. Trudell was doing a poetry reading in Albuquerque. When Robert Robideau disrupted a crowd with accusations of murder toward Trudell. Again. Back in the 1990's Robideau left the reading and Trudell then talked about Annie Mae.In good way. According to a witness who gave me the story from way back then. According to this "anonymous source" Trudell explained to the audience that "...this is what they do to us. Try to get one against the other. Divide and conquer. Annie Mae was my friend. I had nothing to do with her murder". Trudell. The person who dealt with being accused of being a part of murdering his friend. Is the same guy who said-- after his Looking Cloud testimony which indicted Graham--that he "supports John Graham fighting extradition because Graham will NEVER receive a fair trial in South Dakota".

Trudell. Is that same person. Who is pivotal today in sending Graham away. Accusing Graham of the very thing someone accused him of. So long ago.And still. To some of us Trudell looks like he is part of a childhood game. Telephone.A story is told. It goes around the circle. He. Reciting the Looking Cloud story as HE heard it. From Looking Cloud. By the time the story comes out on a witness stand circumstances are NOT what they started out to be.

Though an appeal for John Graham is in the making, the likelihood of winning that move is one which could be years down the road. The outcome as vague and elusive as the "truth" about who executed Annie Mae. As brutally unclear as the dark events which preceded the finding of Annie Mae's body. 29 years ago this week. The truth appears like a meteor falling into a British Columbian fog banked harbor. Always eluding us. Like family buried in a mass grave.

The daughters of Annie Mae were NOT in Vancouver today. But their first cousin on the Maloney side was there. April Maloney tells a story. "Yes. I remember Annie Mae. I was a little girl. The last thing I remember about her. She stubbed her toe. And she sure was mad. I remember how upset she was about that. After she was killed I remember being scared. Because I saw that picture of her hands inside a jar" .

Someone put them there for a reason. I say. In my heart. Does anyone else feel horror of betrayal? The way Annie Mae did the day she was shot?? How could they.

antoinette nora claypoole
Prayer to all families impacted by these events
.All people are One.

copyright 2005.

DECISION to be issued on February 21, 2005

The word in the heat is that no one knows for certain if John Graham will be taken back into custody by British Columbia. On Monday morning. Feb. 21st. A decision in what clearly seems to be one of many in this case will be handed down at 9 am at the courthouse.

If the court rules YES, there WILL be an appeal. But will they take Graham back to jail??? LaLiberte's office seems to be as unclear about this as any of us are. For the entire case is precident setting. The rules are as new as Patriot Act provisions in the dark haze of a midnite bust. The beat goes on.

I WILL post the decision here on Monday. Together with a rant about the air in British Columbia. Border patrol willing.

All people Are one.
antoinette nora claypoole.
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