Opinion

Tim Giago: Propaganda gets in the way of facts in Indian Country

Monday, March 21, 2016

Social Media keeping hate alive!

Allowing propaganda to get in the way of the facts
By Tim Giago
Editor Emeritus
Native Sun News
www.nsweekly.com

Oftentimes the total lack of knowledge when it comes to offsetting the propaganda spread by the American Indian Movement over the years is puzzling and disturbing and even more so with the easy access to social media.

Staff writer Richie Richards wrote a strong story about the death of Anna Mae Pictou Aquash and when it was posted on Indianz.com and on our website some of the comments posted by AIM supporters bordered on the preposterous.

Instead of looking realistically at the drastic act of murder and violence for what it was some supporters attempted to justify the murder of Anna Mae by making false accusations against former U. S. Marshall Robert Ecoffey by calling him a goon.

Ecoffey was one of the chief investigators in solving the murder of Aquash. He was the first Native American ever appointed to serve as a U. S. Marshall. The fact that he eventually married the ex-wife of Dennis Banks does not make him a goon. And Kamook Ecoffey became disillusioned with AIM and moved on with her life.

What their relationship had to do with the murder of Anna Mae is beyond us. To label her as a traitor and him as a goon goes beyond any sense of reality and in fact makes no sense at all. The murder of Anna Mae was a brutal crime committed by members of AIM and there is no whitewashing it or trying to justify it.

Murder is murder. Theda Clark, Arlo Looking Cloud and John “Boy” Graham killed Anna Mae after receiving instructions from the upper crust leaders of AIM and there is nothing honorable or heroic about that. The takeover at Wounded Knee fits into the same category; it was neither heroic nor honorable.

When AIM first came on the scene in the 1970s many Indians supported them. But when they turned to violence instead of peaceful demonstrations in the fashion of Dr. Martin Luther King many became disgusted with their violent actions. After they seized the BIA building in Washington D. C. and trashed thousands of documents important to the future of so many Native Americans and then demanded and received a bribe of $66,500 from the BIA to leave their building some AIM members quit right on the spot including one of its co-founders George Mitchell.

There is a lot of propaganda out there concerning AIM and some of its deplorable actions so please don’t point fingers until you know all of the facts.