The Oglala Sioux Tribe of South Dakota is asking federal authorities for more information about dozens of suspicious deaths on the Pine Ridge Reservation.

Many of the cases involve members and supporters of the American Indian Movement. In 1974, John S. Moore was suffered stab wounds to his face and neck but his death was ruled a suicide.

In 1975, Hilda R. Good Buffalo was found dead with a stab wound in her neck. Yet the official cause of death was attributed to carbon monoxide poisoning, acute alcoholism “and other factors," The New York Times reported.

“Our people are being murdered and nothing is being done," Vice President Tom Poor Bear, who was the victim of violence during the 1970s, told the paper.

Brendan Johnson, the U.S. Attorney in South Dakota, met with tribal leaders and relatives of the victims this week. He asked three prosecutors to review the files of 39 suspicious deaths.

The FBI, on the other hand, hasn't been as receptive. The agency said it would not reopen any of the cases without new information.

Get the Story:
Tribe Seeks Reopening of Inquiries in ’70s Deaths (The New York Times 6/15)
Unsolved Native American Deaths (KOTA 6/14)

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