Robert Onco, Kiowa veteran who was at Wounded Knee, dies

Thursday, February 6, 2014  

Robert Charles Onco, a member of the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma who was active in the American Indian Movement, died on January 31. He was 63.

Onco, who was born in Oklahoma to two Kiowa parents, served in Vietnam. He returned from the war and participated in the 1973 occupation at Wounded Knee in South Dakota.

Onco later moved to New York and eventually married a woman from the Shinnecock Nation. He lived on the tribe's reservation until his death.

"There are a lot of people that want to be the chiefs. Bobby was OK with just being an Indian," his stepson, David Taobi Silva, a tribal trustee, told Newsday.

Get the Story:
Bobby Onco, captured in iconic Wounded Knee photo, dies at 63 (Newsday 2/6)