The gravestone for Anna Mae Pictou Aquash. Photo courtesy Denise Pictou-Maloney
40 years since Anna Mae Aquash found dead
By Richie Richards
Native Sun News Staff Writer
www.nsweekly.com PIERRE –– Feb. 26, 2016 marked the 40th anniversary of the discovery of Anna Mae Pictou Aquash’s body by rancher Roger Amiotte near State Road 73, 10 miles outside of Wanblee on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. After an unusually warm February in 1976, the retreating snow uncovered the badly-decayed body of Anna Mae in the Badlands; disposed of like many in the wake of the last Indian war held at Wounded Knee in 1973. Thus began one of the largest conspiracies and cover-ups of a murdered indigenous woman in which blame and denial has shifted all throughout the American Indian Movement; as AIM members played hot potato with the FBI for blame of the young, brilliant Mi’kmaq activist’s death. According to court testimony in 2004, Anna Mae Pictou Aquash was present in 1975 when Leonard Peltier confessed to his role in the shooting deaths of two FBI agents by saying, “The mother f***er was begging for his life, but I shot him anyway.”
Read the rest of the story on the all new Native Sun News website: 40 years since Anna Mae Aquash found dead Copyright permission Native Sun News
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