Resistance Consciousness With John Trudell (audio)

NYM Vancouver ANNOUNCES OFFICIAL BOYCOTT OF JOHN TRUDELL

March 2, 2005
Unceded Coast Salish Territory
nymchapter604 [at] hotmail.com, WeAreWolvesNotSheep.com

On February 21, 2005, a BC supreme court ordered John Graham to be extradited to S. Dakota to stand trial for the 1975 murder of Anna Mae Pictou-Aquash. The formal order for extradition will be given March 2, after which Mr. Graham will have 30 days to appeal. The defense plans to launch a constitutional challenge against the Extradition Act itself.

In making her decision, judge Elizabeth Bennett noted the numerous errors in the US case, but stated that under the Extradition Act her primary task is limited to establishing the identity of the prisoner. Under amendments made in 1999, a Canadian judge cannot evaluate the evidence submitted by US authorities.

We must remember that in 1977, Leonard Peltier was extradited by a Vancouver court, based on falsified evidence submitted by US authorities. At that time, the FBI was engaged in a deadly counter-insurgency campaigned to destroy the American Indian Movement (AIM).

How sad it is then, that during the February 21/05 court date, judge Bennett stated that a determining factor in her decision was the hearsay testimony of former AIM spokesperson, John Trudell, and in particular his identification of Mr. Graham from photographs provided by US officials.

NYM Vancouver remains firmly opposed to the extradition of John Graham. We also condemn the February 2004 kangaroo court in S. Dakota, which convicted Arlo Looking Cloud of aiding & abetting.

Having met both accused men, their friends & family, and having reviewed the evidence & information at our disposal, we state clearly our belief that the case against Mr. Graham & Arlo Looking Cloud is based on lies & disinformation provided by the FBI, police, informants, & collaborators.

Among these are former AIM members, including John Trudell, Kamook Banks, Russell Means, Bob Robideau, & Kelly White, all of whom have, in one way or another, participated in the smear & disinformation campaign against Mr. Graham & Mr. Looking Cloud.

At this time, NYM Vancouver calls on all those who support our people’s struggle to boycott the works & activities of John Trudell in particular, and to denounce all those who have collaborated with the government & police in this matter.

We re-assert that those responsible for the death of Anna Mae Pictou-Aquash, and at least 66 other Indigenous people in S.Dakota during 1973-76, are the US federal government and its various agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), and the paramilitary forces which they funded & equipped (the ‘GOONs’)

In the 1970s, the goal of the FBI’s Counter-Intelligence Program (COINTEL-PRO) was to discredit, divide, neutralize and destroy organized resistance movements using any means necessary, including widespread surveillance, use of informants & infiltrators, break-ins, assaults, frame-ups, imprisonment and assassination.

Today, the goals of the FBI & police are to destroy what little remains of AIM & anything positive associated with it, and by extension all Indigenous resistance. They want to revise history, to turn themselves from the thugs & assassins that they are to the ‘heroes’ who solved the murder of Anna Mae.

We must remember: there would have been no Wounded Knee in 1973, nor the 1975 Oglala shoot-out, if not for the fact that the US government & energy corporations were actively working to gain control of the Lakota’s sacred Black Hills and parts of Pine Ridge reservation land for uranium, coal, oil and gas.

We view this case as part of the ongoing war against Indigenous peoples--waged by government and corporations-- to continue the exploitation & oppression of our people and territories.

John Graham is a warrior who stood in defense of his people. He is not an assassin, nor is he a thug. We call on all people to stand now and defend John Graham before yet another warrior is taken & caged by the US government.

In the Spirit of Crazy Horse,
NYM Vancouver

from John Graham blog
http://www.antoinetteclaypoole.blogspot.com

Below you will find words about John Trudell's impact on the family, friends, life of John Graham. John Graham was, at one time, a close friend to Trudell. The call for boycott by the advocates of John Graham in Vancouver, B.C. is a serious one. People need to ask questions. Here is what I wrote about this while In Vancouver during John Graham's extradtion hearings:

http://antoinetteclaypoole.blogspot.com/2005/02/annie-maes-body-found-29-years-ago_24.html

from "The places where Spirits are eaten"

...Tonight I succumbed.

To the insistence some folks have had. Since I got to Canada. I watched a video interview with John Trudell. Done back in April, 2003. Distributed by Effective Records/Asitis Productions. Some people are enraged. Me. I find the inconsistencies. Trudell mentions Annie Mae died in Jan. or Feb. 1976. Then later on he says John Graham killed her. In December 1975. He talks about the operants responsible for killing her. And then he asks why the Feds waited all those years to indict John Graham??? Lottsa contradictions. Just like Annie Mae’s abduction and death. Ridden with confusions.

Seems like it could be. That someone was getting too close to finding out the truth and a story had to be spun to blame someone for the killing of Annie Mae. AND it had to be based on a true event. Enter. The ride to Pine Ridge. In December 1975. But Trudell misses what may be the obvious. As does most of the rest of an opiated mass of puppeteered beings forgetting to be human. Maybe Graham was blamed because someone in their 1990's investigation. Was getting too close to the truth about the operants Trudell himself metions. Trudell was probably right the first time. Annie Mae died in late January/Feb. 1976. And maybe Graham was right. He dropped her off in December 1975 and never saw her alive again.

I try to see Annie Mae stubbing her toe and getting pissed off. As her niece April Maloney explained was her final memory of her auntie. I try to imagine how a little girl felt to see the hands of her auntie floating in a jar of formaldehyde. And how scared she said she was. How scared everyone is. To hear the story of John Graham. And realize that he may just be person he says he is.

As Trudell says in his interview "once humans were part of the original dream. Now it has become a nightmare".

It is a full moon in Vancouver. Part of the Graham Defense Committee had a meeting tonight. A brave Indian warrior. The new generation of wild awake ones. Not more than 24 years old. A strategy emerged. From his angry clear heart. Talk of a Boycott.** On all Trudell events, films, records and words. If Graham is extradited. Seems like the idea is that it will help Trudell stand with John Graham. And demand that the operants and true killers of Annie Mae be found. That IS a stretch of reality that becomes fantasy.

Yes okay. But I say boycott ourselves if we cannot understand that when one person is hungry the entire world is starving.

antoinette nora claypoole
All People are One
copyright 2005

Those interested in thinking through the hype against Trudell may want to read this article published by the important net zine "Counter Punch":

http://www.counterpunch.org/donnelly01172006.html

The things said here about/challenging John Trudell are not hype.
He identified, for the FBI, an old friend, John Graham.
He testified, for the prosecuution (the same people who once threatened his life, the life of Anna Mae Aquash and the same people who may have responsible for murdering his wife Tina and their children back in 1979) in the Arlo Looking Cloud trial.

This is not hype. This is fact. The question remains why.
Did Trudell help the FBI. Does he still help the Feds? These are important questions that deserve answers.

The article by Mr. Donnelly are more propaganda than fact. For instance, John Graham never ever admitted to killing Anna Mae Aquash. Why would the article posted here, the counterpunch piece, why would Donnelly present such outright lies? Poor reporting, poor research, or intentional "let's cheer Trudell" campaign, at the expense of truth and justice for Graham and his family.

Groups like the Native Youth Movement in British Columbia have reason to feel their friend, activist, John Graham has been betrayed. By John Trudell. Just facts. No hype. Read Graham at http://www.johngrahaminterview.blogspot.com

The things said here about/challenging John Trudell are not hype.
He identified, for the FBI, an old friend, John Graham.
He testified, for the prosecuution (the same people who once threatened his life, the life of Anna Mae Aquash and the same people who may have responsible for murdering his wife Tina and their children back in 1979) in the Arlo Looking Cloud trial.

This is not hype. This is fact. The question remains why.
Did Trudell help the FBI. Does he still help the Feds? These are important questions that deserve answers.

The article by Mr. Donnelly are more propaganda than fact. For instance, John Graham never ever admitted to killing Anna Mae Aquash. Why would the article posted here, the counterpunch piece, why would Donnelly present such outright lies? Poor reporting, poor research, or intentional "let's cheer Trudell" campaign, at the expense of truth and justice for Graham and his family.

Groups like the Native Youth Movement in British Columbia have reason to feel their friend, activist, John Graham has been betrayed. By John Trudell. Just facts. No hype. Read Graham at http://www.johngrahaminterview.blogspot.com

The idea that you and a few others are promoting wreaks of hype because you don't promote thought within contexts for actions. You just attack Trudell or anyone else with a larger public profile than you have to get your *hype* heard by a broader audience.

Your methods work well with folks who are not thinking things through, but are rather politically correct in their sentiments. The surprisingly foolish article published by Earth First! is a heady example of uncritical PC at work in the activist community.

Leonard Peltier has distanced himself from your groups' alleged defense of him, but your group has not listened, and continues to publish their website allegedly defending Peltier without permission. How interesting.

Urls for consideration:
http://www.coloradoaim.org/blog/2005/02/press-relese-from-bob-robideau.html
http://indigenouswomenforjustice.org/graham.html

just to clarify.
i am not aligned with any group.
the previous post suggests "my group"
is one from which Peltier distanced himself.
simply posting words from John Graham in case
people want to read for themselves another
"version of the epic".

i am a freelance writer who has covered the murder
of annie mae from various perspectives, have
supported Trudell off and on over the last 20 years.
and i say "always. think for yourselves.
there are NO heroes in any of this."

i have ALWAYS said
the gov't is responsible for the murder of annie mae aquash..
and many others during the pine ridge terror years.

it is a good season now.
for anyone who wants to read, research, think and feel
for themselves. not becoming a dogmatic follower of any one
credo. that's essential.
for. manifesto mentality kills.
and thinking out of the happy meal
box essential to survival.

BTW
Trudell does finally say something a little more detailed.
Publicly. Recently. About Annie Mae's killers.
Personally, I don't agree with all he says, but it's a jump start
into varied realms of suviving the white sands nuclear fallout
dust storms.

'Who killed Annie Mae?'
from Sept. 1, 2006
EXCERPT from Interview with John Trudell
(see below) http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096413594

Part one


''Two men may be guilty of Annie Mae's murder but they were not the decision-makers.''

- John Trudell

In a running conversation with Indian Country Today Senior Editor Jose
Barreiro, Trudell seeks to address lingering issues in the dissolution
of AIM and particularly in the case of Annie Mae Pictou-Aquash, the
Micmac woman and AIM activist murdered in South Dakota during the winter
of 1975 - '76. One man, Arlo Looking Cloud, has been convicted in the
murder while a second indicted man, John Graham, awaits extradition from
Canada to the United States to stand trial.

This series covers Trudell's perspective on the issues of violence in
the activist movement where the renowned poet proposes a theory of the
''deeply embedded government operative'' and the role of rogue
government infiltration programs in stimulating violence in social and
political movements. Trudell also addresses his own shift from political
organizing to the musical poetics of stage and film.

ICT: It's been 30 years since the killing of Annie Mae Pictou- Aquash.
The case remains largely unsolved, although there has been one
conviction in recent years. You've expressed interest in advancing some
thoughts on the subject. I wonder how you're feeling about where that
investigation might be at and where you would like to see it go?

Trudell: It's interesting how the investigation into the killing of
Annie Mae has unfolded. Where it stands right now, Arlo Looking Cloud
has been convicted and he is serving time in the U.S. for his part in
the crime. John Graham, ''John Boy,'' is in Canada fighting extradition
back to stand trial for murder, and my understanding is that he has been
ordered to be extradited back but he is on a final appeal.

ICT: So we understand that the extradition is imminent.

Trudell: This is the interesting part: to see if he actually gets
extradited. Because he then would have nothing to lose and he is the one
who would most likely know who made the actual decision to have Annie
Mae killed.

My overall view of this thing, I think that agents in the government
were behind it. I mean this very seriously, that the government is the
main force behind the killing of Annie Mae and the direct link
representing the government would be agents of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation. I think that Annie Mae's death is a result of a larger
counterintelligence Cointel program that was being directed at AIM at
that time. Some of those excesses by government agencies were later
curtailed by the Congress, although now things appear to be going the
other way; but in this case, I believe the government is still covering up.

Annie Mae was murdered in 1975 and I know that by the 1980s Arlo had
testified to the grand jury. It was still the 1980s when Arlo was first
picked up and taken in for questioning by the government about this,
about her abduction and killing. And so, considering that there were
implications that AIM leadership at some level may have been involved in
it, I've always found it interesting that the government did not more
aggressively pursue her killing in the 1970s and in the 1980s - why did
they not aggressively pursue it?

ICT: The implication of AIM leadership involvement in her execution
surfaced publicly certainly by the 1980s.

Trudell: Well, when Arlo's story started coming out is when I heard it
directly, in 1988. I heard it when Arlo told me about it; but when I
look back at the story that Arlo told, it became obvious to me early
that this whole trail of decision-making on the killing of Annie Mae
could possibly lead to somebody within the AIM leadership. And I found
it interesting that the government didn't pursue that - I wondered why
the government, after so much persecution of AIM, just didn't get on
that one and pursue it. Now, they've got all these mandates and attempts
to discredit AIM leadership, to attack AIM leadership, and here is the
hottest possible case - why wait 25 years to make the accusations?

I would suggest this is on purpose. It is because trails go cold,
evidence is lost, people forget; you know, putting distance between the
event and when they went to deal with it. Over time, things are more
easily rearranged. So we can see that through the years there have been
close to a half-dozen grand juries about this and nothing was ever
actively pursued beyond that. And so, I think that as time has passed
the government is resurrecting the case now to try to just lay it at
AIM, at the folks in AIM that their extended personnel was able to
agitate and manipulate.

ICT: You feel they didn't fully investigate it before?

Trudell: Not aggressively. And there were no indictments. For some
reason, they would get shut down or go away or whatever. And that had
been the history of it until this last and present round when they
indicted John Boy and Arlo Looking Cloud and took Arlo to trial and
convicted him. Now they are going after John Boy, who has fought it from
Canada.

I say this is interesting now because if John Boy gets extradited back
and stands trial, then I think that it creates a real opportunity to
find out very specifically and exactly who is behind Annie Mae's murder.
Because no matter what role John Boy Graham may or may not have played
in this, he was never the order-giver. And Arlo was never the
order-giver. These were not the people who gave the orders. These are
the people that we can allege were following the orders.

ICT: These two men would not make that kind of decision on their own.
They would have no purpose to do it.

Trudell: That's the key part - having no purpose to do it. See, she
wasn't a threat, a risk; she posed no danger. She posed absolutely no
danger to the group that took her; and to the men who allegedly shot
her, in particular, she posed no threat. Again, they were not the
decision-makers.

ICT: According to the testimony in the cases so far, Annie Mae was
kidnapped in Denver and brought to the place of her shooting in the
Badlands, via a number of safe-houses, in Rapid City and at Rosebud
Reservation. At a house in Rosebud, according to testimony at Arlo
Looking Cloud's trial, Annie Mae with Arlo guarding her waited in the
car as John Graham went in and got the final instructions on what to do
with her. Are you saying he emerged from the house with the instructions
to execute?

Trudell: No doubt someone inside [the house] made a decision that came
back to that running car. So, I keep having the suspicion way in the
back of my mind that somehow, that maybe, John Boy won't be extradited
back down into U.S. courts on some technicality or other. For one thing,
the U.S. attorney that had pursued the case has now been changed and
there's a different U.S. attorney now. So I don't trust the thing right
now, just in the sense that it serves the government's purpose not to
extradite. Because government excesses were committed at that time that
led to shameful deaths. Better to close the book. And then that would be
the FBI's way of closing this case, because it would be left on Arlo
Looking Cloud.

ICT: That would close the case.

Trudell: That would close the case and Arlo is the one left holding
everything. And when I think about this whole process, that Arlo is
probably the only, other than being in the time and place that he was
at, and a very confused head, I think that Arlo is the only innocent one
in all of this. And I do. And I'm going to say innocent from the sense
that, whatever happened, he couldn't live with it. See, everyone else
could. He couldn't. He was the most innocent of all of them and he is
the one having to do the time. And as I look at it the other part of the
context is that Arlo is the full-blood traditionalist - knows the
ceremonies, speaks the language, knows the songs - and everybody else
involved in this didn't have the same degree of traditional attachment
so that the one who is the most traditional, the one who most represents
the ancestors, is the one left holding the bag on this thing.

ICT: He's the one who couldn't put it behind him.

Trudell: That's right. And so it all gets dumped back on him. And you
look at Annie Mae: and Annie Mae, in her own way, represented that same
sense of traditionalism. And she's the one that gets murdered.

ICT: A selfless kind of spirit.

Trudell: Yes, very selfless. She was in it for the people. It wasn't
about any of the other things. It was about the people. And I can't say
what motivated her, whether it was anger or rage or grief. I can't say
her motivations, but I do know that Annie Mae truly was ... out of that
whole time frame, if we are going to call people ''leaders'' and make
those kind of identities, she truly was a people's leader. But not by
choosing that identity; she never took that identity. She just was very
intense and very sincere.

(Continued in part two)

Regardless of whether Trudell is so-called "not perfect enough" for this or that allegedly "perfect" inclination, Trudell's insights stand on their own. And they stand on their own so powerfully that it is a mark of their excellence that some group, hardly known, and quite new to the scene of native ideas, is trying to steer you away from them, categorically!

To allow oneself to be, as it were, "thrown" by Mr.Trudell's allegedly imperfect or "bad" interests (which I trust Trudell will shed light on as time goes on) --which don't automatically subordinate themselves to ideology (yet another weakness in our movements certainly exploited by today's cointel interests)-- is to be tooled.

Think things through, use the intelligence you still have!

And if Trudell proves to have taken a truly wrongful path? Then we will see that he is as human as anyone else!

I'm just listening to an audio of John Trudell as I type this.

Trudell says, "EVERYTHING NOW IS BEING PROGRAMMED TO KEEP US FROM THINKING"

Those words reach right into my Soul.

I thought I knew a bit about the world game now going on, but John Trudell's words, as quoted, and other short statements on the tape are WAY powerful.

Such a speaker will be massively targeted by the bad-powers-that-be to be taken out.

The msot effective way to damage a person's credibility is to spread nasty rumors about a person.

That is because of the unfortunate situation where so many people behave like children.

Words should stand on their own, but many people act in the childish way that they have to know the source of the words is OK before they will do anything with the words.

Maybe people are lazy - and grab any excuse they can get to NOT act on good words.

The controllers use gossip - through a few suspect individuals - to cause doubt against their target.

Words CAN stand on their own.

"EVERYTHING NOW IS BEING PROGRAMMED TO KEEP US FROM THINKING"

JOHN TRUDELL, A PROFILE OF COWARDICE AN FBI INFORMANT COVERS HIS TRACKS IN THE MURDER OF ANN MAE PICTOU AQUASH
July 17,2007
By Robert Robideau, Co-defendant of Leonard Peltier

On, June 26, 2007, the 32nd anniversary of the Pine Ridge reservation firefight that left two FBI agents and an Indian man dead , the Canadian Court of Appeals in British Columbia sent John Graham a long awaited message, rejecting his appeal of a lower court’s ruling that he should be extradited to the United States to face trial in South Dakota for the killing of Anna Mae Pictou Aquash and ordering him into custody to be extradited to the United States. In rejecting Graham’s appeal, Canadian Justice Ian Donald wrote: "But on the crucial issue of whether the person known as John Graham, also known as John Boy Patton, was the same person who committed the murder, the judge found that the evidence of John Trudell established identification."

John Graham has until the 26th of July for the Supreme Court to decide whether to accept his case on appeal. However, the Graham committee announced, “given the three judges' unanimous decision, the chances appear to be slim that such an appeal would be heard.”

John Graham and Arlo Looking Cloud were indicted in 2003 for the execution style killing of American Indian Movement icon Anna Mae Pictou Aquash. In February of 2004 Arlo Looking Cloud stood trial at which time John Trudell testified that Looking Cloud confessed to him, in 1988, his role in Anna Mae’s murder and also implicated John Graham as shooting Anna Mae in the head while she prayed. After a three day trial, Looking Cloud was found guilty of first degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. His conviction says nothing about the fairness of his trial.

Although a few of those responsible for her death have been revealed, and Looking Cloud has been declared guilty, the truth still remains hidden under a blanket of deceptions and lies. There are numerous questions that cry out to be answered. Most notably, why have noted AIM members become informants for the FBI? The FBI paid Darlene Nichols Kamook Banks $47,000 to say that Leonard Peltier “bragged about killing the two agents” and made inferences targeting Leonard Peltier in the death of Anna Mae Aquash. In 2006, in reference to Kamook’s accusations, Trudell admittedly told her that “she had done the right thing..” and “…I said the only way we are going to be able to get to the bottom of this is we have to hunt them down and flush them out.”. What sort of deal has the FBI made with John Trudell ?

It came as a big surprise to many in Indian country when Trudell, a former leader and national spokesperson of AIM, materialized as an informant for the FBI against Arlo Looking Cloud, and John Graham. An even bigger surprise came soon after Arlo Looking Cloud’s conviction, when Darlene Nichols Banks “Kamook” married BIA officer Robert Ecoffey, a thug who served under the former corrupt Pine Ridge reservation President, Dick Wilson, and who allied himself with domestic security agents of the FBI in creating the reign of terror from 1972 -1976, resulting in 60 homicides and 200 assaults against Indian people, almost all of whom were associated with AIM.

A recently uncovered FBI document, discovered through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), strongly suggests that the FBI choose not to prosecute anyone for the murder of Anna Mae for 29 years, but instead to covered up for those whom they knew were implicated in her murder, to protect an operative/informant working with them. Did their informant/provocateur retire from AIM? Clearly, the FBI’s intent to blame Peltier and keep him in prison until death became an important reason to proceed with the prosecutions. After approximately 16 years of silence,John Trudell suddenly appears as the most important federal witness and conspirator to implicate Arlo Looking Cloud, John Graham and Leonard Peltier in the murder of Anna Mae Pictou Aquash.

Why, 31 years ago, did Trudell expose, at my trial, a conversation he had with Dennis Banks that Banks told him that Anna Mae had been killed BEFORE HER BODY HAD BEEN IDENTIFIED. It wasn’t relevant to my trial and its significance was not immediately grasped. Was it done in preparation for an opportune time? What about his conversation with Arlo Looking Cloud in 1988, incriminating both Looking Cloud and Graham into Anna Mae’s execution? What sort of deal did the FBI have with Trudell? Trudell also implicated others: “Lorelei Means, Madonna Thunder Hawk and Thelma Rios, as persons guarding Anna Mae” in Thelma’s home in Rapid City. Why did Trudell, after 27 years of accusing the FBI for killing of Anna Mae, decide to accuse members of AIM instead?

Trudell’s testimony in the Looking Cloud trial establishes that he knew for 16 years that John Graham, aka, John Boy Patten, Arlo Looking Cloud, and Theda Nelson Clark took Anna Mae, who was tied up, from Denver, Colorado to Rapid City, South Dakota, where she, according to witnesses, was questioned at the Wounded Knee Legal Defense/Offense Committee and ultimately shot in the head by John “Boy” Graham. Trudell says that he knows Looking Cloud and Graham were “following orders.”. If he knows who gave the orders he has yet to say. Perhaps Trudell has been saving this part of the puzzle for the Graham trial.

Several sources have stated that Trudell asked Kamook Banks to participate and gave her “strong words of support” to encourage her to take the witness stand to testify about an alleged confession she heard by Leonard Peltier. This, together with the testimony of another long time close friend of Trudell‘s, Troy Lynn Yellow Wood, said that Anna Mae told her Peltier had put a gun to her head in an attempt implicate Peltier to the Anna Mae murder. Kamook also testified that Anna Maetold her the same story at the 1975 AIM Conference (SEE Arlo Looking Cloud trial transcript: http://www.jfamr.org/doc/index.html ) I never saw Kamook at the Conference and her sister, Bernie Lafferty corroborated she was not there (taped phone conversation, August 4th, 2004). I was present and I never saw Leonard with a gun when Banks and Vernon Bellecourt ordered us to take Anna Mae out to question her. Trudell publicly rallied for Peltier’s freedom for more than 20 years. Why has Trudell now turned on Leonard to encourage the proffering of lies from long time friends and associates?

Candy Hamilton, a prosecution witness, commented, "I didn’t think that Leonard should have been dragged into it. I mean, god, how could he have had anything to do with it, he was all so broken.” She said further, "...Leonard was not really considered high up in AIM, I think that it came from the top. For sure the Bellecourts and probably Banks, and after that I don’t know" (taped conversation, August 28, 2004). Mrs. Ecoffey’s sister, Bernie Lafferty, in another taped phone conversation, said: "Oh yeah, that is why I couldn't understand why they were trying to involve Leonard in this ..." (August 4, 2004).

“The way I understand how things went John T (Trudell) contacted Kamook about telling the truth. So why he has come out of this smelling like a rose and Kamook takes the label of informant is beyond me,” expressed Denise Maloney after the Looking Cloud trial. She has also described odd behavior by Trudell just before the Looking Cloud trial: “When I ran into John Trudell in San Francisco in 2002 he ran around the room like a chicken with his head cut off …talking in code and not really saying anything.” (e-mail, February 11, 2004).

Paul DeMain, Editor of News From Indian Country, and friend to Joseph Trimbach, (former Special Agent in Charge of the Minneapolis Division of the FBI) in a phone conversation in regard to Leonard’s civil suit against him stated, "I would have never said that Leonard Peltier ordered Anna Mae's death because first of all I don’t believe that is the way that happened and second of all even if Peltier wanted her dead there was no authority to have ordered something like that in the apparatus of AIM. He wouldn’t have been able to do that. But the first proposition is that I never would have said that" (taped phone conversation May 2005). SEE: (http://www.leonardpeltier.net/peeledapple.htm).

Kamook’s sister, Bernie Lafferty said, “Leonard treated Anna Mae no different than the rest of us, “… “I never once heard Leonard accuse Anna Mae of being an informant.” Bernie further said, “We was always real close to Anna Mae…well, we had to be…I know deep in my heart that she was no FBI agent. She would never say anything to anybody” (taped phone conversation, August 4th, 2004).

Other sources that uphold the same opinion about Leonard’s trust of Anna Mae can be found in the following sources: In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, by Peter Matthiessen, Agents of Repression, by Churchill and Vander Wall, and many other media journals, and books. But our actions toward Anna Mae showed our trust of her, and her actions toward us speak louder then words.

Indeed, there were two occasions when Anna Mae became a member of our group. The first occurred, when she become a member of our group one day before the Crow Dog raid. The second occurred when she joined Bank’s in Denver, before the Columbus Day bombings on the Pine Ridge reservation in 1975. Both actions on her part reflect that she had no fear of Leonard.

Each time Anna Mae ran it was from federal authorities. She went to the safe house provided by Trudell’s close friend, Troy Lynn Yellow Wood, in Denver, Colorado. It is well known in AIM that Trudell and Troy Lynn have been friends for many, many years. While in Denver , Trudell normally visited and stayed at her house. The question here is, why would this long time friend of Trudells agree to take Anna Mae prisoner and then hand her over to her executioners with out Trudell’s approval, who was then the national chairman of AIM?

On November 24th, 1975, after being released in connection with the Oregon charges and the FBI Crow Dog arrest, Anna Mae went to Denver, Colorado for the third time. “She knew she was going to get indicted on the Oregon charges no matter what, [and, I add, she knew there was no chance she would receive justice from the scheduled trial on November 25th, 1975 in Pierre, SD] so she split," Nilak Butler stated In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, by Peter Matthiessen. Anna Mae also believed that she would, as she had done on other occasions, re-join Leonard Peltier and Dennis Banks through the help of Troy Lynn and Colorado AIM. Ray Hand Boy testified that he and Evelyn Bordeaux drove Anna Mae to Denver at her own request.

According to the testimony of John Graham’s girlfriend at the time, Angie (Begay) Janis, soon after Anna Mae arrived in Denver she received a phone call from Rapid City and was told to “hold Anna Mae”. Janis then phoned her “best friend” Yellow Wood, who’s house then became Anna Mae’s prison. The phone call came shortly after Trudell picked up and drove Dennis Banks, who had just escaped the Oregon shootout, to California. Was it Dennis Banks, who ordered further questioning of Anna Mae Aquash? What did Trudell have to do with this order? Banks and Trudell both knew that many AIM members, including those working at the WKLD/OC, had formed suspicions Anna Mae was an informant. According to Candy Hamilton they “wanted to know why everywhere Anna Mae had been people got arrested” (taped phone conversation, Sept. 2004).

Ken Stern, in his book, Loud Hawk, writes at length about Trudell's ideas of who the informants could have been that turned in Banks’ motor home. Trudell has a long history in AIM of fingering people as informants. Did he finger Anna Mae? As it turns out, he has become what he has decried: an informant.

For years Trudell claimed to know nothing about the death of Anna Mae and accused the FBI of being solely responsible. Yet, statements he has made over the years highlight the incredulity of his alleged lack of knowledge and that he has associated with and given aid to the right individuals in AIM to cover up the parties who committed this crime and to create patsies to take the fall for both the FBI and AIM.

Bruce Ellison, Trudell’s attorney buddy of 32 years, believed Anna Mae to be a "snitch". This is the same attorney Trudell knows took part in the WKLD/OC meeting about her; and this is the same attorney Trudell has conspired with for the last 29 years to cover up for those who ordered and killed Anna Mae. Beginning in 1976 both Trudell and Ellison began making public statements accusing the FBI of being totally responsible for the death of Anna Mae. , But Trudell’s testimony at my trial makes it clear that he knew in 1975 what AIM members had played, implicating Dennis Banks. In the Looking Cloud trial, Trudell said nothing about FBI involvement in the killing, nor has Trudell made further statements to the media about FBI involvement.

On April, 28, 2005, in a hand written letter to me, Arlo Looking Cloud alleged that his trial attorney Tim Rensch conspired with Bruce Ellison. “I received a letter informing me that Vernon B. [Bellecourt] provided all my legal material in my case to Laliberte [Graham’s attorney] in Canada, apparently getting it from Gilbert [Arlo‘s appeal attorney]. And I read Vernon and Gilbert go way back. And how hard Rensch [Arlo’s trial attorney] worked to make sure Candy Hamilton couldn’t mention Bruce Ellison’s name. Rensch, his former law partner Leech and Ellison go way back.”

According to Canadian Justice Ian Donald, Trudell was the most important witness in John Graham’s extradition proceedings, and Trudell will also be a prime witness for the United States federal prosecution against John Graham. What is even more curious to many of us close to the events is why has Trudell’s close friend Bruce Ellison befriended John Graham’s defense team in Canada? While in Canada on June 9,2007, Ellison,spoke to the media in support of John Graham. Perhaps Arlo has brought attention to the reason why.

I know the friendship that has existed between John Trudell and Bruce Ellison all these years, but a recent article published in Counterpunch on March 8,2007, by Michael Donnelly, entitled “Rock Stars, Porn Stars and Peace, LA Story,” makes it clear that Ellison and Trudell are still good friends. Donnelly writes, “The occasion was last month in Los Angeles when John Trudell, Jackson Browne and Willie Nelson held a benefit concert for the Women's Cancer Research Institute. It was the second Give Love; Give Life benefit that the fellas have held for this cause.
“LA Native Celia Alario and I hooked up for brunch with Quiltman, my good friend and member of Trudell's band Bad Dog. Leonard Peltier's attorney, Bruce Ellison joined us, as did Jimbo Simmons of the Treaty Council and the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN)”. http://www.counterpunch.org/donnelly03092007.html
The question. What does Bruce Ellison and Trudell share, besides their friendship, that has bound them together in the Anna Mae killing? With Trudell the fed snitch, one would naturally think they should be at odds with each other, yet it is clear they are not. What are we missing here? A very clever conspiracy, but conspiracy to accomplish and gain what? Each has placed himself in different camps and positions of influence. Bruce Ellison, who has Graham’s defense team covered and John Trudell who has the federal witnesses covered.

The information about the FBI affidavit Anna Mae wrote in her letter to Trudell became one of the documents used to accuse and confront Anna Mae. According to one inside source, this affidavit was used in Denver, Colorado, by Theda Nelson Clark, Troy Lynn and others, and used again in South Dakota as an instrument, that purportedly evidenced that she was an informant. Did Trudell pass this FBI affidavit on to his friend Troy Lynn?

John Trudell, National Chairman of the American Indian Movement during that period, began an early campaign to cover up the true circumstance that lead to the execution of Anna Mae. The question is why?

Even after I had publicly confronted Trudell in 1994, with the murder of Anna Mae, at the “Salt of the Earth Book Store”, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, (when Bob Ecoffey was carrying an active investigation) he continued to say nothing publicly of what he knew of AIM‘s involvement. To the contrary, he accused me of being part of the FBI cointelpro program stating, “…a Cointelpro operation is being directed at me…to neutralize me. I have been waiting for the attack.”

If as Trudell contends, he was not an important part of Banks’ support network, why was he contacted to “protect Anna Mae” in California? Why was Trudell recruited to help purchase weapons for Banks? Why was Trudell the only one Banks called to pick him up in Nevada after escaping the Oregon shoot out? Why was Trudell contacted and told the location of Anna Mae‘s safe house? Banks knew that “after Pierre, [South Dakota,] Anna Mae went to [Denver,] Colorado” (In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, by Peter Matthiessen). Trudell’s knowledge that Anna Mae “had been taken to a protected area,” that she had “been taken prisoner” leads many to believe that he could have saved Anna Mae.

According to Trudell’s testimony in the Looking Cloud trial, he claims to have found out about who murdered Anna Mae for the first time in 1988, when his good friend Troy Lynn Yellow Wood set up a meeting between Trudell and Looking Cloud who allegedly told him the whole story of Anna Mae’s murder. This is simply not true based on Troy Lynn‘s own words from October 2nd, 1994 taped conversation that "John Trudell has known about all this from the time Anna Mae was taken from my house”. Trudell’s own admission, during CBC the Fifth Estate program aired in December 2000, that “Troy Lynn called me from Denver and told me that Anna Mae had been at her house and these people had come and took her away as prisoner”.

Trudell stated: "... And I got this message that...Annie Mae was in trouble and could I help her. I couldn't because they had a warrant for my arrest in Nevada on a charge that was later dropped. I could do nothing about it. The next time I …Dennis told me she had been shot in the back of the head. He told me this in California. This is when he was out on bail there...I know it was within two days or so after they found the body and I knew nothing about that" (trial transcript of the Butler -Robideau trial, Cedar Rapid, Iowa, 1976, http://www.dickshovel.com/trurspn.html). Trudell’s words contradict his own testimony at Looking Cloud’s trial, where he testified that he had been in Los Angeles in late September and early October, he said: “…one of us always stayed with her as much as possible just to act in the capacity of being security.” The fact is that even if Trudell was unable to travel in December, he had access to all the phone numbers of AIM members in Rapid City, as well as the lawyers’ who worked at the WKLD/OC office. He knew Anna Mae had been taken and where, to save her was just a phone call away.
Why didn’t he intervene to save his “friend” Anna Mae?

Trudell's long time friend and close associate, Bruce Ellison, who participated in the questioning of Anna Mae and allegedly provided documents that went to show she was an informant. Why didn’t Bruce Ellison contact Trudell? Perhaps he did. Ellison said that Anna Mae had been brought into the WKLD/OC office tied up, "I told them to untie her". (Conversation with Bruce Ellison during the March 4th, 2005, "Benefit for Freedom" in Toronto, Canada).

Why did Trudell align himself for 29 years with Bruce Ellison, a person he knew participated in the WKLD/OC “meeting” that undoubtedly condemned Anna Mae as an informant?

Why does Trudell continue to maintain close ties to Bruce Ellison, who he knew took part in the interrogation of Anna Mae at the WKLD/OC?

For many years, beginning in 1975, both Trudell and Bruce Ellison had taken the position that they “do not know who pulled the trigger…” But “the responsibility clearly rests with the federal bureau of investigation”. In, Rolling Stone, April 7, 1976, Banks was the first to utter this position stating, “…even if AIM members had killed Aquash, the FBI bore responsibility because it had helped launch rumors about her.”
In my conversation with Trudell 1994 at “Salt of the Earth”, I asked him, "Did you know that Bruce Ellison was involved?" Trudell answered: "Yes, I knew about that". Again, the question, did those at the WKLD/OC “meeting” call Trudell, who they knew was not only a long time “friend” of Anna Mae‘s, but also a person who, by Trudell’s own admission a was a close associate to Banks?

In a tape recorded interview, Candy Hamilton alleges Anna Mae told her that "Price told me he would see me dead within a year." In the Lan Brookes Ritz documentary, "Anna Mae, Brave Hearted Woman,"
Trudell said, "Agent Price told Anna Mae if she did not cooperate she would be dead before the end of the year...and it worked out that way!" Just before leaving the jail in Vale, Oregon she told one reporter, obviously speaking about the FBI, "They’ll execute me. That’s what they do to Indians who fight for their people". In the Looking Cloud trial, Trudell said nothing of these threats by FBI agents as he had done for years with the media. Why has Trudell become conspicuously silent about the involvement of the FBI? Does Banks, who has remained silent also, still support Trudell today or does he fear Trudell?

There are many unanswered questions concerning John Trudell’s motives for joining the federal prosecution in the Anna Mae Aquash murder case and giving comfort and aid to the likes of Kamook and other friend’s; and influencing testimony that seeks to drag Peltier into this mess. It’s becoming instructive that John Trudell has known, from day one, why Anna Mae Aquash was taken prisoner, and executed; and as a witness for the prosecution, sheltered himself from possible prosecution for wrong doings he may have played in the killing of Anna Mae and its cover up. What did Trudell have to do with the killing of Anna Mae?

What has materialized is that John Trudell, and his friends, Troy Lynn Yellow Wood, Kamook Ecoffey Banks, and other federal witnesses have become FBI puppets to convict two small pawns and target Leonard Peltier. It is instructive to know that John Trudell was privy to the legal strategies in both my trial and that of Leonard Peltier’s. We are forced to look further into the possibility that Trudell may have been working with the feds as early as 1975, especially in light of the fact that Trudell implicated Dennis Banks in the murder of Anna Mae Aquash while testifying at my trial.There is nothing that explains why he should have even gave this testimony in 1976. His testimony is repeated in the Looking Cloud trial. http://www.jfamr.org/doc/trudell.html. We know that some where in the back ground the FBI is dirty in all of this. We know it was an FBI operative/provocateur who first started the rumors that Anna Mae was an informant. It was an FBI informant who perpetuated the rumors. It was an FBI operative/informant responsible for the death of Anna Mae. It is well known within the American Indian Movement that Trudell has attempted to place snitch jackets on several members of the American Indian Movement. In the end we must ask just when did John Trudell actually become an FBI informant? The answer would reveal much.

Let me say one thing clearly here:
I do not really know Trudell (I am the artist who initially has promoted Trudell's ideas because i've found them so profoundly inspiring and insightful; more so than any other AIM-related author i've stumbled across, and that goes for Russ Means, Dennis Banks, what i've seen/read of the Bellecourts, and etc. He gets so deep and inspiring that i say that i "walk with" Trudell, after he said he doesn't want followers).

Bob, I do not know you either, but I figure you don't mind me calling you this. Bob, why didn't you mention the truth of Trudell's entire family being murdered in a VERY suspicious cointel-style fire??? He had "led" a demonstration going to the headquarters of the f.b.i.'s steps, and allegedly burned the u.s. flag there, apparently due to its being desecrated. Then, less than 12 hours later, his entire family, three young children and an un-born baby, his wife, and her mother, were killed in this most suspicious fire. A fire that was even made to appear like it was "natural" (a tactic, i've read, which is one of the new tricks that the feds are going to be pushing more and more; making killings appear as though they are "natural" events).

The other questions, I have my suspicions, but i'd rather remain mute (to respect Trudell's muteness) and let's see what happens at the trial.

To label Trudell a "snitch" sounds to me like more of the same lies and hype systematically waged against the most influential and/or charismatic people when the feds cannot locate and "neutralize" them. This hype, appearing without contexts, without empathy for a time when AIM was literally under covert seige, just moves me to question all of you who seem so ready to reduce and label Trudell. But i am an outsider; i am only someone forced onto a heavy road in this life who has been deeply inspired by Trudell's seeing and sharing. It is in this spirit that i have put up a defense of him, including in person with an NYM spokesperson here in Oregon.

I also continue to keep Trudell's ideas up at a website; simply because of how powerful Trudell's insights are!

I am remaining to keep my name private, but be it known, i also have no links to J.S. Dill. I am autonomous in a full way from all of these people. Wanting to understand the challenges AIM has had and continues to have, so that I may learn from and apply such to the realities of my own path in this world.

Yes, it is super difficult to figure out what alliances all these people have. For instance, does this Robideau quote I got in the Counterpunch article by Donnelly, linked above, match the Robideau statement just above? Perhaps it does. Maybe he both doesn't support John Graham for shooting Aquash, and doesn't support Trudell for being a witness against him. Or maybe he is not supporting Trudell for the way he went about it??



From Counterpunch:
" But, here's what Robert Robideau, the international spokesman for his first cousin Peltier's defense, wrote on February 2, 2005;

"There is compelling evidence that has recently come to our attention regarding John Graham that compels Leonard Peltier to disassociate himself and the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee from John Graham and the John Graham Defense Committee.

We have notified the Graham Committee of our decision; and we have also communicated, three times our demands that the John Graham Defense Committee remove all of Leonard's support Letters, expressions, web site and support web sites from their official web site.

Thus far they have yet to comply with our requests. Leonard wants to make it very clear he wants justice to run its course and that he wants to also make it clear that he had no involvement in this matter and hence cannot associate himself with those alleged to have committed this crime against Indian people."

It is unfortunate, but knowledge really is relative to us. We can know what we are told and what feels good. We can believe this as reality without question or self involvement. We can act and live based on that knowledge. We have another flaw however that is just as bad.

We can challenge our reality, look through our ignorance, discover our mistake and change nothing. We can teach ourselves that our knowledge was not the truth and still live it out of fear. We can know we are lied to but then lie to ourselves.

Ignorance is bliss and real knowledge is pain but neither change anything