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| Trail of Broken Treaties Takeover of BIA headquarters in Washington, Nov. 3, 1972. |
Buried in Time: BIA Takeover Documents Included Sterilizations, Pine Ridge Uranium, and Water Rights
By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, Oct. 15, 2024
Buried in Time: When the Trail of Broken Treaties arrived in Washington and took over the BIA headquarters, the documents discovered in the BIA file cabinets altered the course of history. In the caravans from the west coast and northwest were activists from local Indigenous frontline struggles, from Pit River, Survival American Indian, and Alcatraz.
The BIA documents exposed the secret plan of Oglala Chairman Dick Wilson to turn over one-eighth of tribal land over to the federal government for uranium mining. In the ton of documents taken away in a U-Haul, the documents showed proof of the sterilization of Native women by Indian Health Service doctors.
And there was more.
Hidden in these BIA files were the facts about the Winters Doctrine, and the fact that Native American Tribes are entitled to as much water as they need. It is a fact that the BIA wanted hidden. Today, the states and federal government are attempting to do away with the water rights guaranteed in the Winters Doctrine with complex schemes and water rights settlements.
In the BIA files were documents showing land theft and illegal leases of tribal lands across the country. Tribal members in the takeover took these back to their home communities. Those files became the basis of land rights cases in courts in the years that followed, according to Censored News interviews.
The cases of the sterilization of Native girls and women are now well documented. The Indian Health Service targeted traditional full bloods, and a large number of the girls and women were Dine' and Lakota.
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| BIA Takeover 1972 |
After the documents were discovered at the BIA, it was years before the first release of the information on the sterilizations was made public. It was Akwesasne Notes that first published the facts.
Still today, buried in history, the investigation continues into the role of Oglala Chairman Dick Wilson's plans for uranium mining in the Badlands, and whatever role it played in the imprisonments and murders of Native activists that followed.
Robert Free Remembers Trail of Broken Treaties and BIA Takeover
Robert Free Galvan, now undergoing cancer treatment, remembered the Trail of Broken Treaties and the takeover of the BIA building, in an interview today with Censored News.
"There's only a few of us left," Robert said of those who were on the Trail of Broken Treaties and at the takeover.
Robert remembers the beginning in Frank's Landing in Washington state, and how it was the force of the Occupation of Alcatraz that inspired the Trail of Broken Treaties.
"Richard Oakes got murdered and Suzette Bridges, Puyallup and Nisqually from Frank's Landing, decided to caravan across the country to Washington D.C. to demand that it be made a federal crime to kill an Indian."
"At the same time the emerging AIM was going to do a caravan to DC to lobby Congress and show that Native people are the ones who make decisions on their lives. AIM called Suzette Bridges in Frank's Landing and asked if they could join and together merge, and all caravan. It was agreed on and called the Trail of Broken Treaties Caravan."
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| Robert Free (on left) with Sid Mills at Wounded Knee in the spring of 1973, after the BIA takeover in Washington in November of 1972. |
"Russell Means was to fly in with lots of money but showed up with $75, and we had 20 cars and about 100 people from mostly the Northwest, fresh off the shoot-outs at the fishing right camps."
"We called some old friends from the Glide Church Social Change Foundation and were sent $2,000. Then we all headed out."
"Seven other caravans met in Mobridge, South Dakota."
"We formed a 12-person steering committee, and six were from AIM chapters.
The steering committee made all decisions."
"Three were authorized to speak to the press with the following introduction,
'We are the Trail of Broken Treaties and bring the grassroots people to DC to demand change...etc etc.'"
"But Russ Means and Banks started the press conference by saying, "My name is Russ means or Banks of the American Indian Movement etc etc,' and thus the media focused on those sound bites and they became the famous quoted people. The third person was Sid Mills, Vietnam vet from Yakima, who decided not to say anything."
"Behind closed doors the steering committee made decisions to produce a 12-point solution, strategized the confrontations and bickered about money. As the finance person of the steering committee,I had with Leonard Peltier as my bodyguard secured $66,000 to help our way back to our homes after the government met some of our demands."
"The 6 AIM chapters threatened and secured monies and went home and paid their rent, electric, telephone bills at their chapter offices and then were open for press conferences and other projects. So the Trail of Broken Treaties saved the AIM chapters from being closed down," Robert Free told Censored News.BIA Files Documented Sterilizations by Indian Health Service
After the BIA takeover, it was nearly two years before the information on the sterilization of American Indian women was made public, in 1974 by Akwesasne Notes, a newspaper published by the Mohawk Nation.
"Mainstream media, such as the New York Times and the Washington Post, would take another two years to publish an article on the matter in 1976. Their articles appeared after the General Accounting Office (GAO) released a report investigating allegations against the IHS," Morgan Peters wrote in 'Forgotten Women: The Involuntary Sterilization of American Indian Women in the Twentieth Century.'
During the six day occupation of the BIA takeover in Washington, the documents were uncovered that revealed a high percentage of American Indian women had been involuntarily sterilized.
"It would take two years for this information to be published, when Akwesasne Notes published Sterilization of Young Native Women Alleged at Indian Hospital -- 48 Operations in July, 1974 Alone in 1974."
The article focused on the high rates of sterilization at an Indian Health Service facility in Claremore, Oklahoma.
The United States Continued Sterilizations after 1974
The General Accounting Office report shows that even after legislation designed to protect women from forced sterilization was passed in 1974, the abusive sterilizations continued. During six years time, 1970 through 1976, between 25 and 50 percent of Native women were sterilized.
In 1976, the U.S. General Accounting Office said Indian Health Service performed 3,406 sterilizations of Native women in three years, 1973 -- 1976, and continued to be out of compliance with laws prohibiting sterilization.
The victims were in the IHS regions of Aberdeen, South Dakota; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; and Phoenix, Arizona, the U.S. General Accounting Office said. https://www.gao.gov/assets/hrd-77-3.pdf
Full-blooded Native women were targeted.
In some cases, Native American women went to IHS for other surgeries, and doctors performed hysterectomies without their consent. In other cases, women were told they would lose their benefits if they didn't consent. Girls as young as 11 were victims of sterilization in the U.S., and Native school girls were often targeted at the age of 15 for sterilization. Some never knew they were the victims of sterilization until years later when they were ready to have children.
Continue reading at Censored News
The Badlands Uranium Lease
In an interview censored by Indian Country Today while I was a staff reporter at ICT, Buffy Sainte-Marie spoke of the secret uranium mining deal on Pine Ridge, at Dine' College.
Buffy spoke of the occupation of Wounded Knee and the shoot-out with FBI agents at the Jumping Bull residence at Pine Ridge June 26, 1975.
"That is where Leonard Peltier's troubles began," Buffy said. Buffy said that few people recount the true history of what happened on that day in history.
"Who recalls that on that day one-eighth of the reservation was transferred in secret -- on that day. It was the part containing uranium. That is what never seems to be remembered," Buffy said.
After publishing Buffy's censored full interview years later on Censored News, an e-mail came from Jack Cohen-Joppa at Nuclear Resister.
"Thanks for posting your interview with Buffy Sainte Marie. I was taken by this comment of hers, particularly: 'Who recalls that on that day one-eighth of the reservation was transferred in secret -- on that day. It was the part containing uranium. That is what never seems to be remembered,'" Jack wrote.
"It is my recollection of this fact (learned from reading Akwesasne Notes and Rex Weyler's writing about Peltier, I think) that led us to include Leonard Peltier on the Nuclear Resister's 'Inside & Out' list for nearly the entire time we've been publishing (since issue #3, March 1981.)"
We wrote '... On that same day, June 26, 1975, Pine Ridge Tribal Chairman Dickie Wilson was in Washington DC, illegally signing away one-eighth of the reservation's lands to the Department of Interior. There is uranium on this land...'" http://nuclearresister.org/
On the web, the John Graham website states: " .. the US had an eye on developing uranium mining on a portion of the sacred Black Hills, an area known as Sheep Mountain. This area has proven to be one of the richest in uranium deposits in the U.S. The FBI implemented their counter-intelligence operation in Pine Ridge, in order to weaken and destroy the urban Indian movement, and to subjugate the traditional Lakotas for once and for all."
http://www.grahamdefense.org/200411investigatethefeds.htm
Posted on Russell Means' Lakotah Republic website: "In 1975, with his control of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota secured by force, Tribal President Wilson set about ceding uranium-rich areas of the sacred Black Hills to the federal government."
AIM assisted in protecting Pine Ridge’s traditional families from the constant onslaught of violence, which culminated in the AIM occupation and government siege of Wounded Knee in the Spring of 1973. From 1973 to 1976, the people of Pine Ridge lived under the 'Reign of Terror'—more than 76 Natives, mainly traditional Lakotah and AIM members, were murdered, primarily by Wilson’s goons, a term coined by the elderly women who protested against them.
Later, in a perverse play on words, the goons called themselves, 'Guardians of the Oglala Nation' (GOONs)."
Read more:
The Winters Doctrine
The Theft of Navajo Water Rights and the Prosecution of Peter MacDonald
Navajo Chairman Peter MacDonald: Winters Doctrine
About the author
Brenda Norrell has been a news reporter in Indian country for 42 years, beginning as a reporter for Navajo Times during the 18 years that she lived on the Navajo Nation. She was a correspondent for Lakota Times, Associated Press and USA Today, covering the Navajo Nation and federal courts. After serving as a longtime staff reporter for Indian Country Today, she was censored and terminated in 2006, and created Censored News. Today, Censored News is a collective, with no ads or revenues, with 24 million page views.
Article copyright Censored News. Robert Free's interview copyright Robert Free. Content may not be used without written permission. Content may not be used for any purpose producing revenue.
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