So, the next section takes to task the glorification of #AIM leaders like #DennisBanks and #RussellMeans, and some of the #ToxicMasculinity within the group's ranks. I experienced this first hand with a coven-mate (who was a member of AIM) -- he and I would butt heads about a lot of things, and he truly had the attitude that he was always right and that he should be running the show. It got old after a while and I eventually left the groups (both my coven and our political group, the #ThomasMortonAlliance). Ego and emotional / physical abuse used to be a part of a lot of groups -- even Winona LaDuke was caught up in an incident that happened under her watch involving an abuse of power and sexual coercion. So yeah, I agree 100% with Klee's assessment of some of AIM's leadership and the "cult of personality" around certain figures.

"As Billie Pierre stated in her defense of Graham and Looking Cloud, 'A basic principle of any resistance movement is
non-collaboration with our enemy.'

"The context of extreme State repression and consequential internal paranoia and divisions within movements and how it
impacts ongoing struggles today is necessary to study. AIM and their Indigenous feminist counterpart Women of All Red Nations, have lessons unlearned that should be studied, challenged, and confronted outside of settler colonial state narratives that continue to undermine and attack Indigenous resistance. There are also serious reasons many young Indigenous People are wary of AIM, from the toxic misogynistic legacy that has remained unaccounted for, to the imposition of force in frontlines where they have tended to overbear local organizers. Though they’ve maintained leadership with their 'Grand Council' over scattered semi-autonomous chapters, AIM’s contemporary presence has depended on its legacy. It’s largely an institution that dwells on its past achievements. Though those achievements may be great, this doesn’t provide much opening for reflection and necessary transformation to be relevant to young folks who have grown up in what we might consider a 'post-Red Power, post-AIM' world. As AIM has aspired to be 'a catalyst for Indian Sovereignty,' the terms have only grown muddied with the actions of their celebrities. From Russell Means abusing a Diné elder, then attempting to dodge accountability by attacking Navajo Nation tribal sovereignty, to the trails of women used and abused by him, Dennis Banks, and the other personalities that still comprise AIM’s celebrity forces.

"This anguishing resentment of AIM and their ongoing impositions, is part of what motivated a young Indigenous person
to cut down the AIM flag that was flying over a sacred fire at the Winnemucca Community Resistance Camp in so-called
Nevada in 2021."

Pages 183-184, #KleeBenally, #NoSpiritualSurrender

From Chapter 8 of #KleeBenally's book, #NoSpiritualSurrender - #IndgenousAnarchy, #InDefenseOfTheSacred:

"Darlene 'Kamook' Nichols who had been married to #DennisBanks, received $42,000 from the #FBI to spy on #AIM and help build the case against #ArloLookingCloud and #JohnGraham [in the murder of #AnnaMaeAquash]. Kamook subsequently married the US Marshal who re-opened the case.

"The voluntary state-collaboration of John Trudell against Graham and Looking Cloud also became a flashpoint. John Graham’s extradition from so-called Canada would not have been possible without Trudell’s identification of him to the FBI.

"Though Looking Cloud confessed, he later recanted it stating that he was coerced with drugs given to him by State agents.

"In 2003 #LeonardPeltier issued this statement regarding the John Graham trial,

" 'When we talk of sovereignty, we must be willing to solve our own problems and not go running to the oppressor for relief…We have been and still are at odds with the most dangerous, well-funded, strongest military and political organization in the history of the world [the US government]. Whatever the result of any trials conducted in the courtrooms of our oppressor—the same ones’ ultimately responsible for Anna Mae’s death—we will continue to advance in our movement towards victory, inspired by her memory and her spirit.' "

Pages 182-1823, #KleeBenally, #NoSpiritualSurrender

#FreeLeonardPeltier #AnnaMaePictouAquash
#ACAB #AIM #AmericanIndianMovement
#AmnestyForLeonardPeltier #FBI #COINTELPRO

From Chapter 8 of #KleeBenally's book, #NoSpiritualSurrender - #IndgenousAnarchy, #InDefenseOfTheSacred:

"In the book #LakotaWoman, #MaryCrowDog and #RichardErdoes
shared this prophetic quote by #AnnaMaeAquash in 1975,

'[The FBI] offered me my freedom and money if I’d testify the way they wanted. I have those two choices now. I chose my kind of freedom, not their kind, even if I have to die. They let me go because they are sure I’ll lead them to Peltier. They’re watching me. I don’t hear them or see them, but I know they’re out there somewhere. I can feel it.' "

Page 181, #KleeBenally, #NoSpiritualSurrender

#FreeLeonardPeltier #AnnaMaePictouAquash
#ACAB #AIM #AmericanIndianMovement
#AmnestyForLeonardPeltier #MMIW #FBI #COINTELPRO

From Chapter 8 of #KleeBenally's book, #NoSpiritualSurrender - #IndgenousAnarchy, #InDefenseOfTheSacred:

[More from Billie Pierre's 2006 article] "Pierre also addressed how #COINTELPRO operated at the time:

"'This tactic of the FBI’s Counter-intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) undermined valuable members of a group by casting them in suspicious situations. Wherever Pictou-Aquash went, arrests would follow. She’d be released, while other AIM members were slapped with charges and high bail. In September 1975, FBI Agent David Price attempted to force her to sign an affidavit implicating Peltier for the murder of the two FBI agents. She refused to cooperate, and Price promised her that she wouldn’t live to see the year’s end. They quickly arranged for her to be buried as a Jane Doe. After this cover-up came to light, the FBI released a statement announcing that Pictou-Aquash was not a government informant. As intended, this statement insinuated that AIM might have believed Pictou-Aquash to be an informant and murdered her.'"

Page 181, #KleeBenally, #NoSpiritualSurrender

Link to PDF version of #KleeBenally's book #NoSpiritualSurrender (TY @Fedi )

https://files.libcom.org/files/2024-10/no-spiritual-surrender_guts%20(1).pdf

From Chapter 8 of #KleeBenally's book, #NoSpiritualSurrender - #IndgenousAnarchy, #InDefenseOfTheSacred:

"In 2003, after multiple grand jury hearings, AIM members #JohnGraham and #ArloLookingCloud were targeted and controversially named as the killers of #AnnaMaeAquash. Others such as Thelma Rios and Vine Richard (Dick) Marshall were also charged in association with her murder.

"A 2006 article by Billie Pierre, who was part of Native American Youth Movement (NYM) and a founding member of the radical Indigenous youth project Redwire Magazine, addressed the charges against Looking Cloud and Graham:

"'In the past few years, the member of Anna Mae Pictou Aquash -- an American Indian Movement (AIM) leader from the Mi'kmaq Nation in Nova Scotia, Canada -- has been reduced to that of a helpless woman who was murdered by her own allies. In reality, her murder is part of a ruthless campaign waged by the US government -- a campaign that, far from being ancient history, is still unfolding today. There is no credible evidence linking either man to the crime, and their prosecution seems like nothing more than an attempt to destroy what little remains of AIM... Graham says that the FBI started to visit him in the Yukon during the mid-1990s. On four separate visits, they offered him immunity and a new identity if he testified that any of the other former AIM leaders had ordered Pictou-Aquash's execution. He refused. On their last visit, they stated that this would be his final chance to cooperate; if he would not testify, they would charge him with murder.'"

Page 180, #KleeBenally, #NoSpiritualSurrender