Lakota Woman

Mary describes her beloved friend Annie Mae as a kind-hearted woman and a force to be reckoned with. Annie Mae was diligent, hard-working, and eager to help—both around the home and in the community as an AIM activist and a director for various Native American youth and anti-alcohol organizations. Annie Mae was a wonderful friend, and she “did not deserve to die.”

Mary provides Annie Mae’s backstory. A Micmac woman, Annie Mae’s experience living on a reserve in Canada was very similar to Mary’s childhood. As Mary puts it, the poverty, harassment from law enforcement, and tumultuous family life are common for many Native American women.

Annie Mae left her reserve at the age of 17. She went to Boston, where she married a Micmac man named Jake Maloney. Jake abused Annie Mae, and Annie Mae eventually divorced him, won custody of their children, and left him. Shortly afterward, Annie Mae joined AIM to fight for Native American rights.

Around 1972, Annie Mae fell in love with another Native American man named Nogeeshik Aquash. They were both dedicated to the AIM cause and often worked together. Like Mary, they were both at the siege of Wounded Knee, where they got married. Unfortunately, Nogeeshik was mentally and physically abusive to Annie Mae. After splitting up and getting back to together several times, she left him for good after he broke the sacred pipe that they were married with.

After leaving Nogeeshik, Annie Mae moved onto Mary and Leonard’s land, where she built a tipi and lived simply. She was always generous with her possessions, often casually adding that the government would kill her soon, anyway. As she told Mary, “I’ve fought too hard […] They won’t let Indians like me live.”

At this time, many Native American civil rights activists were brutally murdered, with the government rarely investigating these deaths. On Pine Ridge, where tribal chairman Wilson “had established a regime of terror,” the homicidal violence reached such a level that it is estimated that about 250 people were murdered between 1973 and 1975. The reservation had a population of just 8,000 people at the time. Among the many activists who were mysteriously murdered was Pedro Bissonette, whom the police shot for supposedly “resisting arrest.”

Mary emphasizes how no one felt safe at this time. In addition to Wilson’s murderous goons, the FBI infiltrated AIM with spies and informers, which only added to the paranoia. Leaders began suspecting one another; Annie Mae became one of the people whom certain AIM leaders began to suspect. One night, Annie Mae cried to Mary, begging her to protect her truthful legacy after her death.

The situation worsened after a violent confrontation between Native American activists and FBI agents that resulted in the deaths of one Native American and two FBI agents. Annie Mae’s close friend Leonard Peltier was a wanted man after this incident, even though the evidence against him was flimsy. Shortly thereafter they started looking for Annie Mae.

In 1975, about 180 government agents stormed the Crow Dogs’ property to arrest Annie Mae, who was staying with Mary and Leonard Crow Dog at the time. Once they arrested Annie Mae, they questioned her about Peltier and other matters, all the while telling her that she would die—sooner or later—if she didn’t cooperate. When she refused to answer their questions, the agents let her go. She briefly returned to Mary and Leonard’s, where she told Mary that the agents were watching her, hoping that she’d lead them to Peltier. The next time Mary saw her was in South Dakota, where she (Annie Mae) went to support Mary and Leonard during his trial.

In November 1975, Annie Mae vanished. In early March 1976, her body—which bore signs of rape—was found on Pine Ridge Reservation. The FBI cut off her hands for lab identification, even though they could have taken fingerprints at the crime scene. After identification, the FBI announced that she had died of exposure, even though there were no drugs or alcohol in her system to suggest that she passed out. Suspicious of this report, Annie Mae’s friends and family exhumed the body and performed another autopsy. During this autopsy, they discovered a bullet in her skull, suggesting that she had been killed execution style.

Shifting to the present, Mary mourns the loss of her dear friend Annie Mae, who had sacrificed herself for the AIM cause.