Charges Laid In Aquash Murder (American Indian Movement Activist Killed 27 Years Ago)

Halifax Chronicle-Herald ^ | April 3, 2003 | Randy Jones

[Loyalist]

AP photo Arlo Looking Cloud, 49, of Colorado was arrested Monday in the 1976 murder of Anna Mae Aquash, a native activist from Nova Scotia.

Anna Mae Aquash: Shot in the head in 1976.

Twenty-seven years after Nova Scotia native Anna Mae Aquash was murdered on a South Dakota reservation, a homeless man in Denver has been charged with killing her.

Arlo Looking Cloud, 49, of Aurora, Colo., was arrested Monday in Denver and pleaded not guilty in U.S. Federal District Court to committing first-degree murder in the perpetration of a kidnapping.

Ms. Aquash's frozen body was found on Feb. 24, 1976, on the northeastern edge of the Pine Ridge Indian reservation in South Dakota.

The influential activist with the American Indian Movement had been shot in the base of the skull with a .32-calibre bullet.

James E. McMahon, United States Attorney for the District of South Dakota, said Wednesday that a federal grand jury indicted Mr. Looking Cloud in March.

Details of that grand jury hearing are secret.

Ms. Aquash's two daughters said in a release Wednesday they are relieved to see their mother's spirit "truly honoured."

They praised the people who stood up for her right to justice.

"We have known for a long time that people have discussed amongst themselves the events that led up to her death, yet publicly have remained silent," Denise and Debbie Maloney-Pictou said. They live in Canada but didn't want to reveal where.

"We are inspired with the actions of those who choose to courageously stand on their own and honour our mother's spirit with truth and integrity. We know how easy it is to run with the masses and remain silent, which is why we continue to support all those that have chosen to take the responsibility to assist a victim and her family, presently and in the future."

The family asked not to be interviewed.

Ms. Aquash, a social worker and day-care teacher, was born in 1945 and raised in Indian Brook. She moved to the U.S. at age 17 and later became a native leader.

According to the native newspaper News From Indian Country, which has done an in-depth investigation into her murder, the 31-year-old was shot execution-style in mid-December 1975 near a highway on a ridge between Kadoka and Wanblee.

News From Indian Country, which has interviewed dozens of sources over the years, claims Ms. Aquash was shot at daybreak on top of the ridge and was pushed, or fell, over the edge.

The paper said she eventually curled into a fetal position before dying.

Ms. Aquash took part in the 1973 takeover of Wounded Knee, S.D., which led to an Oka-style siege that ended 71 days later with the deaths of two natives and the wounding of a U.S. marshal.

Ms. Aquash was also closely involved with the American Indian Movement members who had a bloody shootout with FBI agents at Wounded Knee in 1975.

One of her close friends, Leonard Peltier, was jailed for the murder of two FBI agents killed in that shootout.

The American Indian Movement never helped with Mr. Peltier's defence and he has spent 25 years in prison.

Just before she was murdered, Ms. Aquash was trying to rally support for his defence when the FBI brought her in for questioning in the Peltier case. Some say she was falsely labelled an informant who revealed information about the agents' killings.

In 1999, some of Ms. Aquash's relatives claimed that two men and a woman with links to the American Indian Movement had killed Ms. Aquash. Russell Means, an AIM leader, later echoed those sentiments. Mr. Looking Cloud was a member of the American Indian Movement at the time of the killing in the mid-'70s.

Mr. McMahon will prosecute Mr. Looking Cloud's case.

"Any time you can solve a murder, which we think we have, . . . there is satisfaction on that," he said from Sioux Falls, S.D. "I hope that the family finds some comfort in this."

Federal crimes committed by a native American on native land in the U.S. are exempt from the death penalty, Mr. McMahon said.