Agents of Repression: The FBI's Secret Wars Against the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement

543 Pages·33.86 MB·English

by  Ward Churchill, Jim Vander Wall

THE FBI'S SECRET WARS AGAINST .
THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY AND THE7
AMERICAN INDIAN MOVEMENT_
SOUTH END PRESS CLASSICS

AGENTS OF REPRESSI ON

Agents of Repression
The FBI’s Secret Wars Against
the Black Panther Party and
the American Indian Movement
Second Edition
Ward C/yzm/yz'l/ andjz'm Vander Wall
South End Press Classics Series
Volume 7
South End Press, Cambridge, MA
Copyright © 1988, 1990 and 2002 by Ward Churchill and Jim Vander Wall
Any properly footnoted quotation of up to 500 sequential words may
be used without permission, as long as the total number of words quoted
does not exceed 2,000. For longer quotations or for a greater number of to-
tal words, please write for permission to South End Press.
Cover photos by The Guardian (left) and Kevin Barry McKiernan
Cover design and by Ellen Shapiro
Editing, design and production by the South End Press collective
Printed in Canada on acid-free paper
Library of Congress Control Number: 2002106455
South End Press, 7 Brookline Street #1, Cambridge, MA 02139-4146
www.southendpress.org
060504030212345
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Table of Contents
Dedication vi
“Daughter of the Earth: Song for Anna Mae Aquash”
by Ellen Klaver vii
About the Authors viii
Acknowledgements ix
Glossary xi
Preface to the Classics Edition xvii
Introduction: Beyond the Myth 1
Part I: The FBI as Political Police—A Capsule History
1. Birth and Formation 17
2. The COINTELPRO Era 37
3. COINTELPRO—Black Panther Party 63
Part II: A Context of Struggle
4. Why Pine Ridge? 103
5. The Pine Ridge Background 135
Part III: The FBI on Pine Ridge, 1972—76
6. The GOONS, Cable Spliccr, and Garden Plot 181
7. Assassinations and Bad-jacketing 199
8. Informers, Infiltrators, Agents Provocateurs 219
9. The Oglala Firefight 235
10. The Disinformation Campaign 261
11. Perjury and Fabrication of Evidence 287
12. Other Political Abuses of the judicial System 329
Part IV: We Will Remember
13. A Legacy of Repression 353
14. Moving Forward 383
Notes 389
Bibliography 469
Index 477
Dedication
This book is respectfully dedicated to the memory of Anna Mae Pictou Aquash,
Micmac warrior woman, assassinated on Pine Ridge, February 1976 and to Naiche
Wolf Soldier, strong warrior and good friend who passed into the spirit world as
we were writing.
It is also offered in memory of the others, many mentioned herein, who have
fallen, and with the renewed commitment to the struggles of Leonard Peltier,
Geronimo Pratt and the thousands of kindred POWs/political prisoners/fugitives
who mark the modern landscape of American “justice.” One day justice will prevail.
Daughter of the Earth:
Song for Anna Mae Aquash
She came down from the North Country, from Canada
Where the northern lights shine shimmering above the fir
The strength of the continent was deep inside her heart
Strength that was needed in these times
She came to help the peOple as they struggled to be free
From the ones who sought to kill the land for money
They said they owned our Mother Earth and called it USA
Born of broken treaties and murder
Oh Anna Mae, oh Anna Mae
I feel your spirit and sometimes I can hear it
Saying keep on strong, keep on going on
Daughter of the Earth
The FBI had told her they would kill her if they could
Like so many others before her
But she was not afraid of them, her path was clear and true
“I am a woman working for my people”
So they shot her down and left the body lying in a field
Believing in the power of the metal gun
But the power lies within the land, it can’t be owned or sold
And gives us what survives beyond our lives
Oh Anna Mae, oh Anna Mae
I feel your spirit and sometimes I can hear it
Saying keep on strong, keep on going on
Daughter of the Earth
Whenever I am frightened I just think of her
Her courage in confronting the death machine
To live for what sustains us all, to work to keep it whole
To die because some want to see it broken
Oh Anna Mae, oh Anna Mae
They stole your life away but they can’t steal what you had to say
To keep on strong, keep on going on
Daughter of the Earth
Oh Anna Mae, oh Anna Mae
I feel your spirit and sometimes I can hear it
Saying keep on strong, keep on going on
Daughter of the Earth
-—-Ellen Klaver
vii
About the Authors
Ward Churchill is coordinator, with Glenn Morris, of the Colorado chapter
of the American Indian Movement and, with Winona LaDuke, of the Institute for
Natural Progress. He has served as a delegate, in Geneva, Havana, and Benghazi,
for the International Indian Treaty Council, a United Nations Class II (Human Rights
Consultative) Non-Governmental Organization. Churchill has edited Marxism and
Native Americans (South End Press, 1983) and coauthored, with Elizabeth Lloyd,
Culture versus Economism: Essays on Mancism in the Multicultural Arena (Indigena
Press, 1984), as well as authoring some 85 articles and essays. He is also director of
the Educational Development Program at the University of Colorado/ Boulder.
Jim Vander Wall is a member and co-founder of the Denver Leonard Peltier
Support Group. He has been an active supporter of the struggles of Native Peoples
for sovereignty since 1974 and has written several articles on the case of Leonard
Peltier.