"A Return to the Wounded Knee Occupation, 50 Years Later" Topic

"I remember 50 years ago writing a high school research paper about the Wounded Knee occupation right after it took place. My good friend Jake Reynolds (Southern Cheyenne) had just returned from the occupation and shared his first-hand experiences for my paper. His accounts of smuggling in food under the watch of the FBI, U.S. Marshals, and Tribal Police fascinated me then, and my interest in the topic continues today.

On the 50th Anniversary of the Wounded Knee occupation (February 27-May 8, 1973), many of the famous American Indian Movement (AIM) leaders who spearheaded the occupation are no longer alive to tell their stories in their own words. The occupation at Wounded Knee was, in my memory, the first time an American Indian current event was being followed by national and international audiences. Every night on the evening news all the major news networks reported what had transpired each day—prompted by members of the press accompanying two U.S. Senators from South Dakota, James Abourezk and George McGovern, to Wounded Knee. This level of mainstream coverage signaled a change in the American media landscape produced by various social justice movements during the 1970s…"

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