monday, november 14, 1977
daily nebraskan
page 5
Wounded Knee's scars not erased by the years
Continued from p. 3
'The bureaucracy had resulted in conditions of
poverty and deprivation among the Indians," Roubideaux
said.
'Things were unbelievably tense." He said he had
represented Indians jailed for criminal and militant
offenses, so he was asked to be AIM's chief negotiator.
"They trusted me. They couldn't trust white lawyers "
he said.
Second massacre
'They all really expected the government to move and
wipe them out. In fact, we almost had a second Wounded
Knee massacre before the negotiations.'
Roubideaux said the Indians would have benefited by
the terms of the first negotiations, but the militants
would not accept it.
"It was too bad that a couple of the AIM leaders were
out for national attention. They wanted major recogni
tion. I think the plight of the Indians was lost in the
striving for national recognition.
"It got to be where it wasn't constructive anymore
it just kept boiling. The Indians lost favor with the
American public, the press and with the Indian people,
too. They let a golden opportunity to change the Indian
situation slip through their grasp."
Father Manhardt said there is a radical difference
between Indians reared on the reservation and those who
live elsewhere He cited Russell Means and Dennis Banks,
AIM leaders in the takeover, as examples. .
"You have to live on the reservation to understand it,"
Manhardt said. "Many of these people involved in the
'I think the plight of the Indians was
lost in the striving for national
recognition
takeover had not lived here. They just didn't know the
values the people on the reservation hold."
But one missionary on the reservation who did not
want to be identified, said the same politics exist on the
jreservation today.
People who support AIM and those who support the
Tribal Council seldom say where they stand, the mission
ary said. He added, however, that there is still a political
power struggle between two factions.
The Gildersleeves, their home and trading post, were
caught in the middle.
The 1 1 hostages were allowed to leave after the third
day of the siege, but they remained.
"It was our home ; said Mrs. Gildersleeve. "Why
should we leave?"
After 10 days, though, there was nothing to stay for,
Gildersleeve said, so they packed up a few belongings and
fled the occupied village.
They went to Rushville, Neb., and lived in borrowed or
rented dwellings for three months. They since have
bought a white, blue-shuttered, one-story frame home
in Rushville, about 37 miles from Wounded Knee.
"We lost everything when we left Wounded Knee,"
Mrs. Gildersleeve said in the living room of their new
home.
The Gildersleeves took out a $20,000 loan from the
First National Bank of Gordon, Neb., to buy the home.
In addition, they had to buy all new furniture and house
hold goods.
"We're in one hell of a lot of debt," Gildersleeve said,
"but we have hope that we can get out of it."
The Gildersleeves have retained five lawyers in
Washington, D.C., to represent them. Hiey seek repara
tions from the federal government for property lost in
the occupation. That includes an estimated $100,000
in antiques from their "Biggest Little Museum in the
United States."
"We tried like hell to get somebody out to help us
when those AIM people came into Wounded Knee, but
nobody ever came," Gildersleeve said. "We think the
government owes us something for not even trying to
help us."
Leaders dispersed
The AIM leaders during the Wounded Knee occupa
tion have dispersed.
Dennis Banks is in California awaiting an appeal for
extradition to South Dakota to face charges resulting
from the takeover of a courthouse.
Russell Means was released from the South Dakota
Penitentiary Thursday after serving 10 days in a dispute
over an alleged bond violation stemming from an incident
in the Sioux Falls Courthouse. He said he does not plan to
resume AIM leadership.
Uoyd Grimm, 61, the federal marshal for Nebraska
who was shot and paralyzed from the waist down during
the siege, lives in Omaha.
He refuses to talk about the incident.
Lawrence "Buddy" Lamonte, the Indian who was shot
and killed during the siege, is buried just east of the mass
grave of his ancestors.
Ramon Roubideaux said his law practice was "praci
cally ruined" because of his involvement in Wounded
Knee. His law practice involving personal injury and crim
inal defense cases is now improving, though, he said.
Father Manhardt plans to return to the Pine Ridge
Reservation within a year.
And the Gildersleeves still have Indian visitors from
Wounded Knee,
"Our Indian friends often come into town and tell
us how sorry they are that the bad things happened,"
Gildersleeve said. "They really want us to go back out and
start the trading post again.
"I would like to, but I could never go back there,"
he said. "I am just getting too old for that sort of thing,
and you never know what might happen the next time."
Seldom visits
Gildersleeve seldom visits his 40 acres at Wounded
Knee. His wife, still scared, never does.
And, when Gildersleeve does go to the old trading post,
he reminisces about how it was in the old days-when
'I would like to (start the trading
post again), but I could never go
back there.'
he and all the Indians were friends.
"I am about as pro-Indian as anybody," he said.
'They have plenty of things to gripe about, but what
right do they have to hold us responsible? I never had a
cross word with any of the Indians, never since I went
to school with them when I was 14.
"They are really some of the nicest people I have ever
met."
Now, he says, the politics and factions on the reserva
tions make it both an unpleasant place to visit and a
dangerous place to live.
Roubideaux said he believes there are going to be
several more Wounded Knees.
"As long as the conditions of poverty and deprivation
are there, the potential is there," he said.
He said the Indians need self-government, not govern
ment by permission-whivh he contends the Tribal Coun
cil is.
But, for now Wounded Knee is quiet, except for an
occasional knife or gunfight on weekends when Indians
go a couple of miles to the Nebraska bordertown of
Whiteclay for a weekend's supply of liquor,
If it weren't for two metal signs pointing out the scene
. of the 1890 massacre, Wounded Knee probably would
. go unnoticed.
An occasional car meanders up the road to the mass
gravesite. Someone will get out and walk through the
quiet cemetery, which overlooks the massacre site in the
gulch,
Wounded Knee is beginning to heal, but other wounds
are bound to fester-infected with Indian frustration over
their conditions.
V- Weeds choke the remains of the 1973 siege. .
.Underneath, the Wounded Knee trading post lies
rusting, ! :J
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