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Anna Mae Pictou Aquash

AKA: Naguset Eask
Released
Full name:Anna Mae Aquash
Date of birth:27. 03. 1945
Date of death:12. 12. 1975
Age:30 Deceased
Gender:Female
Race:Native American
Era:1970s
State:South Dakota
Time Imprisoned:
4 Days
Support
Indigenous Sovereignty American Indian Movement
Anna Mae Pictou Aquash

Biography

Mi'kmaq AIM activist born March 27, 1945 in Indian Brook (Shubenacadie 13), Nova Scotia. She participated in the 1973 Wounded Knee occupation, organized at the AIM Trail of Broken Treaties caravan, and worked at Pine Ridge during the 1970s "Reign of Terror." Repeatedly arrested by federal and tribal authorities, she was held briefly at the Pierre, SD jail in early 1975 on weapons charges and questioned about Peltier-era cases. She disappeared in late 1975 and her body was found on the Pine Ridge Reservation on February 24, 1976 with a single gunshot wound to the back of the head. Her killing — for years officially attributed to "exposure" before a re-autopsy revealed the bullet — became one of the most notorious cases of the FBI/AIM era. AIM members Arlo Looking Cloud and John Graham were eventually convicted of her murder in 2004 and 2010 respectively. Commemorated in NPPC as a memorial entry alongside Pedro Bissonette and other AIM/Pine Ridge martyrs.

Cases

Pennington County Jail
Charges: Weapons and explosives charges
Arrested: Sep 4, 1975
Incarcerated: Sep 4, 1975
Released: Sep 8, 1975
Sentence: Several days at Pennington County Jail on the September 1975 charges; further brief custody after the November 1975 Oregon arrest; killed shortly after her second release in unresolved circumstances on or about December 12, 1975 Charges as recorded: Weapons and explosives charges arising from the September 5, 1975 federal raid on the AIM property at Pine Ridge; later additional charges in Oregon
Convicted: Held in pretrial federal custody before release on bond; never tried
Institution State: South Dakota
Charges: Weapons charges, federal grand jury subpoenas (Pine Ridge / Peltier-era investigations)
Arrested: Sep 5, 1975
Sentence: Murdered December 12, 1975 on Pine Ridge Reservation; body found February 24, 1976 Verdict as recorded: No — killed before any trial
Convicted: No