Talking Through The Rain
On June 26, 1975, at Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota, a gunfight broke out between two FBI agents and members of the American Indian Movement (AIM). AIM had been formed to protect the rights of Native American Indians who wanted to live their lives in the 'traditional' way and to pursue the rights guaranteed them by numerous government treaties. Additionally, oil and uranium ore had been discovered beneath the Pine Ridge Reservation, and the Federal government wanted to get hold of this land which had once thought to be worthless, and had been given (back) to the Indians. Indians of the old tradition however, believed the land to be sacred, and were opposed to giving it back to the government, at any price.

In the gunfight, the two FBI agents and a young Indian were killed. AIM members scattered and a manhunt began for the agents' killers. AIM security chief Leonard Peltier was later arrested, charged, and convicted of the murders of the FBI agents and has been in jail ever since. When Peltier was arrested, the FBI based part of their case against him on the account of a Lakota woman, Myrtle Poor Bear, who claimed she'd seen Peltier commit the murders. Later on, she changed her story, saying she had been coerced by FBI agents into identifying Peltier as the killer.

In 1983 renowned author Peter Matthiessen, (The Snow Leopard), published a book, 'In The Spirit of Crazy Horse', in which, as well as describing the persecution of native Americans by successive US governments, he wrote extensively about the Pine Ridge shoot-out, and came down squarely in favour of Peltier's innocence. (The book was not released until 1991 because of court actions taken by the former Governor of South Dakota). It was in 'Crazy Horse' that I first met Anna Mae Aquash, a Micmac (Mi'qmaw) Indian from Nova Scotia. I liked Anna. I was taken by her humanity. It therefore came as a shock when, late in the book, I discovered a person or persons unknown had murdered her. There were suggestions in the book that local Indian 'goons', in the employment of local law enforcement agencies may have killed her.

On February 24, 1976, a Lakota rancher found Anna's body while riding the perimeter of his property. The deterioration of her body indicated she had been dead for some time. She was initially taken to the Pine Ridge Public Health Service for autopsy, where cause of death was listed as exposure. Since no one could identify her, she was buried as a "Jane Doe" - an anonymous corpse. Her hands were cut off and sent to FBI headquarters in Washington, DC, for possible fingerprint id, and a week later, she was identified. When her family was informed, they called for a second autopsy. On March 11, 1976, another post-mortem revealed a .32 calibre bullet hole at the base of Anna's skull. Her death was then officially designated a homicide.

That, I thought was the end of it; a disputed murder conviction (Peltier's) and an unsolved murder (Anna's). However, when I checked the Internet recently (2003), I was surprised to find there have been a number of disturbing allegations posted recently, suggesting that Anna may have been raped and murdered by own people - either by persons within AIM, or by persons who had the approval of AIM. The allegations suggest Anna was murdered either because she was suspected of being an informant and/or because of internal AIM rivalries and jealousies. Names have been named. People are in custody. After being allegedly raped, she was taken to the site of her execution where she asked for time to pray. Her executioners did not grant this one last request.

I've used the word 'allegations' in the above paragraph for obvious reasons. Nothing has been satisfactorily or finally proven yet. A government 'hit' or an internal execution? A combination of both? Who knows? There appears to have been so may attempts to manipulate the facts, so many lies and cover-up's, so much deceit that it is impossible to say what the truth will finally look like when it eventually finds us. But find us it will. And then perhaps, Anna's spirit can be free, and the Nation can move on. They say that to deny a truth is to give it irresistible power, and that may account for why, even after 27 years, there is still an incredible amount of interest and a growing cache of information available about Anna.

When I wrote this song I wrote it for Anna. Not for her cause or her beliefs. For her as a person. I wanted to say I sensed in her a quality that put her outside the scheming, ego-driven politics of the then AIM movement. A quality which allowed her to recognise these failings but carry on the crusade just the same. I wanted to acknowledge her existence on this Earth as a positive influence; to say she had more in common with the great Oglala Sioux leader, Crazy Horse (Tashunkewitko), than others who, with loud modesty, and well-rehearsed rhetoric, were/are pretenders to his eagle feathers. Anna at least, walked her talk. In Peter Matthiessen's 'Crazy Horse', one of the people who knew Anna said he still hears her voice - talking through the rain.

Check out the following links and make up your own mind.
Links
Comprehensive website dedicated to Anna
AIM site

Written by Con Meehan
© 2003 Lightning Bird Records Ltd.
℗ 2003 Lightning Bird Records Ltd.
All rights reserved.