Biography
Anna Mae Pictou Aquash was a 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.
In John Graham’s trial, Aquash’s former attorney Riter testified that his November 6, 1975 letter offered a proposed misdemeanor plea and probation recommendation conditional on government cooperation. He did not know whether she received it. He said the pending prosecution was dismissed after her death.
