On this day in 1973, the siege at Wounded Knee, SD ended. For seventy-one days, members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) and tribal traditionalists had controlled the small town on the Pine Ridge Reservation, home of the Oglala Sioux. The occupation lasted until May 8, when U.S. Marhals, FBI agents, and National Guard troops took control of the area.

AIM and their allies chose Wounded Knee because it was the site of one of the most notorious Indian massacres in American history. But the roots of the Wounded Knee siege are more complicated than the symbolic politics suggest. In the summer of 1968, a group of Native activists started AIM as a self-help organization devoted to policing the police, fighting poverty in the Indian community, and improving federal treatment of tribal peoples. At around the same time, the Pine Ridge Reservation threatened to descend into chaos. Struggles over cultural and political sovereignty as well as local natural resources — especially the impact of strip mining in the Black Hills region — sometimes exploded into violence.

By 1973, many tribal elders and younger activists believed that the Tribal Council and Bureau of Indian Affairs had become hopelessly corrupt. For proof, they pointed to Richard Wilson, the tribal chairman, who had his own private army — the GOONs (Guardians of the Oglala Nation) — which he used to intimidate his political opponents. Frustrated in their efforts to unseat Wilson, this coalition of traditionalists approached AIM’s leadership, seeking help in their struggle.

AIM and the Oglala activists then seized Wounded Knee, taking back the land and ruling it without government intervention. As word of the occupation spread, Indian people from throughout the region came to demonstrate solidarity. Federal troops arrived as well, circling the town and cutting off roads in and out. The activists then demanded investigations into the allocation of tribal funds, violence on the Reservation, and the BIA’s mistreatment of the Oglala people.

Throughout the winter, the Wounded Knee occupiers held out. They exchanged occasional gunfire with the surrounding troops and tried to cope with their hunger by embracing traditional spiritual practices. On this day in 1973, though, short on food and exhausted, they negotiated an end to the occupation.

[Author's Note: Below you can find my hasty effort to reconstruct what I wrote last night. And yes, I'm pretty sure the man is keeping me down.]

If the Wounded Knee occupation shouldn’t be seen entirely as a byproduct of symbolic politics, the event nevertheless became a powerful symbol in its aftermath. The violence didn’t subside at Pine Ridge for some time, and many tribal traditionalists ascribe a series of unsolved murders in the years that followed to vengeance over Wounded Knee. Russell Means, one of the AIM leaders during the siege, has maintained his national profile to this day. And Native American activists often point back to Wounded Knee as a key moment in the Red Power struggle.