A long-delayed murder trial may shed light on who ordered the decades-old killing of a American Indian Movement (AIM) activist who was shot in the head and left to die on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge reservation.
John Graham, a Southern Tutchone Indian from Canada and former AIM member, heads to trial on murder charges this week in South Dakota court. Prosecutors allege Graham was one of three AIM activists who kidnapped and killed Annie Mae Aquash because AIM leaders believed she was a government spy.
Aquash’s death, which occurred 35 years ago next month, quickly became synonymous with the violent clashes between AIM and federal authorities in the 1970s. One person has been convicted of the murder and another pleaded guilty this month in connection with her kidnapping.
Graham, 55, has maintained his innocence in the killing.
Among those who could testify at Graham’s trial are Arlo Looking Cloud, who was convicted in 2004 in connection with Aquash’s murder and has said Graham pulled the trigger, and Thelma Rios, who pleaded guilty this month to being an accessory to Aquash’s kidnapping and received a suspended prison sentence.
Rios was originally to go on trial with Graham. Now, her plea could prove pivotal to Graham’s prosecution. In a court hearing this month, Rios said she relayed a message to AIM members in Colorado that Aquash should be taken from Denver to Rapid City, the Rapid City Journal reported. She also acknowledged hearing discussions about whether Aquash should be killed, the Journal reported.
The prosecution’s theory, based on court documents and witnesses, is that Graham, Looking Cloud and a third AIM member, Theda Clark, were told in late 1975 to take Aquash from Denver to Rios’ apartment in Rapid City. There, she was interrogated by AIM members and allegedly raped by Graham. Aquash was driven to the reservation, then killed and left in a ravine, where her body was found in February 1976.
AIM leaders have consistently denied personal involvement in Aquash’s death.
For years, witnesses refused to come forward. Many feared retribution from AIM or distrusted the FBI, said Norman Zigrossi, who was in charge of the FBI’s Rapid City office at the time.
Longtime observers of the case say Graham, as the alleged killer, could lead authorities further.
“There’s no doubt that John Graham could lead to the leadership,” said Paul DeMain, an Indian journalist who has long researched the case.
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