Indian activist who was murdered on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota. Born on the Indian Brook Reserve near Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia, Canada; revered among many Mi'kmaq as a champion of native women's rights; she was an American Indian Movement activist who with her husband took part in 71-day American Indian Movement occupation of Wounded Knee, South Dakota in 1973. Rumored to be a government informant, she fled to Denver in late 1975. AIM members then took her to Rapid City in December 1975 where they questioned her at the offices of the Wounded Knee Legal Defense Committee after which she was taken to the Rosebud Indian Reservation and finally to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, where her body was found shot in the back of the head. Between 1976 and 2003 at least five federal grand juries heard evidence in the case and in March 2003 Arlo Looking Cloud and John Graham, also known as John Boy Patton, were indicted on murder charges. Looking Cloud was arrested in Denver, pleaded innocent and extradited to South Dakota where he was found guilty by a jury in February 2004 and sentenced to life imprisonment. Graham was arrested in Vancouver, British Columbia in December 2003 and released on bond while fighting extradition. In April 2004 the Aquash family exhumed her body from Oglala grave and returned it to Nova Scotia where she was reburied on her home reservation, the Indian Brook First Nation, in a funeral service on June 21, 2004.∼Naguset Eask. Annie Mae Pictou Aquash was an American Indian activist that was murdered by members of AIM. She was a dedicated and faithful mother and warrior. She deserved respect but a group of AIM members including Thelma Rios, Arlo Looking Cloud and John Graham assassinated her near Wanblee South Dakota. Other members of AIM were involved. She came with hope of saving a people from racism and was as dedicated as any warrior in the Civil Rights Movement. Those who should have protected her turned their backs on her and took her life. Justice for Annie Mae.

" This whole country changed with only a handful of raggedy ass pilgrims that came over in the 1500's and it can take a handful of raggedy ass Indians to do the same. I intend to be one of those raggedy ass Indians."
"Always tell the truth no matter what and remember, no one is more important than you are, we are all created equally" ~Annie Mae Pictou Aquash~

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