Wounded Knee Trial
After Wounded Knee, Banks stayed for a time on the Gosiute reservation near the Great Salt Lake and then moved north into Canada. When he learned that bail money had been accumulated, he returned to face trail. Initially, several AIM leaders were to be tried together: Banks, Leonard Crow Dog, Russell Means, Stan Holder, Carter Camp, and Pedro Bissonette. Bissonette, however, was murdered, allegedly by Richard Wilson’s “goons.” The prosecutions of the remaining five were separated, with Banks and Means facing trial together.
The Banks and Means trial opened on January 8,1974. The venue was shifted from South Dakota to St. Paul, Minnesota, as U. S. District Judge Fred Nichol, a lifelong South Dakota resident who was intimately familiar with the strong sentiment against the American Indian Movement in the state, agreed with the argument of defense that the defendants could not get a fair trial in South Dakota. Nichol moved the trial but accompanied it as presiding judge.
Eleven charges were brought against the defendants, including assault, theft, interfering with federal agents, aiding and abetting crimes, arson, and conspiracy. As part of its rationale, the prosecution argued that even if Banks and Means did not personally commit criminal acts, they were leaders of the occupation of Wounded Knee and, therefore, directed and conspired with others to commit crimes.
Representing Banks were Larry Leventhal, Ken Tilsen, and Doug Hall; Mark Lane and William Kunstler were Means’s attorneys. Ramon Roubideaux, an attorney for AIM, was in charge of the overall defense.
Nichol had a reputation among lawyers as “super fair,” although he could be “tough as nails” upon sentencing.10 Banks later expressed a similar judgment, writing that “Judge Fred Nichol was a decent, no-nonsense kind of person and open to reason,” and that “he conducted the trial proceedings in a deliberate, sensitive, and fair manner.”11 Contributing to Banks’s opinion of Judge Nichol was his ruling that the prosecution, which according to Banks had been withholding documents, had to hand over its files—more than 300,000 documents. After Brigadier General Volney Warner (a colonel during Wounded Knee) testified about the involvement of the U. S. military in the siege at Wounded Knee, Judge Nichol ruled that the military had been illegally involved in a civilian matter and dismissed five of the charges.
By September 17, the prosecution’s case was teetering on the brink of failure. One of the jurors was ill, and the prosecution did not want the remaining 11 jurors to vote on the defendants’ guilt, apparently for fear of losing. A mistrial appeared to be the prosecution’s safest approach, but Judge Nichol dismissed the remaining charges. On April 16, 1975, the Eight Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Nichol’s decision.
Attempts to prosecute participants in the occupation of Wounded Knee were largely unsuccessful. Attorney Tilsen summed up the results in 1976, pointing out that of 185 indictments, only 2 remained undisposed of. There had been only 15 convictions, and only 11 of them for felonies, while 10 of the convictions were currently being appealed. According to Tilsen, the U. S. District Court conviction rate was 78.2 percent, but the Wounded Knee trials had a conviction rate of just 7.7 percent, demonstrating the government’s weak cases, presumably brought for political reasons.12
Custer Trial
Dennis Banks still had more trials to undergo, including one based on the events at Custer, South Dakota, in the aftermath of the killing of Wesley Bad Heart Bull. The Custer trial occurred in the same town and was prosecuted by William Janklow, an unrelenting opponent of the American Indian Movement. At the time, Janklow was state Attorney General; he would later serve as governor of South Dakota and as a member of the U. S. House of Representatives.
During the 1975 trial, Banks lived with his wife, Kamook, and their daughter, Tashina, on the Pine Ridge Reservation in a home owned by the Jumping Bull family near an AIM camp. During the trial, Leonard Peltier ran the camp for Banks. It was during the trial that a shooting occurred that would deeply affect Banks and many of his close associates.
On June 25, 1975, two FBI agents and two Bureau of Indian Affairs policemen arrived at the Jumping Bull ranch looking for Jimmy Eagle, who was wanted for allegedly stealing a pair of boots—an offense that hardly seemed to call for FBI intervention. The following day, June 26, according to Banks, two cars arrived at the Jumping Bull ranch. Two men got out: Ronald Williams and Jack Coler, the FBI agents who had appeared the day before.
Shooting broke out between the agents and a number of Indians, including Peltier. Other agents arrived quickly, perhaps indicating that they had been waiting nearby. By that time, both FBI agents were dead, as was Joe Stuntz Kills Right, Banks’s bodyguard, whom Banks had given the day off. Firing continued well into the afternoon.
Meanwhile, the trial continued, and Banks was found guilty of assault and rioting charges on July 26. Sentencing was set for August 5, and Banks was allowed to remain free on bail until that time. Faced with the possibility of getting as much as 15 years in prison, he decided not to appear for the sentencing hearing. Instead, he, Kamook, and their daughter fled.
A Fugitive
The decision not to appear for sentencing would make Dennis Banks a fugitive from justice for almost a decade and pit prominent national politicians against one another regarding Banks’s status. By the end of August, Banks was at Crow Dog’s Paradise, rejoining his wife and a number of those persons who had been present for the shootout, including Leonard Peltier.
Banks and Peltier then drove to Los Angeles, where they sought help from a prominent supporter of AIM, the actor Marlon Brando. Brando gave them a motor home and $10,000. With some of the money, Banks and Peltier bought 10 rifles and then returned to South Dakota to give money to Kamook to help her with living expenses.
Banks, Peltier, Kenny Loud Hawk, Russ Redner, and Annie Mae Aquash (the only member of the group not wanted by law enforcement) headed toward the Northwest. They bought additional rifles as well as dynamite in preparation for any attempts to capture or kill them. They also bought a station wagon in which to carry the explosives. Kamook, now pregnant, and Tashina flew to Seattle to join Banks.
All went well for a time, but during November in eastern Oregon near the Idaho border on Interstate 84, a state trooper pulled the two vehicles over, unwittingly short-circuiting an FBI trap 15 miles along the highway. Another trooper arrived, and most of the occupants of the station wagon and motor home left their vehicles and followed orders to lie down on the ground. Banks, who was still in the motor home, pulled out, and Peltier, during the firing at the motor home, started running. Despite being wounded, Peltier escaped and made his way to Canada. Banks slowed down, opened the door, and jumped out. He escaped by running into the woods, although he cut himself badly on barbed-wire fences.
Banks took refuge in a farmer’s barn. Four days later, when he finally approached the farmer, he discovered that the man was actually quite supportive and had met Banks previously in Lincoln, Nebraska, when Banks had given a speech at an event that also featured Marlon Brando. The farmer offered Banks a ride to Nevada; from there, two friends, John Trudell and Darrel Standing Elk, took him to the San Francisco area.
Banks stayed with Lee Brightman near Oakland until his presence was discovered and he was arrested by the FBI. Banks was released on bail. Kamook, who had been arrested and was being held in Wichita, Kansas, was bailed out with the financial help of Jim Jones, who later would lead a mass suicide of his followers in Guyana. Before being released, Kamook gave birth to another daughter, Tiopa Maza Win (Iron Door Woman), on December 30, 1975, the name reflecting the place of birth—the prison hospital.
Janklow tried to have Banks extradited to South Dakota, but Governor Edmund “Jerry” Brown, Jr., denied the request. Temporarily free in California, Banks was joined by his wife and their children and attempted to make a life there. He enrolled at D-Q University, an American Indian institution whose D-Q letters refer to an Iroquois prophet and an Aztec god of healing. He also received permission from school officials to hold a Sun Dance on campus. With the help of three medicine men—Leonard Crow Dog, Charlie Kills Enemy, and Archie Fire Lame Deer, all from South Dakota—the Sun Dance was not only successful but also enormously popular, as several hundred people participated.
As Banks’s eight-year stay in California continued, he lectured at D-Q and other institutions, was hired as chancellor of D-Q, and with Kamook had another daughter (Tokala, meaning Kit Fox, but nicknamed Chubbs). His respite in his California sanctuary came to an end when Republican George Deukmejian was elected governor. Deukmejian had promised to extradite Banks to South Dakota if he received a request to do so, so Banks decided to move to New York City, where he hoped that the state’s governor, Mario Cuomo, would also refuse extradition.
A longtime friend, Alice Papineau, persuaded Banks to stop at the Onondaga Reservation in Onondaga County, New York, rather than continue to New York City. Tribal leaders granted Banks sanctuary, and Governor Cuomo and other state officials respected the sovereignty of the Onondaga Nation regarding extradition.
During their stay at Onondaga, Dennis and Kamook had a fourth child, a son named Chanupa Washte (Good Sacred Pipe). Banks directed about 40 youngsters in running, developing an excited and talented cross-country team. He also organized a run from New York City to Los Angeles as part of the Jim Thorpe Games being held in California. Yet despite the relative safety and comfort of living on the Onondaga Reservation, Banks’s freedom was limited by reservation boundaries. He decided that finally he had to resolve his legal issues and face prison.
Imprisonment
Banks returned to South Dakota for sentencing, which occurred on October 9, 1984. The sentence was three years, one year and two months of which he served in prison, first at the South Dakota State Penitentiary at Sioux Falls and later at the Springfield Correctional Facility in Springfield, South Dakota.
On the whole, Banks’s incarceration went about as smoothly as being in prison can go. He was treated generally as any other prisoner, his AIM fame seemingly not eliciting special harshness. During April 1985, his paternal grandfather, Bijah, died. Despite the long-standing antagonism between William Janklow, the governor of South Dakota at the time, and Banks, the governor approved a leave for Banks to attend the funeral.
Banks’s prison term came to an end when the parole board on August 6, 1985, approved parole, pending his ability to find employment. That did not prove difficult, as Banks found work on Pine Ridge Reservation and was soon free, albeit not entirely clear of legal troubles.
Banks had gone to Oregon in April 1976 to face firearms and explosives charges stemming from the ill-fated motor-home incident involving Peltier, Kamook, and others. The trial took place on May 12, but Judge Robert Belloni of the U. S. District Court for the District of Oregon dismissed the charges, but with prejudice, meaning that the charges could be reinstated. Like Governor Brown, Governor Robert Straub of Oregon had refused to extradite Banks to South Dakota.
New charges were filed several years later, but they were dismissed on May 2, 1983. The following year, an appeals court upheld the dismissal. Prosecution appeals continued into 1988, when, on March 8, Banks pleaded guilty to possessing dynamite. He was sentenced to five years’ probation, and the case finally, for all practical purposes, ended.
World History
