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"American Indian Activism and the Siege of Wounded Knee"

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"American Indian Activism and the Siege of Wounded Knee"

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Written by: Jason Pierce, Angelo State University

By the end of this section, you will:

Explain how and why various groups responded to calls for the expansion of civil rights from 1960 to 1980

By the late nineteenth century, American Indians had largely faded from public consciousness, with most consigned to Indian reservations. Reformers and the federal government hoped to integrate Indians into the larger society. The Dawes Allotment Act (1887) broke many Indian reservations into smaller, private landholdings, and Indian children were often forced to attend boarding schools where, as Richard Henry Pratt, the head of the Carlisle Indian School, explained, "We must kill the Indian to save the man." Government control, the prohibition of traditional ceremonies, limited rations, high unemployment, and alcohol abuse afflicted reservations.

The status of American Indians did improve somewhat with the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 (sometimes called the Indian New Deal), which allowed tribes to create tribal governments, but their sovereignty was still limited by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). World War II brought opportunities, and many American Indians joined the armed forces or moved to cities for jobs in defense plants. However, living off the reservation, surrounded by non-Indians, made it difficult for them to maintain their Indian identities. The federal government saw relocation as a potential solution to the budgetary expense of managing American Indian reservations, and in the 1950s, it implemented the "Termination Policy." This policy eliminated the reservations of more "advanced" tribes, opening Indian lands to non-Indian companies to exploit their natural resources. Termination, like the Dawes Act before it, often hurt rather than helped American Indians.

Internal corruption also became a problem, and some tribal governments become quasi-dictatorships. Tribal leaders sometimes ran their reservations like private kingdoms with little oversight from the BIA or input from tribal members. This became one cause of the Siege at Wounded Knee.

The 1973 Siege at Wounded Knee was only one event in the larger American Indian civil rights movement. American Indians, watching the Civil Rights Movement, began to use similar tactics to raise awareness of their concerns. The goals of the two movements, however, were very different. African Americans wanted to be integrated into American society as equal members, but after decades of assimilation and the loss of land and culture, some American Indians wanted nothing more than the right to remain Indians on their own lands.

American Indian activism became more militant in the mid-1960s, with the rise of the "Red Power" movement, which took its name from the growing "Black Power" movement. Like African Americans, American Indians believed they were unfairly targeted and harassed by law enforcement, especially in off-reservation towns and cities. Minneapolis and St. Paul, east of several reservations, had attracted a large American Indian population. Members of the American Indian community formed an "Indian patrol" to assert their rights and monitor the police. Three Indian Patrol leaders, Clyde Bellecourt, Dennis Banks, and George Mitchell, decided to expand the Indian Patrol into a civil rights organization, and in 1968 they formed the American Indian Movement (AIM). AIM soon became an influential and controversial organization.

The flag of the American Indian Movement (AIM).

A younger, more radical generation of leaders emerged. The new generation understood the power of media and sought to use it by staging spectacular protests at historic sites like Mount Rushmore. None attracted more attention than the 1969 takeover of Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay. Scaring away the lone caretaker of the abandoned prison, the protestors declared their independence from the United States and transformed the island into their own "country." Satirically using the rhetoric of past treaties, they promised to end their protest and return the island for payment in beads from the "Great White Father."

A sign covered in graffiti at Alcatraz Island during the 1969 AIM takeover.

For a time, the media covered the story closely, and social activists, including the actor Jane Fonda, visited the island to lend their support. Eventually, however, the media moved on, and the occupation of Alcatraz ended peacefully in 1971. Still, the occupation had been a success, bringing American Indian issues to the forefront of a mostly sympathetic nation's consciousness. Protests at Boston Harbor and Washington, DC, continued to attract attention, including the six-day occupation of the headquarters of the hated Bureau of Indian Affairs in November 1972, which protestors rechristened the "Native American Embassy."

In 1973, the attention of AIM and the world turned to the Pine Ridge Reservation of the Lakota Indians in South Dakota, and the ensuing Siege at Wounded Knee proved to be a spectacular final chapter in a period of Indian militancy and activism. The catalyst for the siege was the fatal January 1973 stabbing of a young Lakota man, Wesley Bad Heart Bull, in Buffalo Gap, South Dakota. Although accounts of the circumstances surrounding the killing varied, a white man arrested for the death quickly pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter and was released after one day in jail. Bad Heart Bull's aggrieved mother and other activists staged a protest against the man's release. Around the county courthouse in Custer, South Dakota (where the trial of Bad Heart Bull's killer had been held), activists clashed with police, and Wesley Bad Heart Bull's mother was one of several people arrested. Convicted of assaulting an officer, she received a 3- to 5-year prison sentence.

In addition to issues of policing, activists were also upset with the tribal chair of Pine Ridge, Richard Wilson. Wilson had seized control of the tribal government, appointing friends and relatives to positions of authority and forming the Guardians of the Oglala Nation (whose acronym, provocatively, was GOONs). Wilson ruled the reservation like a dictator, employing the GOONs as his private army and threatening and intimidating his opponents. Federal officials generally ignored these internal problems, deferring to Wilson. After an impeachment effort failed tooustWilson, angry residents consulted with tribal elders and made the controversial decision to ask AIM for help. AIM, composed mostly of young, urban Indians, had a reputation for contentious and sometimes violent protests, but supporters hoped AIM could help break Wilson's increasingly authoritarian rule.

AIM and Wilson were thus on a collision course. Wilson, wanting the AIM activists removed from Pine Ridge, asked U.S. marshals for assistance. In February 1973, Dennis Banks, Russell Means, and several hundred AIM protestors from many tribes descended on the small settlement of Wounded Knee on Pine Ridge. After fortifying the village, taking 11 people hostage and pillaging the small grocery store, AIM and its followers prepared for the worst.

The activists knew well the powerful meaning of Wounded Knee. It was here, on an unseasonably pleasant morning in December 1890, that U.S. soldiers had killed several hundred Lakota men, women, and children in the last, tragic clash of the Indian Wars.

A burial party loading the dead after the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre.

Led by the FBI, members of tribal, state, and federal law enforcement surrounded the village. Armored vehicles blocked the roads, aircraft circled overhead, and snipers took up positions. Many of the activists were veterans of the war in Vietnam, and they helped organize the defense of the village, preparing for an assault. Media outlets descended on the scene. And then everyone waited.

The siege lasted for the next 71 days, becoming a major international news story. At the Academy Awards, Marlon Brando, who won the best actor Oscar for his role in The Godfather that year, turned his acceptance speech over to an American Indian woman named Sacheen Littlefeather, who asked for support for the protestors to a mixed chorus of clapping and boos. Back in Wounded Knee, the situation remained tense, especially after two Indian men were killed by snipers. Several others were wounded. AIM claimed that law enforcement or Wilson's GOONs had fired tens of thousands of rounds into the compound.

The FBI, hoping to avoid a televised bloodbath, opened a dialogue with the protestors, promising to investigate the grievances of the protestors, especially the murders of Indians and the corrupt practices of Wilson and his cronies. In exchange, the protestors agreed to end the siege.

Means and Banks were indicted for their roles in the siege, but both were exonerated when a federal judge dismissed the case. Means, a Lakota, challenged Wilson for the position of tribal chairman, losing a tense and close election that was marred by arson, beatings, and murders attributed to Wilson's followers. Wilson was finally replaced by a new chair in 1976, but tensions remained, especially after the murder of two undercover FBI agents in 1975. AIM member Leonard Peltier was convicted of the murders in 1977 and given two consecutive life sentences, but AIM maintained he was innocent of the crime.

Like the Black Power movement, the period of militant Indian activism proved highly controversial and largely unsuccessful. Certainly, AIM protests attracted a great deal of attention to American Indian causes, but when the cameras left, little of substance had changed. However, AIM did leave a lasting legacy. It helped give American Indians, so often ignored in national discourse, a voice albeit a polarizing one. Although some American Indians recoiled at its lawless and violent tactics, AIM caused others to rediscover their heritage and culture. AIM also wanted tribes to have more control over their government, education, and resources, and by the 1980s, many had made progress on that front, some even regaining federal recognition after having lost it during Termination. The activism of the 1970s led to less spectacular but much more far-reaching reforms in the 1980s and 1990s. Even so, many problems continue to afflict American Indians today.

Review Questions

1. The first high-profile American Indian protest of the twentieth century occurred at

2. One reason protestors chose to occupy Wounded Knee, South Dakota, was that

3. The goal of the Indian Patrol was

4. The federal policy that closed some American Indian reservations and opened the land to non-Indian companies in the twentieth century was

5. The catalyst for the big American Indian Movement siege in 1973 was

6. The goals of the American Indian Movement included

Free Response Questions

1. Explain how the Indian Rights Movement was influenced by the African American Civil Rights movement.

2. Describe what was accomplished by AIM in the Siege at Wounded Knee.

AP Practice Questions

"We need not give another recitation of past complaints nor engage in redundant dialogue of discontent. Our conditions and their cause for being should perhaps be best known by those who have written the record of America's action against Indian people. In 1832, Black Hawk correctly observed: 'You know the cause of our making war. It is known to all white men. They ought to be ashamed of it.' The government of the United States knows the reasons for our going to its capital city. Unfortunately, they don't know how to greet us. We go because America has been only too ready to express shame, and suffer none from the expression - while remaining wholly unwilling to change to allow life for Indian people."

"The Trail of Broken Treaties, Twenty-point Position Paper Preamble," October 31, 1972

Refer to the excerpt provided.

1. The sentiments expressed in the excerpt are similar to those expressed by

1. William Lloyd Garrison in The Liberator

2. the Seneca Falls Declaration

3. the Southern Manifesto

4. NAACP co-founder W. E. B. DuBois

2. The sentiments in the excerpt were most directly related to the

3. In the late twentieth century, the conflict between the American Indian Movement and the U.S. government was primarily driven by opposing views on

Primary Sources

"Activists Call on Obama to Pardon Leonard Peltier, Warning He'll Die in Prison Otherwise." Interview with Martin Garbus, attorney for Leonard Peltier, on his denial of clemency by President Obama in January of 2017 for Democracy Now. https://www.democracynow.org/2017/1/18/activists_call_on_obama_to_pardon

American Indian Movement. "Trail of Broken Treaties 20-Point Position Paper." October 1972. http://www.aimovement.org/archives/index.html

Bureau of Indian Affairs website: https://www.bia.gov

Gerard, Forrest. "Memorandum from Forrest Gerard to Jerry T. Verkler and Bill Van Ness Regarding the American Indian Movement (AIM) Occupation of Wounded Knee, South Dakota." Record Group 46: Records of the U.S. Senate, 1789-2015, Series: Special Project Files, 1951-1968, Special Action Files of the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs for the 93rd Congress. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/38995458

Letter from Jack Ryan, former FBI agent to President Obama, supporting clemency for Leonard Peltier. Amnesty International. https://www.amnestyusa.org/pdfs/RyanSignedLighterVersion.pdf

"Marlon Brando's Oscar® win for "The Godfather." Sacheen Littlefeather speaks for Marlon Brando at the Oscars in 1973. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QUacU0I4yU

Suggested Resources

Chat, Paul, Warrior Robert Allen. Like a Hurricane: The Indian Movement from Alcatraz to Wounded Knee. New York: The New Press, 1996.

Iverson, Peter. We are Still Here: American Indians Since 1890. New York: Wiley-Blackwell, 2014.

Magnuson, Stew. Wounded Knee 1973: Still Bleeding: The American Indian Movement, the FBI, and the Fight to Bury the Sins of the Past. Sioux Falls, SD: Courtbridge Publishing, 2013.

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American Indian Activism and the Siege of Wounded Knee - Bill of Rights Institute

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By the end of this section, you will: Explain how and why various groups responded to calls for the expansion of civil rights from 1960 to 1980 By the late nineteenth century, American Indians had largely faded from public consciousness, with most consigned to Indian reservations.

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Preview

Subject-Names

Jesse Jackson

Subject-Topics

Civil Rights Movement

Description

Chicago: The Rev Jesse Jackson, president of Operation Push (L), held a joint news conference with Vernon F. Bellecourt, 42 (R), and announced that Operation Push would stand behind Bellecourt in his legal battle with the government. Bellecourt was arrested at O'Hare 7/21, just after arriving from a trip to Europe to raise funds for the American Indian Movement. He was released on $10,000 bond after being charged with violating federal anti-riot laws in connection with speeches he made at the time of the Wounded Knee occupation.

Format

BW Photograph, 10" x 8"

Source

United Press International

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Chicago: The Rev Jesse Jackson, president of Operation Push (L), held a joint news conference with Vernon F. Bellecourt, 42 (R), and announced that Operation Push would stand behind Bellecourt in his legal battle with the government. Bellecourt was arrested at O'Hare 7/21, just after arriving from a trip to Europe to raise funds for the American Indian Movement.

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"Clyde Bellecourt Speech on Indian Reform Policy"

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"Clyde Bellecourt Speech on Indian Reform Policy"

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Clyde Bellecourt suggests reform in Indian policy

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With his brother Lolly, he is also the co-founder of the band in 1969 after they had a almost ten year long successfull career in Los Angeles under the name of Pat & Lolly Vegas.

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Wounded Knee, located on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, was the site of two conflicts between Native Americans and representatives of the U.S. government, including the U.S. Army and, later, the FBI. An 1890 massacre left some 150 Native Americans dead, in what was the final clash between federal troops and the Sioux tribe. In 1973, members of the American Indian Movement occupied Wounded Knee for 71 days to protest conditions on the reservation.

Ghost Dance and Sitting Bull

Throughout 1890, the U.S. government was worried about the increasing influence at Pine Ridge Indian Reservation of the Ghost Dance spiritual movement, which taught that Native Americans had been defeated and confined to reservations because they had angered the gods by abandoning their traditional customs.

Many Sioux believed that if they practiced the Ghost Dance and rejected the ways of the white man, the gods would create the world anew and destroy all non-believers, including non-Indians. On December 15, 1890, reservation police tried to arrest Sitting Bull, the famous Sioux chief, whom they mistakenly believed was a Ghost Dancer, and killed him in the process, increasing the tensions at Pine Ridge in South Dakota.

Did you know? Nearly half of the Sioux killed at the 1890 Wounded Knee massacre were women and children.

Wounded Knee Massacre

On December 29, the U.S. Army's 7th Cavalry surrounded a band of Ghost Dancers under Big Foot, a Lakota Sioux chief, near Wounded Knee Creek and demanded they surrender their weapons. As that was happening, a fight broke out between an Indian and a U.S. soldier and a shot was fired, although it's unclear from which side.

A brutal massacre followed, in which an estimated 150 Indians were killed. (Some historians put this number at twice as high.) Nearly half of them were women and children. The U.S. cavalry lost 25 men.

The conflict at Wounded Knee was originally referred to as a battle-the Army troops involved were later rewarded with Medals of Honor-but in reality it was a tragic and avoidable massacre. Surrounded by heavily armed troops, it's unlikely that Big Foot's band would have intentionally started a fight. Some historians speculate that the soldiers of the 7th Cavalry were deliberately taking revenge for the regiment's defeat at Little Bighorn in 1876.

Whatever the motives, the massacre ended the Ghost Dance movement and was one of the last major confrontations in the Indian Wars, America's deadly series of wars against the Plains Indians and other Native Americans.

American Indian Movement

The American Indian Movement (AIM) was founded in 1968 in an effort to stop police harassment of Indians in the Minneapolis area. Borrowing some tactics from the Vietnam war protests of the era, AIM soon gained national notoriety for its flamboyant demonstrations. However, many mainstream Indian leaders denounced the youth-dominated group as too radical.

In 1972, a faction of AIM members led by Dennis Banks and Leonard Peltier sought to close the divide by making alliances with traditional tribal elders on reservations. They had their greatest success on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, after a group of young white men murdered a Sioux man named Yellow Thunder.

Although Yellow Thunder's attackers received only six-year prison sentences, this was widely seen as a victory by the local Sioux accustomed to unfair treatment by the often racist judicial system. AIM's highly visible publicity campaign on the case was given considerable credit for the verdict, winning the organization a great deal of respect on the reservation.

Wounded Knee Siege

AIM's growing prestige and influence, however, threatened the conservative Sioux tribal chairman, Dick Wilson. When Wilson learned of a planned AIM protest against his administration at Pine Ridge, he retreated to tribal headquarters where he was under the protection of federal marshals and Bureau of Indian Affairs police.

Rather than confront the police in Pine Ridge, some 200 AIM members and their supporters decided to occupy the symbolically significant hamlet of Wounded Knee, site of the 1890 massacre. Wilson, with the backing of the federal government, responded by besieging Wounded Knee.

During the 71 days of the siege, which began on February 27, 1973, federal officers and AIM members exchanged gunfire almost nightly. Hundreds of arrests were made, and two Native Americans were killed and a federal marshal was permanently paralyzed by a bullet wound.

The leaders of AIM finally surrendered on May 8 after a negotiated settlement was reached. In a subsequent trial, the judge ordered their acquittal because of evidence that the FBI had manipulated key witnesses. AIM emerged victorious and succeeded in shining a national spotlight on the problems of modern Native Americans.

Trouble Continues at Pine Ridge

The troubles at Wounded Knee, however, were not over after the siege. A virtual civil war broke out between the opposing Indian factions on the Pine Ridge reservation, and a series of beatings, shootings and murders left more than 100 Indians dead. When two FBI agents were killed in a 1975 gunfight, the agency raided the reservation and arrested AIM leader Leonard Peltier for the crime.

The FBI crackdown coupled with AIM's own excesses ended its influence at Pine Ridge. In 1977, Peltier was convicted of killing the two FBI agents and sentenced to life in prison. To this day, Peltier's supporters continue to maintain his innocence and seek a presidential pardon for him.

And in 2021, members of the U.S. Congress petitioned President Joe Biden to revoke the Medals of Honor soldiers received for their participation in the 1890 Wounded Knee massacre.

HISTORY Vault: Native American History

Sources

Disaster at Wounded Knee. Library of Congress.
What really happened at Wounded Knee, the site of a historic massacre. National Geographic.
Warren, Merkley, Kahele Lead Bicameral Letter Urging Biden to Rescind Medals of Honor Awarded to Soldiers who Perpetrated Wounded Knee Massacre. Elizabeth Warren, U.S. Senate.
Wounded Knee Massacre. Encyclopedia of the Great Plains.

Fact Check

We strive for accuracy and fairness. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate.

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Wounded Knee: Massacre, Memorial & Battle - HISTORY

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Wounded Knee in South Dakota was the site of an 1890 Indian massacre by U.S. Army troops, and a deadly 1973 occupation by Native American activists.

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J.E. Luebering J.E. Luebering is Vice President, Editorial at Encyclopaedia Britannica.

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American Indian Movement (AIM) | History, Goals, Significance, & Facts

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The American Indian Movement, also known as AIM, is a Native American civil rights organization founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1968. Its goals came to encompass the entire spectrum of Native demands, such as the revitalization of traditional culture, autonomy over tribal areas, and the restoration of lands.

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Wounded Knee Massacre | Facts, History, & Legacy

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Wounded Knee Massacre (December 29, 1890), the slaughter of approximately 150–300 Lakota Indians by U.S. Army troops in the area of Wounded Knee Creek in southwestern South Dakota. The massacre was the climax of the U.S. Army’s late 19th-century efforts to repress the Plains Indians.

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LibGuides: American Indian Movement (AIM): Overview

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One of the co-founder of the band

With his brother Pat, he is also the co-founder of the band in 1969 after they had a almost ten year long successfull career in Los Angeles under the name of Pat & Lolly Vegas.

Lolly Vegas

Lolly was a composer and singer in the band. He was also an inventiv guitar player. Jimi Hendrix stated that Lolly Vegas was his favorite guitar player and biggest influence in music.

Lolly was one of the first guitarists to make extensive use of the distinctive Leslie rotating speaker effect in his electric guitar amplification set-up. He played improvised, jazz-influenced guitar.

Lolly on guitar

Lolly live

Lolly died from a cancer the 4th march 2010.

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With his brother Pat, he is also the co-founder of the band in 1969 after they had a almost ten year long successfull career in Los Angeles under the name of Pat & Lolly Vegas. Lolly was a composer and singer in the band. He was also an inventiv guitar player.

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Redbone's lead guitarist

Tony was the lead guitar player of Redbone.
He brought this particular sound and wonderfull solos on almost all Redbone albums (except Cycles)

Tony Bellamy

Tony Bellamy was born Anthony Avila, the 12th september 1946.
Tony is a Yaqui Indian who had performed with Dobie Gray, and was a member of Peter and the Wolves (a San Francisco band that evolved into the psychedelic band Moby Grape) during the sixties. Bellamy had grown up in a family of dancers and musicians. He had learned to play flamenco guitar as part of his musical education, playing every weekend in his family's restaurant in Santa Ana, CA.

Tony met the Vegas brothers in a Los Angeles nightclub named Gazzarri's. He was recruited by them to accompany them on session work with Odetta, John Lee Hooker, and the Everly Brothers before they founded Redbone with him. He took the role of lead guitarist in the band and sometimes even played keyboards.

Tony playing guitar with a bow

Tony dancing on stage

Tony Bellamy continued to work with Butch Rillera throughout the 1980s. Together they created one of the hottest local bands in Orange County, CA, Bim Bam. It was a 14 piece R & B band that drew massive attention every Monday night at Medleys (Bill Medley's club in Fountain Valley).
In the 90's Bellamy and Pat Vegas continued to work the Native American casino circuit with a group of supporting musicians.

Tony continued to play music all his life long. Often on stage, he dressed with traditional indian costumes.

In 1998, Bellamy appeared with Pat Vegas in a Redbone special guest performance at the inaugural Native American Music Awards. On October 4, 2008 they appeared at the 10th Annual Native American Music Awards and were inducted into the Native American Music Association Hall of Fame. Tony was an ardent supporter of the organization. In a statement reacting to his death, N.A.M.A. said it was "deeply saddened to learn of the passing. Anthony, or Tony "T-Bone" Bellamy ... He was a beloved and endearing friend of the 'Nammys' since its inception, and will be greatly missed."

Tony was also a funny buddy

He died on December 25, 2009, at the age of 63, in a Las Vegas hospital as the result of liver failure. Some sources reported that he was born in 1940 and was 69 years of age, but this is incorrect; his family confirmed that he originally used a birth year of 1940 so that he could legally play in the clubs.

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Tony was the lead guitar player of Redbone. He brought this particular sound and wonderfull solos on almost all Redbone albums (except Cycles) Tony Bellamy was born Anthony Avila, the 12th september 1946.

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Redbone's Second Drummer (replaced Pete DePoe)

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Redbone's Second Drummer (replaced Pete DePoe)

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History of the Native American Band Redbone — Redbone

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Redbone, formed by brothers pat & Lolly Vegas, began in the 1960s. Noticed by Jimi Hendrix the brother’s were encouraged to embrace their roots and named the band Redbone. In 1973 Redbone released their hit “Come and Get Your Love” on their fifth album Wovoka .

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The King Kong beat

PetePoe, born in 1943, is Redbone's first drummer. He is playing on "Redbone", "Potlatch" and "Message from a Drum". He gives those first albums this incredible rythm that the band honored by the title "Prehistoric Rhythm" on the Redbone album. He is no longer living in the Netherlands but in the US in Kentucky with his new wife, Carol Tetrick DePoe. Pete will soon have some news about his plans to play some limited shows.

Pete DePoe on his drums in the early seventies

A 2008 Interview

I met Pete in 2008 and he accepted to answer a few questions

Chris Staebler : How and when did you meet the Vegas brothers?

Pete DePoe : We met 1968 in Los Angeles. In a house in the Hollywood hills. I went to their house because I wanted to play with them. Lolly and Tony and myself where jamming. And Pat came to the door and waited outside at the door to listen. And then he came in and pointed at me and said that's him. That's the one that I want. That's the one we need. So I was the last one to make the band complete. We changed the name of the band that was "Crazy cajun cake walk band" to "Redbone". This was probably the best band I ever played with in my life. They where the best musicians.

Redbone in the Netherland's press

CS : When Redbone started, were you all aware that you would represent a symbol for all the Indian Nation?

PDP : No that was my suggestions. I said we all look like indians so lets act like indians and be like indians.

CS : I'd like to know how Redbone is received amongst the Indian community and also if they feel they brought something to the Indian culture and how it's seen from the outside.

PDP : Redbone as a whole, was received very well in all the indian nations. We gave them something to be proud of as for the culture, we made them proud of who they are, and that is native american. Not just another third world bunch of people, with no future as it was seen from the outside. It made us come together as one. Even for a short time. To be truthful with you I think all in all we played made them proud of who and what they were : native americans...

CS : What about the polemic around the indian origins of all the members of the band? From what tribes are you from?

PDP : I was the only real indian in the band the rest was from Mexican descent. They are Yaqie. I am from Northern Cheyenne, Chippawa, Arapoho, Siletz, Roack River, Tututeny, Irequois and French and German.

Pete DePoe on drums

CS : The first album is really "roots", you went then to a more "commercial" direction. Was that a natural way or something done on purpose? Has it something to do with the change of drummer?

PDP : It has nothing to do with the change of drummer. I played on all the albums. Exept for the last one and a part of Wovoka. I played on all the big hits like Maggie, The Witch Queen, Come and Get Your Love, Wounded Knee etc. The brothers and the producers thought it was better to change to a more commercial direction. I had nothing to say in this. They cut me from five tracks down to three tracks.

CS : On what album was that and what are the tracks you are on?

PDP : I played on part of Already here. All of Wounded Knee. And none of Beaded Dreams.. The other members of the band were pretty mad at me for leaving the band... The first two I had five tracks on the rest three. Tracks meaning having to do with the sound of the album. That's why the sound from the first albums to Message from a Drum sounds different. There was nothing I could do to change their minds. That's when the trouble started.

Pete DePoe at home

CS : What do you think of the song "We Were All Wounded At Wounded Knee"? Do you think it had an influence in the fact the band wasn't mediatized as much afterwards? Was there a kind of censorship involved?

PDP : Yes it was censored : it wasn't released in the USA. CBS would not release that in the USA or Canada, cause Wounded Knee was happening at that time in the USA. The government wouldn't allow that.
I have a cousin who is in prison till this day. His name is Leonord Peltier. He's still in prison for a crime he didn't commit. So the song was very political.
CBS couldn't release it in the USA but they could in Europe so they did.

CS : What I felt about that is that it stopped the whole career of the band. That the censorship was not only for that specific song but "killed" the band for whole it's future. Do you agree with that?

PDP : It did kill our future, when ever you go up against the goverment you can't win. The U.S. Government that is.

CS : How comes that there are no live recordings to find from Redbone.

PDP : Cause we did only make studio recordings. The Vegas brothers didn't want to make live recordings, so it dind't happen.

CS : Strangely I can't find any bootlegs either. That's what I feel a mess. Can you explain what makes your specificity as a drummer?

PDP : I knew I was going to be a drummer when I was 4 years old. Living a the Neah Bay reservation.
I started playing when I was 11 and started practicing until I was 19. And the beats I made up was The King Kong Beat. I was the first drummer that played a 16th note rythm pattern on the high hat and snare drums that was ever recorded by anny other drummer. And that is on the first Redbone album. If you listen, you will hear. Listen to Things go better, Jambone and Sweet Mode. And you will hear the beat that I play.

CS : What were you doing in the last 30 years ? Is there a discography existing?

PDP : I moved back to Seattle and played arround there. And sometimes go to Los Angeles and play there with Tony Bellamy. I do not have a discography from those years listed yet. David Garribaldi gave me the credit of inventing the King Kong Beat in his book "The fucky Beat".

CS : What made you come to live in Europe? How do you feel the differences between the two continents?

PDP : I did what Jim Pepper did. I came to Europe, because I couldn't find any work in the USA. And I would like to stay in Europe and never go back to the USA if I can find some serious musicians that want to play. I don't know the differents yet I have been here to short time. But the Dutch language is very hard. And I think I'll be never be able to speak it. And don't try to learn to speak French either couse I will not be be able to learn that either (Joke).

CS : What kind of music or band would you be interested to play with?

PDP : Just good players, good musicians. They can contact me on my email.

CS : Thank you so much Pete, for answering all those questions with great sincerity...

Pete DePoe with myself...

A meeting

End of october 2008 I went for one day to the Netherlands where I met Pete and his friend, Ellen, for a fantastic day of talking, sharing good time, seeing old images, videos and a good meal on the seafront. Pete chose to live in Europe to join his love.

It's something incredible to be able to meet people one has adulate for years. It's even more fantastic to discover these people are even much more interesting that you had imagined. And the best of all is to find out that they are just like you and me, and that they could have been our friends, had we met in other circumstances.
I had this feeling a few times in my life with great people (I'm thinking of some of the Gentle Giant musicians, Peter Hammill, and some comic book illustrators, and finally some of them became friends).
The day with Pete DePoe was a moment like these. This guy is a wonderful musician, an incredible drummer, but overall a fantastic man.

Pete DePoe in 2008

Pete showed me some videos of Redbone's gig in Los Angeles in 2003, a strange one, with Tony Bellamy doing lead vocals because Pat Vegas couldn't attempt the show in time. A very nice set, unusual, and therefore much more interesting. I hope we will see a DVD come out, one of these days with all those videos, recent and old ones.
Sharing old memories was a supreme time for me. Pete told me he was in the same school then Jimmy Hendrix in Seattle. It was Jimmy Hendrix who talked the musicians into forming an all-Native American rock group way back in 1969. During the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970, Jimmy proposed to the Redbone members they could do something together. But Jimmy died 3 weeks later in London! Pete told me that Jimmy never took hard drugs or shoots. Strange to me also, that Morrison, Joplin and Hendrix disappeared within a few months. They were taking too much importance in the younger people's minds. The US government did much worse things at that time (just think of all what happened in South America) so why let a few young rock singers spoil the youth's spirits!? This may sound unreal and I'm not a big fan of all these big plots theories, but who knows.

Pete also remembered their first arrival in London in 1971 with all the fans waiting at the airport. Something they never lived in the States where, as Native Americans, they were not considered as they were in Europe. Racism was still very present in the seventies, Obama was far away, I was also amused by the anecdote of the Gold Record that Redbone received for "Come and get your Love". Pete decided he wanted to listen to the record to see if the quality of it would be different then on a vinyl. What a surprise for him when he, unexpected, heard the Monkeys sing one of their own hits. The same gold record was certainly given out to all Gold Record Artists!!! Pete throw all the gold records away that day!

After these talks and meal and some nice photos I then had to return back to my daughter's place. Pete and Ellen brought me to the train station and that's why I will always remember them there, waving goodby!

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PetePoe, born in 1943, is Redbone's first drummer. He is playing on "Redbone", "Potlatch" and "Message from a Drum". He gives those first albums this incredible rythm that the band honored by the title "Prehistoric Rhythm" on the Redbone album.