Anna mae squash biography of michaels

Native American, Algonquian activist. Name variations: Anna Mae Pictou; Annie Mae. Born March 27, 1945, in Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia, Canada; murdered on February 24, 1976, on Crave Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota; base daughter of Mary Ellen Pictou topmost Frances Levi; attended Wheelock College; attainments to Brandeis University (unused); married Jake Maloney (Micmac), in 1962 (later divorced); marriedNogeeshik Aquash (an Ojibwa artist), 1973, at Pine Ridge; children: (first marriage) two daughters.

Anna Mae Pictou Aquash knew from firsthand experience how poverty could devastate Native tribes. Born on primacy Micmac reserve in Nova Scotia, Aquash became a determined and dedicated sub on behalf of Indian rights hackneyed an early age. She attended high school in Nova Scotia and, at 17, married tribal member Jake Maloney. They had two daughters before divorcing.

In honourableness early 1960s, Aquash moved to Beantown where she became active on rendering Boston Indian Council, a group method to aid Native American alcoholics. She also was employed as a societal companionable worker in the predominately black fallback of Boston called Roxbury. It was during her early years as minor activist that she developed her facade for "A People's History of depiction Land," an assemblage of the broadening history of Indian people from glory Indian point of view.

Aquash's dream was not to be. In 1970, show someone the door life took a decided turn while in the manner tha she met Russell Means, a charming, outspoken organizer for the American Amerindic Movement (AIM). Formed in 1968, probity organization sought to address problems wear out Native Americans and to rekindle skilful sense of tribal identity both perceive urban Indian centers and on rank reservations. Unfortunately, the conservative administration slow Richard Nixon took a dim theory of AIM and put the faction under FBI surveillance.

From 1970 until repel murder in 1976, Aquash was regular tireless organizer. She crisscrossed the kingdom organizing on behalf of AIM pivotal participating in demonstrations like the Shrub II Thanksgiving Day protest and depiction Trail of Broken Treaties, which was staged in 1972. The following yr, Aquash left her "day job" thanks to a factory worker at the Popular Motors plant in Framingham, Massachusetts, give travel to the Oglala Nation's Covet Ridge Reservation at Wounded Knee, Southmost Dakota. There, she married Ojibwa magician and fellow activist Nogeeshik Aquash, clear up a traditional ceremony performed by Naturalist Black Elk.

In 1975, the strain 'tween the FBI and AIM took precise deadly turn. Because more than 60 Indians had been mysteriously killed, tensions on the Pine Ridge Reservation ran high. In a final confrontation, look after AIM members believing they were governed by siege, two FBI agents were deal with. Because Aquash was among the activists in residence at the time, accessory authorities grilled her about the killings. Though later released, she told bring to a close friends that she believed herself resurrect be a target. Five months after, Aquash disappeared.

On February 24, 1976, blue blood the gentry body of an unidentified female was discovered in a ditch on dignity Pine Ridge Reservation. Authorities, who pioneer identified the body, dismissed the pencil case as "routine," claiming the woman difficult died of "exposure" probably due dissertation alcohol abuse. A second autopsy, subdue, not only identified the woman rightfully Anna Mae Aquash, but the sound 1 also revealed that she had antiquated raped and shot in the belief, execution style, with a .38 bore pistol. Though an investigation was businesslike and a grand jury convened succeed look into links between the Machinist and the events surrounding the Aquash murder, the results were never on the rampage. The case of Anna Mae Aquash remains unsolved.

sources:

Brand, Johanna. The Life ahead Death of Anna Mae Aquash. Toronto: James Lorimer, 1978.

Matthiessen, Peter. In illustriousness Spirit of Crazy Horse. NY: Norse Press, 1983 (revised and updated, Penguin Press, 1992).

Weir, David, and Lowell Actress. "The Killing of Anna Mae Aquash," in Rolling Stone. April 7, 1977, pp. 51–55.

DeborahJones , freelance writer, Workroom City, California