Anna Mae Pictou-Aquash Was Murdered on or about December 11, 1975

Accused Triggerman John Boy Patton-Graham

"[Anna Mae] Aquash, a Mi'kmaq originally from Nova Scotia, was killed during a period of unrest and protests by the American Indian Movement, known as AIM. The organization has been tied to gun running, bombings, and drug dealing during the 1970's in several federal cases...The Aquash case may have implications for leadership members of the American Indian Movement alleged to have been involved in several murders of those they believed were informers going back to the occupation of Wounded Knee in 1973. Those murders include that of Black civil rights worker and Martin Luther King disciple Perry Ray Robinson Jr ., according to AIM members now cooperating with federal authorities."---News from Indian Country

News from Indian Country reports that John Boy Patton-Graham, the accused killer of Anna Mae Pictou Aquash, was brought to the United States from Canada on December 6, 2007. Aquash was shot to death execution-style 32 years ago, on or about December 11, 1975:

Only one day after the Canadian Supreme Court cleared the way for the extradition of John Boy Patton-Graham, a Vancouver, British Columbia man and former member of the American Indian Movement, pled not guilty in his first court hearing December 7 and was assigned an attorney to handle his case.

Graham was charged with the first-degree murder of Anna Mae Pictou Aquash on the Pine Ridge Reservation.

Her body was found during February 1976 north of Wanblee with a gunshot wound to the back of her head....

Graham was arrested in 2003 and charged in the 1975 death of Native activist Anna (Annie) Mae Pictou-Aquash, who was shot in the back of the head execution style on the Pine Ridge Reservation of South Dakota.

Aquash, a Mi'kmaq originally from Nova Scotia, was killed during a period of unrest and protests by the American Indian Movement, known as AIM. The organization has been tied to gun running, bombings, and drug dealing during the 1970's in several federal cases.

AIM was also involved in the occupation of Wounded Knee, S.D., in 1973 where activists and authorities exchanged gunfire during a 71-day stand off which destroyed the village which has not been rebuilt.

The Aquash case may have implications for leadership members of the American Indian Movement alleged to have been involved in several murders of those they believed were informers going back to the occupation of Wounded Knee in 1973. Those murders include that of Black civil rights worker and Martin Luther King disciple Perry Ray Robinson Jr ., according to AIM members now cooperating with federal authorities.

Authorities allege Aquash was murdered on orders from the leadership of AIM, because the group believed she was an FBI informant...

Graham has said he had nothing to do with Aquash's death, that the two met in Minneapolis and struck up a friendship as young AIM members and fellow Canadians. But Graham also admitted in a 2001 recorded interview, that he was with Aquash right up until the moments before she was shot on or around December 11, 1975, according to the Associated Press who verified the transcript and recorded interview. The interview was set up by Vernon Bellecourt and his wife Janice Denny with the original intent of finding a way to enhance Graham's alibi according to documents provided to News From Indian Country...

Graham's lawyers argued that the evidence against him was feeble. But under the U.S./Canadian Treaty governing extraditions the United States did not have too, and did not provide all the evidence that will be used against Graham to Canada. The U.S. only had to establish the threshold of evidence necessary for the extradition court to determine that a Canadian citizen might be "charged" with a similar crime in Canada...[Full Text].