Richard "Dick" Wilson was born on April 29, 1934 and lived until January 31, 1990. In 1972, he was elected chairman, or president, of the Oglala Lakota Sioux, which existed in the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Over the course of his two, two-year-long presidencies, he became known to be the most corrupt and abusive leader the tribe had ever had.
Specifically, Wilson was known for his creation of a private militia, hired to deter political opponents in order to help him maintain power. This group was called the GOONs, which stood for the Guardians of the Oglala Nation. Using this method of intimidation, Wilson was able to commit crimes, such as rationing supplies and funding from the United States Government and providing friends and family members with positions in power.
Finally, in February 1973, members of the tribal council had received so many complaints that they formed impeachment charges against him. When Wilson agreed to go to trial, the unprepared prosecution was forced to close the hearing without trial. Immediately afterward, the charges against Wilson were dropped, allowing him to remain in power.
As the complaints were continually ignored, the Lakota people finally launched a protest, formally known as the Wounded Knee Incident. They occupied the town of Wounded Knee in a 71-day armed siege, in which their main demand was the removal of Wilson from office. During this period, two Native Americans were killed and a US Marshal was severely wounded. In the end, Wilson remained in office, however, the violence continued on the reservation. In all, over fifty of Wilson's opponents died violently in the three years following Wounded Knee and numerous other attacks by Wilson's GOONs were reported.
Despite an investigation by the US Civil Rights Commission, Wilson stayed in office until his defeat in the 1976 election for tribal chairman. At that point, Wilson moved off the reservation but later returned in 1990 Wilson. During his campaigning for a seat on the tribal council in 1990, he died.
1 comment:
It's interesting how some of the tribe seemed to maintain their core tribal values and stayed very loyal to everyone else, while people like Dick Wilson became much more anglo-cized and he cared so much more about money than his people.
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