Source: Washington Post, p. A1
Date: November 07, 1972
Author(s): William L. Claiborne
Granted an 11th-hour reprieve by the U.S. Court of Appeals, several hundred heavily armed Indian protesters retained control of the Bureau of Indian Affairs building last night for the fifth consecutive day.
A three-judge panel of the appellate court delayed until 9 p.m. Wednesday an earlier lower court order that the Indians leave the occupied building by 6 p.m. or be forcibly removed by government authorities.
The Court of Appeals decision followed a series of threats by the members of the "Trail of Broken Treaties" caravan to burn the government building, located at Constitution Avenue and 19th Street, four blocks from the White House.
The Indians also vowed to fight to the death if police moved against them. The Indians have retained control of the building since Thursday, when they came here from across the country to seek redress of what they consider wrongs visited on them by U.S. policies.
Meanwhile, negotiations continued early today in the Executive Office Building offices of Leonard Garment, special consultant to the President. Among those taking part were Garment, Frank Carlucci, associate director of the Office of Management and Budget, and negotiators for the Indians.
Among other things, the negotiators were reported to be discussing the Indians' demand for the immediate firing of Assistant Interior Secretary Harrison Loesch, who supervises Indian affairs.
The Court of Appeals ruling, which superseded an earlier order by U.S. District Court Judge John H. Pratt, was handed down at 7:15 p.m., following a closed door hearing before Chief Judge David L. Bazelon and Judges Edward A. Tamm and Harold Levanthal.
While setting aside Judge Pratt's 6 p.m. deadline for evacuating the building, the Court of Appeals decision specifically provided U.S. marshals and other law enforcement authorities with "latitude as to how and when to carry out" the District Court ruling "subsequent to" 9 p.m. Wednesday.
The Court of Appeals ruling also declared that no contempt proceedings will be brought against any protesters who move from the BIA to the nearby Departmental Auditorium or otherwise "terminate their unlawful possession of the (BIA) building."
The three-judge panel said the postponment was designed to give the government time to arrange for "appropriate sanitary and commissary facilities" in the Departmental Auditorium.
Of the 9 p.m. Wednesday deadline, the Court of Appeals warned, "No extensions will be granted."
Immediately following the ruling, court sources said, U.S. Attorney Harold H. Titus Jr. took steps to advise law enforcement officials at the BIA building of the court's decision.
Emotions of the Indian protesters peaked about 3 p.m. when word of the court order reached the BIA from the U.S. District Court and a 100-man "security line" formed in front of the building.
Armed with clubs and makeshift spears--some with sharp knives lashed to the ends--the Indians vowed to fight to the death, if necessary, to retain control of the building.
"When and if the forces of U.S. government move in on the Indian people, we will fight to the death," said Russell Means, a leader of the "Trail of Broken Treaties" group. "We've had more time to prepare our defenses. When we go, the building goes," added Means.
Attorney Terrence Sidly of the American Indian Defense League, warned, "If they want this building burned and people killed, they (the police) should go in."
As a succession of Indians spoke in a similar vein over a loudspeaker, other protesters hurriedly prepared for the expected invasion by the authorities.
Two Indians carrying what appeared to be powerful bows and a number of arrows went to the roof of the four-story sandstone building, while others positioned themselves inside windows, holding firehoses.
Many of the windows facing Constitution Avenue were criss-crossed with adhesive tape, apparently to minimize splintering glass. One protester, ignoring a series of speakers, smashed a half dozen tile drainage grates and collected the pieces.
One Indian protester observed by a reporter had a small-caliber revolver protruding from a pocket. Others had table legs with sharp spikes imbedded in the ends.
Several lipsticks were passed along the heavily armed skirmish line, and the Indians painted warlike lines across their faces.
At the height of preparations, Dennis Banks, national field director for the American Indian Movement, faced a crowd of onlookers lined along Constitution Avenue and said, "I invite all of you to stay and witness the atrocities that are about to happen."
One Indian making defense preparations was Ralph Ware, chief negotiator in the unsuccessful talks with government officials.
A clinical psychologist from Minnesota, Ware held a makeshift club in his hand and said, "I am not really a fighter, but these are my people. It's going to take a lot for me to swing this club . . . It took me a long time to decide this."
Ware, who said he once almost decided to stay inside the building with the women and children, was approached by his wife, a small, black-haired woman with tears in her eyes. "I decided to stay," he said, and then embraced her.
About 4:30, Vernon Bellecourt, director of the American Indian Movement, emerged from the BIA and made an appeal for blacks to join in the defense of the building. Recalling that blacks had been enlisted to fight Indians following their emancipation, Bellecourt said, "Dont' let the white man make you do it again."
Earlier in the day, the Washington chapter of the Black Panther Party had pledged its support of the Indian protest in a written statement. However, there were few blacks in evidence outside the BIA.
The authority for the government to retake the BIA building by force was issued by Judge Pratt at 2:30 p.m., but its execution was suspended by the judge until 6 p.m. in order to permit attorneys for the Indians to appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals.
In issuing his ruling, which was made at the behest of the Justice Department, Judge Pratt said the Indians "should be put on notice that the government is going to retake that building and the sooner that they (the Indians) comply with this order, the better off they are going to be."
Judge Pratt made his decision over the pleas of James Heller, an ACLU lawyer representing the "Trail of Broken Treaties" caravan who warned of "the dreadful possibility of bloodshed."
Judge Pratt issued an order last Friday directing the Indians to leave the BIA, but he put no time limit on that ruling because negotiations between the protesters and government officials were then still underway.
In yesterday's brief hearing in U.S. District Court, it was disclosed that Judge Pratt had conducted a hearing at his Chevy Chase home at 3 a.m. Saturday with attorneys for the Indians and representatives of the U.S. attorney's office.
The judge said that he had received assurances then by both sides that an agreement over such grievances as housing and transportation for the protesters could be reached peacefully and, as a result, he stayed the execution of Friday's order until yesterday.
"It seems to me that the representations made to me Saturday morning have not borne fruit, and that conditions are worse than they were," the judge said yesterday.
The order issued yesterday directed the U.S. marshals and "other such law enforcement officials as my be necessary" to arrest and bring before the court any Indians who "willfully and deliberately" violate the injunction so that they could show cause why they should not be held in criminal contempt.
Because of the District Court's order that they vacate the building, the Indians canceled plans for a noon march to Arlington Cemetery to hold religious ceremonies at the gravesites of Indian war dead.
Instead, the demonstrators hurriedly began fortifying the BIA against the anticipated assault by police.
The court ruling followed by two hours a reluctant denunciation of the BIA takeover by the National Tribal Chairmen's Association, a government-backed Indian organization that includes among its membership many older Indian tribal chiefs and officials of tribal councils.
In a press conference, several tribal leaders pledged support of some of the "good points" made by the protestors, but all the NTCA members present disassociated themselves from the seizure of the BIA building and condemned the threat of the use of force to retain control.
Near the end of the press conference, about a dozen younger Indians burst into the Roger Smith Hotel conference room and accused the NTCA elders of not representing the majority of American Indians. The protesters accused the tribal chiefs of being BIA-funded spokesmen for larger reservations that "can fly people across the country to meeting in hotels here."
Robert Lewis, governor of the Zuni (New Mexico) tribal council, said the NCTA was concerned that continued occupation of the BIA building would result in injuries to Indians.
"We are a long way from home. The culture of our people is involved. We had cultures and civil rights before the settlers landed, and what little we have left we want to preserve," Lewis said.
Sitting impassively in the crowded and brightly lighted conference room, Lewis ignored the protesters' jeering and added, "We have no hatred in our hearts for these people (the protesters). That is not our way."