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Who Would Unbraid Her Hair : the Legend of Annie Mae

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Antoinette Nora Claypoole has unleashed a monster of a book that delves deeper into the mysteries surrounding the murder of Annie Mae Pictou-Aquash than many of her one-time friends and lovers will be comfortable with. The book, _Who would unbraid her hair: The legend of annie mae_, published by anam cara press, was released in November, 1999.

Claypoole's book is, like Anna Mae's life, a harrowing journey into the maze of idealism, paranoia, and blind spots of Indian activism and its nemesis, the miscellaneous COINTELPRO operations run by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Claypoole's intentions for the book, as Anna Mae's for her life, are nothing but good: "The continual intention of my work is to encourage a healing of the fear and sorrow, anger and injustice which surround the memory of Annie Mae, and to help her wondering spirit settle into her journey home" (p. xiv). And in the end, both Anna Mae and Antoinette Nora were stymied, through no fault of their own, Anna Mae by a bullet through the back of her head, and Claypoole by a pervasive silence that still blankets Indian Country like a shroud.

Don't let that harsh judgment keep you from reading Claypoole's book. It is indispensable. But understand that this is not a mystery novel that ends with an answer to the "whodunit" question; rather, it is a book that helps us to frame the questions that need to be asked. "this is a book about silence and how it murders people. this is a book about breaking ancient rituals. of human sacrifice and tragedy" (p. xxiv).

Only those who read it in the hope of figuring out who did what to whom will be disappointed. Being able to place blame with someone who either pulled the trigger or ordered the trigger pulled is like trying to name the person who conducted or ordered the American holocaust. It's not that simple. As Claypoole herself puts it (p. 2), ."..people want eyes for eyes, like that's some kind of [antidote] for fear. and i say it's anna mae's life we need to listen to. and telling her story is like telling all the stories. living in this way, some things are sacred despite the quest for 'justice' and power." The silence Claypoole heard so often during her quest for stories is itself a story. Listen to it...

Background Annie Mae Pictou was born near Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia, March 17, 1945. A childhood of poverty, discomfiting Catholic schools, and grueling temporary jobs picking blueberries in Maine conspired to lead Annie Mae off the Mi'kmaq reserve in Canada and into Boston, Massachusetts in 1962. She married Jake Mahoney and gave birth to daughters Denise and Deborah by him before their marriage began to crumble in 1969.

She helped to organize the Boston Indian Council in 1969, taking an active role in providing therapy for alcoholics, job-placement assistance, and after-school programs for children, all geared toward the Boston Indian community. She joined members of the American Indian Movement in 1970 on a Thanksgiving Day takeover of the Mayflower II in Boston harbor.

When she heard that some of the friends she'd met on the Mayflower II were involved in the takeover and siege at Wounded Knee in early 1973, she left Boston with her new lover, Nogeeshik Aquash, and joined them. There, she did grunt work for the group, dug trenches, dodged bullets, delivered a baby of Mary soon-to-be Crow Dog, and was married to Aquash in a pipe ceremony performed by Wallace Black Elk.

In the two and a half years that followed, Anna Mae rose to prominence among the AIM. By the summer of 1974, her marriage to Aquash was failing while her ties to AIM and to Dennis Banks, in particular, were strengthening. Her closeness with Banks effectively thrust her into a position of leadership. Banks and others allegedly sought her input on key decisions.

Anna Mae's stature within AIM also put her in the sights of the FBI. Arrested and questioned repeatedly, she invariably was released ÷ with or without bond. When Doug Durham , "chief" of AIM security and a personal bodyguard of Dennis Banks, was uncovered as a federal informant, paranoia within AIM made everyone a suspect. Anna Mae, with her repeated arrests and seemingly favored treatment by the FBI, was tailored for the proverbial snitch jacket.

Her body was found in a ravine on the eastern edge of the Pine Ridge reservation on February 24, 1976, by a rancher who was building a fence. Federal authorities contracted with a coroner, W. O. Brown, who apparently didn't notice the blood oozing from her skull or the bullet impaling her left temple. He ruled the cause of death as "exposure," severed both of her hands for finger-printing, and buried her as "Jane Doe" in an unmarked grave.

Silent Treatment Claypoole's book provides a good overview of the life of Annie Mae Pictou-Aquash. It provides a worthy complement to Johanna Brandt's _The life and death of Anna Mae Aquash_ (1978, 1993). Claypoole also sketches the environmental and political contexts in which Anna Mae lived. Headlines include the occupation of Alcatraz island in 1969, the occupation of Fort Lawton in 1970 and its return to Indian ownership in Seattle, the Trail of Broken Treaties leading to the takeover of the BIA building in Washington, D.C., in 1972, the siege at Wounded Knee, 1973, and the shoot-out at the Jumping Bull ranch in 1975 that led to the incarceration of Leonard Peltier as a political prisoner.

While it covers history and broaches biography, _Who would unbraid her hair_ is neither a history book nor a biography - at least, not in the ordinary sense of those genres. Interviews, prose, poetry, and journal entries are juxtaposed throughout the text. It makes for a lively read, and one that is packed with the kind of emotion, suspense, and frustration that absorbed political activists of days gone by.

Many readers are apt to find the interviews and attempts at interviews of former friends and lovers of Annie Mae the most frustrating. In the closing couplet of a poem, Claypoole suggests that she was "working on a story no one wants to tell" (p. 46). I suspect that some of Claypoole's contacts who refused to comment will be anxious to pick up her book to make sure they were not misquoted.

The silence has been broken intermittently, as with public allegations that John Boy Patton pulled the trigger while Arlo Looking Cloud and Theda Nelson Clark looked on. Others have been named in addition to those three. Rob Robideau says that Frank Dillon stood next to Patton at the execution. Unnamed sources of News From Indian Country say that David Hill and Clyde Bellecourt were "there," too, and that another carload of AIM members was on its way to try to stop the execution, but arrived "too late."

The latest breach of silence was initiated by Robert Pictou-Branscombe, a cousin of Anna Mae, who recently charged national AIM leaders with ordering the execution. Russell Means held a press conference in Denver to endorse Branscombe's charges. Vernon Bellecourt issued a statement denying those charges and indicting Means and Ward Churchill.

These allegations have never been tested or challenged in court ÷ most of the allegations are sufficiently vague that specific criminal indictments could never be mustered against any of those charged.

This book begins with a five page list of AIM casualites that occured on Pine Ridge Reservation between the years of 1973-1976. As the author points out, these are "documented homicides"-the actual number could be as high as 300 or more. One of the documented homicides is Annie Mae Pictou, a 30 year old AIM leader and mother of 2 small daughters. Claypoole's book is a passionate investigation of her life in the various genres of poetry, journalistic writing, and interviews of people who knew Annie Mae, but are reluctant (to this day) to speak any truth regarding her life, and death...she was found in a ravine on the edge of Pine Ridge Res, February 24, 1975 with a bullet wound in the base of her skull. As part of the autopsy, her hands were severed at the wrist and sent to Washington, D.C...she was then buried as "Jane Doe", cause of death listed as "exposure".Urged by Canadian family members, the body was later exhumed, revealing the execution-style death, and identified as Anna Mae Pictou...in the words of Anna Mae Pictou: "I am a part of this creation as you are, no more and no less than each of you within the sound of my voice. I have a right to continue my cycle in this Universe undisturbed." This book speaks for Anna Mae Pictou's fierce desire to exist with the dignity of a free human being among other free human beings. THIS BOOK IS HER HANDS.

This book is filled with passion and insight; they ooze from thepages....Knowing the author and knowing the book, I can state that there is honesty in each line. Integrity in each concept. Read the book. Experience the heart.

ms. claypoole seems to have done something no one else apparently can do--certainly not the academics or the people involved: she looks at it all from outside and yet enters this world that is not herself through an act of love the philosophers and keats called einfuhlung, a concept edith stein wrote a dissertation on for edmund husserl before she was sent to auschwitz . . . anoinette nora claypoole's book should be reprinted immediately (i write in late 2010). if peter matthiessen's great book can go years off the shelves because of a south dakota injunction, hers needs to go on the same shelves. and leonard peltier needs to be freed.
in brief, you could only write this book out of a deep and abiding love.--floyce alexander

My last critique of this book looks harsh to me now. While it is true that this isn't a who done it, it does raise awareness. The only words I still agree with from my last review after a year of contemplation is.....The (only-NOT ONLY) good thing I find about this book is that it does get Anna Mae's name out and about and on people's minds. The book is not a who done it. -- The writing style no longer seems to be so crystal mystic'y', it has a flow of its own. I recommend this book as a source of background information regarding some of the details surrounding the life of Annie Mae. Jennifer

My last critique of this book looks harsh to me now. While it is true that this isn't a who done it, it does raise awareness. The only words I still agree with from my last review after a year of contemplation is.....The (only-NOT ONLY) good thing I find about this book is that it does get Anna Mae's name out and about and on people's minds. The book is not a who done it. -- The writing style no longer seems to be so crystal mystic'y', it has a flow of its own. I recommend this book as a source of background information regarding some of the details surrounding the life of Annie Mae. Jennifer

I am let down by the mystical poetry and non revealing innuendo that fail to inform the reader. I felt like the author has trivialized such a serious subject. The riddle filled poetry only hints at suspicions, implying that the author herself is only grasping at straws for many facts. If someone wants to know about Anna Mae they will be let down by reading "Who would unbraid her hair.... The only good thing I find about this book is that it does get Anna Mae's name out and about and on people's minds.The book is not a who done it.

About the only question answered in this book is, can a phony journalist pretend to know the truth and write a whole book about it? You bet she can. Really, isn't it time these people were held accountable?

How can we have an honest debate about the AIM legacy when the argument is reduced to how many dispensations should be granted to proven falsifiers of history? How many times must mock journalists be proven wrong before their defenders stop defending them? And why must their challengers always come up with new examples of their lies, as if the old ones don't count. Where is the integrity in defending them? I speak of the Harvey Ardens and Antoinette Claypooles and Ward Churchills of the world and of how easily they are exposed as shameless charlatans in books such as American Indian Mafia, and in court records that somehow never make it to the footnotes section of their nakedly political rant-rags.

I had the author Antoinette for English 102 and she read us some of her poems, pretty interesting stuff.