Indictment and Trial Beginnings

Russell Means and Dennis Banks were indicted for burglary of the Wounded Knee Trading Post; theft of the Gildersleeves’ 1970 Dodge; assault with a gun against FBI agent Joanne Pierce; aiding and abetting the assault against FBI special agent Curtis Fitzgerald and U.S.

The trial began January 8, 1974, in Federal Courtroom Number 3 in St. Paul, Minnesota, with Judge Fred Nichol from the Western District of South Dakota presiding. The trial was moved from South Dakota because potential jury members there had more knowledge of and possible bias about the case than Minnesotans. The defense team was headed by William Kunstler, who had been an attorney for Martin Luther King, the Freedom Riders, Stokely Carmichael, Adam Clayton Powell, the Berrigan brothers, and, of course, the Chicago Seven. Another nationally known lawyer, Mark Lane, who had written Rush to Judgment in criticism of the Warren Report on President Kennedy’s assassination, joined Kunstler and Kenneth Tilsen of St. Paul, a leading civil rights/ civil liberties lawyer in Minnesota, as attorneys for Russell Means. Douglas Hall of Minneapolis, a civil rights lawyer who had worked for Minnesota Indians in earlier cases, was joined by Larry Leventhal, also of Minneapolis, and Indian lawyer Ramon Roubideaux of Rapid City, to represent Dennis Banks.

After eighteen days (January 8 to February 5) of questioning 133 prospective jurors, a jury was in place and the trial could begin. The jury was relatively young and composed of nine women and three men. (See Appendix on jury selection). No one thought the trial would last until mid-September, although it was expected to take several months. Before the end of the more than 100-day trial, considerably longer than the occupation itself, the jury would hear the testimony of ninety-four witnesses and the 21,765-page transcript would fill 118 volumes. After all the testimony and arguments were presented, after Judge Nichol had presented an 82-point instruction to the jury, and after the jury had deliberated for more than eight hours, the judge delivered a one-hour blistering rebuke to the FBI and the Justice Department for their conduct and admonished the prosecution lawyers for their part in deceiving the court. He then dismissed all the charges against Means and Banks, excused the jury, and adjourned court.