Death at Wounded Knee

Suddenly the standoff at Wounded Knee was deadly serious again. As many as six members of AIM, the militant Indian group occupying the village, were wounded in a gun battle with federal marshals on April 17. Last Wednesday one of those wounded, Frank Clearwater, 47, died in a Rapid City hospital. Thursday night more gunfire erupted at Wounded Knee. With only two tense waiting periods when shooting stopped, the battle raged on until Friday afternoon, when the insurgents sent out an urgent short-wave radio call for a ceasefire. The reason: one of their members had been killed and another wounded.

The dead man was Lawrence Lamont, 31, an Oglala Sioux. His death was potentially explosive in view of demands by his family that he be buried in Wounded Knee. The Oglala Sioux tribal council and federal authorities have already refused to allow such a burial for Clearwater.

In last week's shootout, both the federal forces and the insurgents holding the village exchanged fire with armed vigilante groups formed by disgruntled Wounded Knee residents who have been ousted by the militant occupation. There is strong reason to suspect that the vigilantes are displaced Oglala Sioux hoping to end the siege, but Tribal Council President Richard Wilson denies any involvement by his followers.

Aggravating the conflict was the arrest Friday of AIM Firebrand Russell Means in Los Angeles. Means faces eleven counts on various charges in connection with the takeover. When a Deadwood, S. Dak. court caught Means in a technicality relating to the filing of his $25,000 bond, Judge Andrew W. Bogue revoked the bond, and a warrant was issued for Means' arrest.

The only hope to emerge from the renewed tensions was the agreement by Government men to honor the cease-fire as long as the Indians do the same. Whether they would was unpredictable. Means was not to be counted on for compromise. As FBI agents picked him up, he warned: "Wounded Knee cannot be resolved in a peaceful manner in the event of my arrest."

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