Led Building Takeover: Criminal Record of 3 Indian Leaders Told
Led Building Takeover: Criminal Record of 3 Indian Leaders Told
Three of the principal leaders of Indians who looted files, destroyed or stole irreplaceable Indian artifacts, and caused nearly $2 million in damage during last week's six-day occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs building here have extensive criminal records in Minneapolis.
A high police official there said that Dennis Banks, Clyde Bellecourt, and his brother Vernon Bellecourt, had served sentences in Minnesota penitentaries for a veriety of felony offenses including burglary, aggravated assault, and armed robbery.
3 Lead Indian Group
All three men are leaders of the American Indian Movement. Banks, one of the cofounders of AIM, is the national field director and lives in Minneapolis. Vernon Bellecourt is a national codirector of the organization and runs the Denver chapter. Clyde Bellecourt is executive director of the Minneapolis group, one of the biggest with more than 100 members.
AIM also has $113,000 federal grant to operate educational facilities for Indians.
The Federal Bureua of Investigation is conducting a "full-scale" investigation into the destruction and theft at the Bureau of Indian Affairs building, and Justice Department sources said, "we will prosecute in any area we can."
4 Leaders Noted
The two Bellecourts, Banks, and a fourth Indian, Russell Means of Porcupine, S. D., emerged as the leaders of the group holding the building.
Means was formerly an AIM national director, but resigned and returned to the Oglalla Sioux Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.
During the siege, Vernon Bellecourt and Means were the most visible leaders, serving as spokesman for the protesters and handling inquiries from the news media. Inside the building, Banks and Clyde Bellecourt were involved in security and other internal aspects of the occupation.
The AIM leaders took over the Trail of Broken Treaties campaign, a peaceful lobbying effort organized principally by Robert Burnett, a Rosebud, S. D., Sioux. Burnett gradually lost control of the program and has since condemned the AIM leaders for their theft of Indian documents and destruction of art.
Police Records Told
A Minneapolis police official said Banks had been convicted 15 times on charges including assault and battery and burglary.
Clyde Bellecourt, the official said, was found guilty of armed robbery in 1954 and was sentenced to serve 2 to 15 years in prison. After parole police said, he was convicted in 1958 of burglary, sentenced to 5 years in prison, paroled again and then was convicted of burglary in 1960 and paroled in 1964.
Police said Clyde Belleoucrt now is facing charges on aggrevated criminal property damage involving vandalism at a Minneapolis restaurant.
Vernon Bellecourt was convicted of burglary in 1950 and armed robbery in 1953, receiving a prison sentence of 5 to 40 years.
Formulated in Jail
The organization, according to one national Indian activst, "was cooked up in the Minnesota penitentiary." AIM is described by other leaders as "militant" and "action oriented." It has 4,500 members in the U.S. and Canada.
A spokesman for the Office of Economic Opportunity confirmed last week that AIM received the $113,000 grant on May 1 to fund schools in Milawukee, Minneapolis, and St. Paul. The schools were described on grant applications as institutions for rehabilitating dropouts.