• Age: 15
• Grade: 10

In February 1976, the body of a woman was found on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. The official autopsy attributed her death to exposure. Both hands were severed and sent to Washington for fingerprinting, and the body was hastily buried without legal documents.
When the FBI identified the woman as Anna Mae Aquash, a Canadian Mi'kmaq active in the American Indian Movement, her family and friends demanded a second autopsy. It revealed that Anna Mae had been killed by a bullet fired execution-style into the back of her head.
Anna Mae Aquash worked alongside Leonard Peltier and other leading members of the American Indian Movement. Like Peltier, whose case is now a cause célèbre, Aquash was targeted by the FBI. No serious investigation has ever been undertaken to determine the identities of her murderers, but evidence points to the involvement of American law enforcement officials.
In this second edition of this book, former federal Member of Parliament Warren Allmand contributed a foreword, explaining the links between Peltier and Aquash's cases.
Though some of the information in this book has become outdated as more information became available in 2001 and later about the complex facts surrounding Aquash's death, this book stands as the only publication that tells the story of her life and the puzzling circumstances of her murder.

JOHANNA BRAND is a Winnipeg-based journalist. A native of the Netherlands, she gre up in Sarnia, Ontario, where she worked as a reporter for the Sarnia Observer.

Johanna Brand's profile page

WARREN ALLMAND was a Member of the House of Commons for more than 30 years before he was appointed President of the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development in 1997.

Warren Allmand's profile page

"...disturbing and compelling..."

Books in Canada

The Life and Death of Anna Mae Aquash: Second Edition

Anna Mae Aquash grew up in a poverty-ridden Micmac community in Nova Scotia. In her late teens she left Canada, eventually moving to Boston where she became involved in community organization. Here she met other First Nations people committed to improving their own and the lives of other aboriginal peoples. In 1973, a ten-week occupation of Wounded Knee in South Dakota, demanded that the government deal with aboriginal issues. This protest became a symbol for North American Indian resistance. After the occupation, Aquash became active in the American Indian Movement (AIM), a civil rights group under FBI surveillance. In February 1976, Aquash’s body was found at the bottom of a cliff, with a bullet in her head. Originally published in 1978, this new edition calls for renewed efforts to identify her killers.