Speaker 1: Before we get started, just a heads up. This episode
Speaker 1: contains mentions of rape and violence. Hello from Wonder Media Network.
Speaker 1: I'm Jenny Kaplan and this is Wamanica. Historically, women have
Speaker 1: been told to make themselves smaller, to diminish themselves. Some
Speaker 1: have used that idea to their advantage, disappearing into new identities.
Speaker 1: For others, a disappearance was the end to their stories,
Speaker 1: but the beginning of a new chapter in their legacies.
Speaker 1: This month, we're telling the stories of these women. We're
Speaker 1: talking about disappearing acts. Today we're talking about a woman
Speaker 1: who symbolized resilience, courage, and the indomitable spirit of the
Speaker 1: indigenous peoples of North America. Let's talk about Anime. Aquash
Speaker 1: Anna May was born on March twenty seventh, nineteen forty five,
Speaker 1: on the Yegamach Indian Reserve in Nova Scotia, Canada. Her
Speaker 1: mother supported Anime and her two sisters through welfare and
Speaker 1: work as a housekeeper. Anime's father worked in Maine in
Speaker 1: logging camps. Anime left Nova Scotia when she was sixteen.
Speaker 1: She moved to Maine to work as a farm hand.
Speaker 1: From there, she joined a group of Eastern Canadians known
Speaker 1: as Maritimers, in their migration to Boston to find better employment.
Speaker 1: In nineteen sixty five, Anime married fellow megamach Jake Maloney.
Speaker 1: They had two daughters together before divorcing a few years later.
Speaker 1: In Boston, Anime joined a group that helped Indigenous people
Speaker 1: find jobs in education and fight addictions. It was called
Speaker 1: the Boston Indian Council. There she witnessed firsthand the discrimination
Speaker 1: and marginalization faced by Indigenous communities at the hands of
Speaker 1: colonial powers. So when she was offered a scholarship to
Speaker 1: brank and Ice University, Anime turned it down to continue
Speaker 1: her indigenous community advocacy work. Determined to make a difference,
Speaker 1: Anime became actively involved in the American Indian Movement or
Speaker 1: AIM during the nineteen seventies. This marked a period of
Speaker 1: intense activism in social upheaval. AIM was an anti establishment
Speaker 1: movement modeled after the Black Panthers. AIM promoted Indigenous rights
Speaker 1: in the United States. The organization was known as one
Speaker 1: of the more radical advocacy groups for Indigenous civil rights.
Speaker 1: Anime participated in many of its protests, marches, and advocacy campaigns.
Speaker 1: In nineteen seventy two, AIM organized the Trail of Broken
Speaker 1: Treaties March in Washington, d C. Anime was among the
Speaker 1: protesters who occupied the Bureau of Indian Affairs building. Demonstrators
Speaker 1: hung a banner that said Native American Embassy and barricaded
Speaker 1: themselves inside, going through baha and boxes of documents. The
Speaker 1: next year, Anime went to South Dakota. There she joined
Speaker 1: the ten week occupation of the village of Wounded Knee
Speaker 1: at the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. In eighteen ninety,
Speaker 1: federal troops perpetrated a massacre of the Sioux people at
Speaker 1: Wounded Knee. This occupation was in protest of decades of
Speaker 1: the US government failing to honor Native treaties. Anime was
Speaker 1: eager to be among her fellow AIM activists. She wrote
Speaker 1: in a letter to her sister, the whole country changed
Speaker 1: with only a handful of raggedy ass pilgrims that came
Speaker 1: over here in the fifteen hundreds, and it can take
Speaker 1: a handful of raggedy ass Indians to do the same.
Speaker 1: And I intend to be one of those raggedy ass Indians.
Speaker 1: But Ames suffered from a misogynistic, hierarchical social order, and
Speaker 1: when Anime was put on kitchen duty by AMES leader,
Speaker 1: she replied, mister Banks, I didn't come here to wash dishes.
Speaker 1: I came here to fight. Even Anime's own people were
Speaker 1: going to deny her participation in this standoff. She was
Speaker 1: aware of the corruption and injustice inside the organization, and
Speaker 1: she didn't shy away from it. Instead, she spoke out
Speaker 1: and challenged leadership. This ruffled feathers within AIM. Anime left
Speaker 1: Pine Ridge before the occupation culminated in the death of
Speaker 1: two FBI agents. Still, she stood firm in her convictions
Speaker 1: and fought for the rights of her people through other
Speaker 1: AIM projects. In December of nineteen seventy five, Anime's life
Speaker 1: came to a mysterious and untimely end. She disappeared under
Speaker 1: suspicious circumstances, and two months later a rancher found her
Speaker 1: body at the bottom of a thirty foot embankment on
Speaker 1: the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Her cause of death was
Speaker 1: listed as exposure, and she was buried in an unidentified grave,
Speaker 1: but her family knew bet letter. Her family demanded a
Speaker 1: second autopsy. It was discovered that Anime was raped and
Speaker 1: shot in the back of the head later, evidence showed
Speaker 1: that she was kidnapped and interrogated. Anime's murder made national
Speaker 1: and local headlines, but not always with accurate information. This
Speaker 1: began a thirty five year investigation into Anime's death. Speculation
Speaker 1: and theories abound regarding the events leading to Anime's demise.
Speaker 1: Some believed she was targeted for her activism, silenced by
Speaker 1: those threatened by her unwavering commitment to justice. Others say
Speaker 1: AIM members suspected Anime was an FBI informant and that
Speaker 1: played a role in her death. Over time, the investigation
Speaker 1: stalled as AIM members refused to cooperate with prosecutors. They
Speaker 1: didn't trust the authorities. It wasn't until the late nineteen
Speaker 1: nine that AIM members began to come forward. One of
Speaker 1: Ames's former security guards, r Low Looking Cloud, confessed to
Speaker 1: taking part in Anime's abduction and murder. He then shared
Speaker 1: that another AIM member, John Graham, was responsible for pulling
Speaker 1: the trigger. The two men were sentenced to life in
Speaker 1: prison in two thousand and four. Anime's body was returned
Speaker 1: and buried in Nova Scotia. Today, her story symbolizes the
Speaker 1: injustice and oppression Indigenous women face. Her life and death
Speaker 1: also helped inspire the mission behind the Missing and Murdered
Speaker 1: Indigenous Women, or MMW movement. In February of twenty nineteen,
Speaker 1: the South Dakota Senate Committee introduced to build that would
Speaker 1: require the Division of Criminal Investigation to begin setting guidelines
Speaker 1: for data collection of possible MMIW cases. All month, we're
Speaker 1: talking of disappearing acts. For more information, find us on
Speaker 1: Facebook and Instagram at Womanica Podcast special thanks to Liz Kaplan,
Speaker 1: my favorite sister and co creator. Talk to you tomorrow.