On the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in southwestern South Dakota, Richard (“Dick”) Wilson is a controversial figure. During his first year as tribal chairman, the highest elected position for the Oglala Sioux Tribe, his opponents tried to impeach him four times. In their efforts to oust Wilson, many of his critics partnered with the American Indian Movement (AIM), a Minnesota-based activist organization that fought for American Indian rights. In February 1973, AIM led a seventy-one-day occupation of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, that made national news and ignited a three-year conflict on the reservation, leaving an unknown number of people dead. Wilson’s political career, once bright with promises to improve the economy and education system on the grassy, rural reservation collapsed into factionalism, violence, and poverty.

Truden, John. Reexamining Dick Wilson: Oglala Politics, Nation Building, and Local Conflict, 1972-1976. South Dakota History 48, no. 3 (2018): 173-199. https://www.sdhspress.com/journal/south-dakota-history-48-3/reexamining-dick-wilson-oglala-politics-nation-building-and-local-conflict-1972-1976

John Truden is the Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Native American and Indigenous Studies, Center for the Futures of Native Peoples at Dickinson College.

For more information on the published version, visit South Dakota Historical Society Press's Website. https://www.sdhspress.com/journal/south-dakota-history-48-3

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