Loud Hawk

by Kenneth S. Stern

Loud Hawk: The United States versus the American Indian Movement is the story of a criminal case that began with the arrest of six members of the American Indian Movement - Kenny Loud Hawk, Russell Redner, Anna Mae Aquash, KaMook Banks, Dennis Banks, and Leonard Peltier - in Portland, Oregon, in 1975. The case did not end until 1988, after thirteen years of pretrial litigation. It stands as the longest pretrial case in U.S. history. It is also the story of the U.S. government's war against Indians, specifically, against the leadership of the American Indian Movement. It is a war that erupted into armed conflict at Wounded Knee, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota, in the summer of 1975. The events at Wounded Knee led to the prosecutions that are the subject of this book. Kenneth S. Stern was a first-year law student when the arrests took place. His involvement in the case began when he volunteered his legal services to the defense attorneys. Stern's involvement ended whe