JANCITA EAGLE DEER
Photo courtesy of David J Harris
BACKGROUND
BLOOD OF THE LAND: The Government and Corporate
War Against the American Indian Movement
by Rex Wehler
"DUE PROCESS"...Chaper 5
Due Process p. 125
..............
In October 1974 Janklow ran for South Dakota Attorney General against his boss, incumbent Kermit Sande. The Wounded Knee publicity had frightened the conservative electorate, and Janklow's campaign fires were fueled by promises of "law and order" in the face of "AIM lawlessness:' Sande, on the defensive, attacked Janklow with charges of personal immorality Sande claimed that Janklow had been brought before juvenile court in 1955 at the age of sixteen for allegedly having assaulted a seventeen-year-old girl in Moody County, South Dakota. Although the juvenile records were confidential, Sande repeated in public the rumor that the juvenile offense had been rape. Janklow said that the juvenile delinquency petition against him was dismissed, and that the alleged offense was not rape. "it didn't go that far:' he told the media, "but it was preliminary to that sort of thing:' He later regretted that statement, and said it was merely a cynical wisecrack intended to counteract the lies being spread about him.
Then, on October 16, AIM leader Dennis Banks publicly accused Janklow of another rape charge. According to Banks, in 1966 Janklow, working for the Office of Economic Opportunities$ on the Rosebud reservation, had been accused of rape by fifteen-year-old Jancita Eagle Deer, the Janklow family babysitter. Eagle Deer alleged that Janklow had raped her at gunpoint while giving her a ride home, Janklow claimed that the accusation was false, and that AIM was using a "smear campaign" and "gutter attacks" to discredit him.
AIM lawyer Ken Tilsen felt that the Jancita Eagle Deer story would not hold up in court without further documentation, and Eagle Deer herself had been described as "a confused person" who was "easily intimidated and manipulated:' Banks, however, convinced Chief Justice Mario Gonzalez that there was enough evidence to initiate disbarment proceedings against Janklow in the Rosebud Tribal Court where Janklow was still licensed to practice law. Judge Gonzalez issued an order to appear to Janklow, but neither Janklow nor his lawyer
15. The Life and Death of Anna Mae Aquash, Johann.
Brand, James Lorimer & Co., Toronto, 1978, p103
Blood of the Land p 126
appeared when the case opened on October 31. The court had also subpoenaed BIA documents from the bureau's investigation of the incident. However, on October 30, the day before the court hearing, BIA Acting Area Director Harley Zephier sent a telegram to Acting Agency Special Officer Norman Beare, ordering him not to deliver the documents to the court. The telegram read: "Be advised that 68 I.A.M. 5.6 reads as follows, 'All reports listed above will be marked U.S. Government use only: Thus limiting access to such reports to appropriate officials. Furnishing of case reports to other than appropriate federal officials must be cleared poor to release with the U.S. district Attorney You are directed by Judge Mario Gonzalez and respectively decline to produce the records on the grounds that the production is prohibited and are considered of a confidential nature:'
Judge Gonzalez was furious that the government had defied his subpoena when the hearing opened with the testimony of Jancita Eagle Deer. He concluded in his opinion dated October 31, 1974." that "the Court is satisfied that the rape allegations against Janklow are properly proven for the purpose of the hearing held today [to determine whether or not charges should be brought] to warrant disbarment:'
Despite Judge Gonzalez's opinion, a simultaneous investigation by the FBI found that the allegations brought against Janklow were completely unfounded.
Furthermore, in the summer of 1975 ~ Janklow having been nominated to the Board of Directors of the Legal Services Corporation, the FBI conducted a second investigation, again reviewing each of the charges, and again concluding that they were unfounded. Further investigations by both the White House and the U.S. Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare ruled unequivocally that there was no truth either to the charges of the alleged rape of Jancita Eagle Deer, or to any of the other charges brought against Janklow. In a letter dated June 10, 1975, White House Counsel Philip W. Buchen made particular reference to the White House investigation, concluding, "The results of this investigation and two previous investigations which have been communicated to the committee indicate that these allegations are simply unfounded:' He continued, "I would appreciate the inclusion of this letter in the official record of Mr. Janklow's nomination, hopefully to put these charges to rest:' During the subsequent Senate committee proceedings, Senator Alan Cranston referred to this letter in a statement to William Janklow: "I wish to state for the record..that this Committee has been fully briefed on the results of the three investigations . . .
16 Mario Gonzalez, Chief Justice, Rosebud Sioux Tribal Court,
Rosebud. South Dakota The account is taken from Justice Gonlalez's "Judicial
Opinion:' CIV NO 74-2840 from the Rosebud Tribal Court, October 31.1974.
Due Process p.127
and concurs fully in Mr. Buchen's conclusion that these investigations indicate clearly that the allegations against you are totally unfounded:' Later during the same proceedings, he dressed that "in regard to the eight or nine allegations that were made, the investigation[s] conducted by the FBI are complemented by other investigations, [andl showed absolutely no substantiation in any way for anyone of the charges:'
On November 2, 1974. William Janklow was elected South Dakota State
Attorney General.
<<end excerpt
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Jancita Eagle Deer was found dead less than four months later.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In the summer of 2000, the FBI released a report
that literally leafletted Pine Ridge Reservation purporting to answer questions
concerning unsolved murders during the "reign of Terror " in the early
1970s.
An excerpt below from Ward Churchill's response to the FBI "investigation" of Jancita EagleDeer:
Jancita Eagle Deer
The report recounts simply that Eagle Deer was struck by an automobile
and
killed while standing in the middle of a remote stretch of Nebraska
highway
in the dead of night. It is not mentioned that she was last seen
alive in
the car of FBI infiltrator Douglass Durham, or that he had recently
used her
as a pawn in an elaborate counterintelligence gambit designed to discredit
AIM leader Dennis Banks and was in the process of trying to cover his
tracks. Also neglected are the facts that the driver of the car
which hit
her described Eagle Deer as appearing to have been "drunk" immediately
prior
to the impact, but that an autopsy revealed no alcohol or other intoxicants
to have been present in her bloodstream. This obviously raises
the question
of whether her peculiar behavior resulted from having been beaten senseless
and dumped along the road, presumably by Durham, before regaining
consciousness and being run over. Whatever the truth, the FBI
displayed
absolutely no interest in investigating one of its own.
Do you want this person seated in the House of Representatives in Washington,
DC?
Demand for an Investigation
