http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bU31ixXzOY

Bill Means, a Lakota member of the American Indian Movement (AIM), which advocates for the rights of American Indians, discusses the events that led to AIM’s takeover and 71-day occupation of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation of South Dakota.

The complex event that lead to the Wounded Knee incident begins with the American Indian Wars of the 1800s, which  many believe ended with the 1890 massacre of over 300 unarmed Lakota men, women and children by the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment near Wounded Knee Creek. The dead were left to stiffen in a blizzard and afterwords dumped in a mass grave. The massacre was one of many events which forced the Lakota, Nakota and Dakota peoples (commonly referred to as the “Sioux”) onto reservations where they would come to face many more injustices by the U.S. government.

Lakota Chief Big Foot Dead After the Wounded Knee Massacre. Source: Wikipedia.

In the 1970s, tribal tensions rose on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation for a variety of reasons, one of them being the widespread opposition to tribal president, Richard Wilson. AIM and “traditional” Lakota accused Wilson of corruption, favoritism towards his family for rare and coveted job opportunities and unfair treatment of political opponents; Wilson was charged for but avoided an impeachment trial by the Oglala Civil Rights Organization (OSCRO), three weeks before the Wounded Knee incident.

On February 27, 1973, AIM led a march of 200 Oglala Lakota and AIM followers through the reservation to the town of Wounded Knee in protest of Wilson–following OSCRO’s failure to impeach him. AIM also protested the U.S. government’s failure to honor treaties with the American Indian peoples. The band of 200 protesters seized and occupied the town of Wounded Knee; within the day, U.S. law enforcement including FBI agents surrounded the town and set up road blocks. Wilson’s paramilitary group, Guardians of the Oglala Nation (GOONs), set up their own roadblocks and surrounded Wounded Knee as well; thus, the standoff began and quickly escalated.

Protestors Occupy Wounded Knee. Source: Revolution Newspaper.

For the three months of occupation, both sides often fired at the other; when firing waned, activists streamed into the town to support the occupiers. Different estimates agree that the U.S. government sent approximately half of a million dollars worth of support to U.S. marshals and law enforcement to the site, including armored vehicles, helicopters, snipers, machine guns and 130,000 rounds of ammunition. The standoff ended on May 8, 1973 after two American Indians were killed, one civil rights activist supporting the Lakota disappeared and two U.S. agents were wounded.

Wide media coverage made the incident well-known as it occurred;  many were sympathetic to the Lakota and American Indians during and after the incident for the injustices they experienced at the hands of the American government. The incident also grabbed the attention of the international community. AIM leaders Russell Means and Dennis Banks were indicted due to the event, but their case was dismissed. Violence in Pine Ridge skyrocketed afterwards, with over 60 of Wilson’s tribal opponents dying in the next three years. Pine Ridge is still the poorest reservation in America and continues to battle health issues, poverty, unemployment and high suicide rates. Nevertheless, AIM’s standoff brought pride to many American Indians for its defiance against a government which so often mistreated, lied and forgot about its country’s first inhabitants.

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AIM Member on What Lead to Wounded Knee Occupation appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mA0G8VlJEtw

Adolf Eichmann was a lieutenant colonel in the Nazi Army and one of the lead organizers of the holocaust. Eichmann was responsible for coordinating the logistics of of sending Jews to ghettos and extermination camps across Easter Europe during World War II. After the war, Eichmann managed to escape to Austria and then to Argentina, where he began a new life under an assumed name. In 1960, Israeli intelligence tracked him down and captured him, bringing him to Israel to stand trial on charges including war crimes and crimes against the Jewish people. Eichmann’s trial was the first trial to be televised. He was found guilty and on December 15, 1961, was sentenced to die by hanging. His sentence was carried out on May 31, 1962. This video shows clips of Eichmann’s funeral.

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The Trial Of Adolf Eichmann appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1F5wV4kBX4

On August 9, 2014, Michael Brown, was shot and killed by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri. On November 24, 2014, a grand jury reached a decision not to indict Wilson for the shooting. The video above shows reactions to the grand jury’s decision, both in Ferguson and in New York. At a barbershop in Ferguson, an employee speaks to concerns about rioting, saying: “I’ve been working here for five years and not one time have I token my equipment home, and I’m doing it tonight… I can tell you for sure, 100%, if he’s innocent [Wilson], they’re going to burn this city down. There’s no doubt about it.”

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People React To Ferguson Verdict appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmIITOahKVM

Alger Hiss was an American lawyer who was accused of being a member of the Communist Party by the House Un-American Activities Committee(HUAC). On August 3, 1948, a man named Whittaker Chambers testified before the committee that he and Hiss had both been secret communists for years. Despite questions over the reliability of Chamber’s testimony, Hiss was eventually imprisoned for 3 years and eight months for lying to Congress.

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Alger Hiss Testifies Before HUAC appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fy-GMcgymKk

Edward Brooke, former Massachusetts senator during Richard Nixon’s administration, discusses how he became the first republican to openly ask President Nixon to resign on November 4, 1973, shortly after the Watergate Scandal. According to Brooke, Nixon had lost the confidence of the American people, and because of that he should “spare the country from impeachment proceedings.” He also describes Nixon’s response, recalling that the former president said that this would be “taking the cowardly way out.”

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Asking President Nixon to Resign appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGpjLX1BeHM

Colleagues such as Mary Burton of Archbishop Desmond Tutu discuss how he got involved with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) assembled in South Africa after the end of apartheid. The TRC reviewed thousands of statements from witnesses and victims of human rights violations during the apartheid as a method of catharsis. TRC commissioners describe Tutu’s mission to hear the “stories of the little people,” whose sufferings had been previously ignored and how within the second day, he broke down from all the deeply heartbreaking stories he heard. But a colleague says that Tutu recovered and said, “‘This shouldn’t be about me. This should be about the victims…I can learn to control my emotions.’ There after, you would see him biting his hand when he was getting emotional to ensure the focus remained on the victims.” The TRC was set up in 1995 and the hearings began in 1996.

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Desmond Tutu’s Key Role in the Truth & Reconciliation Commission appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjcOrC8iUrA

Immaculée Ilibagiza recalls the start of the Rwandan Genocide on April 7, 1994 by the Hutu majority in Rwanda and going into hiding in a small bathroom because she was a Tutsi. She describes praying to not be caught when Hutus were looking for more victims and not being found: “For me, it was that moment that gave me back my faith.” Ilibagiza describes how through self-reflection and God, she learned to not hate the perpetrators: “I don’t have to hate them for me to find justice”–she is even reunited with a friend, who is Hutu. Ilibagiza says, “When you forgive, you can be objective. And really see that the person who have hurt you doesn’t mean that their whole tribe had done that…what I found when I was able to let go of that anger.”

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Surviving Rwandan Genocide & Forgiving Its Perpetrators appeared first on Witnify.

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Photo Gallery of the 1963 March on Washington appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0EDw1RZAFg

PBS interviews people who knew Brazilian United Nations (UN) diplomat Sérgio Vieira de Mello, including his mother, Gilda Vieira de Mello, and several of his colleagues. People all over the world who met Vieira de Mello during his many travels describe the passion that he had for his exceptional humanitarian work and his appreciation for different cultures. Vieira de Mello was tragically killed in the Canal Hotel Bombing on August 19, 2003 while serving as the UN’s Special Representative in Iraq.

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Interviews of Sérgio Vieira de Mello’s Mother & His Colleagues appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2C_FGc9c9as

James Lawson, a professor and reverend, describes how rewarding it was for him to be a part of the Nashville sit-ins–a nonviolent campaign to end racially segregated lunch counters in downtown Nashville, Tennessee, which lasted from February 13 to May 10, 1960. Lawson recalls how his fellow protestors such as John Lewis and Marion Barry came back from their first sit-in “exulting” in their experiences. This made Lawson and others in the civil rights movement no longer afraid of protesting and it strengthened in him this notion: “What is new for us often does frighten. But if we can muster up the will to do the right thing and try it, then the action will confirm within us the essential powers that we need to continue.”

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James Lawson on Gaining Courage from the Nashville Sit-Ins appeared first on Witnify.