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Conference at Augustana College in which AIM co-founders Clyde Bellecourt and Dennis Banks, as well as former Sen. Jim Abourezk, spoke about their recollections of AIM and Wounded Knee.
• Abourezk said he flew into Rapid City on the first day of the 71-day takeover hoping to diffuse the situation. He met with AIM leaders until midnight that first night, when they agreed it was time to end the takeover, Abourezk said.
• All AIM activists wanted, according to Abourezk, was to know what they were going to be charged with and how much the bond would be so they could tell their lawyers. He said he told an FBI official and then flew back to Washington D.C., thinking the occupation was over.
• "But it went on for 70 more days ... The Indians were ready to end it. My guess is

that the government did not want to end it," he said, adding that he believes an Interior Department official thought it made the Nixon administration look good to combat Native Americans.
• Earlier in the day, David Price, one of the FBI agents who worked on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation during the 1970s, said he was used as a scapegoat by AIM to grab headlines.
• Price stood firm in his belief that the FBI did nothing wrong during the period, saying, "You

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