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U.S. Attorney Brendan Johnson came at a forum with Oglala Sioux tribal leaders at a meeting in Kyle on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Johnson was meeting with the tribal leaders and family members of tribal members who asked that he reopen investigations and prosecutions into the deaths of 39 people.
• "You can always put a new set of eyes on it," Johnson said by phone afterward.
• But he also said it will be challenging to find new evidence for cases going back 40 years in some cases. He said he does not want to get anyone's hopes up that unresolved cases might be solved or prosecuted, but hopes that with more attention focused on the cases, more people may come forward with new evidence or leads. He referred to the case of American Indian Movement activist Annie Mae Aquash as an example. Aquash's 1975 killing went unsolved for decades until Fritz Arlo Looking Cloud was convicted of first-degree murder in 2004 in federal court. John Graham was convicted in state court for the death in 2010.
• Wednesday's meeting offered a chance for Johnson to meet with family members of those who died, said Jennifer Baker, a Colorado-based attorney working (Continued on page 21)
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