The Treatment of American Indians and Resulting AIM (American Indian Movement) Siege of Wounded Knee

In 1973 The American Indian Movement entered the township of Wounded Knee, South Dakota and began a 71 day standoff with FBI agents and U.S. Marshals. Stories vary as to how the actual siege came about. AIM only asked for three demands to end the siege. They were  (1) restore and honor 371 broken treaties made by the U.S. Government with Indians; (2) reform the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA); and (3) conduct an investigation of the corruption at Wounded Knee. (Culture Wars: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints, and Voices) 

The article I chose to do my rhetorical analysis on is the speech given by Sacheen Littlefeather in lieu of Marlon Brando at the Oscars in 1973. Marlon Brando took this opportunity to focus American attention on the mistreatment of Native Americans by the U.S. Government and it's agencies. Brando refused to attend the ceremony and the Oscar to instead go to Wounded Knee to help with the siege. In my research about the siege of Wounded Knee I was surprised to find little information on it in the Kent Library Collection. I found a few small encyclopedia entries giving the general details of the siege and a reference to a small section in a book on culture wars. Although the internet provided considerably more information about the siege and the people involved with it, it was obvious much of the writings found were bias and leaned heavily one direction or the other on the right or wrong of each side. Although I found a much larger collection of information on the internet, in the scope of a research paper, much of it was not creditable enough to cite. Knowing what I found on the Kent library site was all eligible to be cited was reassuring when it came to some of the information conflicting others.