Resisting Internal Neo-Colonialism and Fascist Dictatorships inside the United States | Wounded Knee Occupation

One aspect of the Reservation system within the United States skipped over by common Marxists (and the American public in general) is that of the Neo-Colonial relationships between the US and Indigenous nations. In the 1970s on the Pine Ridge Reservation, the poorest community in the United States and home of the Oglala Lakota people, ruled a dictator by the name of Dick Wilson. Wilson funneled federal funds into his own wealth and to pay for a paramilitary to hunt down members of the American Indian Movement (AIM), a party of Indigenous radicals keen on fighting American encroachment and occupation of their lands and communities. The struggle between AIM and Wilson and his Fed backers, peaked in tension in the Wounded Knee Occupation. The occupation by AIM was called off after Wilson's army with the US special forces (disputed by the US government) and AIM reached a gun battle. Wilson remained in power even having been caught rigging an election, but a Federal judge interfered on his behalf, and many of his Lakota opponents died violently over the following years until his defeat in another election. Since Wilson's departure, the Pine Ridge Indian Reorganization Act (forced American governance) leadership has been centrist/liberal as the main radicals of the Reservation had been killed violently and many more imprisoned. Pine Ridge remains the poorest community in the country.