Authors: Joseph H. Trimbach and John M. Trimbach
Publishers: Outskirts Press
ISBN: 978-0-9795855-0-0

Click Here To Purchase the American Indian Mafia: An FBI Agent's True Story about Wounded Knee, Leonard Peltier, and the American Indian Movement (AIM)

Today, Norm Goldman Publisher & Editor of Bookpleasures.com is pleased to have as our guests, Joseph H. Trimbach and John M. Trimbach authors of American Indian Mafia: An FBI Agent’s True Story About Wounded Knee, Leonard Peltier, and the American Indian Movement (AIM)

 Good day Joseph and John and thanks for participating in our interview

 Norm:

 Why did you feel compelled to write this book and what do you hope readers would take away from it?

 Joe:

I had always wondered how the history of the 1973 Wounded Knee occupation was recorded. I had my doubts, but had not paid much attention to it. A few years ago, I found out how bad it was. My granddaughter e-mailed me to say she was reading a book assigned in class which said some pretty nasty things about her grandfather. That got me started writing a short story about what really happened at Wounded Knee.

I was the newly arrived FBI Special Agent in Charge (SAC) when I found myself in a very dicey situation on the night of February 27, 1973. About 200 militants, members of the American Indian Movement (AIM), raided the historic village and took eleven hostages. They set fires, looted the store, and shot at responding Indian firemen, policemen, and the handful of Agents I had with me. I proceeded to set up roadblocks around the village in an attempt to prevent the violence from spilling out into other parts of the reservation. We were sitting ducks that night, outmanned and outgunned but duty-bound to hold our position several miles from the village center. Working from just memory, I soon had about a forty-page story which I showed to my son, John, and I asked for his input.

John:

I took a look at it and decided to do some research. Dad had an idea that the history had been distorted but as we got into it, we became appalled at the extent to which the historical record was propagandized and falsified. The search for the truth took us on quite a journey, the end result of which is perhaps the only thoroughly documented and truthful account of Wounded Knee, 1973, the Wounded Knee trial, and the aftermath of violence on the Pine Ridge Reservation. 

We are gratified that our biggest supporters are Native Americans who are thankful that the truth about what happened has finally come out. Dad is probably the only person alive who could have written this book with the credibility of someone who was there. One of the village residents, JoAnn Gildersleeve, recently thanked us for our efforts by saying that had we not written this book, a slice of American history might have been lost forever. Frankly, I am surprised that no reputable scholar had revisited these topics in an honest manner. No one had ever tried to interview Joseph Trimbach. They choose instead to propagate the falsehoods already recorded, in many cases, by the perpetrators themselves.    

Norm:

 What was the timeline between the time you decided to write your book and publication? What were the major events along the way?

Joe:

What started out as mostly just a Wounded Knee story grew into a more complete accounting of my two years as the SAC headquartered in Minneapolis. Wounded Knee happened just after I arrived. And just before I was to leave, two of my Agents were investigating a case on the reservation, about 25 miles from Wounded Knee. They came under fire and were soon wounded. Leonard Peltier, a member of AIM, approached the young men and shot them both in the face at point-blank range. I arrived with my SWAT team several hours after the killings but even then the shooting was still going on. Peltier and his associates had been hiding in a culvert when they emerged and made a run for it. We pursued them into the nearby hills. Peltier shot at us and I’ll never forget seeing the plume of dirt fly up in front of me. Peltier got away but was later apprehended in Alberta by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. He was extradited and stood trial in federal court in Fargo, North Dakota.

He was found guilty of aiding and abetting the murders of my Agents, Jack Coler and Ron Williams. Peltier has always maintained his innocence and has managed to fool many people into believing him. He is supported by Amnesty International, the Hollywood Left, and several world leaders and politicians, most of whom are completely uninformed about the facts of the case. Because the entire investigation of these murders invokes such visceral reactions from people on both sides of the issue, we weren’t going to touch it. But as we found more and more examples of how Peltier’s evil had infected the history books and had tainted much of the historical record about the FBI’s involvement in the case, we felt compelled to set the record straight and expose Peltier for the fraud that he is.

Today, Peltier is still known the world over as a “political prisoner.” He was once heralded by an Episcopalian minister as “holding up God’s light.” He is nominated every year for the Noble Peace Price. He has been falsely associated with a number of charitable efforts. Peltier is, in fact, a completely unrepentant killer who is serving two consecutive life sentences in the federal penitentiary. He comes up for parole later this month, and I plan on being there. 

 John: 

By the time we had decided to include the Peltier story, we had uncovered hundreds of examples of falsified history about what happened during that period of violence on the Pine Ridge Reservation. We had a lot of ground to cover so we decided to divide the book into two sections. The first part was more or less an account of what happened during those two years. The second part was devoted to exposing the falsified history and to drawing some conclusions about how and why the record was allowed to become so tainted with propaganda.

It really is an amazing thing to behold; that, in an open society like ours, with the free flow of information, something so recent in our nation’s history was allowed to become so perverted. The only question remaining was how we would begin the book. Our answer came in 2004. Dad and I were at the murder trial of one of AIM’s victims, a young Indian female who was one of their own members.

AIM leaders ordered the execution of Anna Mae Aquash in December, 1975, and it had taken until 2004 to put the first killer on trial. After a 4-day trial, the jury was dismissed to deliberate. Dad and I were sitting in our hotel room when the phone rang. The jury had come back with a guilty verdict.

It was then that it hit us: we needed to open the book with the courtroom scene and the story of how Anna Mae died. She was a central figure at Wounded Knee and she was closely tied to AIM leader Dennis Banks. The leaders had convinced themselves that Anna Mae had become an informant for the FBI. She was never an informant for us, as she surely must have tried to convince them in her final hours. The AIM leadership and some members of the media have always blamed the FBI for her murder. Just a few months before they shot her in the head, Peltier interrogated Anna Mae by putting a loaded gun in her mouth. So it seemed that it was all tied together through Anna Mae, perhaps the one person in the Movement who truly held up the ideals of what AIM should have been.  

 Norm: 

What kind of research did you do to write this book?
 

Joe:

 We had to start from scratch. I hate to admit it but I had a big box of papers from Wounded Knee and the trial but because the whole affair turned out to be so controversial for the FBI, I tossed the whole thing in the trash years ago, partly out of frustration. However, through the Anna Mae trial and old contacts I still had with former colleagues, we were able to piece together the details. Like me, these people are primary sources, meaning they were there. They were very helpful in dispelling the myths we found in America’s libraries. Most of these people were either former Agents or Native Americans who welcomed our efforts to set the record straight. 

John:

Although we had the truth on our side, we still needed to prove it with documentation. We had a lot to go on because Dad had a good idea of where to look. We consequently found documents that had never been examined by historians, in some cases, the same people who authored the prevailing wisdom. For example, we found the original Wounded Knee trial transcripts in half a dozen unopened boxes in a federal archives center outside Denver. No one had ever touched them. We found other papers at universities, in old newspaper articles, in several books (most of which were falsified or distorted), and in court documents. We also conducted several interviews.  

Norm: 

Was your work improvisational or did you have a set plan?

 Joe:

As we mentioned, our work more or less evolved into a full accounting of what happened when I was SAC-Minneapolis, mostly in response to the lies and distortions that are still taught in colleges and universities across the country. We have tried to make inroads into institutions of higher learning with limited success. As we discovered, when it comes to the true history of AIM, some of the most misinformed people around are college professors.

 

John: 

One other story that unexpectedly came to our attention was the horrendous incidence of child sex abuse on the reservation. Although this was not a part of our original purpose, it was compelling enough to include as an Epilogue that sort of segues from AIM’s destructive legacy to current living conditions on the reservation and the need to do something about it.

 

Norm: Did you learn anything from writing your book and what was it?
 

Joe:

John did most of the research and writing so I’m sure he learned a lot. I was happy that we demolished many of the fables and falsehoods once and for all. I don’t think, for instance, that any fair-minded person could read our book and not conclude that Peltier is guilty of killing those two young men. 

 John:

Because I had never written a book before, I had a lot of on-the-job training. My initial efforts were not too bad, but there were many rewrites. In some cases, Dad needed to correct my assumptions and conclusions. We had a lot of discussions about how to describe what happened and why it was important to include in the book. Let me give you one example. Because much of the falsified history is aimed at discrediting Joseph Trimbach and the FBI, we felt that it was important to have a chapter devoted to how he ended up in this historical conundrum. We needed to explain that he and his fellow agents were not evil government operatives sent out to oppress Indians, as the “merchants of myth” have often claimed. So we added chapter 2, the FBI chapter.

Norm: 

Can you tell us how you found representation for your book? Did you pitch it to an agent, or query publishers who would most likely publish this type of book? Any rejections? Did you self-publish?

 Joe:

We tried the major publishers but quickly found out that first-time authors do not have a lot of say-so in their books. We found that university presses exert even more editorial control. Nor do first-timers receive much money for their efforts. We had run up a substantial bill doing our research so we wanted to quickly recoup our investment. The other reality is that no one wanted to touch a book which seemed to take on many other books that came from these same publishing houses. Our topics run contrary to the histories that have already been passed along as authentic and thoroughly documented. We did not have the academic background or a track record of “real” historians. We implicate people in murder who have never been indicted or tried which also had an impact. Our other issue was time. We felt like we needed to get published quickly in order to stop the spread of false information. For all these reasons, we decided to use a self-publishing service.  

 Norm:

What will you be doing for the promotion of your book and how much of it is your doing?

 John:

We give book presentations and speeches just about anywhere we’re invited using our expertclick.com listing service. We have appeared at the Kellogg Center at Michigan State University and a few other schools, but we’d like to visit many more campuses. Our problem is that most university administrations are reluctant to give us a voice. I guess you could say we are the new radicals, so out of step with current thinking that we do not even deserve a chance to present our case. We do a power point presentation where we expose much of the fraudulent research from the likes of Professor Ward Churchill and other so-called experts of Native history.

 

Joe: We have a lot of work to do. There is a lot of falsified history to correct and a lot of true history to tell. In addition to setting the record straight for posterity’s sake, we realize that fundamental change on the Pine Ridge Reservation cannot occur until the truth about AIM and about Leonard Peltier is spread far and wide. We hope our book is a starting point for healing and closure, and for alerting the American populace that we all have a shared responsibility to do something about the abysmal living conditions on the reservation. On Pine Ridge, we estimate the unemployment rate is about 90%, the alcoholism rate is nearly as bad, and about half the children are sex abuse victims. America needs to wake up to what is going on in a forgotten corner of our country. 

 Norm: 

Do you hear from your readers much? What kinds of things do they say?
 

John:

We hear from many people, most of them Native Americans, who thank us for the job we have done. Some of them tell us that the truth behind the leadership is even worse than what we portrayed. One lady, for example, told us that AIM leaders threatened to kill her if she refused to turn over to them money she had raised for Indian charity. These were accounts set up in the 1980s intended to help impoverished residents on the reservation.

 Norm: 

What has happened to AIM? Could you briefly bring us up-to-date?

 Joe:

Today, AIM exists as a mostly benign derivative of its former self. The AIM leaders are in their 60s and 70s, and have long since abandoned their people for the limelight of Hollywood and book deals and sometimes cheesy public appearances. Russell Means is often seen supporting Ward Churchill in his quest to get his teaching job back at the University of Colorado. As far as the AIM legacy being resurrected, we are concerned that the horrible conditions on the reservation are feeding a new gang culture that may adopt the same destructive behavior. There is cause for concern.

 Norm: 

Are you aware of any universities or colleges that are offering courses or research grants on the subject matters you deal with in your book?

 John: 

So far, the only professor brave enough to add our book to his teaching curriculum is Patrick LeBeau of Michigan State University. Although he is an enrolled Cheyenne and Sioux Indian, he has received a lot of grief from his white colleagues for having the audacity to support us. We appeared on campus at his invitation. We will continue to pursue other universities that have Indian Studies Departments. 

Norm: 

Where can our readers find out more about you and your book and what is next for John and Joseph Trimbach?

 John:

We have a web site, americanindianmafia.com and a blog site, aimmythbusters.com, where we post current events and controversies. Our latest battle is with PBS and their support of a newly released documentary called, “Wounded Knee.” Despite what PBS claims, much of the film’s content is propagandistic in nature and is replete with distortions injurious to true Indian history. Dad appears in the film because we thought they would honor our agreement to also interview Richard Two Elk. Richard would have told them about some of the secret murders committed by AIM leaders during the Wounded Knee occupation. Obviously, this is not what the producers wanted to hear and so they reneged on our agreement. Until we contacted PBS’s legal department, they had also dropped our book from the official PBS bibliography. One reason might be that several of the books we demolish in our book are listed in the same bibliography. We have no intention of backing down. We have formed a group, The Wounded Knee Victims and Veterans Association (WKVAVA) to take this fight to PBS and any other media outlet that falls prey to AIM propaganda. 

Norm: 

Is there anything else you wish to add that we have not covered?

 Joe:

We find it interesting that some of the bad press we’ve received originates from people who have not even read the book. If you look at the customer reviews at amazon.com, for example, you’ll see what I mean. I wonder what these people are afraid of. Why is the truth so threatening to them? We are not at all discouraged because everyday more and more people show that they are open to hearing the other side of the story. We will continue to fight the good fight because we know that in the end the truth will prevail.

 Thanks once again and good luck with all of your future endeavors.

Click Here To Purchase the American Indian Mafia: An FBI Agent's True Story about Wounded Knee, Leonard Peltier, and the American Indian Movement (AIM)

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