Title: The martyrdom of Collins Catch the Bear /
Authors: Spence, Gerry
Year: 2020
Subjects: Collins Catch the Bear Trials, litigation, etc.; Lakota Indians Legal status, laws, etc. South Dakota History; Indians, Treatment of North America History; Indians of North America Government relations; Trials (Murder) South Dakota History; Discrimination in criminal justice administration South Dakota History; Discrimination in criminal justice administration; Indians of North America Government relations; Indians, Treatment of; Lakota Indians Legal status, laws, etc.; Trials (Murder); North America; South Dakota
Abstract: "The search for justice for a Lakota Sioux man wrongfully charged with murder, told here for the first time by his trial lawyer, Gerry Spence. This is the untold story of Collins Catch the Bear, a Lakota Sioux, who was wrongfully charged with the murder of a white man in 1982 at Russell Means's Yellow Thunder Camp, an AIM encampment in the Black Hills in South Dakota. Though Collins was innocent, he took the fall for the actual killer, a man placed in the camp with the intention of compromising the reputation of AIM. This story reveals the struggle of the American Indian people in their attempt to survive in a white world, on land that was stolen from them. We live with Collins and see the beauty that was his, but that was lost over the course of his short lifetime. Today justice still struggles to be heard, not only in this case but many like it in the American Indian nations"--