Ghost dancing the law
Subtitle: the Wounded Knee trials
By: John William Sayer.
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Cambridge, Mass
Language: eng
Number of pages: 310
Subjects: Banks, Dennis -- Trials, litigation, etc; American Indian Movement; Wounded Knee Massacre, S.D., 1890 -- Claims; Indians of North America -- Government relations -- 1934-; Wounded Knee (S.D.) -- History -- Indian occupation, 1973
Description: After the siege ended at Wounded Knee the real battle had yet to be fought. The 1973 standoff in South Dakota between Oglala Lakota Indians and federal lawmen led to the criminal prosecution of American Indian Movement leaders Dennis Banks and Russell Means. The ten month trial had all the earmarks of a political tribunal; with the defense led by William Kunstler and the prosecution backed by the Nixon administration, it became a media battle for public opinion.

This first book-length study of the Wounded Knee trials demonstrates the impact that legal institutions and the media have on political dissent. It also shows how the dissenters as defendants can influence these institutions and the surrounding political and cultural climate.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 233-303) and index.