I was contacted by a documentary producer about some of the documents I found at the Minnesota Historical Society, specifically concerning the murder of Anna Mae Aquash. While I am pleased to be able to assist in possibly shedding some light on that sordid tale, I am concerned the documentary is going to attempt to “frame” her story as one of a Missing and Murdered Indigenous Woman (MMIW). The MMIW scenario typically involves kidnapping women, making them sex slaves, and often murdering them. While Anna Mae was murdered, it was not as a consequence of her being a sex slave. Rather, she was caught in the middle of a war between the FBI and the American Indiana Movement (AIM) Hopefully, if the documentary goes forward under the current plan, it will not diminish the seriousness of the tragedies of both Anna Mae and indigenous women caught up in the horrors of sex slavery.
