DNA test won't help solve Aquash killing

By Carson Walker, Associated Press Writer | Monday, June 21, 2004

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SHUBENACADIE, Nova Scotia - DNA tests on the body of Anna Mae Pictou Aquash indicate there isn't enough evidence from her body to tie anyone to the slaying of the American Indian Movement activist.

Dennis James, the lawyer for Aquash's family, said a scientist at Molecular World of Thunder Bay, Ontario, sent a letter to the family Sunday with the results of samples taken from her body June 7.

The scientist and four other experts concluded "it is impossible to identify any male DNA from material from the pelvic area" because that part of the body "is completely void of soft tissue," James said, quoting from the letter.

"The remains are completely skeletonized," the letter stated.

The testing was prompted by a temporary court order issued Friday by a Halifax, Nova Scotia, judge that banned Aquash's family from burying her Monday. James said Sunday evening he faxed the letter to the lawyers for John Graham, one of two men charged with her killing, but he had not heard back from them.

Graham's lawyers got the order in hopes of persuading the judge to order a third autopsy. They argued the examination may help clear Graham or point to someone else, because Aquash was likely raped before she was killed.

Denise Maloney, one of Aquash's daughters, said no one is charged with rape, so it shouldn't be part of the argument. But she and her sister, Deborah Maloney, have decided to abide by the order and wait until the issue is resolved in court before burying her.

They plan to go ahead with Aquash's funeral service today.

Denise Maloney said the family paid for DNA tests so their mother's body wouldn't have to be exhumed again. Graham's lawyers have until Friday to show the need for a third autopsy.

But Denise Maloney said she hopes they drop the request before then.

On Sunday, family, friends and members of Canada's Mi'kmaq Tribe honored Aquash, despite the unresolved battle.

At a wake in Aquash's sister's house, people prayed and chatted over coffee. Her coffin in the living room was surrounded by photos of her as a child, as a young woman and with her two daughters.

A concert was also held in her honor here on Indian Brook Reserve outside the province's capital of Halifax, where she grew up.

The area near the Atlantic Ocean is rich with thick green forests that are a stark contrast to the arid plains of Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, where Aquash was killed in late 1975.

After her body was found in February 1976, several grand juries took testimony over the years.

In March 2003, Graham and Arlo Looking Cloud were indicted on murder charges.

A jury in Rapid City convicted Looking Cloud in February, and he was sentenced in April to life in prison.

Graham remains free on bond in Vancouver, British Columbia, and plans to fight extradition.

Because Aquash is revered by so many Amerian Indian women, they will play a major role in the funeral service, Denise Maloney said.

She said that for years, she believed the women would help solve her mother's murder.

"I said there's something about the women," Maloney said. "I do know the women are going to have an important role in having justice for her."

In the United States, Aquash is known for her political activism. But in her native Canada, she's known as mother, sister, wife and aunt, Maloney said.

Aquash showed women they have value as a nurturer but can also speak out against what they believe is wrong, she said.

Aquash got involved with AIM because she mistakenly believed the organization was out to help women and Indians everywhere, Maloney said.

Witnesses at Looking Cloud's trial said Aquash was killed because some people in AIM thought she was a government informant.

AIM leaders deny they had anything to do with it, and the U.S. government has said she was not a spy.

Despite having opportunities to return to Canada, she stayed - and died.

Catherine Martin, a film maker from Nova Scotia who produced "The Spirit of Annie Mae" about Aquash, said she hopes Aquash's example gives other women the confidence to not let fear keep them from doing what they feel they need to do.

"Her friends told her not to go back there. But she knew her truth and she needed to tell her truth," Martin said Sunday. "She needed to tell her truth that whatever the paranoia or rumors were about her, she wanted to take her stand and tell her truth of who she was and wasn't."