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Show 12 Chapter Three. Law Enforcement. Only two weeks after Janey's return to Mesa Verde, an event occured in South Dakota vihich would brin? her to the summit of the four stone heads on Mount Pushmore. The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota is 50 miles deep and 100 miles wide, home to 15,000 people. 10,000 of them belong to the tribe of Oglala Sioux, among the poorest of all native Americans. Murders, beatings, and violent disagreement had plagued the reservation vihere members of a militant group, the American Indian Movement, were at odds viith the more conservative tribal government. Under the hot noonday sun of June 26, tvio FBI agents drove toward a cluster of rundovm farmhouses vihere several American Indian Movement supporters viere known to be staying. The FBI agents carried warrants for the arrest of four Indians viho viere vianted on a kidnapping charge. As the agents got out of their cars, they viere struck by rifle fire. They fell to the ground, but managed to reach a car radio to call for help. Within minutes, ten other lawmen reached the scene, and the number of police cars speeding down the dirt road increased rapidly as viord of the ambush spread. No one knevi how many Indians were in the main farmhouse. Rifles cracked in sporadic crossfire between the two groups as the shootout continued for six hours through the heat and dust of the afternoon. When officers lobbed tear gas cannisters into the farmhouse, the Indians inside escaped through the back door. They disappeared into grass-covered bottom land and along a wooded creek bank behind the houses, |