Anna mae aquash daughters

A Biography of Anna Mae

Introduction

From the era of Native American political activism and militancy during the early 1970s, there is no more haunting figure than Anna Mae Pictou Aquash. An active American Indian Movement (AIM) member, as well as mother, wife, social worker, and day care teacher, her image is powerful as much for her untimely death as for her life's work. Found murdered on the Pine Ridge Reservation during a time of tremendous social and political upheaval, she has become a symbol of the movement for Indian rights.

Childhood on a Micmac Reserve

Anna Mae was born on March 27, 1945 to Mary Ellen Pictou and Francis Thomas Levi, both Micmac Indians. She came into the world in a small Indian village just outside the town of Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia, Canada. Levi left before Anna Mae was born, and Mary Ellen's third grade education didn't provide her the skills required to support her children. Still a young woman herself, Mary Ellen Pictou admitted to being a little too unsettled to offer her girls much in the way of discipline. Aquash spent her early years in a

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I imagine it was cold and windy the day they killed Annie Mae. I imagine her standing there on the precipice, knowing it was over, praying for her daughters. Was she terrified, or was she graced in those last few moments with courage, with faith, with the belief that her journey had been worth it?

Annie Mae Pictou was born in Nova Scotia on March 27, 1945 and raised on the reserve at Shubenacadie, and later, when her mother remarried, at Pictou Landing. Canada’s reserves had little to offer, and so Annie Mae, like many Maritime Indigenous people, migrated to Maine for the annual blueberry and potato harvest. In 1962, she headed for Boston with Jake Maloney, a Mi’kmaq from Shubenacadie, with whom she had two daughters, Denise and Deborah.

Many people who move to the city find themselves on skid row, and Annie Mae too found herself in Boston’s “combat zone.” But instead of succumbing to the siren call of booze and drugs, she began to work for change. She was one of the early organizers of the Boston Indian Council, which established housing, employment, and drug and alcohol progra

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Native American History Month: The story of Anna Mae Aquash

Toni Handboy

The subject of this article is justice for our relatives who have gone missing. As Native Americans, members of our population go missing at a much higher rate than other groups in the United States. In particular, I want to share the story of Anna Mae Aquash. I also want to share the story of those who continue to seek justice for our missing relatives, such as Anna Mae’s daughter Denise.

The story of Anna Mae Aquash will be released on Hulu on November 26 as part of Native American History Month. Anna Mae Aquash was a Mi’kmaq tribal member from Nova Scotia, Canada. She was an advocate on the mining on the reservation and was accused of being a traitor or an informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In December 1975 she was kidnapped and held captive on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Her story was a controversial one due to accusations that the American Indian Movement was involved in her death.

I want to share the story of Anna Mae because it matters and deserves to be heard. Back in the ’