On April 27, 1973, a few two hundred militant Indians occupied the hamlet of Wounded Knee at the Oglala Sioux reservation in South Dakota. within the identify of the yankee Indian circulate (AIM), Russell skill and Dennis Banks took eleven hostages and commenced what might turn into a 75-day siege of the town.

Two days later, within the identify of Indians opposed to Exploitation (IAE), Larry Casuse and Robert Nakaidinae kidnapped the Mayor of Gallup (Emmet Garcia) from his place of work and marched him at gunpoint via part of downtown Gallup. They barricaded themselves in a wearing items shop and demanded political aid and a spotlight to their reason. Nakaidinae shot the mayor as he tried to flee. He survived his wounds.

Larry Casuse died in a hail of police bullets yet used to be acknowledged by way of the police and the neighborhood coroner to have dedicated suicide. the kidnapping used to be it seems that conducted simply because Casuse and Nakaidinae perceived the mayor as symbolic of ways Indians have been mistreated in Gallup. They alleged Garcia to be liable for either Indian alcohol abuse and a common loss of admire for Indians. the kidnapping in Gallup by means of militant contributors of IAE and the siege at Wounded Knee via the militant contributors of target have been attached loosely within the press and looked to be at the same time supportive of the wider factor of Indian civil rights.

Casuse used to be the president of the Kiva membership, an Indian rights staff on campus at UNM. He was once very vocal in opposing Garcia's appointment to the UNM Board of Regents and his chairmanship of the Indian alcohol rehabilitation undertaking in Gallup. Nakaidinae was once additionally a Kiva membership member.

Garcia used to be half proprietor of a package deal liquor shop known as The Navajo lodge situated at the Arizona/New Mexico border quite a few yards clear of the Navajo reservation. Garcia was once a contemporary political appointee to the Board of Regents for the collage of latest Mexico.

The abduction of the Mayor and the dying of Casuse have been significant neighborhood information tales. loads of awareness used to be fascinated by the matter of alcohol abuse one of the tens of millions of Navajos who stopover at Gallup per week. a few Indians felt that the white inhabitants in Gallup disrespected Navajo cultural traditions and did not do adequate to assist the Navajo with its ancient conflict with alcohol abuse. a few whites felt that the Navajos who got here to city to drink have been a public nuisance.

Largely as a result of abduction and the ensuing exposure, Garcia misplaced his reelection bid for a moment time period as mayor on April three, 1973. He resigned his chairmanship of the Gallup Alcohol Rehabilitation Committee, and his place at the UNM Board of Regents. Then he offered his curiosity within the Navajo resort and moved along with his kinfolk to Arizona in may well of 1973. He by no means again to Gallup.