From The Files of The Seminole Producer

WOUNDED KNEE, S.D. (UPI) – Federal officers exchanged gunfire today with between 200 and 300 militant Indians who seized the settlement of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Oglala Sioux reservation, taking hostages as they did so.

Approaches to Wounded Knee were sealed off. Oglala Tribal President Dick Wilson said the Indians had hunting rifles and might have at least two machine guns. U.S. marshals ringing the town, many dressed in bright blue coveralls, were heavily armed.

The Indians were organized by the American Indian Movement (AIM). They seized the Wounded Knee trading post Tuesday night, clearing out artifacts, guns and ammunition. Wilson said the post recently had received a new shipment of rifles and the Indians could possibly hold out “for weeks.”

After the daylight exchange of gunfire, federal marshals moved back some distance from the posts they had occupied during the night.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation said at least 17 persons were arrested as they attempted to get out of the area. Sioux reservation authorities put the number of hostages at 10, most of them occupants of the trading post.

The Indians also took over a Roman Catholic church located on the heights overlooking the site of the Wounded Knee massacre, where U.S. cavalry killed more than 300 Sioux in 1890.

Visitors to the area were halted at nearby Pine Ridge, which itself showed signs as if it were under siege.

Sandbags were piled atop and within the Bureau of Indian Affairs office at Pine Ridge, and the doors were locked. Marshals could be seen moving inside.

Wilson contended that Russell Means, another AIM leader, was one of the group of Indians holed up in the church. Wilson said that the whole seizure may have been sparked by a beating administered to Means at Pine Ridge Tuesday by a reservation Indian.

The Indians submitted a list of three demands to various federal agencies saying they would stay in Wounded Knee until they got answers from the federal government. But in Washington, a spokesman for the Bureau of Indian Affairs said the BIA still was uncertain as to the nature of the dispute and the Indians demands. He said none of them, as of an early hour Wednesday, had been transmitted “to anyone in the Bureau of Indian Affairs or the Department of Interior.”

FBI agents, U.S. Marshals and Bureau of Indian Affairs police made no attempt to rout the Indians from the several buildings they occupied. The rear window of a car containing an Indian man, his wife and baby was riddled with rifle fire today as the car passed by the trading post and the driver refused demands by those inside to stop.

Joseph H. Trimbach, FBI special agent in charge of Minnesota and the Dakotas, who is heading the enforcement operations, said, “We know of 10 hostages.” Carter Camp, the AIM spokesman, said, “We have 10 or 12 hostages.”

All of the hostages were Wounded Knee residents.

Wounded Knee is located in the southern part of the 2,200 square mile reservation about 15 miles from the state border. The town, consisting of only a few buildings, is the site of the 1890 Wounded Knee massacre, generally considered the last major confrontation of the Indian wars.

Mrs. Clive Gildersleve, whose husband operates the trading post, told UPI by telephone early today that she and eight members of her family were taken hostage in their home.

At least one Indian was injured by bullets during the shooting. He was treated on the reservation and transferred to a nearby Chadron, Neb. hospital. He was charged with burglary and larceny on an Indian reservation in connection with the trading post break-in.

In Washington, an FBI spokesman released the three demands made by the Indians. They include: - Senator William Fullbright, D. Ark., convene his Senate Foreign Relations Committee for hearings on treaties made with the Indian nations and ratified by Congress.

- Senator Edward Kennedy, D. Mass., convene his Senate subcommittee on administrative practices and procedures for an “immediate full-scale investigation” of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of Interior and government policies toward Indians in general.

- Sen. JamesAbourezk, D-S.D., who was raised on the reservation, convene his Senate subcommittee on Indian affairs for a “complete investigation of all Sioux reservations in South Dakota.”

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