This week on From the Vault we honor Peggy Berryhill, the 2011 winner of the prestigious Bader Award, given by the National Federation of Community Broadcasters in recognition of significant contributions to community radio. Peggy Berryhill’s work with Pacifica Radio stretches back several decades, starting with the insightful 1975 documentary Why Wounded Knee? (co-produced by Berryhill and Avotcja Jiltonilro y Fasanmi), which chronicles the 71-day standoff in 1973 between federal law enforcement and indigenous American Indian tribes in the town of Wounded Knee, South Dakota. On February 27th, 1973, members of the American Indian Movement (AIM), led by Russell Means and Dennis Banks, occupied Wounded Knee (site of the 1890 massacre) to call attention to the deplorable conditions of the nearby Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and other reservations across America. As it might be, the United States Department of Justice responded with an onslaught of government officials, law enforcement officers, and soldiers with armored personnel carriers – surrounding the tiny town and actively engaging in firefights with AIM members for over two months. Why Wounded Knee? masterfully weaves actuality, music, and interviews together to examine the lives, problems, and struggles of Native Americans both on and off the reservation.
From the Vault is presented through the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project, funded in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, past grants from the Grammy Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the American Archive funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, along with the generous support of Pacifica Radio Listeners.
First broadcast on Friday, May 13, 2011.
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