"AIM"
AIM
“You need to photograph him,” a young woman said to me as she pointed toward a man in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, I came to learn was Blacksmith.
“Why him?”
“Because he’s OG out here.”
OG is an acronym for original gangster and defines the person as classic, original, old-school, and one that embraces the older ways.
Blacksmith told me of the American Indian Movement and his involvement at Wounded Knee. He was only 11.
“Russell Means, he was there, but not for long,” Blacksmith said, referencing the Native American political activist. He went on to mention another activist, “Dennis Banks was different. He stayed with us. He was very involved, he was dedicated to what we were trying to accomplish, and he was loyal to us. Federal agents couldn’t figure out how the men stayed in that church for so long. At night, in the darkness, other kids and I snuck food into the church where the men were holed up.”
As an adult, Blacksmith went on to join the United States Army. He served in the Army’s 101st Airborne Division and is a Desert Storm veteran. After the military, he focused his energy on rodeo bull riding.
Today, Blacksmith sleeps in a car that doesn’t run in Oglala. On the morning of this rainy day, he had hitched a ride from Oglala to Pine Ridge, approximately a 15-mile drive.
There, our paths crossed.
J.P. Caffee
Photography
24” x 36” Canvas Wrapped Print
