The story of Native Americans’ plight in the late 1960s/early 1970s to have the United States government make good on a treaty signed almost 200 years earlier is a story I was not aware of, but is an immensely interesting one. The new Hulu docuseries, Vow of Silence: The Assassination of Annie Mae, talks about the struggles of the time period, framed specifically around one Native American woman, Annie Mae Aquash. As you might be able to tell from the title, the First Nations activist and Mi'kmaq tribal member from Nova Scotia, Canada was assassinated.
The docuseries does a great job painting a portrait of Annie Mae with what little archive of her is available. We see pictures of her at many major events, and even get to hear from the sole audio recording of her voice. But where she is truly brought to life is through remarks from those who knew and loved her, from her ex-husband and daughter, to many friends and comrades.
Annie Mae’s story is told alongside the larger story of the Native American oppression – which was far more disgusting and far-reaching than I realized. In 1972, Annie Mae was part of a coast-to-coast protest called the Trail of Broken Treaties, which called for the restoration of tribes’ treaty-making authority, the abolition of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and federal investment in jobs, housing, and education. The protest ended, somewhat unexpectedly, with a days-long occupation of the Department of the Interior headquarters in Washington D.C. After agreeing to vacate, the Native Americans were somehow able to take thousands of government documents with them, which they quickly spread across the country to avoid detection.
This led to a far-reaching conspiracy, of which the docuseries continues to focus on, with action going as high as President Nixon. Of course, thanks to Nixon’s love of recording everything, the docuseries has those tapes! Military action was infamously taken at Wounded Knee in South Dakota, celebrities such as Marlon Brando got involved, an FBI informant was discovered, and suspicion began to fall on Annie Mae.
The timing of the docuseries’ release comes just as America gets ready to celebrate Thanksgiving – a holiday which has a far different meaning for many Native Americans, one that is touched upon here. The series appropriately hails from Disney’s Onyx Collective, which highlights stories and projects from people of color.
Vow of Silence is a fascinating story of murder, intrigue, love, and betrayal that stretches back generations and continues even to this day. I think the essence of the story is summed up perfectly by this quote from Annie Mae herself – “I’m not going to stop fighting for my country until I die, and then my kids will take over.”
Vow of Silence: The Assassination of Annie Mae is now available to stream exclusively on Hulu.