The group issued its Edgewood Declaration, citing organizational and ideological grievances and alleging criminal acts by some leaders of the Minneapolis-based, national organization.
The autonomous chapters reject the assertions of central control by the Minneapolis group as contrary both to indigenous political traditions and to the original philosophy of AIM.
Branscombe and Means accused top-ranking AIM leader Vernon Bellecourt of Minneapolis of having ordered the execution of Aquash, in the mistaken belief that she was a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) informant.
Branscombe and Means said that Arlo Looking Cloud, Theda Nelson Clarke and John Graham had been directly involved in the kidnapping and murder of Aquash.
[6] The Colorado AIM came to national attention in 2005 because of publicity related to one of its leaders, Ward Churchill, who was fired that year from his tenured position as professor at the University of Colorado-Boulder after an investigation into academic misconduct.