[6] During this period, the FBI carried out intensive local surveillance, repeated arrests, harassment and bad faith legal proceedings against AIM leaders and supporters.
[7] Bear Runner was in his early 20s during Wounded Knee and the reign of terror, of which he said, "Our elders, our parents and grandparents in our community had called on this family, known to us as the American Indian Movement.
[9] When Bear Runner returned to Highway 18 about thirty minutes later, he informed BIA superintendent Kendall Cummings that both agents appeared to be dead, and the Jumping Bull property was seemingly deserted.
[9] Bear Runner and Cummings were then "allowed" to walk back in, with both sets of their hands raised above their heads, in order to verify that the agents were no longer alive.
[13] Bear Runner had been arrested, along with several other spectators, for "rioting to obstruct justice",[14] following his participation in Custer, South Dakota, protests on 6 February 1973 concerning the murder of Wesley Bad Heart Bull.
In the PBS documentary, We Shall Remain, Bear Runner was quoted as saying of the Custer House incident, "I was right on the steps, you know, and things were happening.
[14] Bear Runner was also one of several plaintiffs who filed a lawsuit in an attempt to recover damages caused by the deployment and utilization of Army and Air Force personnel for law-enforcement purposes pursuant to a conspiracy by appellees.
[18][19][20] Bear Runner has organized memorials and erected headstones for Anna Mae Pictou Aquash[21] and Joseph "Killsright" Bedell Stuntz,[22] in order to honor their contributions and observe the sacrifices they made.
The FBI willfully, knowingly and unconditionally committed acts of aggression, governmental misconduct, crimes against humanity, peace and the dignity of mankind, fabrication of a felony extradition, perjury against traditional oriented individuals and activists from the Oglala Lakota Nation.