Two daughters, two parents, and echoes of a murder that rocked Indigenous activism

In Halifax, Denise Pictou Maloney says the trauma and grief from the 1975 murder of her mother, Indigenous activist Anna Mae Aquash, has never dimmed. Pictou Maloney was nine when she last saw her.

In Vancouver, Naneek Graham vividly remembers American FBI agents visiting her family’s home in Yukon in the 1980s to threaten her father, John Graham, with prosecution if he didn’t co-operate with the murder investigation.

Thirty-five years after the killing, Graham, a member of the American Indian Movement, was convicted of murdering Aquash by shooting her in the back of the head in South Dakota.

For decades, the two families on opposite sides of Canada have been unwillingly bound by the legacy of the murder that rocked the Indigenous movement 49 years ago, sparking years of legal wrangling and publicity about who ordered the hit, who carried it out, and why.

Now, Graham, 68, is trying to return to Canada to serve out the remainder of his life sentence. He is seeking what’s known as a treaty transfer from South Dakota and last month applied to the Federal Court of Canada to try to move the process along.

Graham’s daughter said the case has been a defining thread throughout her life, a “horrible nightmare” since her father’s incarceration.

“My dad’s been in jail for quite some time now and he’s ready to come home,” Naneek Graham said.

“He’s always maintained his innocence right from Day 1,” she said. “He really just wants to come home.”

But Pictou Maloney said Graham’s bid to return is “highly offensive.”

She said she still gets goosebumps thinking about the last time she saw her mother.

“She got down on her knees and looked me straight in the eye and said, ‘I want you to please look after your sister,'” she said. “The second thing she