AllMovie

In 1975, 30-year-old Mi'kmaq activist Annie Mae Aquash was found dead in rural South Dakota -- the victim of an execution-style murder. Fellow tribeswoman and noted filmmaker Catherine Anne Martin turned her attention toward Aquash's dramatically short life and unsolved murder with her 2002 biographical documentary entitled The Spirit of Annie Mae. The Canadian-born Aquash led a life of relative obscurity until moving to the U.S. in order to find work. After spending a number of years in various states of financial need, Aquash began taking an interest in working for Native American rights. As her first marriage began to fall apart, she met another man, Nogeeshik Aquash, who introduced the young Mi'Kmaq woman to the American Indian Movement and the movement's radical ideology. Quickly ascending the ranks within the organization, Aquash became a high-ranking leader of AIM, as well as an intelligence target on the part of the FBI, and thereby made her a target of suspicion by both organizations. Martin's look into Aquash' life includes a number of interviews with many of the activist's friends and family members, as well as speculation into the perpetrators of her murder.