New trailer Oct 6 2019 from Kevin McKiernan on Vimeo.

Willard Carlson, a Yurok tribal member and one of the protagonists in McKiernan's documentary, will speak about his experience at Wounded Knee on Wednesday. | File photo: Jessica C. Andrews

Willard Carlson and Cherry Villazana will speak about their experiences at the Wounded Knee Occupation at a free screening of the documentary “From Wounded Knee to Standing Rock” on Wednesday.

The Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation is hosting the screening of journalist Kevin McKiernan’s documentary to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the American Indian Movement protest. McKiernan will also be one of the speakers, said Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation spokeswoman Emily Reed.

Carlson, a Yurok tribal member, was a student at Cal Poly Humboldt in March 1973 when American Indian Movement leaders Dennis Banks and Russell Means called for supplies, medicine, guns and people.

AIM was protesting a corrupt Oglala Lakota tribal chairman and was in a stand off with the federal government. Carlson and his friends Calvin and Alan Aubrey, Russell Redner and other students loaded up a camper and an old Datsun and set out for South Dakota from Arcata.

In an October 2019 interview with the Wild Rivers Outpost, Carlson said he and his friends reached a restaurant in Nebraska, but left without breakfast when they realized it was full of law enforcement.

“We all had to make an agreement, well if we get stopped and the cops pull guns on us, we got to shoot it out,” Carlson told the Outpost. “Everybody had to agree to it, so we all agreed to it.”

McKiernan covered the occupation as a rookie NPR reporter.

McKiernan’s documentary will be screened from 5-9 p.m. Wednesday at Crescent Elk Auditorium, 994 G Street in Crescent City.

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