The Nation - News from Sept. 17, 1986

Alexander M. Haig Jr. and other former government officials can be sued by Indians who contend the military illegally intervened to end the armed occupation of Wounded Knee, S.D., in 1973, a federal court ruled. The U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals backed a ruling by one of its three-judge panels that military personnel should have been used only with specific authorization by Congress or then-President Richard M. Nixon. The Indians charged that Air Force planes had been used for surveillance and high-ranking military officers were on hand to direct the government’s effort to end the standoff. Haig was then vice chief of staff of the Army.