In February 1973, AIM members and AIM supporters in the Oglala tribe occupied a small trade office at Wounded Knee.
They occupied the place for its historic significance: The federal government forces attacked Big Foot there in 1890. The news on the Siege of Wounded Knee soon was covered by television media and the three major broadcasting stations covered the news as a headline. The AIM demanded that the 1869 Sioux treaty be honored and the federal government investigate the tribal government, which was little more than a puppet of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).
In response to the AIM's occupation, the US government employed large-scale heavy armed military forces led by FBI. The federal government ignored the division within the tribes or did not understand it. As a result, they did not recognize the fact that their installation of machine guns would end up helping Dick Wilson. As Smith and Warrior pointed out, "the military played a key role in deciding the government's countermeasures. However, the military took a simple but very effective action. They covered up its presence by forcing colonels and generals, who were dispatched to Pine Ridge, to wear civilian clothes." The military named the Siege as "Operation Garden Plot."