SHUBENACADIE, Nova Scotia – Anna Mae Pictou Aquash, an American Indian Movement activist slain in 1975, was buried Monday for a third time – this time in her native Canada among fellow members of the Mi’kmaq Tribe.

Lawyers for one of the men accused of killing Aquash in South Dakota had dropped their request for a third autopsy after DNA tests concluded the body is too decomposed, clearing the way for her funeral and burial in the land of her ancestors.

Singing, the pounding of drums and the scent of burning sage grass from South Dakota filled the community center auditorium during the funeral on the Indian Brook Reserve outside of Halifax.

Aquash’s unidentified body was found in February 1976 on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. She was buried as Jane Doe after a pathologist concluded she died of exposure. Weeks later, after the FBI identified her, the body was exhumed and a second autopsy concluded she died of a gunshot wound to the back of the head.

Several grand juries took testimony over the years and in March 2003, John Graham and Arlo Looking Cloud were indicted on murder charges.

Looking Cloud was convicted in February and sentenced to life in prison. Graham remains free on bond in Vancouver, B.C., and plans to fight extradition.

Witnesses at Looking Cloud’s trial testified that she was killed because AIM leaders thought she was a government informant, something AIM and the government deny.