PINE RIDGE LAKOTA INDIAN RESERVATION, S.D. — The reservation's radio station is surrounded. For nearly four months, a camp of protesters has laid siege to KILI, "the voice of the Lakota nation," demanding the resignation of the station's white manager and a return to programming rooted in the Oglala Sioux tribe's language and traditions.

Half a dozen tepees stand at the bottom of Porcupine Butte, from whose slopes rise KILI's studio and 100,000-watt transmitter. Another tepee looms at the crown of the butte, where activists watch to prevent the arrival of Tom Casey, the station manager. A hand-lettered sign counts off the days since the occupation began on May 6.

KILI, one of the nation's first independent American Indian radio stations, was founded in 1979 by members of the American Indian Movement to keep alive the language and traditions of the Oglala Lakota (Sioux) tribe and to broadcast information the tribal council--which is supported by the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs--might want suppressed, said JoAnn Tall, an original KILI board member.

Porcupine Butte stands barely 10 miles from Wounded Knee, S.D., the site of the three-month AIM uprising in 1973, and on this highly politicized reservation the KILI protest is focusing a broader philosophical debate about the direction American Indian society should be taking.

One of KILI's early objectives was to give voice to the reservation's "treaty people," who hold that the Lakotas' 1851 and 1868 treaties with the U.S. government--which granted the Lakota far more land and sovereignty than they now enjoy--are sacred documents that must be honored.

Treaty people tend to have contempt for those who cooperate with the U.S. government, such as tribal council members and employees. They also resist development schemes that involve sacrificing either land or sovereignty. The debate between the treaty people and those who say their first priority is bringing jobs and income to this desperately poor reservation--where unemployment tops 80%--is the fundamental political struggle here.

"The pressure to sell out our traditions and way of life for money is intense," said Emily Iron Cloud, one of the protest organizers. "There are a few people who are still resisting, and that's what KILI represents."