Duane Meat (Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe)

[Okwes]

Sad Loss



www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/local/14516547.htm

Harvard student killed in graffiti prank in Minneapolis

BY DAVID HAWLEY

ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS

Duane Meat, who would have graduated from Harvard University next year,
died because of a prank.

Minneapolis police disclosed Friday that Clarence D. "Duane" Meat, the
man fatally shot Wednesday morning after spray-painting graffiti on a
South Minneapolis duplex, was "tagging" the house in response to being
harassed several weeks ago by reputed gang members who were gathered
there when Meat happened to walk by.

That account was reported in the Harvard Crimson, the campus newspaper
for the Ivy League school near Boston. The paper quoted Sgt. Mike Keefe,
a member of the Minneapolis Police Department's homicide unit.

Meat, 24, was a member of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, where his
mother is an Ojibwe language teacher.

According to Minneapolis police, Meat and another man were painting
gang-like graffiti on a house Wednesday morning when a 17-year-old youth
came out of the house and chased them. Meat was shot once in the chest
and died less than an hour later at Hennepin County Medical Center,
according to a medical report.

The alleged shooter, suspected of being a member of the Sureros 13 gang,
was arrested late Wednesday afternoon and is awaiting murder charges.
The arrest followed a tense day with several blocks blocked off until a
heavily armed police response team could secure the house.

Meat was not affiliated with a gang, Keefe told the Harvard newspaper.
The graffiti painting "was more of a prank than anything," Keefe was
quoted as saying.

Considered a brilliant student, Meat was an honors student at the
private Berkshire School in Sheffield, Mass., before going to Harvard.

At Harvard, where he studied economics, Meat was a former president of
Native Americans at Harvard College. He had taken the spring semester
off and planned to resume studies in the fall, according to the Crimson.

[Okwes]

At Powwow, Friends Mourn Death of Respected Campus Leader

At Powwow, Friends Mourn Death of Respected Campus Leader

www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=513387

CRIMSON/ GLORIA B. HO <http://www.thecrimson.com/writer.aspx?id=11512>
The Harvard University Powwow, a traditional celebration of Native
American song and dance that was held this weekend, included a memorial
for Clarence D. "Duane" Meat '05-'07. Meat died last week in what police
are now calling a murder.
Published On Monday, May 08, 2006 1:32 AM
By APRIL H.N. YEE <http://www.thecrimson.com/writer.aspx?id=1201972>
Crimson Staff Writer

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As the sky darkened over Radcliffe Yard, the mourners solemnly covered a
ceremonial blanket with money, tobacco, and wampum destined for the
family of Clarence D. "Duane" Meat '05-'07, who died
Wednesday after being shot in Minneapolis. One by one, they ran their
hands over their faces and through their hair, miming the motions of
cleansing that the Native American ceremony is meant to evoke. As four
men wailed and beat a drum, the first raindrops fell.

For months, Native American at Harvard College (NAHC) had planned a
Saturday filled with swirling dances and sweet frybread. But with
Meat's Minnesota wake planned for that evening and a traditional
Ojibwe burial planned for today, the Harvard Powwow became a
congregation of mourners. The event attracted far more people this year
than the last, said NAHC Secretary April A.D. Youpee-Roll '08.

Attendees delicately left silent the cause of the 24-year-old's
death. Meat was fatally shot Wednesday afternoon, and a 17-year-old
suspected of belonging to the Sureno 13 street gang has been charged
with second-degree murder, according to the Minneapolis Police
Department.

The Harvard Powwow's master of ceremonies, a director of Indian
Education at Minnesota's Bemidji Public Schools, taught Meat for two
years in middle school. Vince Beyl also belongs to the Ojibwe tribe and
lives just 12 miles down the road from Meat's Leech Lake
reservation.

"He had a few rough edges," Beyl told the audience. "He was
down in Minneapolis with a young friend. Typical, being in the wrong
place at the wrong time. His life got taken away."

The audience, which included graduate students and members of the
Cambridge community, quietly listened as Beyl described the "blanket
dance." Mourners were to drop thoughts and money onto a blanket,
then participate in "smudging" to cleanse themselves with smoke.

"This drum is a very, very, very powerful instrument," Beyl
said. "It will be a song that we want to send back home to his
family."

The twenties, fives, and ones collected in the black and red blanket on
Saturday were destined for Meat's family.

"I'm going to ask you to be generous," said Leah R. Lussier
'07, NAHC president. Her family is friends with Meat's.
Lussier's father told her of the death on Thursday morning.
"Dancing is healing, and today I'm dancing for him," she
told the audience.

Leading the blanket dance, Lussier unfurled her magenta shawl, and the
crowd—some who had known Meat, others who had simply been moved by
the scene—followed and circled around her. As the blanket's pile
of cash grew, the four men continued to chant to the deep beat of their
drum.

Randy K. Akee, who is pursuing his PhD at the Graduate School for the
Arts and Sciences, also danced. He had known Meat since 2001, and
recently met with Meat to plan the undergraduate's senior thesis in
economic development of underprivileged areas.

"He was here at Harvard not for himself. He was here for his
community, his family, and himself," Akee said. "We were
expecting a lot from him."

Meat, a past NAHC president and a leader in the campus Native American
community, had been taking time off, but was hoping to study cash flows
on his own Leech Lake Ojibwe Reservation—where cash typically
streams out, not in.

"He was ready to sort of jump into it already," Akee said.
"He knew what the problem was on his reservation."

On his Facebook profile, still online as of Sunday evening, Meat's
hometown is "Tha Rez." Meat belonged to a group called "Find
Clarence Duane Meat" with 19 others.

"Duane was lost, but is now found," it now reads. "Rest in
Peace my dear friend. We love you. Clarence Duane Meat 1982-2006."

Meat's Facebook profile shows Duane Meat in a relationship with
Barkisu Cole.

She wrote on his Facebook wall Saturday at 9:03 a.m.: "You are the
greatest person I've ever known in my entire life and thank you for
having been part of it! I have more than 5 years of our memories to
cherish for the rest my life!"

—Staff writer April H.N. Yee can be reached at
[e-mail].

[Okwes]

Sad Loss (follow up)




Harvard youth slain in native Minnesota
By Jessica Fargen
Monday, May 8, 2006 - Updated: 11:47 PM EST

A young Harvard student was gunned down while spray-painting graffiti on
a house in his native Minnesota in what Minneapolis police say was a
prank.
Clarence D. “Duane” Meat, 19, was shot and killed Wednesday when an
alleged gang member caught Meat and a 17-year-old “tagging” his
Minneapolis house and shot him in the chest, according to Minneapolis
police and the Harvard Crimson newspaper.
Student murdered in MN
Cops probe Harvard student’s Minn. murder
Police told the newspaper Meat was miffed at the reputed gang member
who lived in the home because of an altercation several weeks before the
shooting.
Meat was not involved with gangs and the act was “more of a prank
than anything,” police said.
Minneapolis police have arrested a 17-year-old in connection with
Meat’s slaying.
At Harvard, where he studied economics, Meat was active in Native
American issues and was former president of the Native Americans at
Harvard College group. In 2003, he was one of 40 students honored by the
Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations.
Meat was on leave from Harvard this spring, but he planned to return
in the fall for his senior year, the newspaper reported.
Meat graduated from the private Berkshire School in Sheffield before
going to Harvard.
In his native Minnesota, Meat was a member of the Leech Lake Band of
Ojibwe, where his mother is an Ojibwe language teacher, according to the
St. Paul Pioneer Press newspaper.
He had planned to return to Leech Lake and work on economic
development projects for his tribe, the paper reported.