Post by blackcrowheart on Jun 13, 2007 15:00:17 GMT -5
The View From a Red State with a Red Neck
Many Americans view South Dakota as a backward red state. It is not a
red state because of the nine Indian reservations within its borders
because the voters residing on those reservations are historically blue.
Check an election-day map by coloring all of the red and blue counties
and you will find that every Indian reservation in the state will be
colored blue.
<http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/huffingtonpost/feature/fearless;nickname\
=tim-giago;entry_id=42062;South+Dakota=1;Pine+Ridge=1;Catholic+Church=1;\
ptile=2;sz=300x250;abr=!ie4;abr=!ie5;abr=!ie6;ord=123456789?>
It is a red state because its legislative body is fast becoming the most
determined "morality police" in the nation. The state became a laughing
stock last year when it tried to push through an anti-abortion law that
would have put doctors in jail. The voters put the proposed law on the
ballot and soundly defeated it. Was that the end of it? Not on your
life. Here it is 2007 and the "morality police" in state government have
made amendments to the defeated proposal and are trying to get it passed
again. Last week a legislative committee suffering from abortion fatigue
rejected this year's version of the abortion ban.
The bill was amended to include exceptions for rape, incest and the
health of the mother in an effort to put the objections of the majority
of state citizens to rest. But the bill is not dead yet. State Senator
Dennis Schmidt of Rapid City, a Republican of course, said, "It's too
important. It's a life-or-death issue."
I am reminded of a comment I saw on a blog on huffingtonpost.com. It
said those lawmakers pushing to overturn Roe v. Wade "are a bunch of old
white men trying to tell women how it is to be a woman." It is ironic
that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has joined this religious parade.
Last year we had a bunch of tribal council members on the Pine Ridge
Reservation trying to do the same thing. They broke with a long history
of culture and tradition in order to express their new Christian ethics.
They impeached their first ever woman president, Cecelia Fire Thunder,
because she was an advocate of Roe v. Wade.
In the turbulent 1960s and 1970s South Dakota was known amongst American
Indians as the Mississippi of the North. Racial prejudice and
discrimination was not only widespread but also inherent to a white
culture still steaming over the demise of Custer and his 7th Cavalry at
the Little Big Horn. Troopers sporting Seventh Cavalry banners still
march in present-day parades.
White South Dakotans are still enamored of an editorial written in 1891
by L. Frank Baum in the Aberdeen Saturday (SD) newspaper calling for
genocide against the remaining Sioux population after the massacre at
Wounded Knee when he wrote, "perhaps we should wrong them one more time
and wipe these untamed and untamable creatures from the face of the
earth." He must have been thinking about that comment when we wrote the
flying monkey scene is his book The Wizard of Oz 10 years later.
When I was a student at Holy Rosary Indian Mission on the Pine Ridge
Reservation in South Dakota, a school run by the Jesuits of the Catholic
Church, there was a strict code fashioned by the Church that governed
the morals of movies produced in that era. On the one night of the week
when we were allowed to see a movie we had no idea that the movie we
watched had to be approved by the Church.
Things haven't changed much in communities like Rapid City. The local
movie theater owner decides which movie is going to be shown in this
city. It reminds me of the good old days when the Catholic Church did
the same thing. When the Michael Moore movie Fahrenheit 9/11 came out a
couple of years ago many of us had to make strong vocal protests to the
theater owner before he would screen the movie. The Last King of
Scotland and Queen have not been shown in Rapid City yet although the
lead actors in both movies have been nominated for Oscars.
That's the kind of mind control and moral policing I am talking about
that is a regular occurrence in this fair state.
Indian columnists like myself are barred from writing for the state's
two largest dailies, one owned by Lee Enterprises and the other by
Gannett. I am sure that neither Lee Enterprises nor Gannett would
approve of this censorship if they knew about it. It is strictly a local
decision. The old adage that "Freedom of the press belongs to those who
own the press" is never truer than in South Dakota.
When a white columnist for the local daily can compare the Pine Ridge
Reservation to Iraq and get away with it, that should tell everyone
about the state of mind in this state.
Former Democratic Senator Tom Daschle just endorsed Barak Obama for
president and since Daschle is from South Dakota his endorsement will
hardly matter because this red, red state will never go blue for a black
man.
Perhaps South Dakota would shed its identity as a "redneck" state if its
legislative body and its governor spent more time trying to solve its
horrendous racial problems between Indians and whites and worried less
about policing the morals of its mainly white citizens.
The efforts of racial reconciliation in South Dakota died with former
Republican Governor George Mickelson and there hasn't been a politician
or governor of courage and true morals since. It seems they are too
worried about telling women what it is to be a woman.
(McClatchy News Service in Washington, DC distributes Tim Giago's weekly
column. He can be reached at najournalists@rushmore.com. Giago was also
the founder and former editor and publisher of the Lakota Times and
Indian Country Today newspapers and the founder and first president of
the Native American Journalists Association. He was a Nieman Fellow at
Harvard in the class of 1990 - 1991. Clear Light Books of Santa Fe, NM
(harmon@clearlightbooks.com) published his latest book, "Children Left
Behind")
Many Americans view South Dakota as a backward red state. It is not a
red state because of the nine Indian reservations within its borders
because the voters residing on those reservations are historically blue.
Check an election-day map by coloring all of the red and blue counties
and you will find that every Indian reservation in the state will be
colored blue.
<http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/huffingtonpost/feature/fearless;nickname\
=tim-giago;entry_id=42062;South+Dakota=1;Pine+Ridge=1;Catholic+Church=1;\
ptile=2;sz=300x250;abr=!ie4;abr=!ie5;abr=!ie6;ord=123456789?>
It is a red state because its legislative body is fast becoming the most
determined "morality police" in the nation. The state became a laughing
stock last year when it tried to push through an anti-abortion law that
would have put doctors in jail. The voters put the proposed law on the
ballot and soundly defeated it. Was that the end of it? Not on your
life. Here it is 2007 and the "morality police" in state government have
made amendments to the defeated proposal and are trying to get it passed
again. Last week a legislative committee suffering from abortion fatigue
rejected this year's version of the abortion ban.
The bill was amended to include exceptions for rape, incest and the
health of the mother in an effort to put the objections of the majority
of state citizens to rest. But the bill is not dead yet. State Senator
Dennis Schmidt of Rapid City, a Republican of course, said, "It's too
important. It's a life-or-death issue."
I am reminded of a comment I saw on a blog on huffingtonpost.com. It
said those lawmakers pushing to overturn Roe v. Wade "are a bunch of old
white men trying to tell women how it is to be a woman." It is ironic
that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has joined this religious parade.
Last year we had a bunch of tribal council members on the Pine Ridge
Reservation trying to do the same thing. They broke with a long history
of culture and tradition in order to express their new Christian ethics.
They impeached their first ever woman president, Cecelia Fire Thunder,
because she was an advocate of Roe v. Wade.
In the turbulent 1960s and 1970s South Dakota was known amongst American
Indians as the Mississippi of the North. Racial prejudice and
discrimination was not only widespread but also inherent to a white
culture still steaming over the demise of Custer and his 7th Cavalry at
the Little Big Horn. Troopers sporting Seventh Cavalry banners still
march in present-day parades.
White South Dakotans are still enamored of an editorial written in 1891
by L. Frank Baum in the Aberdeen Saturday (SD) newspaper calling for
genocide against the remaining Sioux population after the massacre at
Wounded Knee when he wrote, "perhaps we should wrong them one more time
and wipe these untamed and untamable creatures from the face of the
earth." He must have been thinking about that comment when we wrote the
flying monkey scene is his book The Wizard of Oz 10 years later.
When I was a student at Holy Rosary Indian Mission on the Pine Ridge
Reservation in South Dakota, a school run by the Jesuits of the Catholic
Church, there was a strict code fashioned by the Church that governed
the morals of movies produced in that era. On the one night of the week
when we were allowed to see a movie we had no idea that the movie we
watched had to be approved by the Church.
Things haven't changed much in communities like Rapid City. The local
movie theater owner decides which movie is going to be shown in this
city. It reminds me of the good old days when the Catholic Church did
the same thing. When the Michael Moore movie Fahrenheit 9/11 came out a
couple of years ago many of us had to make strong vocal protests to the
theater owner before he would screen the movie. The Last King of
Scotland and Queen have not been shown in Rapid City yet although the
lead actors in both movies have been nominated for Oscars.
That's the kind of mind control and moral policing I am talking about
that is a regular occurrence in this fair state.
Indian columnists like myself are barred from writing for the state's
two largest dailies, one owned by Lee Enterprises and the other by
Gannett. I am sure that neither Lee Enterprises nor Gannett would
approve of this censorship if they knew about it. It is strictly a local
decision. The old adage that "Freedom of the press belongs to those who
own the press" is never truer than in South Dakota.
When a white columnist for the local daily can compare the Pine Ridge
Reservation to Iraq and get away with it, that should tell everyone
about the state of mind in this state.
Former Democratic Senator Tom Daschle just endorsed Barak Obama for
president and since Daschle is from South Dakota his endorsement will
hardly matter because this red, red state will never go blue for a black
man.
Perhaps South Dakota would shed its identity as a "redneck" state if its
legislative body and its governor spent more time trying to solve its
horrendous racial problems between Indians and whites and worried less
about policing the morals of its mainly white citizens.
The efforts of racial reconciliation in South Dakota died with former
Republican Governor George Mickelson and there hasn't been a politician
or governor of courage and true morals since. It seems they are too
worried about telling women what it is to be a woman.
(McClatchy News Service in Washington, DC distributes Tim Giago's weekly
column. He can be reached at najournalists@rushmore.com. Giago was also
the founder and former editor and publisher of the Lakota Times and
Indian Country Today newspapers and the founder and first president of
the Native American Journalists Association. He was a Nieman Fellow at
Harvard in the class of 1990 - 1991. Clear Light Books of Santa Fe, NM
(harmon@clearlightbooks.com) published his latest book, "Children Left
Behind")