Post by Okwes on Jul 7, 2007 11:15:30 GMT -5
Oglala Lakota Face Tumultuous Times
Just seven years after the occupation of the village at Wounded Knee by
members of the American Indian Movement in 1973, the U. S. Census of
1980 proclaimed Shannon County, the heart of the Pine Ridge Indian
Reservation in South Dakota, "The poorest county in America."
There are those who consider the occupation of Wounded Knee 34 years ago
as the anniversary of the liberation of the Oglala Lakota people.
Liberation of what to what? When a nation is liberated doesn't that
suggest things are going to improve? Didn't the United States call the
pre-emptive invasion of Iraq a liberation?
AIM came on to the Pine Ridge Reservation with high hopes. Like so many
Indians they were frustrated by the baskets of red tape that stymied
progress and by the preferential treatment doled out to those in power.
It was an ongoing problem in 1973 and it is an ongoing problem in 2007.
When the people of the reservation elected Cecelia Fire Thunder to serve
as their first woman president they hoped that by electing a woman the
tribe would get off of the dime that has negated progress these many
years. They believed that such a dramatic shift in leadership would
shake up the status quo and bring about peace and eventually,
prosperity.
But an inconsequential non-issue called abortion muddied the waters. As
a former nurse who had been a first hand witness to rape, incest and
unwanted babies, Fire Thunder took her stand as pro-choice. It was her
downfall. She was impeached. The vice president of the tribe, Alex White
Plume, filled her office.
I have known White Plume for many years and have always considered him
to be a good man. He was caught up in the circumstances of tribal
politics but he filled the job required of him to the fullest. When
election time rolled around someone dug up a fact sheet that listed
White Plume as having committed a felonious crime. Although more than 20
years had elapsed since this alleged event and the supposed crime had
been reduced to a misdemeanor, White Plume's name was stricken from the
ballot.
The former three-time president of the tribe, John Yellow Bird Steele,
was the eventual victor in the election, but even he knew that things
just didn't sit right with this election. He suggested that a set of
independent judges be brought in to review the entire election process
on the reservation.
The Pine Ridge Reservation is 100 miles long and 50 miles wide. About
20,000 people inhabit it. About 90 percent of the population is Oglala
Lakota. There are four high schools and several middle schools on the
reservation. There is one college on the reservation. Oglala Lakota
College is located near Kyle and the college has extensions in all of
the reservation districts. The tribal government charters the college.
The tribe has one casino located off of Highway 79 near the
off-reservation community of Oelrichs. While still president, Fire
Thunder initiated a loan from the casino-rich Mdewakanton Tribe of
Shakopee, Minnesota for $30 million. The money was used to pay off
outstanding debts and to expand and improve the existing casino.
There is still an unsettled feeling amongst the Oglala Lakota people.
They feel that they have been cheated of their votes on the last
election. Many feel that Alex White Plume would have been the eventual
winner if he had been allowed to remain on the ballot. They are still
upset that the ballot issue came up just two weeks before the election
and they believe it should have been settled long before the election
was held.
The people of the Pine Ridge Reservation have been in a near constant
turmoil since the occupation of Wounded Knee. Too much finger pointing
and blame placing has taken place since then. AIM was not 100 percent
right or innocent and neither was the tribal government. And both have
to take the blame for what has happened since 1973.
The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 was intended to allow the Indian
tribes in America to set up democratic forms of government. Most tribes
restructured under the Act, but some tribe like the Navajo Nation, did
not accept the provisions of the Act and did not become IRA governments.
The tribal government at Pine Ridge is an IRA government and some tribal
members find this to be objectionable.
A casino is not the answer, either politically or financially, to the
problems at Pine Ridge. Different groups need to stop living in the past
and start taking a serious look at the situation as it exists today. As
one elder said, "We are all one people and neither AIM nor the IRA
government can take this from us. We are Oglala Lakota and that name
comes without labels."
(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")
Just seven years after the occupation of the village at Wounded Knee by
members of the American Indian Movement in 1973, the U. S. Census of
1980 proclaimed Shannon County, the heart of the Pine Ridge Indian
Reservation in South Dakota, "The poorest county in America."
There are those who consider the occupation of Wounded Knee 34 years ago
as the anniversary of the liberation of the Oglala Lakota people.
Liberation of what to what? When a nation is liberated doesn't that
suggest things are going to improve? Didn't the United States call the
pre-emptive invasion of Iraq a liberation?
AIM came on to the Pine Ridge Reservation with high hopes. Like so many
Indians they were frustrated by the baskets of red tape that stymied
progress and by the preferential treatment doled out to those in power.
It was an ongoing problem in 1973 and it is an ongoing problem in 2007.
When the people of the reservation elected Cecelia Fire Thunder to serve
as their first woman president they hoped that by electing a woman the
tribe would get off of the dime that has negated progress these many
years. They believed that such a dramatic shift in leadership would
shake up the status quo and bring about peace and eventually,
prosperity.
But an inconsequential non-issue called abortion muddied the waters. As
a former nurse who had been a first hand witness to rape, incest and
unwanted babies, Fire Thunder took her stand as pro-choice. It was her
downfall. She was impeached. The vice president of the tribe, Alex White
Plume, filled her office.
I have known White Plume for many years and have always considered him
to be a good man. He was caught up in the circumstances of tribal
politics but he filled the job required of him to the fullest. When
election time rolled around someone dug up a fact sheet that listed
White Plume as having committed a felonious crime. Although more than 20
years had elapsed since this alleged event and the supposed crime had
been reduced to a misdemeanor, White Plume's name was stricken from the
ballot.
The former three-time president of the tribe, John Yellow Bird Steele,
was the eventual victor in the election, but even he knew that things
just didn't sit right with this election. He suggested that a set of
independent judges be brought in to review the entire election process
on the reservation.
The Pine Ridge Reservation is 100 miles long and 50 miles wide. About
20,000 people inhabit it. About 90 percent of the population is Oglala
Lakota. There are four high schools and several middle schools on the
reservation. There is one college on the reservation. Oglala Lakota
College is located near Kyle and the college has extensions in all of
the reservation districts. The tribal government charters the college.
The tribe has one casino located off of Highway 79 near the
off-reservation community of Oelrichs. While still president, Fire
Thunder initiated a loan from the casino-rich Mdewakanton Tribe of
Shakopee, Minnesota for $30 million. The money was used to pay off
outstanding debts and to expand and improve the existing casino.
There is still an unsettled feeling amongst the Oglala Lakota people.
They feel that they have been cheated of their votes on the last
election. Many feel that Alex White Plume would have been the eventual
winner if he had been allowed to remain on the ballot. They are still
upset that the ballot issue came up just two weeks before the election
and they believe it should have been settled long before the election
was held.
The people of the Pine Ridge Reservation have been in a near constant
turmoil since the occupation of Wounded Knee. Too much finger pointing
and blame placing has taken place since then. AIM was not 100 percent
right or innocent and neither was the tribal government. And both have
to take the blame for what has happened since 1973.
The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 was intended to allow the Indian
tribes in America to set up democratic forms of government. Most tribes
restructured under the Act, but some tribe like the Navajo Nation, did
not accept the provisions of the Act and did not become IRA governments.
The tribal government at Pine Ridge is an IRA government and some tribal
members find this to be objectionable.
A casino is not the answer, either politically or financially, to the
problems at Pine Ridge. Different groups need to stop living in the past
and start taking a serious look at the situation as it exists today. As
one elder said, "We are all one people and neither AIM nor the IRA
government can take this from us. We are Oglala Lakota and that name
comes without labels."
(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")