In the life that our Lakota ancestors knew, a warrior was viewed much differently than society defines that word today. In mainstream America, just the word warrior stirs thoughts of aggression and testosterone. A warrior in today's time is revered and rewarded with praise for acts of aggression.
Our Lakota Nation, those living within our Tribal Nation homelands and urban treaty lands need to revitalize the concept of our warrior societies on our own terms. A gathering of great minds to produce strategies that guide solutions for the many challenges our tribal peoples face on and off the Reservation.
We should not expect our tribal leaders to be warriors, they are often just politicians. We should not expect Uncle Sam to be our warrior although in today's time they can be our allies. We need all to step up and make the good fight to improve the quality of life of those a warrior defends.
The grandmother who never spoke to a member of Congress made those calls to demand passage of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act. That is not the act of a victim but one of a warrior who understands her voice is one message and added with the hundreds of others who advocated for passage of this treaty right and trust responsibility was very powerful in producing this victory for all.
Communication is the most powerful tool you as a warrior can have. Your voice is more powerful than bullets when directed from the values of your heart. It is that spiritual thought that makes the Lakota warrior more awed than others. As Lakota people our weakness occurs when we forget that our power lies in the way our ancestors told us to take on any battle. Not from a point of anger as most would expect from a warrior mentality but solutions directed from the idea that a warriors way is most effective when we choose mind over emotion.
We are defending our community from the affects of intolerance, misunderstanding and negligence of what is rightfully owed to all human beings in our community – respect and justice. They say war is ugly and the darkness that comes to light in our community are the senseless deaths of our young people at the hands of others. The senseless acts of hate against a people who's core values dictate that we are all interconnected, we are all related. Shared stupidity might make some beget violence with violence, hate promoting hate as that is the ugliest part of all the indifference we face. Both sides of the battle have voices of dysfunction. A good listener can hear past the voice of anger and ugliness and understand the most effective solutions for a warrior is understanding that your voice carries a much stronger punch coming from the heart of your values than it does from your anger.
The grandmother who made those calls to Congress did not cuss them out. No frying pans where thrown. She spoke truth to power as we all should, from the values we want to live. Our ancestors understood that a true warrior's victory is not defined by the enemies they knock to the ground but by the justice served using those values that help us all to stand up together.
In the spirit of that thought, I ask all to join together in shared values as we move forward with a Campaign to Unite a Community.
General Beadle School
North Rapid City
5PM MST Meal
Bring a friend...
-Andrew Iron Shell
Community Organizer & SANI-T Board Member
Western SD Native American Organizing Project
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Monday, May 17, 2010
Update on Dreaming Bear case
Judge grants another extension in graduation clothing case
At the request of the parties, the judge had granted a five-hour extension to an original deadline of noon Monday. But by 5 p.m. Monday no agreement had been reached. The judge then granted a second extension, this time until noon Tuesday.
“We’re still trying to work out a resolution,” said Don Porter, attorney for the Oelrichs school district. “We’re trying our best to get that done.”
After a three-hour hearing last Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Jeff Viken asked Aloysius Dreaming Bear, 19, and his attorney to sit down and work out an agreement with school board members and the school’s superintendent, all of whom he named in his lawsuit, by Monday at noon.
Viken said he would rule on the case if no agreement could be reached. But Viken said he felt the two parties needed to talk more and might be able to come to an agreement without him having to issue a ruling.
The two parties stayed at the courthouse Thursday night following the hearing, but failed to reach an agreement.
Whatever agreement or ruling is reached comes less than a week away from Dreaming Bear’s graduation. Leach filed the complaint May 3 on behalf of Dreaming Bear, arguing that the school board’s decision to not allow the student to wear his Native American clothing to the May 22 graduation is a violation of his First Amendment rights.
The lawsuit names board members Berline Fleming, Bonnie Anderson, John Cope, Lance Tlustos, Lisa Lockhart and school superintendent Lawrence Jaske.
Fleming and high school principal Charles Fredrickson attended the hearing last Thursday and Fredrickson testified. Dreaming Bear and Washington State University Native American studies professor Elizabeth Cook-Lynn testified on behalf of Dreaming Bear.
Cook-Lynn said Thursday that the historic background of forced assimilation of Native Americans shouldn’t be ignored in the case. In her view, the Oelrichs school board is continuing the oppression from the late 1800s and early 1900s, a time when private and government-run boarding schools “tried to stamp out the identity of (Native) children.”
Porter argued Thursday that the two –- cultural identity and a unified class in cap and gown -– don’t have to be mutually exclusive.
“Expression occurs throughout the ceremony,” he said.
Dreaming Bear approached the school board members in April, asking to be allowed to wear a beaded ribbon shirt with an eagle fan and medicine bag when he graduated.
Board members said he could wear the clothing under the cap and gown and after receiving the diploma, remove the cap and gown to show the traditional clothing for the remainder of commencement.
Since then, the board has agreed to include a feathering ceremony, which has been done at previous graduations, and allow star quilt presentations immediately after students step off the stage.
During testimony, Dreaming Bear said he didn’t know about the feathering ceremony or the quilting ceremony until after the April 12 board meeting.
Viken said it was those recent developments that made him believe the two sides needed to talk more and might be able sign a “joint declaration of council,” rather than a ruling by him.
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This case has gone on too long, it is time that this case is acknowledged for what it is : discrimination & suppression of Native culture and identity, further supporting the status quo of absolute dominance over the Indigenous Peoples.
What do you think about this case? Don't you think Mr. Dreaming Bear should be allowed to wear his traditional Lakota clothing? Do you think its ridiculous that the Federal Judge keeps putting off making a decision??
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Lakota Student Files Free Speech Suit Against Oelrichs School Board
Friday, 07 May 2010 07:33
Written by Eric Zimmer
A nineteen year old Oelrichs High School student filed a lawsuit against members of the Oelrichs School Board in U.S. District Court, Monday, in Rapid City. The suit cites a violation of the student's First Amendment right to free speech, stemming from a school board-issued decision prohibiting him from wearing traditional tribal dress at the May 22 Oelrichs High School graduation ceremony.
Rapid City attorney Jim Leach filed the suit on behalf of Aloysius Dreaming Bear, 19, of Oglala. Specifically named as defendants in the complaint are: President of the Oelrichs School Board Berline Fleming; board Vice President Bonnie Anderson; board members John Cope, Lance Tlustos, and Lisa Lockhart; and Oelrichs Superintendent Lawrence Jaske.
Dreaming Bear, a graduating senior at Oelrichs High School, wishes to wear traditional Lakota clothing at his graduation, according to an April 12 letter he presented to the Oelrichs School Board. Dreaming Bear stated that he wants to "protect [his] culture's heritage by standing up for what is right," which he believes is represented by wearing his "tribe's traditional clothing with pride on graduation day." Dreaming Bear says he was only allowed to speak for a few minutes before being cut off by board members, who then went into executive session.
According to an April 30 affidavit signed by Dreaming Bear, when the board returned from the session, they "announced that if I or any other senior wanted to receive a diploma in the graduation ceremony, we would have to wear a cap and gown over any other clothing to receive the diploma. The School Board said that only after receiving our diploma could we remove our cap and gown and show our traditional clothing."
The lawsuit claims that, by denying Dreaming Bear the right to wear his tribal clothing in the public ceremony, the Oelrichs School Board violated his First Amendment right to free speech.
Dreaming Bear's attorney, Jim Leach, said that federal district judge Jeffrey Viken has scheduled a hearing for a preliminary and permanent injunction for May 13 in Rapid City. At the hearing, the plaintiff (Dreaming Bear) goes to the judge, and "points out that with graduation set for May 22, we have to do something" quickly, Leach explained. If Viken rules in Dreaming Bear's favor, he will be allowed to wear his tribal dress at the graduation ceremony. Dreaming Bear stated that he pursued legal action so that "other Lakota people who graduate from my high school in the future, and other high schools, have the opportunity to wear traditional clothing at high school graduation if they choose to do so."
When questioned about Dreaming Bear's request to wear his traditional clothing at graduation, Superintendent Jaske was quoted by the Argus Leader as saying "[Dreaming Bear] should have gone to Pine Ridge or Red Cloud. That is his choice." Jaske went on to state, "No one holds a gun to these kids' heads and says they have to come [to school] at Oelrichs." Jaske also told the Argus Leader that seniors, including Dreaming Bear, signed an agreement stating they will wear caps and gowns while crossing the stage at graduation.
When contacted, Jaske had no comment on the suit, and stated that he and the other defendants were not aware of the filing as of mid-morning Monday. Calls to the other defendants were not returned.
The lawsuit comes just under three months after South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds proclaimed 2010 the "Year of Unity" in South Dakota, a proclamation intended to promote cultural healing between Native and non-Native peoples in South Dakota.
The suppression of Dreaming Bear's right to wear his traditional clothing flies in the face of that proclamation, according to Layli-Sammimi-Moore, a Conflict Transformation Specialist at the Society for the Advancement of Native Issues - Today (SANI-T) in Rapid City, who first handled Dreaming Bear's case. The case "is only solidifying community members' concerns that the Year of Unity proclamation can prove superficial and ineffective. Discrimination is happening every day in South Dakota, and people in power are pretending like they aren't aware of such injustices," she said.
Elizabeth Cook Lynn, Professor of English and Native American Studies at Eastern Washington State University, a decorated Indian Studies scholar who filed an affidavit in the case on Dreaming Bear's behalf, said of the case: "It's an important thing to do, and I congratulate him for doing it." Cook-Lynn went on to relate the issue of Native free speech to other events she's witnessed over the years. "This is nothing new . . . in 1970, my friend Vince Two Eagle was graduating from high school in Yankton, and wanted to wear a medallion his grandmother had made him. But the school board said no. Vince didn't have the money to get any lawyers or anything, so he just didn't go to graduation," she said.
"I'm very supportive of [Dreaming Bear]" Cook-Lynn said, and she is proud that he is willing "to defend himself, his culture, and his people, because that's what this is about.
YOU CAN FIND THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE HERE.
Monday, March 29, 2010
From a Rapid City community member, John:
I grew up at a boarding school in Oklahoma called Chilocco
Indian School. My parents were employees of the school and we lived right there on campus. For school, all the employees kids attended a public school about 10-12 miles away. A bus from the public school would transport us back and forth each day.
Growing up I don't really ever recall experiencing prejudice or
racism outright, not blatantly directed at me anyway. I recogized it with some of the black kids that attended school there. But as for me not really. If it was subtle I missed that, too.
I think one reason for that was I was always involved with athletics and hung around mostly with other athletes thus creating sort of a buffer or bubble that shielded me somewhat from that ugliness.
Then we moved to Sisseton, SD in 1972 when I was a
sophomore in high school. What a culture shock that was.
Initially in the sense it was backward, backward in the form
of being behind the times. It seems I had stepped back in time. Still, school wise, not that much different from Oklahoma. That was soon about to change.
I got my first direct taste of racism during basketball season
that winter. Though I still participated in athletics, it was less a buffer than it was in Oklahoma. I was dating a girl at
the time and there was a party after one of our games. We
agreed to go and she agreed to let me pick her up at her
house - big mistake. I went to pick her up and her dad
greeted me at the door. I can still remember the conversation verbatim. I asked, "is Julie here? He
answered, "yes". I then asked, "is she ready to go to the
party?". He answered back, "she won't be going to no party", and closed the door. A bit bafflled I went back home. My dad asked why I was back home already and I
explained to him what had happened. He then spent the next 30-45 minutes explaining how things worked in Sisseton, and the rest of South Dakota. I guess he'd hoped
things had changed in the 30 years he had been gone.
Probably the saddest part about the whole thing, though, was that the girl was totally unaware of how her dad felt. Over the years, on occassion, I"ve wondered how she is doing.
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