Activists and warriors have launched a drive for funds and supplies to sustain their ongoing organizing and resistance in the Great Plains region. The following message is from their online drive:
“In 2011 we met and began working together in a good way. Members of Deep Green Resistance and Lakota warriors and activists joined together to fight on the Great Plains. In 2012 we joined with others to fight against the liquid genocide of Whiteclay NE, temporarily shutting it down three times. We are fighting and organizing against the Keystone XL pipeline. We must protect our sacred water. We joined together in solidarity with Lakota elder Vern Traversie against the racist abuse of Rapid City Regional Hospital. The KKK has reared its ugly head in the sacred black hills and we must stand and fight against them in 2013. We cannot do this work without material support. Besides material support we need bodies willing to join us on the frontlines. Please help us continue fighting in 2013.”
By Lakota People’s Law Project and Last Real Indians
Last Saturday, at a press conference in Eagle Butte, South Dakota, Lakota leaders of the movement to secure the Lakota pilgrimage site Pe’ Sla for the Sioux Nation announced that the tribes will purchase the 2000 acres of sacred land in the Black Hills. After several weeks of intense fundraising, the nine tribes raised enough to make a deal with the current owners of Pe’ Sla, Leonard and Margaret Reynolds—though details of the arrangement are still being negotiated. The fundraising effort on the part of the Sioux tribes was begun by Attorney Chase Iron Eyes, and the negotiations were carried out in part by Cheyenne River Tribal Councilwoman Robin Lebeau. Both leaders spoke on Saturday. Saturday’s action was organized by Last Real Indians and the Lakota People’s Law Project, two organizations operating in South Dakota that support the return of the Black Hills to the Sioux.
Saturday’s action was organized by Last Real Indians and the Lakota People’s Law Project, two organizations operating in South Dakota that support the return of the Black Hills to the Sioux. The action took place in front of an enormous banner by artist Shepard Fairey and photographer Aaron Huey which read “The Black Hills Are Not For Sale,” a reference to the U.S.’s current policy of ignoring the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1851). The treaty, unilaterally overturned by Congress in 1877, acknowledged Sioux ownership of the Black Hills. The United States has offered the tribes $105 million (plus interest) since 1979 as compensation for the seizure of the land, but the Sioux have refused it and maintain that the land belongs to them.
Shepard Fairey created the red and blue “Hope poster” for Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, and Aaron Huey is the photographer who co-created last month’s National Geographic cover story about the Pine Ridge Reservation. The banner art was driven from California to South Dakota by the Lakota People’s Law Project, an organization which works to return Lakota children from state-run foster care to their families and tribes.
Speakers at Saturday’s press conference were Chase Iron Eyes, spokesperson for the Pe’ Sla movement; Robin Lebeau, tribal councilwoman from the Cheyenne River Sioux tribe; Madonna Thunder Hawk, activist and tribal liaison for the Lakota People’s Law Project; Phyllis Young, activist and tribal councilwoman for the Standing Rock Sioux tribe; and Joe Brings Plenty, former tribal council chairman for the Cheyenne River Sioux tribe.
Iron Eyes described the process by which his organization, Last Real Indians, conducted a fundraising effort to save Pe’ Sla, raising $300,000. This sum was combined with $1.3 million put forth by the Rosebud Sioux tribe, enough to seal the land deal. Mr. Iron Eyes, an attorney in his mid thirties, discussed the teachings concerning the Black Hills that he received from his elders a a youth: “Its back, we’re talking about the Black Hills again, and it’s the right time for it to happen.” Councilwoman Lebeau, also under forty, described the complicated negotiations by which the tribes acquired the land. She implored the tribes to come together: “What I want to stress is unity… All I am asking for you [Sioux] to do is to take [the idea of Pe’ Sla] back to who whomever your spiritual leaders are—your treaty councils, your IRAs—and let’s come together.” Thunder Hawk talked of the importance of land possession to Sioux identity, saying “The land the priceless. The land is who we are. That’s why we still are who we are, because we have a land base…It doesn’t matter how much money the tribes have to put up for Pe’ Sla. We have to have it.” Councilwoman Young, who participated in the conference calls during which the land deal occurred, thanked both her fellow Sioux negotiators and the Reynolds family for obliging Sioux appeals. “As we continue to renew our belief systems and ceremonies, we urge our people to…continue as human beings to contribute and share our lifesystems with the world…so that Pe’ Sla becomes a universal symbol of peace everywhere.” Former tribal chairman Brings Plenty discussed the Sioux struggle for self-empowerment and the role that land plays in it. “This Pe’ Sla movement, it is a victory.”
The organizers of Saturday’s press conference are holding a rally in Rapid City this Wednesday, September 5, to celebrate the purchase of Pe’ Sla. It will be at the Memorial Park Band Shell at 5 PM.
Mujeres de la nación Oglala Lakota, junto con activistas de Resistencia Verde Radical, AIM Grassroots, Movimiento Nativo Juvenil, Un-Occupy Albuquerque, Occupy Lincoln, y el Centro de Paz y Justicia Rocky Mountain participaron en una marcha desde Billy Mills Hall en Pine Ridge hasta White Clay para protestar contra la industria depredadora de bebidas alcohólicas que está presente allí.
White Clay tiene, para una población de 14 personas, 4 tiendas de bebidas alcohólicas en el pueblo que venden 12,500 latas de cerveza cada día. Las tiendas han sido investigadas varias veces por haber vendido a vendedores ilegales, personas embriagadas, menores y tambien a cambio de favores sexuales.
“Durante más de 100 años las mujeres de la nación Oglala Lakota han hecho frente a un ataque a los mentes, a los cuerpos y a los espíritus de sus parientes”, dice Olowan Martinez, un organizador principal del evento y residente de Pine Ridge. “La Oglala han sido callados mediante la guerra química por parte de las corporaciones que explotan y se benefician del sufrimiento y de la miseria de nuestra gente. El tiempo ha llegado para terminar este sufrimiento por todos los medios necesarios.
Debra White Plume, una activista Lakota y residente de Pine Ridge habló durante el evento y proclamó, “Una indígena sobria es una indígena peligrosa. Tenemos que mandar un mensaje a Nebraska y a sus ciudadanos de que no vamos a tolerar los asuntos tal como están. Este es el Día de Paz de las Mujeres pero esta paz acabará pronto.”
Después de la marcha y de los discursos de los miembros de Resistencia Verde Radical, se hizo un bloqueo del camino hacia White Clay.
Media hora después de que el bloqueo comenzara, un agente policial bajó su ventanilla del coche y sin discriminación roció a la multitud con gas pimienta. Hasta 12 personas fueron rociados, incluyendo al hijo de 10 años de una mujer Lakota que ayudó a organizar la marcha. Tambien una anciana mujer Lakota, Helen Red Feather, denunció que su pierna fue golpeada por un coche policial. Médicos en la protesta trataron a las heridas producidas por el gas pimienta.
A las 7:39, los cinco activistas que participaron en el bloque fueron llevados en un remolque de caballos a la cárcel del distrito de Sheridan en Rushville. Después fueron liberados bajo su propia tutela.
Hoy en día falta mucho para que la justicia se cumpla, como en White Clay se sigue destruyendo a los Lakota Oglala y a la gente de Pine Ridge. La Oglala Lakota de la reservación Pine Ridge seguirán presos mientras las tiendas de bebidas alcohólicas en White Clay sigan funcionando.
Las consignas de “Tanto como dure!” fueron coreadas por la gente y por las personas que las apoyaban, de pie junto a ellas desde el comienzo de la protesta. La lucha continua.
Women of the Oglala Lakota nation along with activists from Deep Green Resistance, AIM Grassroots, Native Youth Movement, Un-Occupy Albuquerque, Occupy Lincoln, and Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center took part in a march from Billy Mills Hall in Pine Ridge into Whiteclay to protest against the predatory liquor industry present there.
Whiteclay has a population of 14, yet 4 liquor stores in the town sell 12,500 cans of beer each day. The stores have been documented repeatedly selling to bootleggers, intoxicated people, minors, and trading beer for sexual favors.
“For over 100 years the women of the Oglala Lakota nation have been dealing with an attack on the mind body and spirit of their relatives”, says Olowan Martinez who is a main organizer of the event and resident of Pine Ridge. “The Oglala have been silenced through chemical warfare waged by the corporations who are out to exploit and make a profit off of the suffering and misery of our people. The time has come to end this suffering by any means necessary.”
Debra White Plume, a Lakota activist and resident of Pine Ridge who spoke at the event proclaimed, “A sober Indian is a dangerous Indian. We have to send a message to Nebraska and its citizens that we are not going to tolerate business as usual. This is the Women’s Day of Peace but that peace will soon be over”.
After the march and speeches members of Deep Green Resistance locked down and blockaded the road into Whiteclay.
Less than a half hour after the lockdown began a police officer rolled down their window and indiscriminately pepper sprayed into a crowd. Up to 12 people were pepper sprayed including the 10 year old son of a Lakota woman who helped organize the march. Also, an elder Lakota woman, Helen Red Feather, reported having her leg hit by a police car in motion. Medics with the protest treated pepper spray injuries.
At 7:39, the five activists who participated in the lock down were hauled off in a horse trailer to the Sheridan County jail in Rushville. They have since been released on their own recognizance.
Today, justice is far from complete, since Whiteclay continues to enable and enact the destruction of the Oglala Lakota and the people of Pine Ridge. The continued subjugation of the Oglala Lakota of the Pine Ridge Reservation will not end as long as the liquor stores in Whiteclay continue to operate.
Chants of “As long as it takes!” began by those locked down and the people standing with them in the crowd at the beginning of the lockdown. The struggle continues.
Whiteclay is an unincorporated village with a population of 14 people in northwest Nebraska. The town sits on the border of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, home to the Oglala Lakota (also known as the Oglala Sioux Tribe).
Whiteclay lies on disputed land, merely 200 feet from the official reservation border and less than 3 miles from the center of Pine Ridge, South Dakota, the largest town on the reservation.
Sale and possession of alcoholic beverages on the Pine Ridge is prohibited under tribal law. Except for a brief experiment with on-reservation liquor sales in the early 1970s, this prohibition has been in effect since the reservation lands were created.
Whiteclay has four off-sale beer stores licensed by the State of Nebraska which sell the equivalent of 4.5 million 12-ounce cans of beer annually (12,500 cans per day), mostly to the Oglalas living on Pine Ridge. These retailers routinely violate Nebraska liquor law by selling beer to minors and intoxicated persons, knowingly selling to bootleggers who resell the beer on the reservation, permitting on-premise consumption of beer in violation of restrictions placed on off-sale-only licenses, and exchanging beer for sexual favors. The vast majority of those who purchase beer in Whiteclay have in fact no legal place to consume it, since possession and consumption of alcoholic beverages on the Pine Ridge Reservation remain illegal under tribal law. Many people have died in the streets due to exposure, as the state of Nebraska fails to uphold state law or police Whiteclay. As long as the liquor stores in Whiteclay remains in business, the genocide of the Oglala Lakota people will continue.
Tribal activists of the Strong Heart Warrior Society have conducted annual blockades since 1999, trying to intercept alcohol and drugs being brought into the reservation. In June 2006 tribal activists protested beer sales by blockading the road from Pine Ridge to Whiteclay and confiscating beer bought in Whiteclay. These activists hoped to prevent bootlegging and illegal sales on the reservation. On June 9th of this year, young Lakota activists and their non-native allies held a blockade of the highway leading into Whiteclay, and gained concessions from law enforcement.
In solidarity with the Oglala Lakota people, members of Deep Green Resistance are assisting an action now to shut down the bars in Whiteclay forever.
Updates on action:
Sun. August 26, 2012 (All times MDT)
As of 10:00 PM: Police and firefighters unable to unlock the blockaders once at the jail. The five released without bail after agreeing to unlock themselves.
7:59 PM: Tribal police have come into Nebraska to block support to the folks on lockdown. Nebraska State Patrol has brought in a trailer and carried the lockdown, as a unit, onto the trailer (one person may have sustained injuries due to this police maneuver). They are now being transported to the jail. They are still locked together. Stay tuned for updates on the protestors’ status and information on how to help!
6:22 PM: Police are bringing in a livestock trailer to attempt to move the blockade as a unit to a different location. They have threatened the blockaders with felony charges. Blockaders have decided to hold their ground. This is what resistance looks like.
5:30 PM: Police have threatened to arrest another protester.
4:20 PM: There’s a line of cops, a line of warriors, and a line of blockaders. There’s a huge banner that says “Honor the Treaties”. Lakota people are chanting and drumming.
4:00 PM: All four bars in Whiteclay have been shut down. Two arrests have been made. Police have issued an ultimatum that all those locked down in Whiteclay must walk back to the reservation or they will be arrested.
