Protest Against Pennington County Pen, April 2001
Hou Kodas,
We have just returned from Rapid and Rosebud. It was a nina wast'e ampetu.
There were eagles and hawks all the way back. We left Wagner on Wed., April
11the, 2001, The thoughts of the B&CC meeting lingered on my mind. I
could'nt get over the way Ben Gonzalez, and Hugo Zephier treated elder
Gloria Aungie, my sister Lori Zephier, and myself. First off they had us
wait for about 3 hours. We were scheduled for 3:00 but didn't get in until
5:00. I finally got up and went down to their chamber and reminded them that
there was an elder waiting for them and it was very disrespectful to make
her wait. Present was vice Hugo, Secretary Ben Gonzales, Glen Drapeau, Guy
Cooke Sr., and Willard Brugier. I served them and began the meeting Hugo
began to ask what this was about and that he would go to court if he had to.
I told them before, we went any further I wanted to make clear if their
was anyone who had sexual relationship with Gloria's exdaughter-in-law to
leave and that Julie Weddell was not to have any part in this matter because
she was working with the daughter-in-law against the family and she had a
bias opinion of the family, this would be violating Gloria's rights if she
did. Next I reminded Hugo and the other members that it would not have come
to this if they had done their jobs. They then blamed the past
administration. That it was their fault that we lost our Social Services and
Jurisdiction of our children. I told them they could get them on a
technicality. They lost the grants because of mismanagement and neglect.
Social services said they were endangering our children. Then turned around
and hired them under their program. Ben walked in and out and was reading
My Favorite Book, when he was suppose to be taking notes. They said that
they would write a resolution to intervene and that they would start working
to get these children back. When we were leaving Ben leaned forward and
said, "I have to tell you guys something" making reference to this matter I
told them if they had anything to say about this elder or her family to have
respect and say it to her face, he changed the look on his face and then
change the whole subject. I gave them all packets with the ICWA laws and
told them to read them. I'm sure it would be more interesting then My
Favorite Book. No wonder our tribe is going under. They kept pushing the
blame on the previous council yet Ben Gonzalez behaves just like them. We
also asked them to assist us with some money to get our sister Pat back home
for our father's Wiping of Tears. Of course they made the excuse that they
didn't have any money, and that they had to turn away a woman who needed $54
dollars for a room because she didn't have a place to stay. They could have
easily reached into their pockets and donated $10.80. Instead of turning
them away. If this was a true leader he would have taken them into his
home. There sits a Brave Heart building that was built for our displaced
children. And now Roxanne Spotted Eagle, Faith Spotted Eagle's cousin
lives there rent free. While our wakaniza are being placed out into
different non-indian homes. When we left there I thought of how easy it
would have been to take this building over. We felt like beating them, but
we pity them because they are still our relatives. I keep telling myself
what goes around comes around. Tukansina sees all. He sees into the hearts
of all of them. It's obvious their hearts are not with our children, our
elders and our unborn. Little by little the government is pulling the rug
out from under the Yankton Sioux Tribe. The Grassroots oyate still leys
beneath that rug. Continuing to fight for our children's future. We left
Wagner at 10:00 pm. Wednesday, it was drizzling pretty bad. By the time we
reached Fort Randall it began snowing heavily. When we crossed the damn
there was at least a foot of snow. We were traveling with three adults and
eight wakaniza. Some of us wanted to turn back but we remembered what our
A'te would say,
"It's a rough road." We knew in our hearts that we would be safe because we
carry the chanupa wakan. At times there was only one lane and there was five
hours of prayer. Upon reaching Winner SD, just as quick as it began it
stopped. At one point in our travels we could here dogs barking and
growling as they ran beside in the darkness. We reached Alfred's home around
4:00am. and headed for Rapid at 5:00 am. We began to prepare ourselves for
the days march. Robin and I were discussing our previous protest against
Indian Country Today and how Marie Lange had done us wrong by giving
misinformation to the Rapid City Police and other that the protest was on
the other paper. We had a hard time really believing that this was a honest
mistake, I myself made many calls to Marie to remind her about the permit.
When the Police came to the ICT Protest the said they knew nothing of this
matter. This could have put us all in danger, but because it turned out O.K.
we let it pass. When Marletta Pacheco called me back after our first phone
call, she stated I don't care if I have to sit out there myself I'm going to
protest. I assured her we would be there no matter what, and shared our
concerns about Marie following through, she said she would be there when
Marie enquired about the permits. I was put at ease with this. It was
8:00am. when we ran out of gas by Ellsworth AFB it was a good thing Alfred
had a few dollars for gas because we were flat broke. We made it to
Marletta's home in time for to help with the signs, people began gathering.
There were a few cars and we headed to Pennington County Pen. We got the
banners out and the Pipe is usually filled before we began. Robin was on
the bull horn testing it when, Jim Starkey, the well know Lakota artist came
running down the side walk, he said that the people were waiting at the
other end. So we started walking to meet then, when we got to the corner we
could see them on the other end, what looked like just a few turned our to
be this big family. We all walked toward each other and met in the middle.
Then united we made sage spoke and proceeded to the court house steps, where
we occupied them for some time. Alfred introduced us the
Dakota,Lakota,Nakota Human Rights Advocacy Coalition and that a coalition is
a group of people from all walks of life coming together to right a wrong.
He explained of all the Atrocities our people and Oyates face daily, the
support we all were there for Martetta and her family for the death of her
nephew and the other inmates there at Pennington, and that we were serving
notice that no longer would we put up with these crimes our humanity. Alfred
with respect turn over the bull horn, to Richard Grass for the opening
Prayer. Richard spoke of how it was a crime to lock up our people according
to treaties, he spoke of the Race relations meeting at the lakota homes,
with the mayor and Senator Reps, to discuss the treaties. Marletta spoke of
her nephew the pain in her eyes and heart for her families loss, She gave
the statistics of death and violent crimes in the prison promoted by sick
twisted guard and officials, these premeditated act against or prisons. she
told how by doing this some how she can prevent this from happening to
somebody else's son, daughter, brother, sister, or family. Her nephew's
sentence was not a death sentence, but resulted in one. That we must write
to them support them and pray for them and make changes in the treatment of
our people incarcerated. Jim Starkey spoke of the Genocide of our people.
He spoke of his brother Layton, with the greatest respect, and how he was a
warrior and that this was his way of changing the system for the rest of his
brothers, he spoke without the bull horn to address his relatives and
people. Marletta called Maria Lange to speak, she spoke of being of the star
Nation and the mistreatment and also spoke of the big meeting with the Mayor
to work together on race related issues. Robin got back on and voiced he
was honored to be standing with strong Beautiful people. That no longer will
we tolerate this mistreatment and inhumane treatment of our brothers there
and other Facilities across state. He said that it was good to see so many
for Layton's relative there to honor him in this sacred manner, that without
justice there was no peace and closure for the families of victims and
victims. It was my turn I reminded the people to look at what is happening
to my tribe the Yankton Sioux. We have lost everything including the
jurisdiction of our wakaniza. I was the for all our wakaniza to look at
them, there were a majority for wakaniza and young folks that once again we
humble ourselves before our creator so that we may make change for our
little ones future. I told them "look at these little how many of them were
going to be found hanging from a cell in this prison and other Prisons. 95
percent of them can you imagine that, can we realize that. They are killing
our people body and spirit, and how people speak of division but what I seen
that day was unity. Well other people spoke we made smoke once again and
continued to walk to the prison part. When we got to the side of the prison
wall someone said listen they are pounding on the wall. We began yelling we
are praying for them and that we supported them and to hang tough. I looked
around and so many of us wakaniza and all had tear in our eyes, not knowing
what inhumane act was being committed against them. We circled four times
and each time the pounding got louder and louder, we would have kept
circling the fort, but Marie Lange wanted to move on to the Mayor's, by that
time everyone was at lunch, At one point during the march Marie Lange was
seen behind some bushes speaking to Jim Holland from the Rapid City Journal.
It was about 1:30PM. when we rapped it up it was back to Marletta's to
finish the last part of the gathering the meal. Everyone gathered to break
bread except Marie Lange and Richard Grass.
It Late I will Continue this tomorrow.
Frances
Hou Koda's,
When we were done with our meal we looked at the footage that Marletta and
her family had recorded, Robin and I were in the van we took and the other
elders were inside visiting and discussing future endeavors. The kids were
all playing in the park next to Marletta's home, there were all sizes of
wakaniza, I recall the little ones saying how bad Marletta was (meaning
awesome)to have a park, thinking that she owned it. The smaller kids were
playing at the swings and the older ones were on the Basketball court. One
guy had climbed on the rim, I heard a different voice saying,"You don't look
like a basketball," and there was a cop car parked right behind us. Just
then Starkey came walking out and I jumped out of the van. There were two
male police officers and later another police car pulled up with a female
officer. They said that they had received a call of the older kids
bothering the younger ones, but not once were the kids unsupervised. We
figured it was just a ploy to come in, Starkey told of that we had just
finished a Protest and that was why we all were gathered there. Other
people began gathering around the police officers and the officers dismissed
themselves with a hand shake with Starkey, even though there was not a
problem they remained sitting in their cars parked right behind us. By this
time I was at the house I told Marletta to get her camcorder she grabbed it
and started recording the officers as soon as they seen this they headed
out. Starkey, an elder and myself stood outside talking, we all told of our
beliefs and what were doing, Starkey who is a Lakota Artist and Warrior
spoke of how in order to be of the people you must be loved my all the
people including the drunks and all, I agreed. The elder wondered why he
couldn't have fame and be of the people. Starkey explained how, there
wasn't a market for his art here, where the people lay, but in big cities,
were you say you are an Indian Artist, they hand you 2,000. dollars. He
longed to be here with the people were he can advocate the most, The elder
was asking about the red bundle that we carried and what was it. I told him
it was our sacred pipe and he wanted to know how and if we sagged it and
prayed with it while we filled it, I assured him that we did, this is a
practice that Robin does faithfully. He wanted to know if we were medicine
people, I replied that my husband is a common man and I too was of common
nature, but we have dedicated our lives to the pipe and and our people. I
then explained that the Dakota, Lakota, Nakota Human Rights Advocacy
Coalition was just that, a coalition of people. Most times we are the
victims last resort, people come to us after they have gone everywhere else
and nobody can or will help them, so we do. He asked, how we were funded
for gas, told him we have an e-group and are a Coalition with other groups
that send funds for gas and equipment. Without these good people we could
not make it. He reached into his pocket and handed Starkey $20. and then
handed me $20., he expressed his gratitude for us coming and helping his
family and there loss. We all parted at that. We had planned to stay for
the relations meeting with the mayor and other officials and were waiting
for a copy of the video tape, but our little ones were getting restless and
our 2 year old had wet all her changes, she was now in a tiny pamper and a
T-shirt. It was starting to get cold, we figured are children had suffered
enough, so we decide to leave. It was a long prayerful drive back to
Mission were we all could visit our grandfather who is sick with cancer. We
arrived there at 12:30a.m. We rested that day, we woke up to the Rapid City
Journal and Jim Holland's report. His report had suppressed all Issues
except Marie Lange's and Richard Grass, this was upsetting to us because
here it had a picture of our wakaniza and our banners but failed to report
the real issues why were there. First and for most the Death of Layton Rich
and all the mistreatment and drugging of our prisoners across the state,
Second to give prayers and support to the inmates for courage and strength,
and third to send a message to this Racist state that no longer will we
tolerate the inhumane treatment to all Dakota, Lakota, Nakota people. These
are just a few reason, but this was typical coming from a paper in collusion
with ICT. We are waiting to see if the Lakota Journal will report the
truth. The way we look at it this is a form of Plagiarism and another
violation of our rights. We must be honest, we felt used by Marie Lange, she
used us to serve her own purpose. But good came from it because the truth
of how these people operate is shown to us once again. I will not risk my
families life to walk along side Marie Lange again, the next time could
prove to be fatal. Not only will there be a loss of trust, but the
possibility for a loss of life is inevitable. I may be naive and trusting,
but I refuse to be stupid or used any longer without saying something.
Ake-wa-ci-ya-ke-kte Koda,
Frances and Robin
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Photograph--Alfred Bone Shirt Sr. wearing a peace medal.