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Lela Rector
Lakota Journal Managing Editor
PINE RIDGE — The fourth annual prayer walk to Whiteclay in memoriam of two slain Pine Ridge men proceeded without incident Saturday.
Approximately 400 children, elders, women, men, horses, television cameras, radio media, newspaper reporters and a couple of dogs walked the two miles in the rain and brisk temperatures.
Two men carried the distress signal, an upside-down American flag. Police escorts and approximately 25 automobiles followed the walk which spanned the entire breadth of both lanes of the highway.
82 members of the non-Indian group “Nebraskans” for Peace walked to Whiteclay from the south to stand with them in solidarity and 60 joined the group from Camp Justice at Whiteclay.
The walk, originating at the Billy Mills Center in Pine Ridge, was organized by Tom Poor Bear, brother of one of the murdered men. He cautioned those gathered to keep it spiritually-centered. “We must always march with prayer,” Poor Bear said. “I have a lot of anger inside,” he said referring to Wilson Black Elk, Jr. and Ronald Hard Heart who died in the still-unsolved murder in 1999. “I turn that anger into something positive. No offense, if that was two white guys, somebody would’ve already been in jail.”
Tribal member Will Peters opened the ceremony with song and prayer. “I think if we pray like all our ancestors did, we’re going to be stronger,” he said. “A lot of us here, our lives are half over. We walk today for the children, for they are our future.”
The walk was held to demand enforcement of Nebraska liquor laws which are routinely ignored in Whiteclay. “Whiteclay, to me, has never been an issue about the sale of alcohol,” said Frank LaMere, Winnebago, former Vice President of the Nebraska Democratic National Party.
LeMere pointed out that every time alcohol is consumed in Whiteclay, it is consumed illegally. “There’s no legal place to drink here,” he said. “It is banned on the highways and side roads. It’s banned in the alleys. I contend that if liquor laws were enforced, these establishments wouldn’t last a week.”
“Simple enforcement of liquor laws is all we have ever asked,” LeMere reiterated.
State Patrol Col. Tom Nesbit, who said he was in attendance on behalf of Nebraska Gov. Johanns, presented a plan that resulted from numerous discussions and meetings. “One idea is in deputizing Pine Ridge police department in coming down here and helping enforce the statutes. The governor is in agreement,” he said.
Attorney General Jon Bruning had high praise for the Pine Ridge police. “We trust the Pine Ridge Police,” he said. “We know they’re well-trained. We believe they’re as well-trained as the state troopers. We want them to be down here to help. I care personally and the governor cares. As far as I can tell, that’s different than it’s always been,” he pointed out.
Bruning voiced support for the manner in which the walk was carried out. “I applaud you for the peaceful way today was conducted,” he said.
LaMere later told Lakota Journal he asked Bruning if he were going to prosecute those who flagrantly violate the law in Whiteclay. “He sure didn’t want to answer,” LaMere said.
Showing support was the reason given over and over by marchers for participating. “I just want to help out whatever way I can,” Peters said.
“I’m walking for support for the justice system,” said Rose Beane. “I hope that they find the killers.”
John and Suzanne Swallow, elders from Redshirt, decided to follow the contingent in their car. “We walked last time. Had to catch a ride back,” he said.
Vina Holiday and son Wyatt, age 7, said they were walking, “Just for support.”
Ben Black Elk said he was marching for his brother’s and his cousin’s murder. “We just don’t want it to happen to anybody else,” he said.
Poor Bear charged there is a disparity in investigation when non-Indians are murdered. “Several years ago, there was a bank robbery in Nebraska and four people were killed,” Poor Bear said. “The state of Nebraska held a special session. Why don’t they have a special session for my brother?” he asked.
Nonetheless, Poor Bear did not advocate violence. “We’re a people of peace. We were protectors,” Poor Bear said. “We cannot shake at the people of Whiteclay. We shake at the real enemy – prejudice. We are oppressed, but we will not become oppressors.”
“This effort today is a new beginning in the dialogue needed to deal with the lawlessness,” said LaMere. He said he got involved in the resistance against lawlessness in Whiteclay in 1997.
LaMere took issue with the claim that if the Whiteclay problem were dealt with, someone would just move it on down the road. “We do not beg that question,” he said. “When we shut down a crack house, we do so knowing that they are just going to move it on down the road.”
On July 3, 1999, LaMere and others were arrested the first time they tried to march on Whiteclay. “140 SWAT teams lined up on the border,” he said. “There were dogs, gas, batons, shields, there was an airplane flying overhead. There were snipers sitting in the trees. They were expecting something.”
LaMere believes that it was those predecessor efforts that laid the groundwork for this march. “We would not be standing here right now, it would’ve been business as usual,” he said.
“Drunk Indians are easy to ignore. Drunken people in other places require attention,” La Mere said. “We have won because we are still here.”
After the rally was adjourned with a sense of hope and good will all around, everyone was invited to a feast at Camp Justice where buffalo stew and frybread were served.
Poor Bear and LaMere both expressed that they are not finished yet. “They haven’t even got our dander up yet,” said LaMere.
“There’s not a day in my life I don’t remember the brothers and sisters that were murdered,” Poor Bear said.
http://www.rapidcityjournal.com
June 8, 2003
WHITECLAY, Neb. (AP) -- Enforcement of liquor laws would increase in this border community under an agreement being pursued by Nebraska's attorney general and State Patrol superintendent.
Attorney General Jon Bruning and Col. Tom Nesbitt announced plans Saturday to pursue an agreement deputizing police from Pine Ridge Indian Reservation across the border in South Dakota.
"The state of Nebraska cares about what happens in Whiteclay and Pine Ridge," Bruning said.
"We'll have the Pine Ridge police able to come into Whiteclay and arrest violators of the law and cite liquor stores," Burning said. He called sales of alcohol to intoxicated people the biggest problem.
The announcement came as Bruning and Nesbitt stood in the wind and rain with protesters on Whiteclay's main street. The crowd was there to voice their disapproval of four stores that sell an estimated 11,000 cans of beer daily, primarily to reservation residents.
Alcohol sales are banned on the 5,000-square-mile reservation, which is home to 15,000 Oglala Sioux and has one of the nation's highest alcoholism-related mortality rates.
The idea of cross-deputizing Pine Ridge Police will be presented to Gov. Johanns when he returns from Japan, Bruning said. He expects action by this summer.
Bruning said his office has recently issued an opinion that cross-deputization of Pine Ridge police is legal to enforce Nebraska laws.
Nesbitt said the plan makes sense.
"We will have law enforcement people in Whiteclay on a regular basis," he said.
Nesbitt said the next step is to set up meetings with the Pine Ridge Tribal Council to secure its consent for the cross-deputization.
More than 50 people marched peacefully under a Nebraskans for Peace banner from the south into Whiteclay, and about 200 marched from Pine Ridge on the north, meeting on Whiteclay's main street.
The marchers gathered at Camp Justice, a small encampment started at the site where the bodies of Ronald Hard Heart and Wilson Black Elk Jr. were found in June of 1999. The homicides remain unsolved.
A panel discussion at Camp Justice on liquor sales at White Clay was followed by a community dinner cooked over open fires.
The march and announcement of increased law enforcement followed a letter from former U.S. Sen. Bob Kerrey to the state liquor commission saying he wants the sale of alcohol in Whiteclay to stop.
Frank LaMere, a member of the Democratic National Committee and an Indian activist, asked Kerrey to write the letter, according to Tim Rinne, president of Nebraskans for Peace.
On Saturday, LaMere called the march, "A show of unity that's been long overdue."
"Four years ago the state was here in opposition to change. Four years ago they arrested us. Today, they will be speaking with us about change," LaMere said.
Despite the hopeful outlook, it was business as usual Saturday in Whiteclay, with people on the street drinking and asking for money.
At one point, three cars with South Dakota license plates pulled up to a beer store, then drove off in the direction of the reservation.
Lillian Tobacco, a clerk at V.J.'s Market, the lone grocery store that doesn't sell alcohol, said deputizing reservation police was a good idea.
A resident of the reservation, Tobacco said the main issue there is the lack of jobs.
http://www.rapidcityjournal.com
June 6,2003
By Scott Bauer, Associated Press Writer
LINCOLN, Neb. -- Former U.S. Sen. Bob Kerrey sent a letter to the state liquor commission saying he wants the sale of alcohol in the border town of Whiteclay to stop.
Kerrey said in the letter dated Wednesday that it was "morally indefensible" for the state to license the sale of alcohol in the town just 200 feet from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Frosty Chapman, executive director of the liquor commission, was on vacation Thursday and not immediately available for comment.
Alcohol sales are banned on the 5,000-square-mile reservation, which is home to 15,000 Oglala Sioux and has one of the nation's highest alcoholism-related mortality rates.
Whiteclay has four stores that sell an estimated 11,000 cans of beer each day, primarily to reservation residents.
Kerrey is a Democrat from Nebraska who now is the president of New School University in New York.
"Who can deny the fact that the only reason the town of Whiteclay exists is to sell alcoholic beverages and other products containing alcohol to men and women who live at the Pine Ridge?" Kerrey said in the letter.
Frank LaMere, a member of the Democratic National Committee and an Indian activist, asked Kerrey to write the letter, said Tim Rinne, president of Nebraskans for Peace.
Kerrey's letter to the commission comes as a march is planned Saturday from the reservation to Whiteclay to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the killings of Ronald Hard Heart and Wilson Black Elk, Jr.
Their deaths remain unsolved.
Kerrey said the sale of alcohol to Indians on the reservation is as destructive as pornography or crack cocaine.
Nebraska sets itself apart by issuing liquor licenses in Whiteclay even though there is not adequate law enforcement in the area, Kerrey said.
"We must face the awful truth that while the problem of alcohol is everywhere in Indian Country, Whiteclay has long been known to be the worst in the nation," Kerrey said.
He also disputed the argument that removing the licenses for the four stores will result in alcohol sales moving to the next town.
"To those who say the problem will merely move if the licenses at Whiteclay are revoked, I say fine," Kerrey said. "At worse the problem will move to a community with sufficient law enforcement to prevent the abuses that are so visible to anyone who has visited this God forsaken place."
http://www.rapidcityjournal.com
June 6,2003
By Natasha D. Bordeaux, Journal Staff Writer
WHITECLAY, Neb. - Two cedar trees, planted in the spirit of hope and remembrance, will stand to welcome an expected 700 supporters marching from two directions into Whiteclay on Saturday, June 7.
The trees were planted by march organizers at Camp Justice near Whiteclay to commemorate the unsolved murders of Wilson "Wally" Black Elk Jr. and Ronald Hard Heart. March organizer Tom Poor Bear, Black Elk's brother and Hard Heart's cousin, said he hopes the event will draw attention to the lack of progress in the investigations of the 4-year-old murders.
"We need to keep attention to the unsolved deaths of our people," said Poor Bear, who has enlisted the support of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, the Nebraska attorney general and governor, Nebraskans for Peace, the Democratic Party of Nebraska, the American Indian Movement, the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, religious groups, human- and civil-rights groups and student supporters, all of whom are expected to attend.
"We want justice for the unsolved murders. ... We want to apply pressure on John Ashcroft, the (U.S.) attorney general, to send in a special team of investigators other than the FBI," said Poor Bear, who said his family has grown weary of the lack of concern by FBI and government officials.
"It's been four years now. And still we have no justice."
The newly planted cedar trees, known for resilience and strength, are symbolic of the ongoing quest for resolution of the two men's murders.
"Camp Justice is still strong, our commitment is still very strong. The march for justice will continue until justice is found," said Poor Bear, who has led several marches since the brutally beaten bodies of Black Elk and Hard Heart were discovered in a field between Whiteclay and Pine Ridge on June 8, 1999.
Poor Bear said he hopes the event will draw people together. He noted that race is not a consideration when it comes to the many people who count themselves as supporters.
"Its going to be a day of unity, a day of solidarity, a day of honor, a day of relatives and a day of respect. When people go home after the march, we want them to leave with a good heart and a mind to always seek justice."
Marchers and horseback riders, as well as people on bikes and in other vehicles, will gather at Billy Mills Hall parking lot in Pine Ridge at noon. The march toward Whiteclay will begin at 1 p.m.
At 3 p.m., marchers will return to Camp Justice for prayers and speeches. At 5 p.m., a traditional meal sponsored by Pine Ridge Village will be served.
Poor Bear said all who are interested, regardless of race, are welcome to march in support of justice for Black Elk and Hard Heart.
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