Stronghold Table
 Back to Stronghold Table News
By Brenda Norrell
Special to Lakota Journal
STRONGHOLD TABLE
- The Tokala Warrior Society gathered with United Nations Representative Tony Black Feather, Lakota, to fortify their resistance here to protect the remains of the Ghost Dancers.
They said it is time to say ‘no’ to the oppression and tyranny of the United States government.
“This is our land! We are under our own sovereign home rule,” George Tall, Tokala, told the gathering of the warrior society. “This is Lakota Territory.”
Tall said they would do whatever it takes to defend the ancestral remains of Ghost Dancers massacred here from the planned fossil excavation of the National Park Service.
“We are treated like Iraqis in our own country.” said Black Feather, spokesman for the Teton Sioux at the United Nations.
Black Feather urged Lakota to stand up in the struggle against the oppression of the United States government. “They have taken advantage of us, just like they did over there.”
Jim Toby Big Boy said Lakota must rise up and prevent the tribal and federal government from entering into negotiations “behind our backs.”
“The spirits called us back again,” said Big Boy, who praised George Tall and Keith Janis for maintaining the Stronghold camp through hard times. “George and Keith did it from their heart.”
Tall said it is time to break the bonds of the United States government here and prevent any future memorandum of agreements for the Park Service to administer the South Unit of the Badlands.
“This is treaty land. We don’t want any MOA!” Tall said.
Keith Janis agreed, “No more MOAs! What part of ‘No MOAs’ don’t they understand?”
Tom Clifford agreed. “No one ever says ‘No,’ to America!”
Dave Clifford, Sr., said the National Park Service has violated the terms of the agreement to administer the Badlands, including the developments detailed and mandated in the agreement.
“The time has come for them to move out,” Dave Clifford said.
Kenneth Cane, Tokala, said Lakota are emerging in the forefront of the Indigenous effort to be free by exercising their powers under international law.
Lakota elder Archie Little said, “We are not ‘protesters’ out here, we are ‘protectors.’ We are trying to protect the bones that are here.”
Quoting Sitting Bull, Little said, “We must put our minds together.”
Little said the volunteers defending the Stronghold are here because of their love and are not paid for their services. At times there has been no food or water for those on lookout as guardians.
Tall said it took a great deal of courage for Arvol Looking Horse to make his recent statement regarding the protection of ceremonies. Tall said it was necessary because white people all over the world are abusing ceremonies. “It is getting out of had. White people are selling the pipe.”
Tall said he was recently asked to assist a neighboring Sioux community where one violation of the spiritual ways was taking place. The Sweat Lodge was being used to abuse non-Indian women.
Maintaining the camp has not been easy, but Tall said through all the difficulties, good has emerged. He said other tribes are now looking to the Lakota because they are fighting for their people.
Tall said the future direction here must come from the people. Stronghold will be developed only after consultation with the people.
He said some of the elderly have said it should be kept as a wilderness, for its beauty. “Keep it as a sacred cemetery for our Indian people,” they told Tall.
Other Lakota have suggested developing it as a cultural and education center for young people, with elderly coming here to share their knowledge.
“A Tokala is not a decision-maker. We are here to keep what the people want. We need to have a decision from the people. That is how true democracy is. When the white people came to this land, they found the only democracy in the world.”
Tall said the first white people here found Native societies where women have a great deal of power. “Our women are free, they are the backbone.”
He said a real government represents the people. “That is what we are for, fighting for the future.”
During the gathering on Stronghold Table, young Lakotas Galveston Long Wolf, Jr., 9, and Wesley Peneaux, 7, of Porcupine were honored with a warrior song by Little.
Tall also spoke of the preciousness of the land as the Tokala prepared to defend the thawing earth for the second year.
“On June 21, we stuck our Tokala staff into this ground and established our Tokala camp for everyone,” he said of the beginning effort.
Now, the focus is on consultation, preservation and protection. “This is real fragile land,” Tall said, urging protection of the water here. “When you contaminate it, it’s for good. It is really hard to clean water back up.”
Lakotas said they are ready to fight if necessary to defend the remains of Indian people massacred here as they Ghost Danced.
Tom Clifford said, “Those burial sites down there belong to the people in them. If we have to stop them physically, then we’re going to have to do that. We have got to stand up somewhere.”
Clifford said millions and millions of acres of Lakota Territory is today reduced to a few hundred thousand acres.
Cuny Dog from Red Shirt Table recommended contacting KILI Radio to establish a means for Lakota to comment on future action at the Badlands.
Tall said good is coming from the protection effort here. “Last summer, without knowing it, we probably saved thousands of dollars in fossils.”
Because of the media coverage of the protection camp, less non-Indians from Rapid City and elsewhere came to the Badlands to rob the fossil grounds, he said.
Tall told the gathering, “We’ve got to preserve our future. We want everyone to be agreeable with everything we do.”
Little said the Badlands might emerge as a place for youth to learn and for the elderly to share their knowledge.
Loren Black Elk from Camp Justice said he was glad he came, because the meeting was strong and good. We are fighting for our land.”
Marlene Locke of Porcupine said, “This is a spiritual battle.”
Black Feather is spokesman for the Tetuwan Oyate Teton Sioux Nation Treaty Council at the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations.
Lakota maintain resistance camp to protect Ghost Dancers remains
2002 Oct
By Brenda Norrell
BADLANDS, S.D. -- Lakota protecting burial sites in the Badlands said
they
were insulted by a National Park Service tour of a proposed fossil
excavation site, near gravesites of Ghost Dancers massacred here after
surviving the massacre of Wounded Knee.
They were also insulted by the arrogant and condescending comments of
Park
officials on Oglala Sioux tribal land.
"We want the Park Service out of the Badlands!" George Tall, member
of
the
Lakota's Tokala Warrior Society, told Park Service officials leading
the
tour in the South Unit of the Badlands.
"The remains that are here are our fingerprints," Tall said of the
remains
of Ghost Dancers and other Lakota here.
The Tokala Warrior Society has maintained a resistance camp on
Stronghold
Table in the Badlands since July to protect the remains. A lookout
point
has been maintained and Lakotas patrol through the remote Badlands in
southwestern South Dakota.
Speaking in a Sesame Street style to Lakota Oyate during the fossil
tour,
Badlands Park Paleontologist Rachel Benton delivered an explanation of
fossils and the proposed dig of bones of the prehistoric mammal, the
titanothere.
Oglala Sioux President John Yellow Bird Steele and National Park
Service
Regional Director Bill Schenk from Omaha were in the group.
Explaining the proposed fossil excavation, Benton said she applied
for
a
research grant to excavate titanothere fossils, dated 35 million years
ago. Included in the research grant are the South Dakota School of
Mines
and the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.
Benton said she earlier attended the School of Mines, which is funded
by
the state of South Dakota, which would be a repository for the
fossils.
Attracting sharp reactions as she spoke, Benton said paleontologists
have
worked here for 150 years.
Tall countered, "If you were here 150 years ago, you were in
violation
of
tribal law."
Benton said the proposed excavation was to protect the fossils. "Our
goal
was to salvage the remaining fossils that have not been stolen."
Benton
said the best way to protect the fossils from erosion and theft is in
a
museum.
She said there is a history of paleontologists working with Lakota,
including a white paleontologist called
Man-Who-Picks-Up-Sticks-Running,
who worked with Red Cloud.
Tall again countered and said, "Obviously you don't know Indian law.
No
one person can make decisions for our people. We are a tribe of
consensus."
Kent Lebsock of the Teton Sioux Nation Treaty Council pointed out the
contradictions of the Park Service tour at the fossil site.
"There are a lot of contradictions here," said Lebsock, representing
the
American Indian Law Alliance.
"You are telling us we have to walk over there single file and yet you
want to bring in 600,000 pound trucks."
Although Benton said flatbed trucks are needed to transport the
fossils
out of the Badlands, she responded, "Most paleontologist's work is
done
using dental tools and paintbrushes."
Oglala Sioux Tribal Secretary Donna Salomon told the Park Service
that
the
Lakota should be the ones to learn from these fossils. "These are our
fossils," she said.
Attempting to explain the reasons for including universities in the
research grant, Benton said the scope of the project "is quite long."
She
said a large crew and flatbed trucks are needed to transport the
fossils,
some weighing 600 to 1,000 pounds.
Agreeing with Salomon, Tall said the fossils should be used here, by
the
Lakota, for their own education.
Referring to the non-Indian project and the transport of fossils to
cities, Tall said, "If you do this, you are taking away our
sovereignty."
Adding more insult to the exchange, Brian Kenner, Badlands chief of
resource management, responded: "I would say you did control your own
affairs when you signed an MOA with the Park Service."
Keith Janis, who mans a lookout point in the Badlands, told the Park
Service their policies are economic racism.
"If it's so important, some 30 million year old bones, what about the
people living today, the Red People? There is no recognition of the
Red
People to decide for ourselves what we want."
Answering questions about the proposed display of the fossils, Benton
said
the South Dakota School of Mines is temperature controlled, open seven
days a week and free of charge.
Janis said, "Our people can't even afford to go shopping in Rapid
City,
mush less the luxury of going to a museum."
President Steele asked Benton if she was aware of the fossils
currently at
the School of Mines. "Did you see all those bones stacked in the
swimming
pool?"
Benton responded that the fossils are in protective burlap and
plaster.
Pressing the Park Service to explain the helicopters working here in
the
Badlands at night and the unexplained vehicles watched by binoculars,
Janis said, "We see you guys sneaking in and out of here at night."
Tokala, camped on Stronghold Table, probed the Park Service about the
helicopters. Archie Little said, "The only activity we see is at
night."
Benton, however, denied Badlands Park Service officials are working
here
at night. "That would not be our group. We do not work at night, we
would
not be able to see the fossils."
Tall told Park officials it is a new millennium and time for Lakota to
take charge of their own destiny and embrace the future.
"We are tired of how we have been treated!" Tall told Park Service
officials of the treatment of American Indians in past centuries. "We
are
not going to be treated that way anymore!
"We want to use these as our classroom, for our Indian people. This is
what we are all about!"
Janis also displayed the Badlands National Park Service bronze
medallion.
The commemorative coin depicts the Calvary shooting a Lakota chief
with a
rifle.
"That's their MOA to us right there," Janis said of the medallion.
Badlands Supt. William Supernaugh said the Park Service no longer
distributes the medallion. During the questioning about the proposed
dig
near the fossil site, Supernaugh said, "I'm not going to stand hear
and
debate this with you!"
Pointing out the armed Park rangers standing near by, Tony Black
Feather,
representative of the United Nations, told the group that he has
worked
hard for disarmament around the world and was discouraged to see armed
rangers at a sacred site.
Black Feather said it is indicative of the condition of the United
States
and why it is viewed as a violator of human rights around the world.
"The United States is a world problem."
Peter Capossela, attorney representing the Oglala Sioux on the
Badlands
issue, said little could be accomplished on the tour because the Park
Service and Lakota speak different languages concerning fossil
excavation
and protection of gravesites.
"We are speaking two different languages," Capossela said.
Ecoffey, however, was direct. "What we are saying is we want the MOA
terminated."
Tall said, "We want the Park Service out of the Badlands!"
Reacting to the Park Service tour, Ecoffey said, "They were full of
it
as
usual. They were trying to pacify us and say, `Look what we're doing
for
you.'
"They didn't address what we are saying: We want the Park Service out
of
here and we want the MOA terminated. Our people can do it ourselves.
"For 400 years, they have been telling us how to do it. They are not
`doing it for us,' they are doing it for themselves."
National Park Service officials temporarily delayed the fossil
excavation,
but said it has not been halted permanantly.
Disgusted with the Park Service tour to the fossil site, Lakota then
went
to the top of Stronghold Table for consultation and confrontation with
National Park Service officials. The traditional society of elders,
the
Grey Eagle Society, had been waiting for more than three hours.
On Stronghold Table, Russell Means, activist and candidate for Oglala
tribal president, summed up the fossil tour and diversion.
"Just another `dog and pony show.'"
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