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Published Wednesday
September 01, 1999
BY DAVID HENDEE
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
Rushville, Neb. - Nine American Indian activists
arrested earlier this summer
during a standoff at a border village with state
troopers are taking their fight to the
courts.
Rather than enter pleas Tuesday in Sheridan County
Court, the group - including
noted activist Russell Means - filed papers challenging
Nebraska's jurisdiction in
their misdemeanor criminal cases.
Judge Charles Plantz scheduled a Sept. 22 hearing on the
jurisdiction question.
John Freundenburg, deputy county attorney, said he had
no objection to the move.
The 16-minute hearing Tuesday was the first legal step
taken by the Indians to
use their court case to argue Indian treaty claims to
Whiteclay, an unincorporated
village 21 miles north of Rushville in northwest
Nebraska. The town is adjacent to
the Oglala Sioux's Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in
South Dakota.
The defendants said they will have experts from
Nebraska, Colorado and South
Dakota testify that a turn-of-the-century executive
order by President Theodore
Roosevelt illegally took Whiteclay out of the reservation.
"We own Whiteclay," Means said after the hearing.
"Nebraska does not have
jurisdiction. In no way shape or form can they violate
our rights. We are going to
force Nebraska to follow the law . . . and return what
they stole - our property."
Means and the others were charged with obstructing a
police officer and failure to
comply with a lawful order during a July 3 march to
Whiteclay from the nearby
village of Pine Ridge, S.D.
They led a group of 650 Indians protesting the sale of
beer in Whiteclay and the
unsolved slayings of two men found on the reservation.
Means said the charges against the nine are examples of
racism in Nebraska's
court system.
"We have the State of Nebraska here attempting to put
nine people who want to
stop alcoholism, who want to stop alcohol sales . . . in
jail," he said. "It just seems
to me this world is upside down. We refuse to accept
this kind of continuing
racism."
The 59-year-old Means is a widely known leader for the
American Indian
Movement. He has a ranch in Porcupine, S.D., and
appeared in the movie "The
Last of the Mohicans."
He said he was looking forward to his day in court
because "we always win."
Among the nine defendants are Frank LaMere, 49, a
Winnebago Indian from South
Sioux City, Neb., and Tom Poor Bear, 44, an Oglala Sioux
from Wanblee, S.D., who
has been organizing the weekend marches to Whiteclay.
Poor Bear is a half
brother to one of the slain men and a cousin to the other.
LaMere said it is clear to him that Whiteclay is Oglala
land.
"We in Nebraska are trespassers," he said. "I hope that
we will be able to come
together and right this wrong. As Nebraskans we should
be better than this."
LaMere said American Indians from all tribes in Nebraska
support the Oglala in
the land dispute.
"I was honored to be arrested with my relatives on July
3, and it will be a great
honor to see this through with them," he said.
Means said he will call on all Nebraska tribes to join
Indians from the South
Dakota reservations of Pine Ridge, Rosebud and Yankton
to march Oct. 4 in
Lincoln when the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission meets.
He said he hoped to have a lawsuit filed by then
alleging that issuing licenses to
sell beer in Whiteclay violates federal and tribal law.
Means also said a march is planned at the federal
courthouse in Lincoln to protest
attempts to close down the Santee Sioux Tribe's casino
in northeastern Nebraska
and efforts to jail tribal leaders.
Whiteclay has been the target of anger and frustration
among the protesters since
the bodies of the two Indians were found June 8. The
town's four beer-selling
stores sell 4 million cans of beer a year, mostly to
Indians from the reservation.
Possession and consumption of beer is banned by law on
the reservation, but the
alcoholism rate there may run as high as 85 percent.
In addition to LaMere, Means and Poor Bear, the other
defendants are Benedict L.
Black Elk, 36, Pine Ridge; Vaughn J. Lodge, 22, no home
listed; Gary L. Moore, 36,
Pine Ridge; Webster Poor Bear, 48, Wanblee; Allen C.
Sheppard, 23, Agency
Village, S.D.; and John W. Steele, 52, Manderson, S.D.
Lodge and Sheppard did not attend the hearing.
http://www.omaha.com/Omaha/OWH/StoryViewer/1,3153,212140,00.html
RUSHVILLE (AP) -- Nine American Indians charged with
failing to comply with a lawful order
and obstructing a police officer during a protest march
on Whiteclay want the charges thrown out.
Defense attorney Jerry Matthews said he filed a plea in
abatement Tuesday in Sheridan County
Court, arguing the charges violate free speech and other
rights.
The nine people charged with the misdemeanor offenses,
including American Indian Movement
leaders Russell Means and Clyde Bellecourt, marched on
Whiteclay July 3 to protest beer sales in
the small Nebraska town just south of the Pine Ridge
Indian Reservation in South Dakota.
Oglala Sioux leaders on the reservation have called for
shutting down Whiteclay's four liquor
stores, which have millions of dollars in beer sales
each year, mainly to residents of the
reservation, where alcohol is banned.
Matthews said his filing challenges the arrests and
charges on jurisdictional and a variety of
constitutional grounds, including free speech, redress
of grievances and barriers to interstate
commerce.
The tribe claims Whiteclay and the surrounding area are
legally part of the reservation under
government treaties with the Sioux Nation. That would
leave Nebraska with no jurisdiction in the
cases.
http://www.journalstar.com/stories/neb/sto3
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