Home : IHS Protests : Rosebud IHS Protest 12 Feb 2003
Lakota Journal, Feb 2003
Kim Karaff, Lakota Journal Martin Bureau
ST FRANCIS -- Although Alfred Bone Shirt co-organized the recent IHS rally in Rosebud with members of the RST council and administration, he says that he does not endorse any government official.
"The question I have and others have is this: Why has our health care suffered? Is it only because of IHS administrators and I would have to say, 'No.' The problem is also at the foot of RST elected officials."
Bone Shirt believes that tribal leadership has let problems go unattended for too long.
"I point, along with others, to failed leadership, elected leadership of this tribe," he said.
"Yes, I want to work with the tribe, and last week we did come together for the rally. But I am not a part of anything that is only a political ploy. I mean business. I call for an investigation of not only the IHS Rosebud Service Unit and its officials, but of the RST Health Board, council persons, and the RST administrators. Why hasn't Willie Kindle (Tribal President) addressed these issues before now," he asked.
Bone Shirt sees far too much nepotism taking place within the government and irresponsibility on the part of elected officials.
"If this council is concerned with the health of the people, then why do they allow one of its own members to sell liquor on this reservation. Alcoholism is our number one health problem, and yet elected officials condone its use by granting him a liquor license. Whose pockets are being lined here? Not the people's," he said.
Bone Shirt says he was recently thrown out of the council chambers for questioning the proposed hiring of a tribal government official's relative as RST casino manager. According to Bone Shirt, the person who is being considered for employment has several DUIs and has been involved in other nefarious activities while managing other casinos.
"Aren't there other young tribal members, students from Singu Gleska University, who have clean records who could be hired or trained? What does this say to our citizens?" he asked.
"The vast majority of tribal members should not go on suffering, while a handful, a clique, are able to go without assuming accountability," Bone Shirt said.
Bone Shirt said about the rally, "I was pleased with the attendance. The numbers are growing of people who are dissatisfied, who want answers to their questions, like where is the money going and why is the tribe having to borrow money," he said.
"People come to me and they say that there is no use going to the tribal council or to health officials or any officials with their needs. They have been ignored for so long. There is a ground swell of dissatisfaction. And that is what is causing people to stand up and be noticed," he said.
RST council persons and RST vice-president, Vernon "Ike" Schmidt say that they have been working hard at addressing the needs of tribal members. They say that they are ignored by IHS officials, for example, in the area of health care concerns.
"We have gone to them over and over with our needs and with our questions, but all they want to do is placate us," John "Tez" Duysak, RST council representative from Upper-Cut Meat said at the rally.
"It is first and foremost in our minds to serve tribal members, and we work within a system and when that system fails we sometimes need to go outside of it," (sic) Schmidt.
Not all tribal council persons or RST Health Board members supported the IHS rally.
Bone Shirt said that when the time comes for elections, if he is asked to support candidates, he would consider it. But until then he remains committed to bringing needs of the Sicangu Lakota Oyate to the forefront and to ask tough questions.
"Imagine being thrown out of my own tribal council meeting when I was there speaking from my heart as my relatives taught us to do," he said.
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