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Oglala Sioux woman wins historic ruling against U.S. government
PSLweb.org

Army refused to prosecute recruiter for sexual assault

On May 7, an Oglala Sioux woman from Wounded Knee, S.D., won a historic ruling in Federal Court. Lavetta Elk won $600,000 from the federal government after an Army recruiter sexually assaulted her in January 2003. The judge’s ruling was based on the "bad man" provision of the 1868 treaty between the government and the Oglala Sioux.

In 2002, Sergeant Joseph Kopf tried to recruit Lavetta Elk for the Army. He then harassed her by phone and email for over a year. In January 2003, she thought Kopf was taking her to be evaluated for the Army. Instead, Kopf drove her to the middle of nowhere and sexually assaulted her.

In April 2004, she filed a notice of claim with the Army and the Department of the Interior, which has jurisdiction over Native American lands. The Army refused to prosecute Kopf, simply demoting and removing him from his post as a recruiter.

The Department of the Interior did nothing with Elk’s claim until she filed in civil court. The case was heard in court only because of her determination for justice. In the May 7 ruling, a federal judge awarded Elk actual damages and also imposed punitive damages.

This case was based on the "bad man" clause, which states that "if bad men among the whites or among other people subject to the authority of the United States shall commit any wrong upon the person or property of the Indians, the United States will, upon proof made to the agent and forwarded to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs at Washington City, proceed at once to cause the offender to be arrested and punished according to the laws of the United States and also reimburse the injured person for the loss sustained."

While that clause would fit a long record of offenses against the Oglala Sioux, this is the first time a U.S. federal court has cited it in a ruling. If the government appeals the verdict, the Supreme Court would have to rule on the Treaty of 1868, which could affect everything from the treatment of Native Americans to land rights. Such an appeal is unlikely, however.

Elk’s case points to inherent unfairness and racism of the U.S. capitalist justice system. The clause states that Kopf should be arrested and charged, but that will most likely not happen. Instead, hoping to close the matter, the court gave Elk money—as if that could compensate for the psychological problems she has suffered since meeting Kopf. Of course, capitalists think money solves everything—justice be damned.

Nevertheless, the importance of this legal ruling cannot be denied. Over the past 140 years, the U.S. government has openly violated every treaty made with the indigenous people of this land. Elk’s historic victory may have a lasting impact in the larger struggle for Native American basic human and cultural rights.

Film showings document struggle for self determination

On April 28, an overflow crowd packed a coffee shop screening of "Battle for Whiteclay," hosted by the South Dakota ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism). The film documents the struggle of the residents of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota and their allies to shut down four predatory liquor stores across the border in Whiteclay, Neb. It features Native American activists Frank LaMere, Duane Martin, Sr. and Russell Means.

Alcohol has been banned on Pine Ridge since the 1970s because of its crippling effect on residents of the reservation. Whiteclay is an unincorporated town of 14 people located just 200 feet from the reservation border and in walking distance from the reservation’s biggest town. The town as no public services, but four liquor stores there sell the equivalent of 4.5 million 12-ounce cans of beer annually, mainly to the Native American residents of Pine Ridge. That’s 12,500 cans per day.

Filmmaker Mark Vasina, who led the discussion at the film showing, told PSL, "Whitelay is important because it’s a glaring example, it’s the poster child, for exploitation of the reservation by border towns."

Whiteclay is known as "the skid row of the prairie." As the film documents, the misery of alcoholism is on display day and night in this small town, where public drunkenness is pervasive. The liquor establishments continually violate liquor license regulations by selling alcohol to minors, selling to visibly intoxicated people, allowing alcohol consumption on the premises and trading alcohol for sex.

Lyle Jack, Oglala Sioux Tribal Council member, describes the situation in the film: "They know alcohol is banned here, yet they set up right on the outskirts of the reservation. And they prey upon our people and their sicknesses, this disease that has affected them. They make millions of dollars off our people, yet they do not contribute anything back. … Unfortunately, for a lot of our people there’s no way out, because the tribe does not have the funding or the resources to set up our own treatment centers to help them."

Citations of these violations could easily shut the liquor stores down, yet law enforcement is conspicuously lacking in the area. The liquor control commission has failed to act against the businesses, so they continue to operate freely, even though they are selling to people who have no legal place to consume the alcohol. The state of Nebraska receives sizable tax income from the Whiteclay liquor sales. Business interests, including the National Beverage Association, have rallied to thwart legislative efforts to address the problem.

The situation is a clear demonstration that there is one standard for the majority white population in Nebraska and another for Native Americans. "It’s a broader issue than the alcohol—it’s the disregard for health and safety and disrespect of the Native population on Pine Ridge. [Whiteclay] only operates with elected officials and law enforcement looking the other way, all along the chain of command from the local to the county to the state level," said Vasina.

Pine Ridge has a long history of oppression and struggle against oppression. It is home to the site of the 1890 Wounded Knee massacre, which was later the site of the American Indian Movement standoff with FBI agents, for which political prisoner Leonard Peltier is still being held.

A 2006 Special Resource Report by Stephanie Schwartz of the Native American Journalists Association reveals shocking statistics about the difficulty of life on Pine Ridge. The tribe estimates that 40,000 people live on Pine Ridge. Median income is between $2,600 and $3,500 per year, with 97 percent of the population living below the federal poverty level. The average family home has an estimated 17 people squeezed into it. Thirty-nine percent of the homes have no electricity, in a climate with extremes of cold and heat.

There is little industry or commercial infrastructure on the reservation, and as a result, the unemployment rate is soaring at 83-85 percent.

Life expectancy for men is 48 years and for women is 52. Infant mortality is the highest on the continent, 300 percent higher than the U.S. average. The school dropout rate is over 70 percent and the teenage suicide rate is 150 percent of the national average. Over half of the population over 40 suffers from diabetes, 800 percent higher than the U.S. average.

Alongside and as a result of these desperate conditions, alcoholism affects eight out of 10 families on Pine Ridge. The tribal leadership has banned alcohol from the reservation, but the town of Whiteclay has continued to fuel the problem.

Pine Ridge reservation was originally part of the 60 million acres of land designated by the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 to belong to the Greater Lakota Nation. But in 1876, the U.S. government violated the treaty and opened up much of this land to homesteaders and private interests, including the sacred land of the Black Hills. What remained was divided up into several smaller reservations across South Dakota.

After illegal whiskey bootleggers from Nebraska preyed on the Pine Ridge reservation, the U.S. government established a 50-mile buffer zone south of the reservation for its protection. But in 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt effectively reversed this order, over the protests of the Oglala Lakota elders, and the border town of Whiteclay was born.

The land on which Whiteclay sits is still disputed by the tribe. The Oglala Lakota Nation and its allies have continued their fight, using various tactics to try to shut down the source of the alcohol that afflicts their people. The tribe has fought for increased law enforcement, not against their people but against the businesses that continue to violate liquor sale regulations on a regular basis. So far, they have managed to pass state legislation that would prohibit new liquor licenses from being approved, but they are still struggling to get the existing businesses shut down.

Starting in 2006, tribal members have attempted an annual road blockade to stop alcohol from entering the reservation. Protesters have marched on the capital and also picketed a Nebraska beer wholesaler that supplies Whiteclay. The film "Battle for Whiteclay" has raised controversy and awareness about the struggle across Nebraska. Filmmaker Vasina, who is an organizer with Nebraskans for Peace, said, "Whiteclay continues to operate for three reasons: money, racism and apathy." The ANSWER coalition pledged to help raise awareness and build solidarity to help overcome these obstacles and win justice for the reservation. ANSWER will host a second screening next week.

For more information or to order a copy of the film, go to www.BattleforWhiteclay.org

KMEG 14

Marking the 6th Anniversary of the Iraq War
Posted: March 20, 2009 04:11 PM CDT

About 20 activists made up of South Dakota ANSWER, the Equality Center and other supporters of Gay Marriage braved a cold windy Valentine's Day in Sioux Falls to show their support for equal love.
 
The group was made up of same sex couples, gay activists and supporters.
 
Some of the activists came out for the first time, while others picked up from a rally from last December protesting the passage of Prop 8.
 
The majority of people passing by were supportive and honked their approval.
 
The rally lasted about an hour and was high lighted by a young girl passing out stuffed Valentine's Day kittens that she gave to the female protesters.
 
The rally ended with chants of Hey, hey, ho, ho Bigotry has got to go! And What do we want? Equal Rights! When do we want them? Now!
 
As long as gays and lesbians are denied their equal rights the ANSWER Coalition and other activists will be in the streets to fight for them.

South Dakota defeats abortion ban measure
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
PSLweb.org

In brief

Nov. 4 brought a major victory to the working class of South Dakota. For the second time in two years, voters defeated an abortion ban by 55 percent to 45 percent.
 
Out of 66 counties, three counties that voted for the ban in 2006 voted against it in 2008. Forty-two counties voted against the ban both times. The bourgeois forces that put abortion on the ballot claimed that as long as there were exceptions for rape and women's health, the ban would pass. The voters rejected this by voting "no" to the government telling women what they could and could not do with their bodies.
 
However, this victory is not enough. South Dakota still has the strictest laws in the country when it comes to the right to choose. There is a mandatory 24-hour waiting period, and a doctor must perform a sonogram and inform the woman that, by having an abortion, she is terminating a life. The struggle to overturn these backward laws must continue.

Mass protests repudiate homophobic Proposition 8 across the country
Monday, November 17, 2008

PSLweb.org

Grassroots mobilizations may signal the beginning of new civil rights movement

On Nov. 15, demonstrations demanding equal rights for LGBT people took place across the country, fueled by mass outrage against California’s Proposition 8. The measure, narrowly approved by voters on Nov. 4, amends the state constitution to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman. 

In an impressive show of unity and resolve, mass demonstrations took place in all 50 states. In Texas, thousands participated in rallies in Dallas, Austin, Houston and San Antonio; in Wisconsin, protesters took to the streets in Madison, Milwaukee, Green Bay, La Crosse and Superior; in Colorado, actions were held in Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins, Colorado Springs, Durango and Aspen. Altogether, hundreds of cities across the country mobilized in force, as well as in cities in Canada, England and Australia. 

The grassroots forces at the forefront of this new mass movement have decisively pushed the struggle into the streets, something that the “No on 8” campaign put forth by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender organizations refrained from doing in the lead-up to the elections. Word of the demonstrations spread quickly through the Internet and cell phone text messages. 

Members of the Party for Socialism and Liberation and the ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) participated in a number of the demonstrations taking place around the country. A round-up of those actions follows below.

Sioux Fall, S.D.

Members of South Dakota ANSWER and the Party of Socialism and Liberation were joined by the Centers of Equality, Peace and Justice Center and some students for an LGBT rights rally at City Hall. 

After being told by police that they could not be there, the group marched over to a busy intersection where they held their signs. Their anti-bigotry message was met with positive honks of approval. 

Despite the cold and a strong wind, the group was energetic and there was a lot of positive energy in bringing a diverse group of people together with a common cause. Some of the groups had not met or worked together before, yet they are now planning to collaborate on future demonstrations and film showings.

Another demonstration took place in the western region of South Dakota, in Rapid City.

Despite the troopers’ terror tactics, the demonstrators remained peaceful and undeterred. Many residents have vowed to keep up the vigils seven days a week. As of May 6, 38 people had been arrested and subsequently released, including minors and tribal elders.

The construction began with no formal notice to the tribe and no environmental impact statement, despite the fact that Yankton Sioux Tribe children attend Head Start less than three miles from the site.

The farm being built by Long View Farms from Hull, Iowa, will house over 7,600 hogs. Industrial livestock is a major source of greenhouse gasses and water pollution. The site is only four miles from the Missouri River, a source of water for many communities. 

The treatment of Native Americans in the United States has many similarities to the colonial apartheid imposed upon the Palestinians by Israel. Treaties between the Native Americans and the U.S. government have been broken over and over by the latter.

The racist state police are on tribal land to "serve and protect" the hog farm company. Sheriff Westendorf's son is the electrical contractor for the farm construction project. South Dakota law enforcement—like any arm of the capitalist state—exists to defend private property, not the community.

A Yankton Sioux Tribe Hog Farm legal defense account has been set up at Commercial State Bank at 204 S. Main Ave., Wagner, South Dakota 57380.

Party for Socialism and Liberation member Amanda Todd received 11.1 percent of the vote in the April 8th Sioux Falls, S.D., city council election. A first-time candidate, Todd placed third behind the winner, Kenny Anderson Jr., in an impressive finish.

Todd, a postal worker and activist, gave the working class a rare voice by supporting immigrants, sovereignty for Native Americans and a livable minimum wage. Todd promoted socialism and the PSL while campaigning in the northeastern section of Sioux Falls.

With many voters dissatisfied with the current make up of the council, Amanda provided a genuine alternative. Voters recognized Todd’s qualifications as a worker and activist, proving that there is a place for socialism in South Dakota and that working people do want to be represented.

Todd will use the momentum of her remarkable showing to further promote socialism and continue fighting shoulder to shoulder with the workers of Sioux Falls.

Doing their part to protest war
Group wants troops to return from Iraq

Ron Smith knew men who have died in Iraq.

Because of that, the 40-year-old Sioux Falls man knew he had to stand in the brisk November wind Saturday afternoon and make a statement about how senseless those deaths are in his mind.

So he and a handful of others gathered along 41st Street in front of the Olive Garden Restaurant and held up signs calling for an end to America's war efforts in the Middle East.

"I went into the Army for Reagan and Bush, God and country," said Smith, dressed in an Army fatigue jacket. "What I found out was that everything about the world doesn't conform to what I was told about it. That's why I'm here, to get people to think a little bit about what we're doing over there."

Rally organizer Chris Huska said he hoped for several dozen supporters to display anti-war signs on the bridge over the Big Sioux River.

The event was held in conjunction with national efforts by the Answer Coalition, which stands for "Act Now to Stop War and Racism," Huska said.

The coalition began after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and pushes an agenda of stopping the war and bringing the troops home, Huska said. The South Dakota chapter has held rallies in Brookings and Sioux Falls, including one earlier this year at the South Dakota Battleship Memorial.

Huska said the response they get from passing motorists is mostly positive.

"Most people, I would say, give us a thumbs up or a wave," he said just as a truck passing by honked its horn. "And people who don't agree with us aren't totally negative. They might give us a thumbs down ... or another digit."

His group supports the soldiers, Huska said, but thinks the best way to express that support is in a call to bring them home.

"People don't like to hear this, but the reason we are doing this as a country is to control Iraq and the oil supply. Even Alan Greenspan has said that," Huska said. "I don't believe imposing democracy by gunpoint is the way to go."

Neither does Larry Larson, 46, of Sioux Falls. In holding up a sign Saturday, he was hoping to have a singular effect on the vehicles driving past him.

"I just want them to think and ask questions," he said. "If they do that, then it was worth it for me to be here."

Friday, November 30, 2007

PSLweb.org

State clears police in every instance

Police killings of working-class people do not happen in South Dakota as often as in big cities like Oakland or New York. South Dakota police officers, however, can and do shoot people without worrying about the repercussions.
 
South Dakota statutes justify homicide if "necessarily committed" by an officer who is "overcoming resistance to arrest, capturing escaped felons, arresting felons fleeing from justice, suppressing a riot or keeping the peace." (Sioux Falls Argus Leader, Nov. 18)
 
Over 20 years after a Supreme Court ruling overturned a Tennessee state law that justified killing a fleeing felon by police, South Dakota has yet to take its similar law off the books. Before the ruling, police legally were allowed to kill any "felon." That is no longer the case, but South Dakota never changed the law.
 
While police are given the benefit of the doubt by the media and ruling class in other states, in South Dakota it is the rule.
 
Out of 12 police shootings in the state since 2001, Attorney General Larry Long has cleared the cops involved in all 12 cases. Six of the victims died at the hands of police. The state deemed each of the shootings as "justified."
 
In fact, seven cases occurred in one city, Rapid City, and three of those cases involved the same officer.
 
One of the cases involved Lucas Ghost Bear, who was shot three times and killed by police officer Marc Black. Ghost Bear was brandishing a knife and was suicidal. Although it was alleged that Black did not follow police protocol, he was cleared in an investigation.
 
Police brutality is much higher on Native American reservations and in Rapid City than in the eastern part of the state where more white people live.
 
No matter where one lives in the United States, police brutality is a fact of life for workers and oppressed people. Laws like South Dakota’s help police get away with their crimes with impunity.

With our without these laws, cops still kill under capitalism. Exposing this truth and building a genuine movement of working-class people to stop killer cops is necessary.

The issue of abortion has been used by the Bush administration and its followers in Congress and state legislatures to whip up bigotry among their right-wing religious base. The legalization of a woman’s right to choose—won as the result of years of struggle—is in danger.

The South Dakota law was an integral part of this campaign. The anti-abortion capitalist politicians were using it as a test case in their continuing attempts to undermine the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. It was the most extreme version of anti-abortion legislation that has been pushed and passed in other states. All of these laws have the same goal—eroding a woman’s right to control her body.

The South Dakota measure was to take effect in July, but a petition drive by abortion-rights groups forced the issue onto the ballot and delayed its implementation pending a voter referendum on the issue. 

If the law had been implemented, it would have been a step backward for women’s and workers’ rights and further opened the door to attacks on reproductive rights.

In the wake of the law’s defeat, anti-abortion state legislators are split on whether to accept the will of the voters or to try to implement an abortion ban with some exceptions.

Republican senator Jason Gant said that the state voiced their opinion and "we need to just go with that." But state representative Roger Hunt, who introduced the bill banning abortions, vowed to restart discussion of an abortion ban in January 2007. (Sioux Falls Argus Leader, Nov. 9. 

Hunt also said that lawmakers could introduce bills that continue to chip away at the availability of the procedure. One possible bill would require a pregnant woman to view a fetal ultrasound before the abortion procedure takes place.

Women’s reproductive rights are already severely restricted in South Dakota. There is only one clinic in the state that provides abortions and only on one day per week. The single clinic is at the extreme eastern part of the state. All women who seek abortions must go through a 24-hour waiting period and endure mandatory counseling.

Progressive groups and reproductive rights organizations were jubilant with the results. "It is a very important victory for people who are open-minded and progressive in this country," said Sarah Stoesz, chief of Planned Parenthood’s operations in the Dakotas and Minnesota. (Reuters, Nov. 8) 

Over $2 million was poured into the ballot issue on both sides. It became a national flashpoint for both women’s rights advocates and reactionary, anti-abortion activists.

Grassroots organizing helped stop the legislation. More than 2,000 volunteers throughout the state stood on street corners, knocked on doors, and helped to reenergize the pro-choice movement in South Dakota in the months before the vote.

Reproductive rights need to be seen by revolutionaries and progressives as part of the overall struggle for working women.

Protestors gather to oppose war in Iraq
Peace rally held to demonstrate opposition to the war and call for soldiers to come home
(SDSU Collegian)

By: Jenna Mann
Posted: 9/19/07

Labor Day Event On Healthcare Sheds Light On A Broken Capitalist System
September 10, 2007

The Sioux Falls Trades and Labor Assembly hosted a Labor Day Rally on Monday September 3rd, which was attended by about 80 people. The three hour event's theme was on healthcare and what can be done for American workers.
 
The event featured several speakers including South Dakota AFL-CIO President Mark Anderson, two South Dakota state senators and a member of the ANSWER Coalition.
 
With South Dakota ranking near the bottom of the list of the Kaiser Foundation report on Employer-Based Family Premiums, many workers were concerned about healthcare for families and who would pay for uninsured children.  
 
The politicians gave vague answers and talked about the need to support democratic candidates, while admitting that democrats would be playing "defense" against a republican led state congress.
 
Speaking on behalf of the American Postal Workers Union and representing all workers and the South Dakota ANSWER Coalition, Chris Huska talked about the 47 million people in the US who lack healthcare and the bosses who put rising costs on the working class. He also talked about how retirees are especially hit hard and as contracts expire, so do the health benefits.
 
While the capitalist healthcare industry brings in billions of dollars in profits each year, workers are hit with higher costs. Only a socialist system sees healthcare as a human right and workers must spearhead this struggle with a mass action campaign to win universal health care and defeat insurance companies and capitalist bosses.

And now Pine Ridge residents may be deprived of something else they should rightfully have.

In February, T. Denny Sanford donated $400 million dollars to Sioux Valley Hospitals (now Sanford Health) in order to build centers for pediatric care in areas with little or no services in South Dakota. Sanford is a billionaire banker.

A number of communities, including Pine Ridge, have expressed interest. So far, 80 have applied. The need is great in each area, but nowhere is it greater than on the reservation.

In the late 1800s, the U.S. government signed treaties with the Sioux nation pledging that the federal government would fund medical treatment on reservations. But like many other treaties, the government has broken its word. The Indian Health Service, especially on the Pine Ridge Reservation, is inadequately funded and greatly understaffed.

On the reservation, the infant mortality rate is the highest on this continent. It is 300 percent higher than the U.S. national average. The tuberculosis rate is 800 percent higher than the national average.

The weight of hundreds of years of state-sponsored genocide, ethnic cleansing and national oppression still weigh heavily on the Native populations in the United States. This is felt most heavily on reservations like Pine Ridge, where just over 30 years ago the U.S. government brutally repressed a thriving national liberation movement led by the American Indian Movement.

Sanford Health is ignoring the reality facing Native peoples as it chooses future pediatric- care clinic locations. They have "more important" things in mind. Sanford Health officials have said that, while the clinics are not meant to be "cash cows," they must be financially self-sustaining. (Sioux Falls Argus Leader, June 24)

David Link, Sanford Health’s vice president of development and research, has said there are no plans to open a reservation clinic at this time.

In reality, the new clinics are meant to secure Sanford’s hold on the medical market in the state and to bolster the corporation’s profits. The medical corporation has started an advertising war with Avera, Sanford Health’s major competitor in South Dakota. A drive around Sioux Falls reveals expensive Sanford Health billboards everywhere one looks. 

Sanford Health has been moving into South Dakota towns like Mitchell and Aberdeen where Avera is already located—an attempt to smash the competition. Helping those in need is secondary to staying number one in the capitalist health market.

More health clinics are badly needed in the United States, especially in rural areas and places like the Pine Ridge Reservation. Billions of dollars are needed for the working class and oppressed to have adequate health care.

In addition, Native Americans in Pine Ridge and all over the country deserve massive reparations and control over the conditions under which they live. This includes, first and foremost, modern health clinics and hospitals.

Any clinic or health service that the people can win or establish will be helpful, but the biggest impediments to greater health care are the big hospital chains like Sanford Health, the insurance companies and the drug companies—products of the capitalist system.

Page was killed by a lethal injection. The execution was originally set for last year. Governor Mike Rounds postponed the execution because of concerns over the drugs used in the lethal injection.

Page was convicted in 2000 for the death of Chester Allan Poage. Page, 18 at the time, confessed to the murder.

In January 2006, Paged waved his rights to appeal the death sentence.

Like many on death row in the United States, Page grew up in dire poverty. He had endured a history of extreme abuse and neglect. At the age of two, Page’s mother allowed him to be sexually molested in exchange for drugs. He was in and out of foster homes and juvenile detention centers his entire life.

A judge, not a jury, sentenced Page to death. There are currently three other prisoners on death in row in South Dakota, including Briley Piper, who was convicted of the same crime as Page.

Thirty-eight states have passed laws legalizing the death penalty since the Supreme Court reinstated it in 1976. Only four states have not executed anybody in that time: Kansas, New Hampshire, New Jersey and New York. Texas has executed 397 people since 1976.

The death penalty is promoted by ruling class supporters as a so-called deterrent to crime, but in reality it is a way for the capitalist class to kill working-class people, especially African Americans.

Elijah Page was a victim of capitalism: a system of greed, poverty and alienation.