Veterans, Data Privacy, Process of Advocacy, La America Latina, Homelessness, Mass Institutionalization, First Nations
Dakota-Lakota-Nakota People and Justice
The Sioux and Justice
The Dakota-Lakota-Nakota People and Justice
"Oyate kinhan kawitaya au yunkan
tuwela seca k'un hel opa sni yelo.
Nita kola heyape lo."
(When people come to a celebration,
someone is not among them.
Your friends have said so.)
--Memorial Song (Wicat 'a Wokiksuye Olowan); Source: Lakota Mall
The Dakota-Lakota-Nakota people are today spread across Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Montana, Colorado and the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan. They have also historically been known as the Sioux. The Dakota reside predmoninantly in the State of Minnesota and are divided among two Reservations, the Mdewankanton Sioux (based out of holdings located near Shakopee, Minnesota with a smaller number sharing reservation lands with the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, near Lake Mille Lacs in North Central Minnesota) and the Lower Sioux holdings located to the Southeast of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan area. The Lakota are located predominantly in North and South Dakota and Eastern Montana and they are divided into seven Tribal sub-groups, commonly referred to as the "Seven Council Fires", Sicaŋǧu (or Brulé), Oglala, Itazipco (or Sans Arc), Huŋkpapa, Miniconjou, Sihasapa,and Oóhenuŋpa. The Lakota represent the westernmost of the Siouan peoples. The Nakota, or Assiniboine, are located in North Dakota and represent the smallest, in terms of numbers, of the three Tribal divisions which collectively comrpise the Sioux or Dakota people.
There exists compelling evidence that the Siouan peoples originally inhabited the Lower Mississippi region and, later, migrated to the vicinity of the Ohio Valley. However, in historical times the Dakota were present in what is today the State of Minnesota in the 17th and 18th centuries and were gradually pushed westward by the Ojibwe (Anishinaabe) and Cree peoples into the western half of the State of Minnesota and the States of North and South Dakota. They had been a sedentary, agricultural people who, following the adoption of horse culture, took to what has become to be viewed as traditional Plains lifestyles which centered around the hunting of buffalo. The contemporary view of Plains horse culture was in no small manner shaped by the Dakota people. The Dakota had been introduced to the horse by the Cheyenne in the 1730s.
The Lakota recorded their early history via Winter counts (Lakota: waniyetu wowapi). These were glyphic calendars painted on hide. According to Lakota tradition, their history begins circa 900 CE when the mythic White Buffalo Calf Woman presented the Lakota people with the sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe.
It was during the 1730s and 40s that the Lakota (The Seven Council Fires) split into two major tribal branches, the Saône and the Oglala-Sicangu. In 1765 a Saone band under Chief Standing Bear came upon the Black Hills, known as the Paha Sapa by the Lakota, and it was here that they made their home. First official contact with the United States Government occurred during the Lewis and Clark expedition, 1804-06, and resulted in a stand-off with government representatives. The founding of Fort Laramie on Lakota lands and without their permission led to the Treaty of Fort Laramie of 1851. This agreement with the Lakota permitted the unhindered passage of white settlers across Lakota lands along the Oregon Trail and, on signing, limited white encroachment in perpetuity. However, multiple infringements by white settlers upon treaty agreements led to sporadic outbreaks of violence. The discovery of gold within the boundaries of Lakota lands further exacerbated tensions.
In 1862 armed resistance culminated in what has become known to history as the Great Sioux Uprising. On the suppression of hostilities, approximately 1,700 Dakota men, women and children were forcibly marched from the Lower Sioux Agendy to an internment camp set up at Ft. Snelling, near present day Minneapolis-St. Paul. Following a very brief review, over 300 of the men and boys were condemned, shackled and then transported to another makeshift interment camp located near present day Mankato. On completion of hearings by an additional tribunal in Mankato, 307 of the Dakota were found guilty and sentenced to death. Sixteen were sentenced to prison. The condemned were transported to Mankato to await order of execution authorization from President Lincoln. As for the rest of the Dakota people interred at Ft. Snelling they were paraded through a number of Minnesota towns after having endured bitter conditions and hardships during the course of the winter. Many of the elderly, children and women died as a consequence and it has never been ascertained what happened to the remains of those who died during interment and during the course of the forced marches. On December 26, 1862 (following Christmas Day), on Presidential Order, 38 Dakota men were publicly executed at Ft. Snelling. The remaining Dakota internees were split up and some were shipped down the Mississippi river and further imprisoned for a number of years near Davenport, Iowa while the others were transported to St. Louis and then back up the Missouri river to reservation lands in South Dakota. As many as one third of the Dakota men and boys incarcerated in Iowa died during their incarceration. Many of the Dakota who remained in Minnesota after the 1862 uprising fled westward into present-day South Dakota, Montana, and Canada, joining up with their allies the Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho.
Minnesota Governor Alexander Ramsey declared on September 9, 1862, “The Sioux Indians of Minnesota must be exterminated or driven forever beyond the borders of the state.” The forced marches, internment, public trials and executions, along with with the placing of a 200 dollar bounty for Dakota scalps by Governor Ramsey cleared the way for white settlement upon Dakota lands in Western and Central Minnesota. In examining what transpired with the Dakota people at the hands of the US Government in the State of Minnesota
in the wake of the 1862 uprising it can only be deemed to have been an act of genocide.
A second treaty was signed with the United States government in 1868, again at Ft. Laramie. But the discovery of Gold in the Black Hills in 1872 brought a further influx of white settlers into Dakota Territory and hostilities ensued. In 1876 the Lakota-Dakota and allies fought a successful delaying action against US forces at the Battle of the Rosebud and, a week later, they decimated the US Seventh Cavalry at the Battle of the Little Bighorn---which has gone down in history as Custer's Last Stand. The Regiment sustained over fifty percent casualties. The Congress of the United States authorized the fielding of 2500 additional soldiers and, following determined resistance, the Lakota-Dakota were forced to capitulate before superior numbers in 1877, bringing the Sioux War to an end. Some of the Lakota bands signed a treaty with the US Government, ceding the Black Hills. Sporadic resistance continued however, and Sitting Bull was ultimately cornered at Standing Rock reservation in 1890. In a parallel action, Spotted Eagle's band of Miniconjou were attacked and massacred at Wounded Knee--one of the most infamous of actions against a Plains tribe at the hands of the US Military.
The bulk of contemporary Lakota are today located on five reservations in western South Dakota, divided as follows; Rosebud Indian Reservation (Upper Sičangu or Brulé), Lower Brule Indian Reservation ( Lower Sicangu), the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation (Ogala), Cheyenne River Indian Reservation (Mnikoju, Itazipco, Sihasapa and Oohenumpa), and Standing Rock Indian Reservation (Hunkpapa). Additional Lakota people live on Ft. Peck Indian Reservation in Montana. The Dakota in Minnesota are divided among two Reservations, that of the Lower Sioux near Hastings and the Mdewankanton reservation near Shakopee, as aformentioned. In North Dakota the Nakota reside on Fort Berthold Reservation. The Lakota also have small reserves in Canada in the provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Large numbers of Lakota-Dakota also reside in metropolitan areas such as Minneapolis, Rapid City and Denver.
Operating under the umbrella organization of AIM (American Indian Movement), Lakota-Dakota people began the pursuit for modern autonomy in 1974, citing the 33 treaties signed by the US Government--all of which have been violated--as the pretext for separatism or autonomy. In 1980 the United States ruled in favor of the Lakota people and offered 133 million in damages or reparations, but ceded no lands. The Lakota refused the offer. Following the signing of a non-binding resolution on indigenous rights by the United Nations in 2007, the Lakota Freedom Delegation, led by long-time activist Russell means, traveled to Washington DC and informed the United States Government that the Lakota were officially withdrawing from all 33 treaties previously signed by the Lakota people. The Lakota Freedom Delegation subsequently split into two factions and both are still active at the time of this writing (September, 2012).
If you are a member of the dominant culture attempting to work in a minority culture, a number of attributes and attitudes will serve you well. Based on 25 years of working on Indian reservations throughout North and South Dakota and in working with Lakota and Dakota Peoples in urban settings, we have learned some lessons to share with others who wish to bridge the cultural distances. First I must acknowledge that I am, by no means, an authority on native traditions and cultural ways. I am born of the dominant culture, raised in its belief systems and prejudices. My own biases do not allow me to accurately see my biases. Think about that, ponder it well. Your own biases do not allow you to accurately see your biases.
One measure of the legitimacy of a criminal-justice system is how well it treats those who are not of the dominant race or culture. The rule of law—the basis for AngloAmerican legal and constitutional institutions—requires consistent enforcement for the system to retain integrity. Strict adherence to legal procedure, regardless of the status of the individuals, is one means to ensure consistent application of the rule of law. In popular stereotypes of the American frontier, the laws that did exist were not consistently enforced and, in any case, did not apply to Indian people. Minnesota’s early history, on the other hand, indicates that most settlers, despite their evident racism, believed that the rule of law applied to Native Americans as well as whites. The everpresent tension between racism and the rule of law, however, made the outcomes of cases unpredictable; some Indian people received fair treatment within the criminal-justice system while others did not. The real story of criminal justice on the frontier is usually more interesting and complex than the popular stereotype.
Between September 28 and November 3, 1862, in southwestern Minnesota, nearly four hundred Dakota men were tried for murder, rape, and robbery. All but seventy were convicted, and 303 of these were condemned to die. After an official review of the trials, the sentences of thirty-eight were confirmed and, on December 26, 1862, these thirty-eight were hanged in Mankato, Minnesota, in the largest mass execution in American history. On November 11, 1865, after three additional trials, two more Dakota followed them to the gallows.
We have brought people together to begin discussions of traditional Lakota government. This is a nation. Clinton came to Oglala country. We were there. We held signs, banners --"Free Leonard Peltier", "Stop Ethnic Cleansing". During the time he was there he came over and endorsed the banner. What does this mean? Does it mean stop ethnic cleansing? Honor commitments to the treaty? Does it mean stopping Bill 739 forcing Black Hills money into commercial banks? It is time for people to establish a traditional form of government. It is time to begin the process and not sit back.
Harley Eagle is of the Dakota/Salteaux First Nations, enrolled in the Wapaha Ska Dakota First Nations Reserve, in Saskatchewan, Canada. He and his wife Sue share a position in Winnipeg as co-coordinators of Mennonite Central Committee Canada’s work with Indigenous people. In addition, Harley is a Circle facilitator and Dismantling Racism trainer. He has co-facilitated workshops for the Center for Restorative Justice and Peacemaking in Minnesota, with a Tribal Judges Symposium in Montana, with the Black Feet Tribal Courts, and in numerous other locales. Foundational to the life ways of Indigenous* peoples, to the cultures of Turtle Island* prior to contact with Europeans, was the need to maintain a respectful, balanced existence in all relationships, including our relations with the land, plants, and animals. There was no need to dominate, control, conquer or eradicate the life around them. What resulted was the development of complex societies that helped maintain long-term sustainability and diversity within the natural cycles of the entire environment, rather than just for humans or a select few humans.
Based on an earlier finding that as many Native Americans in upstate New York received mental health care in prison as outside of prison during a 10-month period, this study was designed toinvestigate if prisons had become an alternative treatment option for Native Americans with a mental illness in New York State. The study was not able to answer this question due to the limited number of cases and to outside constraints. However, it is possible from the results to provide a picture of mental health needs and attitudes among Native American inmates which is surprising and instructive for those who provide psychiatric care to American Indians, either within or outside of prison walls. A noteworthy finding was the importance placed by these inmates on the use of culturally appropriate ceremonies to assist in their rehabilitation. Low rates of serious mental illness among the American Indian sample highlight the need for further study in this area.
In Kansas, a farmer dug up an entire Indian cemetery located on his land and has put all 146 dead bodies on public display as a roadside "tourist attraction." Despite the fact that the State Legislature has enacted over 70 statutes to comprehensively regulate and protect burial grounds of every imaginable description, the repugnant commercial exploitation of the Indian burial ground is permitted to exist by virtue of an alleged "loophole" in state law. In Nebraska, after the aboriginal Pawnee Nation was removed to a distant state by the federal government, private parties and state archaeologists swept into Pawnee cemeteries and removed hundreds of dead bodies and thousands of burial goods from historic graves.
End the Continued Genocide of the Lakota People--- Lakota Activists and Allies March for Justice Always in memory of Wally Black Elk and Ron Hard Heart On Saturday, June 9th at 12:00pm members of the Oglala Lakota Tribe and their allies, including Deep Green Resistance, will rally in Pine Ridge, SD and march for justice to demand an end to predatory liquor sales in the border town of Whiteclay, Nebraska.The town of Whiteclay, Nebraska lies less than 300 feet from the border of the Pine Ridge Reservation, where the sale and consumption of alcohol is prohibited. While Whiteclay has a population of 14, there are 4 liquor stores in the town, selling tens of thousands of cans of beer each day The stores knowingly sell to bootleggers, intoxicated people, minors, and trade beer for sexual favors. The alcohol border town is feeding off the continued destruction of the Lakota people, and it must be stopped.
Each year, more and more people-Indians and non-Indians--are employed by Indian Tribes and Tribally-chartered organizations. However, as Tribal employment grows, so do the problems associated with personnel disputes. Tribal employment is different than traditional corporate or even government emplayment because Tribal communities are incredibly close-knit and Tribal governments are very accountable to their constituents. Because of this dynamic, emplayment separations can create excessive difficulty within a Tribe. Many Tribal courts apply the principles of the Supreme Court's decision in Loudennill, granting terminated employees the right to both an administrative and judicial hearing. However, these processes can often be incredibly painful for terminated employees and the administrative Tribal panels. They often undermine Tribal government operations and communities. To ameliorate some of these difficulties, Tribes should consider alternative ways to deal with emplayment separations. For example, Tribes might consider a separate court of emplayee claims, a Peacemaker Court model, or an automatic monetary remedy. Overall, any solution that rejects the dominant culture's model and accommodates the particular needs of Tribal communities would be an improvement.
This article considers a problem in Indian law that has been much commented upon but little explored: When a state court exercises jurisdiction over a case with tribal contacts, what law should govern? While the Supreme Court has developed a detailed set of rules dictating whether cases with tribal contacts should be heard in a state or tribal forum, it has devoted almost no attention to the question of which law should apply once a forum has been chosen. Thus, many state courts have simply assumed, without explicit consideration of the issue, that state law should apply to any case over which they have jurisdiction, even when one or more of the parties is Indian and relevant events took place in Indian country.
As American culture becomes more individualistic, social and legal opposition has arisen regarding expansive judicial interpretations of First Amendment freedoms. According to this opposition, the courts have interpreted such freedoms in an almost exclusively individualistic light, with little regard for community interests and values. This debate over individual rights versus social and community interests has been raging for decades in the areas of pornography, crime prevention, and national security. In the case of constitutional protections granted to graphically violent video games, for instance, critics argue that courts should take a more balanced view of First Amendment freedoms, giving greater consideration to community interests in healthy child development and crime prevention, and less consideration to the rights of individual game distributors to sell their products to minors whose parents object to such games.
GREENVILLE - Leaders of the Lakota Nation Tuesday spoke with passion and called for unity amid what has been a dark three months since the killing of Lightning Medicine Cloud. Just days before a grand jury may hear evidence in the case, Lakota Tribesmen Arby Little Soldier and Sam Lone Wolf made it clear during a press conference that justice must be served for such a heinous act, of which they claim was committed by at least seven people of Native American tribes other than Lakota. Little Soldier, owner of the Lakota Ranch – which played host to an extravagant naming ceremony for Lightning just last summer – seems prepared to let due process play out, while Lone Wolf was vocal in his displeasure of the Hunt County Sheriff’s Office handling of the investigation, and says “we will bring those people [suspects] and give them to them right there on the courthouse steps if we have to.”
The objective of this symposium was to educate and facilitate discussion among the various components of the justice system and Aboriginal people who are directly involved with this same justice system. In the last century the Canadian government enacted laws depriving Aboriginal people of the right to contract, sell property, engage in business, establish successful farms, vote, go to court, raise their children, practice their spiritual beliefs, manage their own affairs and select their governments in accordance with their traditions. Many Aboriginal children were removed from their homes and raised in oppressive, often racist residential school environments where they were told it was 'bad to be an Indian' and were punished for merely speaking their own languages." In light of these facts, "it would be surprising if First Nations people did not experience ongoing conflict with, and within, the society which had established such practices." It seems safe to assume that being stripped of their independence, tradition and spirituality caused, or at the very least contributed significantly to, First Nations people in constant conflict with the Canadian government, thus with the justice system. However, "identifying reasons why Aboriginal people are being over-incarcerated, and pointing the finger of blame elsewhere, is only temporarily comforting." The real question remains - what can be done about it? .excerpts from the Foreword written by the Honorable Justice Murray Sinclair in "A Feather Not A Gavel: Working Towards Aboriginal Justice" authored by the Honourable Justice A.C. Hamilton.
Abstract: Policies implemented by the United States on Lakota reservations during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century generally failed. The causes of failure are manifold. The prevailing attitude of the dominant Euro-American society led to the policies adopted by the federal government. Lakota police and judges, which originated in that time period, became tools to implement the policies decided upon by the American government. These policies constituted coerced assimilation. Euro-American culture dominated United States society during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The sphere of domination included setting forth policy for Native Americans. Religious dogmatism and ethnocentrism created an Indian policy which greatly suppressed native cultures. The anthropological community, the military, and the Bureau of Indian affairs promoted cultural annihilation in the name of assimilation. The Lakota police forces represented the efforts of coerced assimilation by halting traditional practices which were considered heathenistic, savage, or barbaric. They forced Euro-American values, such as school attendance and sedentary living, on their fellow Lakota. The specific police men often joined the force to try and help their people. Instead, as instruments for coerced assimilation, they created further tensions and conflict. The Lakota judges, too, forced United States assimilation policies on their people. The Lakota magistrates levied fines and jail terms for offenses such as practicing traditional religion or neglecting farm work. Like the police, the Lakota judges only heightened the tensions they were created to relieve. Euro-American ideology of the era created the policy of coerced assimilation of which the police and courts became a part. However, coerced assimilation only led to greater conflict and misunderstanding between Euro-America and the Lakota.
During the 2000-2001 Supreme Court term, the Justices came perilously close to deciding that non-Indians can never be subject to suit in American Indian tribal courts. While the Court did not go that far, it continued its trends of divesting tribes of jurisdiction over non-tribal members and permitting increasingly onerous forms of state regulation within tribal territorial boundaries. If these trends are not reversed, self-determination, which must include diverse forms of economic development and legal self-sufficiency, will remain elusive for tribes. What is striking about the Court’s recent decisions is not their novelty. Since 1991, the Court has decided twenty-nine cases involving federal Indian law questions, and twenty-three of those were decided against the tribes or tribal litigants. Rather, what is curious is the absence of voices from the highest bench articulating the defensible position that the Court ought not to, without clear Congressional indication, be engaged in such extensive common law decisionmaking in an area that has been clearly committed to the legislative branch. The silence may not be deafening to most, but it rings loud in the ears of tribal advocates: of the twenty-three cases decided against tribal interests, twelve were unanimous.
On May 1st, The Aberdeen News of South Dakota reported that former South Dakota state attorney Brandon Taliaferro and court appointed child advocate Shirley Schwab were being charged by SouthDakota State Attorney General Martin Jackley with witness tampering and subornation of perjury. Attorney General Jackley filed these charges in relation to the separate criminal prosecution of Aberdeenbased foster parents Richard and Gwendolyn Mette. Mr. Taliaferro is a well-known South Dakota Indian child advocate and, as a former Assistant State Attorney, he was in charge of prosecuting child abuse cases in Brown County. Mrs. Schwab is the widely respected court-appointed child advocate for Brown County. Richard Mette had been charged in 2011 by Mr. Taliaferro with a total of 23 felony counts of aggravated rape of a child and aggravated incest against two of four young Native American sisters who had been placed in his and his wife Gwendolyn Mette’s custody by the Department of Social Services (D.S.S.) over the protests of the children’s Lakota family. Gwendolyn Mette had been charged with 11 felony charges of aiding and abetting his crimes, and with neglect of the children.
The causes of the Dakota Conflict are many and complex. The treaties of 1851 and 1858 contributed to tensions by undermining the Dakota culture and the power of chieftains, concentrating malcontents, and leading to a corrupt system of Indian agents and traders. Annuity payments reduced the once proud Dakota to the status of dependents. Annuity payments for the Dakota were late in the summer of 1862. On Sunday, August 17, four Dakota from a breakaway band of young malcontents were on a hunting trip when they came across some eggs in a hen's nest along the fence line of a settler's homestead. When one of the four took the eggs, another of the group warned him that the eggs belonged to a white man. The first young man became angry, dashed the eggs to the ground, and accused the other of being afraid of white men, even though half-starved. Apparently to disprove the accusation of cowardice, the other Dakota said that to show he was not afraid of white men he would go the house and shoot the owner. He challenged the others to join him. Minutes later three white men, a white woman, and a fifteen-year old white girl lay dead. Events moved quickly. Forty-four Americans were killed and another ten captured in the first full day of fighting in and around the Lower Agency at Redwood. Nearly two hundred additional whites died over the next few days as Dakota massacred farm families and attacked Fort Ridgely and the town of New Ulm.
The Minnesota Historical Society has mounted an engaging exhibit about the Dakota War that erupted in the summer of 1862 in the Minnesota River Valley. There is nothing flashy about the exhibit itself—just text and maps and a few photos. It’s the events themselves that are engaging. To their credit, the designers of the exhibit have brought those events to the forefront, examining them from various perspectives in an effort to get a “true” picture of what really took place, and why, with nary an interactive kiosk or a “talking head” in sight. It’s a harrowing and heart-rending tale, to say the least. I first heard about the war, formerly known as the Sioux Uprising, when my sixth-grade class took a field trip to Fort Ridgely in 1966. Since that time, my attitude toward it hasn’t really changed: the Indians got screwed, the settlers got massacred. Neither outcome is “acceptable,” as they say nowadays, but that’s what happened, and there’s little point trying to figure out how things might have been different. You accept and ponder history, or you ignore it. Or you twist it to suit your own agenda.
Today in the United States, we have three types of sovereign entities-the Federal government, the States, and the Indian tribes. Each of the three sovereigns has its own judicial system, and each plays an important role in the administration of justice in this country. The part played by the tribal courts is expanding. As of 1992, there were about 170 tribal courts, with jurisdiction encompassing a total of perhaps one million Americans.
Owe Aku, a Lakota term meaning "Bring Back the Way", was founded in 1997 by Alex and Debra White Plume and their extended families. Owe Aku is a grassroots non-governmental social change organization dedicated to the preservation and revitalization of the Lakota Way of Life, 1851 & 1868 Ft. Laramie Treaty Rights, and Human Rights. Our work encompasses and goes beyond the Oglala band of the Lakota Nation and the Pine Ridge Homeland, to the Lakota Nation and the Oceti Sakowin: the Seven Council Fires, known historically (incorrectly) as the "Great Sioux Nation". In our Lakota world view of "Mitakuye Oyasin" (we are all related) we have an International Justice Office in New York City which carries all of our appropriate work into the international Human Rights and Justice arena in our birth role and responsibility as Maka Luta Awanke: Protectors of the Sacred Red Earth.
Crying Earth Rise Up! is long term priority of the work of Owe Aku to engage in the protection of sacred water inside treaty boundaries. This part of our work is conducted through Treaty Rights and Human Rights education and action in regards to drinking water and environmental protection. We began this work in 2005, conducting research into drinking water quality and the health conditions of our people on the Pine Ridge. This work includes public education concerning the sacredness of water, drinking and surface water quality on the Pine Ridge, and uranium mining and its effects, on the Pine Ridge, in Nebraska and South Dakota and on other reservations. This work includes action to protect the water, treaty territory and the Lakota people, and supporting and working collectively with the Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council, the Oglala Sioux Tribe, ngo’s and individuals. This work is currently intense in opposing the world’s largest uranium producer, Cameco, Inc. in their license renewal to mine uranium at Crow Butte Operations near Crawford, NE and their proposed expansion of the North Trend uranium mine. This work includes providing education regarding the Powertech, Inc. proposed uranium mine near Edgemont, SD.
Justice, according to Waziyatawian, the historian formerly known as Angela Cavendar Wilson and holder of an endowed chair at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, is long overdue for the Dakota peoples whose traditional homelands lie within the contemporary state of Minnesota. The author's exploration of justice for the Dakotas' historic and contemporary sufferings under American colonialism is intersected by her account of state planning for the Minnesota Sesquicentennial (2008), the 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and the historical displacement of the Dakotas first by their traditional enemies, removed Ojibway bands, and then by wasicu (white) settlers. The author, not unlike many Native scholars and community people, refuses the persistent American denial of the history of horrors committed against indigenous peoples and calls for "truthtelling" to correct the accepted historical narrative. Conspicuously absent from her discussion about settler colonialism is a pervasive Christian presence in the colonization of the Dakotas and the mission to civilize Indians by destroying their religions and cultures. Ultimately, justice requires the acknowledgment of a bloody and callous history, the return of Dakota homelands to the Dakota people, and, for this author, a public acknowledgment of that history by tearing down Fort Snelling, a symbolic reminder of nineteenth-century atrocities against the Dakotas. That the fort sits at the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, a sacred space for Dakota people, underscores the injury and injustice the author seeks to remedy.
In their primitive life the Sioux Indians of North America had an intelligent system of jurisprudence, varying somewhat in the different bands, as our court practice varies in the several states, but nevertheless recognizing the same general principles throughout the confederacy. Most writers upon Indian life have noted the existence of these courts. Since undertaking this paper, I have consulted Hump, One Bull, Wakutemani and Simon Kirk, all intelligent Sioux and, save as otherwise noted, they are my authorities for the statements herein contained. It is not an easy thing to determine the laws or the practices of an unlettered people, who have abandoned the wild and primitive life to live under regulations prescribed by their conquerors, and who must depend upon tradition and recollection for the practices of the old life; but fortunately intelligent observers have from time to time, during the past two and one half centuries, noted their observations, and these, supplemented by the recollections of the older men now living, give to us a fairly clear understanding of the courts and the legal practices of these people
One year, on the last day of my federal Indian law class, one student asked me whether in answering the exam, I wanted her to answer according to what the law was or what I thought the law should be. Her question reminded me of Robert Laurence’s article criticizing some scholarship for being perhaps a little out of touch with reality. Was this student criticizing my teaching the same way Laurence was criticizing some of our scholarship? The truth be told, for some years now, I have found that teaching Indian law can have a depressing effect. This effect, of course, is due to the Supreme Court decisions I teach in the class.
The South Dakota Supreme Court created the Equal Justice Commission to investigate, among other things, perceptions of unfairness in our state judicial system based on race, ethnicity, or minority status. Upon completion of its investigation, the Commission was required to submit a public report with recommendations to the South Dakota Supreme Court. The following is the Commission’s Final Report and Recommendations.
Publication of The South Dakota Tribal Court Handbook represents the culmination of a two-year project of the Indian Law Committee of the State Bar of South Dakota to prepare an informative booklet concerning the history, requirements for practice, and jurisdictional parameters of the nine tribal courts in South Dakota. The Handbook is designed to provide an informative and ready resource for the practicing bar in this state as well as for the tribal and statewide community at large. The overarching objective of this effort is to facilitate ongoing communication, understanding, and respect for tribal courts and tribal court personnel. The Committee believes that this Handbook is the first of its kind in the country and that it marks a significant accomplishment within the State.
Gambill on Justice
Veterans, Data Privacy, Process of Advocacy, La America Latina, Homelessness, Mass Institutionalization, First Nations
Dakota-Lakota-Nakota People and Justice
The Sioux and Justice
The Dakota-Lakota-Nakota People and Justice
"Oyate kinhan kawitaya au yunkan
tuwela seca k'un hel opa sni yelo.
Nita kola heyape lo."
(When people come to a celebration,
someone is not among them.
Your friends have said so.)
--Memorial Song (Wicat 'a Wokiksuye Olowan); Source: Lakota Mall
The Dakota-Lakota-Nakota people are today spread across Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Montana, Colorado and the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan. They have also historically been known as the Sioux. The Dakota reside predmoninantly in the State of Minnesota and are divided among two Reservations, the Mdewankanton Sioux (based out of holdings located near Shakopee, Minnesota with a smaller number sharing reservation lands with the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, near Lake Mille Lacs in North Central Minnesota) and the Lower Sioux holdings located to the Southeast of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan area. The Lakota are located predominantly in North and South Dakota and Eastern Montana and they are divided into seven Tribal sub-groups, commonly referred to as the "Seven Council Fires", Sicaŋǧu (or Brulé), Oglala, Itazipco (or Sans Arc), Huŋkpapa, Miniconjou, Sihasapa,and Oóhenuŋpa. The Lakota represent the westernmost of the Siouan peoples. The Nakota, or Assiniboine, are located in North Dakota and represent the smallest, in terms of numbers, of the three Tribal divisions which collectively comrpise the Sioux or Dakota people.
There exists compelling evidence that the Siouan peoples originally inhabited the Lower Mississippi region and, later, migrated to the vicinity of the Ohio Valley. However, in historical times the Dakota were present in what is today the State of Minnesota in the 17th and 18th centuries and were gradually pushed westward by the Ojibwe (Anishinaabe) and Cree peoples into the western half of the State of Minnesota and the States of North and South Dakota. They had been a sedentary, agricultural people who, following the adoption of horse culture, took to what has become to be viewed as traditional Plains lifestyles which centered around the hunting of buffalo. The contemporary view of Plains horse culture was in no small manner shaped by the Dakota people. The Dakota had been introduced to the horse by the Cheyenne in the 1730s.
The Lakota recorded their early history via Winter counts (Lakota: waniyetu wowapi). These were glyphic calendars painted on hide. According to Lakota tradition, their history begins circa 900 CE when the mythic White Buffalo Calf Woman presented the Lakota people with the sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe.
It was during the 1730s and 40s that the Lakota (The Seven Council Fires) split into two major tribal branches, the Saône and the Oglala-Sicangu. In 1765 a Saone band under Chief Standing Bear came upon the Black Hills, known as the Paha Sapa by the Lakota, and it was here that they made their home. First official contact with the United States Government occurred during the Lewis and Clark expedition, 1804-06, and resulted in a stand-off with government representatives. The founding of Fort Laramie on Lakota lands and without their permission led to the Treaty of Fort Laramie of 1851. This agreement with the Lakota permitted the unhindered passage of white settlers across Lakota lands along the Oregon Trail and, on signing, limited white encroachment in perpetuity. However, multiple infringements by white settlers upon treaty agreements led to sporadic outbreaks of violence. The discovery of gold within the boundaries of Lakota lands further exacerbated tensions.
In 1862 armed resistance culminated in what has become known to history as the Great Sioux Uprising. On the suppression of hostilities, approximately 1,700 Dakota men, women and children were forcibly marched from the Lower Sioux Agendy to an internment camp set up at Ft. Snelling, near present day Minneapolis-St. Paul. Following a very brief review, over 300 of the men and boys were condemned, shackled and then transported to another makeshift interment camp located near present day Mankato. On completion of hearings by an additional tribunal in Mankato, 307 of the Dakota were found guilty and sentenced to death. Sixteen were sentenced to prison. The condemned were transported to Mankato to await order of execution authorization from President Lincoln. As for the rest of the Dakota people interred at Ft. Snelling they were paraded through a number of Minnesota towns after having endured bitter conditions and hardships during the course of the winter. Many of the elderly, children and women died as a consequence and it has never been ascertained what happened to the remains of those who died during interment and during the course of the forced marches. On December 26, 1862 (following Christmas Day), on Presidential Order, 38 Dakota men were publicly executed at Ft. Snelling. The remaining Dakota internees were split up and some were shipped down the Mississippi river and further imprisoned for a number of years near Davenport, Iowa while the others were transported to St. Louis and then back up the Missouri river to reservation lands in South Dakota. As many as one third of the Dakota men and boys incarcerated in Iowa died during their incarceration. Many of the Dakota who remained in Minnesota after the 1862 uprising fled westward into present-day South Dakota, Montana, and Canada, joining up with their allies the Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho.
Minnesota Governor Alexander Ramsey declared on September 9, 1862, “The Sioux Indians of Minnesota must be exterminated or driven forever beyond the borders of the state.” The forced marches, internment, public trials and executions, along with with the placing of a 200 dollar bounty for Dakota scalps by Governor Ramsey cleared the way for white settlement upon Dakota lands in Western and Central Minnesota. In examining what transpired with the Dakota people at the hands of the US Government in the State of Minnesota
in the wake of the 1862 uprising it can only be deemed to have been an act of genocide.
A second treaty was signed with the United States government in 1868, again at Ft. Laramie. But the discovery of Gold in the Black Hills in 1872 brought a further influx of white settlers into Dakota Territory and hostilities ensued. In 1876 the Lakota-Dakota and allies fought a successful delaying action against US forces at the Battle of the Rosebud and, a week later, they decimated the US Seventh Cavalry at the Battle of the Little Bighorn---which has gone down in history as Custer's Last Stand. The Regiment sustained over fifty percent casualties. The Congress of the United States authorized the fielding of 2500 additional soldiers and, following determined resistance, the Lakota-Dakota were forced to capitulate before superior numbers in 1877, bringing the Sioux War to an end. Some of the Lakota bands signed a treaty with the US Government, ceding the Black Hills. Sporadic resistance continued however, and Sitting Bull was ultimately cornered at Standing Rock reservation in 1890. In a parallel action, Spotted Eagle's band of Miniconjou were attacked and massacred at Wounded Knee--one of the most infamous of actions against a Plains tribe at the hands of the US Military.
The bulk of contemporary Lakota are today located on five reservations in western South Dakota, divided as follows; Rosebud Indian Reservation (Upper Sičangu or Brulé), Lower Brule Indian Reservation ( Lower Sicangu), the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation (Ogala), Cheyenne River Indian Reservation (Mnikoju, Itazipco, Sihasapa and Oohenumpa), and Standing Rock Indian Reservation (Hunkpapa). Additional Lakota people live on Ft. Peck Indian Reservation in Montana. The Dakota in Minnesota are divided among two Reservations, that of the Lower Sioux near Hastings and the Mdewankanton reservation near Shakopee, as aformentioned. In North Dakota the Nakota reside on Fort Berthold Reservation. The Lakota also have small reserves in Canada in the provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Large numbers of Lakota-Dakota also reside in metropolitan areas such as Minneapolis, Rapid City and Denver.
Operating under the umbrella organization of AIM (American Indian Movement), Lakota-Dakota people began the pursuit for modern autonomy in 1974, citing the 33 treaties signed by the US Government--all of which have been violated--as the pretext for separatism or autonomy. In 1980 the United States ruled in favor of the Lakota people and offered 133 million in damages or reparations, but ceded no lands. The Lakota refused the offer. Following the signing of a non-binding resolution on indigenous rights by the United Nations in 2007, the Lakota Freedom Delegation, led by long-time activist Russell means, traveled to Washington DC and informed the United States Government that the Lakota were officially withdrawing from all 33 treaties previously signed by the Lakota people. The Lakota Freedom Delegation subsequently split into two factions and both are still active at the time of this writing (September, 2012).
Justice References: Dakota-Lakota-Nakota People
Anderson, Crystal S., Leonard Peltier: A Small Part of a Much Larger Story
Boernke, Phyllis, Cross-Cultural Circles, What We Have Learned in Indian Country, The Center for Restorative Justice
If you are a member of the dominant culture attempting to work in a minority culture, a number of attributes and attitudes will serve you well. Based on 25 years of working on Indian reservations throughout North and South Dakota and in working with Lakota and Dakota Peoples in urban settings, we have learned some lessons to share with others who wish to bridge the cultural distances. First I must acknowledge that I am, by no means, an authority on native traditions and cultural ways. I am born of the dominant culture, raised in its belief systems and prejudices. My own biases do not allow me to accurately see my biases. Think about that, ponder it well. Your own biases do not allow you to accurately see your biases.
Carroll, Jame Lamm, Native Americans and Criminal Justice on the Minnesota Frontier, Dr. Carroll is a historian with the St. Paul District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and teaches American history at the College of St. Catherine, Minneapolis, MN, Minnesota History, Summer, 1996
Chomsky, Carol, The United States-Dakota War Trials: A Study in Military Injustice, Source: Stanford Law Review, Vol. 43, No. 1 (Nov., 1990), pp. 13-98, Published by: Stanford Law Review
Dakota-Lakota-Nakota Human Rights Advocacy Coalition
We have brought people together to begin discussions of traditional Lakota government. This is a nation. Clinton came to Oglala country. We were there. We held signs, banners --"Free Leonard Peltier", "Stop Ethnic Cleansing". During the time he was there he came over and endorsed the banner. What does this mean? Does it mean stop ethnic cleansing? Honor commitments to the treaty? Does it mean stopping Bill 739 forcing Black Hills money into commercial banks? It is time for people to establish a traditional form of government. It is time to begin the process and not sit back.
Eagle, Harley, Prisons and the pre-contact worldview of the peoples of turtle island, By Harley Eagle, Restorative Justice facilitator
Harley Eagle is of the Dakota/Salteaux First Nations, enrolled in the Wapaha Ska Dakota First Nations Reserve, in Saskatchewan, Canada. He and his wife Sue share a position in Winnipeg as co-coordinators of Mennonite Central Committee Canada’s work with Indigenous people. In addition, Harley is a Circle facilitator and Dismantling Racism trainer. He has co-facilitated workshops for the Center for Restorative Justice and Peacemaking in Minnesota, with a Tribal Judges Symposium in Montana, with the Black Feet Tribal Courts, and in numerous other locales. Foundational to the life ways of Indigenous* peoples, to the cultures of Turtle Island* prior to contact with Europeans, was the need to maintain a respectful, balanced existence in all relationships, including our relations with the land, plants, and animals. There was no need to dominate, control, conquer or eradicate the life around them. What resulted was the development of complex societies that helped maintain long-term sustainability and diversity within the natural cycles of the entire environment, rather than just for humans or a select few humans.
Earle, Kathleen A., Bruce Bradigan and Leonard I. Morgenbesser, Mental Health Care for American Indians in Prison, Journal of Ethnic & Cultural Diversity in Social Work, Vol. 9(3/4) 2001, 2001 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.
Echo-Hawk, Walter R., Tribal Efforts to Protect Against Mistreatment ofIndian Dead: The Quest for Equal Protection of the Laws, Native American Rights Fund (NARF) Legal Review, National Indian Law Library, 1989
End the Continued Genocide of the Lakota People--- Lakota Activists and Allies March for Justice Always in memory of Wally Black Elk and Ron Hard Heart On Saturday, June 9th at 12:00pm members of the Oglala Lakota Tribe and their allies, including Deep Green Resistance, will rally in Pine Ridge, SD and march for justice to demand an end to predatory liquor sales in the border town of Whiteclay, Nebraska.The town of Whiteclay, Nebraska lies less than 300 feet from the border of the Pine Ridge Reservation, where the sale and consumption of alcohol is prohibited. While Whiteclay has a population of 14, there are 4 liquor stores in the town, selling tens of thousands of cans of beer each day The stores knowingly sell to bootleggers, intoxicated people, minors, and trade beer for sexual favors. The alcohol border town is feeding off the continued destruction of the Lakota people, and it must be stopped.
Florey, Katherine J. (Keker & Van Nest) Choosing Tribal Law: Why State Choice-of-Law Principles Should Apply to Disputes with Tribal Contacts, bepress Legal Series, Year 2006, Paper 1023
This article considers a problem in Indian law that has been much commented upon but little explored: When a state court exercises jurisdiction over a case with tribal contacts, what law should govern? While the Supreme Court has developed a detailed set of rules dictating whether cases with tribal contacts should be heard in a state or tribal forum, it has devoted almost no attention to the question of which law should apply once a forum has been chosen. Thus, many state courts have simply assumed, without explicit consideration of the issue, that state law should apply to any case over which they have jurisdiction, even when one or more of the parties is Indian and relevant events took place in Indian country.
Garry, Patrick M., Candace J. Spurlin, Jennifer L. Keating, Derek A. Nelsen, Tribal Incorporation of First Amendment Norms: A Case Study of the Indian Tribes of South Dakota, South Dakota Law Review, Vol. 53, April 2008
As American culture becomes more individualistic, social and legal opposition has arisen regarding expansive judicial interpretations of First Amendment freedoms. According to this opposition, the courts have interpreted such freedoms in an almost exclusively individualistic light, with little regard for community interests and values. This debate over individual rights versus social and community interests has been raging for decades in the areas of pornography, crime prevention, and national security. In the case of constitutional protections granted to graphically violent video games, for instance, critics argue that courts should take a more balanced view of First Amendment freedoms, giving greater consideration to community interests in healthy child development and crime prevention, and less consideration to the rights of individual game distributors to sell their products to minors whose parents object to such games.
Goldberg, Carole, A Law of Their Own: Native Challenges to American Law, Law & Social Inquiry Vol. 25, No. 1 (Winter, 2000), pp. 263-284. Published by: Wiley-Blackwell
Harring, Sidney L., Crow Dog's Case: American Indian Sovereignty, Tribal Law, and United States, Cambridge University Press, 1994
Harvey, Scott, Lakota Leaders: If Law Enforcement Can’t Bring Justice, We Will, KETR 88.9, July 24, 2012
Lakota People’s Law Project Special Report: Justice as Retaliation, How the State of South Dakota is Attempting to Punish Lakota Child Welfare Advocates and Protect Child Abusers — The Mette Case
On May 1st, The Aberdeen News of South Dakota reported that former South Dakota state attorney Brandon Taliaferro and court appointed child advocate Shirley Schwab were being charged by SouthDakota State Attorney General Martin Jackley with witness tampering and subornation of perjury. Attorney General Jackley filed these charges in relation to the separate criminal prosecution of Aberdeenbased foster parents Richard and Gwendolyn Mette. Mr. Taliaferro is a well-known South Dakota Indian child advocate and, as a former Assistant State Attorney, he was in charge of prosecuting child abuse cases in Brown County. Mrs. Schwab is the widely respected court-appointed child advocate for Brown County. Richard Mette had been charged in 2011 by Mr. Taliaferro with a total of 23 felony counts of aggravated rape of a child and aggravated incest against two of four young Native American sisters who had been placed in his and his wife Gwendolyn Mette’s custody by the Department of Social Services (D.S.S.) over the protests of the children’s Lakota family. Gwendolyn Mette had been charged with 11 felony charges of aiding and abetting his crimes, and with neglect of the children.
Macaroni, Reflections on the Dakota War, Monday, August 6, 2012
The Minnesota Historical Society has mounted an engaging exhibit about the Dakota War that erupted in the summer of 1862 in the Minnesota River Valley. There is nothing flashy about the exhibit itself—just text and maps and a few photos. It’s the events themselves that are engaging. To their credit, the designers of the exhibit have brought those events to the forefront, examining them from various perspectives in an effort to get a “true” picture of what really took place, and why, with nary an interactive kiosk or a “talking head” in sight. It’s a harrowing and heart-rending tale, to say the least. I first heard about the war, formerly known as the Sioux Uprising, when my sixth-grade class took a field trip to Fort Ridgely in 1966. Since that time, my attitude toward it hasn’t really changed: the Indians got screwed, the settlers got massacred. Neither outcome is “acceptable,” as they say nowadays, but that’s what happened, and there’s little point trying to figure out how things might have been different. You accept and ponder history, or you ignore it. Or you twist it to suit your own agenda.
South Dakota Equal Justice Commission 2006 Final Report and Recommendations
The South Dakota Supreme Court created the Equal Justice Commission to investigate, among other things, perceptions of unfairness in our state judicial system based on race, ethnicity, or minority status. Upon completion of its investigation, the Commission was required to submit a public report with recommendations to the South Dakota Supreme Court. The following is the Commission’s Final Report and Recommendations.
South Dakota Tribal Court Handbook
Publication of The South Dakota Tribal Court Handbook represents the culmination of a two-year project of the Indian Law Committee of the State Bar of South Dakota to prepare an informative booklet concerning the history, requirements for practice, and jurisdictional parameters of the nine tribal courts in South Dakota. The Handbook is designed to provide an informative and ready resource for the practicing bar in this state as well as for the tribal and statewide community at large. The overarching objective of this effort is to facilitate ongoing communication, understanding, and respect for tribal courts and tribal court personnel. The Committee believes that this Handbook is the first of its kind in the country and that it marks a significant accomplishment within the State.
Starita, Joe. The Dull Knifes of Pine Ridge: A Lakota Odyssey. Bison Books, 2002.
Warburton, Mark Arvid, "For the purposes of example and justice": Native American incarceration in the upper Mississippi Valley