http://www.capjournal.com/Article_detail_display.cfm?ID=590&Article=News
Island protesters vow to continue
Tuesday, June 22, 1999 Patrick Baker
A member of the Indian encampment on La Framboise Island in Pierre said he finds it hard to believe offices in Washington D.C., are unaware of the group's protest of the Missouri River Land Transfer Act.
A goal of protesters is to garner congressional oversight hearings concerning legislation passed last October that allows for the transfer of land from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to South Dakota and the Cheyenne River and Lower Brule Sioux tribes. Such hearings would have to be scheduled by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, headed by Sen. John Chafee, R-R.I., which has jurisdiction over corps activity.
Spokespeople from Chafee's office and the committee office said it is possible that they have received correspondence concerning the protest but no oversight hearings have been scheduled nor are being planned. Camper Boots Quiver said organizers have made a point in the last month to flood Chafee's office with literature about the protest.
"Either they're deaf or they're very isolated � or they're told not to say anything," Quiver said in response to Washington's seeming lack of attention to the protest. The transfer act was passed as part of the 14,000 page Omnibus Bill that made it through Congress in the fall.
Quiver said the camp has received attention from all over the world including the British Broadcasting Company and news sources in places like San Diego, New York City and Chicago.
"We're in all these big newspapers all across the country," he said. On the local and state level, Quiver said, "Every morning they wake up and see our protest camp."
He said the camp, likely to receive another month's permission to be on the island from the corps, is not going anywhere.
Quiver said, "It's at the point where they can't ignore it. They think, 'ignore them.' We're going to get cold and go home. They don't know how far from the truth that is."
The camp has served as a visual symbol of a protest backed by members of several tribes throughout the state, including some from Cheyenne River and Lower Brule. The Black Hills Sioux Treaty Council is also behind the protest, according to representatives' past statements. The protest hinges on the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 which campers have said is constitutionally supposed to supersede all subsequent laws.
Spokespeople from Sen. Tom Daschle's office and Gov. William Janklow's office, co-authors of the land transfer act, have said in the past that Supreme Court decisions have eroded many aspects of the treaty. They have said that the transfer is legal and in the best interest of citizens of the state including tribal members, whether beneficiaries of the transfer or otherwise.
Quiver said he believes the protest is gaining media support on a state, national and international level which can only aid the group's cause. He said he does not believe oversight hearings are out of the question down the road and that protesters will stay on the island as long as it takes.
sENATE cONTACT iNFO:
SOUTH DAKOTA JUNIOR SENATOR Tim P. Johnson (Democrat) Washington DC EMail Address: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Washington DC Web Address: http://www.senate.gov/~johnson/
[District Address - Aberdeen] P.O. Box 1554 Aberdeen, SD 57402 Phone: 605-226-3440 FAX: 605-226-2439 Toll-Free: 800-537-0025 [District Address - Rapid City] P.O. Box 1098 Rapid City, SD 57709 Phone: 605-341-3990 FAX: 605-341-2207 Toll-Free: 800-537-0025 [District Address - Sioux Falls] 715 S. Minnesota Avenue P.O. Box 1424 Sioux Falls, SD 57101 Phone: 605-332-8896 FAX: 605-332-2824 Toll-Free: 800-537-0025 [Washington DC Address] 502 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 Phone: 202-224-5842 FAX: 202-228-5765GOVERNOR WILLIAM [EMAIL PROTECTED]
SOUTH DAKOTA SENIOR SENATOR Thomas A. 'Tom' Daschle (Democrat) Washington DC EMail Address: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Washington DC Web Address: http://www.senate.gov/~daschle/ [District Address - Aberdeen] 20 Sixth Avenue SW, Suite B Aberdeen, SD 57401 Phone: 605-225-8823 FAX: 605-225-8468 Toll-Free: 800-424-9094 [District Address - Rapid City] 816 Sixth Street Rapid City, SD 57701 Phone: 605-348-7551 [District Address - Sioux Falls] 810 South Minnesota Avenue Sioux Falls, SD 57104 Phone: 605-334-9596 [Washington DC Address] 509 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510-4103 Phone: 202-224-2321 FAX: 202-224-2047
PRESIDENT: WILLIAM CLINTON
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (WHITE HOUSE FAX)
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (AL GORE)
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