And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Possible serial killer held in custody in White Clay, NE for the execution
style slayings of two Oglala Lakota men from the Pine Ridge Reservation.
These two deaths were the latest in a string of homicides in the area. The
FBI is investigating seven prior homicides in relation to these.
A rally and march has been called by AIM in support of justice for these
men whose bodies were found just south of the Pine Ridge Reservation just
over the Nebraska state line.
Background, rally information contact numbers in SD below.
BACKGROUND:
Rally to be held to protest deaths of two
Lakota near Pine Ridge
BY CARSON WALKER The Associated Press
http://www.journalstar.com/stories/neb/sto1
American Indian activists Russell Means, Dennis Banks and
Clyde Bellecourt plan to attend a rally Saturday at Pine Ridge, S.D., to
protest the deaths of two Lakota men, according to the rally organizer.
The bodies of Wilson Black Elk Jr., 40, and Ronald Hard Heart, 39, were
found June 8 in a culvert about 1 1/2 miles south of Pine Ridge near the
Nebraska border. They were reportedly last seen June 6.
Autopsies were performed last week in Rapid City, S.D., FBI Supervisory
Special Agent Mark Vukelich told the Scottsbluff Star-Herald this week.
"This is being treated as a homicide," he said, declining to release
details. "We're in major-league investigation mode on this. Our concern is,
as we interview people, we're not getting fed back information people got
from other sources or from the press.
"We're looking at all the possibilities and covering leads as they come up.
We're trying to keep an open mind to all possibilities." Vukelich said all
eight agents in the Rapid City office are working on the investigation.
Despite that, Tom Poor Bear, Black Elk's older half-brother and Hard
Heart's cousin, is organizing a rally Saturday to call attention to
numerous unsolved deaths on the reservation.
Poor Bear, 43, said Tuesday in a telephone interview that he has spoken
with Means, Banks and Bellecourt, and all three plan take part. The
activists were not immediately available to confirm their plans.
The rally is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. Saturday near the Pine Ridge
post office, Poor Bear said. Rally participants will march south, stopping
for prayers where the bodies were discovered, then continuing into
Whiteclay, Neb.
"I need to find justice for the murders of these two Lakota men. It is a
rally for justice. Me personally, I don't want it to be stuck in the back
of a file cabinet with "case closed' on it," said Poor Bear, sergeant of
arms for the Oglala Lakota Tribal Council.
"I was in Wounded Knee with Banks and Means. After we found out my brother
and cousin were brutally murdered, I had no alternative but to call on the
American Indian Movement." For years, Indian deaths along the Nebraska
border have gone unsolved, he said. Poor Bear helped identify Black Elk's
body, which he said appeared to have been severely beaten.
"I could go on about the people that were murdered around Sheridan County
(in Nebraska) and nobody has been arrested. I think we need to start
finding justice for our Indian people," Poor Bear said.
Because alcohol is not sold on the Pine Ridge Reservation, people usually
go across the border to nearby Whiteclay, he said.
The problem lies there, Poor Bear said.
"Our money made them rich, but yet we are treated with a lot of prejudice.
They respect our money, but they don't respect our Lakota," he said.
Sheridan County Sheriff Terry Robbins said his department has had no
reported cases of Indians being mistreated by store owners, Sheridan County
residents or even law enforcement agents.
"They're rumors, as far as I'm concerned," Robbins said Tuesday.
He also denies Poor Bear's suggestion that Indians are killed in Nebraska
and their bodies taken back to the reservation in South Dakota, which is
under federal jurisdiction.
"I don't know how many unsolved murders they have on the reservation,"
Robbins said. "We don't have any in Sheridan County, unsolved deaths, you
might say."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
UPDATE:
The deputy sheriff has been arrested in the execution style slaying of both
of these men. He is possibly responsible for the unsolved murder of seven
others. We demand that justice be done and that these deaths not go
unpunished...
To support the rally in a demand for justice by internet for those unable
to attend this march, letters may be sent via e-mail to:
Governor [EMAIL PROTECTED]
web mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Lt. Governor : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Attorney General's office email [EMAIL PROTECTED]
LOCAL MEDIA CONTACTS:
News Publisher Steve Hungerford [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Editor Steve Miller [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Day Time News [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Night News [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Star-Herald [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Alliance Times herald mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Grand Island Daily Independent
News Department
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] George Ayoub
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Barrett Stinson
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Tracy Overstreet
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sara Grell
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Amy Pointdexter
Your participation is most urgently requested..
Ish
AIM CALL TO JUSTICE:
Original message posted to FN list by Red Dawn:
Rally for Justice Saturday June 26, 1999 10:00 a.m. Billy Mills Hall
in Pine Ridge on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, SD
Support the struggle. The Indian Wars are not over. The American Indian
Movement, Denver is calling for all warriors and supporters for
Ron Hard Heart and Wally Black Elk of the Oglala Lakota Nation.
Both men were murdered execution style by a Nebraska Sheriff in White
Clay, NB. A town whose sole purpose is to destroy the Oglala People
through alcohol. A peace march from Billy Mills Hall in Pine Ridge to
White Clay, NB will take place on June 26, 1999 at 10:00 a.m. Scheduled
speakers include: Clyde Bellecourt, Dennis Banks, Russell Means and the
families of the victims.
A caravan will depart from the Texaco gas station at Colfax and Mariposa
at 7:30 p.m. on Friday June, 25 1999.
For more information concerning this event please contact: John Old Horse
enrolled Oglala Lakota Nation member #U-37439 Interim Director AIM-Denver.
303-825-3305.
Don't allow the deaths of our people to continue. We need your support.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
In SD, contact: Tom Poor Bear 605-867-5821: Dave Clifford 605-867-5428 or
KILI radio 605-867-5002.
