And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: link provided by Mary,..thanks..:) Governor crosses state, cultural lines with Pine Ridge leaders by Joe Kafka - The Associated Press http://www.journalstar.com/stories/rav/sto8 Governor crosses state, cultural lines with Pine Ridge leaders BY JOE KAFKA The Associated Press After visiting the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation Tuesday, Gov. Mike Johanns announced he would create a state group to resolve problems in the troubled Nebraska-South Dakota border area. The reservation is just north of Whiteclay, a Nebraska town of 22 residents where four stores sell more than 4 million cans of beer each year, primarily to reservation residents. Alcohol sales are illegal on the reservation. Johanns said the state group, to be formed in about a month, would try to resolve disputes "so we don't have a flashpoint again." A march from the reservation to Whiteclay three weeks ago, intended to draw attention to the unsolved murders of two men on the reservation, ended with the looting of a Whiteclay grocery store. Another protest the following weekend was peaceful. The governor's group will include Winnebago Tribal Court Judge Kenneth J. Vampola, Johanns said in an interview Tuesday evening after returning to Lincoln. Other members will be western Nebraska elected officials, such as county commissioners, and people recommended by Oglala Sioux Tribal President Harold Salway. Tuesday was Johanns' second meeting with tribal officials but his first visit to Pine Ridge. About 100 people walked from Pine Ridge, S.D., to meet Johanns in Whiteclay. He then walked with them about a quarter-mile to a makeshift tipi and tent camp just inside the South Dakota border. The governor had expected a meeting with a handful of tribal officials. Instead, marchers presented him with several demands -- the immediate closure of the four Whiteclay stores that sell beer, return of Whiteclay to the reservation, a civil rights office in Sheridan County and an investigation into alleged civil rights violations. The governor said he had no power to deal with treaty issues raised by Indians but said he would put tribal leaders in contact with those who could help. "I believe it's always best not to promise what I can't deliver on," Johanns said. Some of those who met with Johanns also said a federal law prohibits alcohol sales so close to a reservation. Neither Johanns nor U.S. Attorney Tom Monaghan, who traveled with the governor Tuesday, knew of such a law. "It's news to me, but I assure you I will go research it," Monaghan said. Johanns pledged to investigate any reports of illegal alcohol sales in Whiteclay. "I can't act on rumor or innuendo," Johanns said Tuesday evening. He said he is not asking Indians to investigate liquor violations, but he would like them to let him know about any violations they see. The violation tribal representatives complained about most, Monaghan said, was the sale of alcohol to intoxicated people. "If that's true, then those (liquor) licenses could be in jeopardy," he said. Some Indian leaders have suggested one solution to the Whiteclay beer-sales problem would be for tribes to take back part of northern Nebraska. They say an 1868 treaty and an 1889 federal act indicate that all pine-covered ridges in the area are part of the reservation, including those that extend into northern Nebraska. "I want to see a document that says this belongs to Nebraska," Chief Oliver Red Cloud, a traditional Oglala leader, told Johanns. "There's just a little piece of land here we have a big problem with." Tom Poor Bear, who has helped organize protests of Whiteclay, told Johanns that alcohol sales were not the only problem in the small Nebraska town. He said prostitution by Indian women and alcohol sales to minors troubled Pine Ridge residents, too. "The money is respected, but we're not," Poor Bear told the governor. <<end excerpt Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ UPDATES: CAMP JUSTICE http://shell.webbernet.net/~ishgooda/oglala/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
