And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
From: Pat Morris <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Published Saturday
September 11, 1999
Activist Defends Protests by Indians
BY ROBERT DORR
http://www.omaha.com/Omaha/OWH/StoryViewer/1,3153,217564,00.html
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
At two Nebraska villages - Whiteclay and Santee - American Indian activists have
risked possible jail terms "for trying to do the right thing," an Indian arrested for
protesting beer sales in Whiteclay said Friday.
Federal and state authorities have said their attempts to close a casino at Santee and
their arrests of Indian protesters at Whiteclay are necessary to uphold laws.
But it should be more important to do what is right, Frank LaMere, a Winnebago Indian
from South Sioux City, Neb., said at a Nebraska Associated Press meeting of managing
editors in Omaha.
"We want things to be better," LaMere said.
At Whiteclay in northwest Nebraska, across the border from the Pine Ridge reservation
in South Dakota, Indian activists have marched to protest the sale of large amounts of
beer. The protesters want "to sober up their people, to stop domestic abuse and to end
carnage on the highway" caused by the beer sales, he said.
During a July 3 march to Whiteclay from Pine Ridge, LaMere and eight other Indians
were charged with obstructing a police officer and failure to comply with a lawful
order. Both charges are misdemeanors.
The defendants are challenging Nebraska's jurisdiction in the case. They say the
Oglala Sioux have a legitimate claim to the Whiteclay land.
Experts from other states will testify that a turn-of-the century executive order
illegally removed Whiteclay from reservation land.
"This court case may cost the State of Nebraska a lot of money," LaMere said.
On the Santee Sioux reservation in northeast Nebraska, the tribe is running a small
casino to provide jobs for impoverished tribal members, LaMere said. "What have they
done that is so wrong? They want a better way of life."
The Santees have operated a casino most of the time since February 1996 without having
a gambling compact with the State of Nebraska, as required by federal law. In the
latest round in federal court in Omaha last month, lawyers staved off jail time for
the tribe's leaders when a judge refused to hold the leaders in contempt of court. But
further action by authorities against the tribal leaders is considered likely.
LaMere said he is frustrated that Indians never seem ultimately to prevail in their
battles, such as those at Whiteclay and at Santee.
"I'm 49, and I've finally realized things for my people are never going to change," he
said.
Recently, however, he was feeling depressed and in a Valentine, Neb., restaurant when
an elderly man walked in and gave a rose to an elderly woman there. In such gentle
touches is some hope, he said.
"There's a lot of ugliness on the reservation and in the country," said LaMere, who
works for a Kansas City, Mo., company that develops renewable-energy products for
tribes.
"We must find ways to foster understanding, to bring out truth, to bring people
together."
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