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The Oglala Sioux Tribal Executive Committee said Sunday it had retaken control of tribal headquarters at Pine Ridge, more than a year and a half after it was first occupied by protesters seeking reform of tribal government.
The committee took control of the Red Cloud Building at about 9 p.m. Saturday after discovering it had been abandoned, Vice President Theresa Two Bulls said in a news release Sunday afternoon.
Protesters calling themselves the Grassroots Oyate seized the headquarters Jan. 16, 2000. Leaders of that group said this past January, on the anniversary of the seizing, that they were ending their occupation in the reservation town in southwest South Dakota because they had brought about reform.
But a faction vowed to stay, arguing that tribal government had not changed enough since November's tribal election.
Two Bulls, Secretary Donna Solomon and Executive Director George Ghost Bear - all members of the executive committee - told tribal President John Yellowbird Steele of their decision to retake the building, according to the release, and he agreed with it.
Steele had said previously that tribal officials would not try to remove those remaining in the building. He could not be reached for comment Sunday.
Tribal police were securing the building Sunday, and the committee planned to move administrative offices back into the building after an inventory of equipment and documents.
State Sen. Ron Volesky, a Huron Democrat, said the weekend developments do not clear up the ongoing conflicts between traditional and tribal governments.
"I'm pleased there seems to have been some closure to the situation as far as the physical aspect of the takeover having ended," said Volesky, a member of the Teton Hunkpapa Lakota tribe affiliated with the Standing Rock Reservation.
"But the problems still exist with instability in tribal governments. There are legal and constitutional issues that have to be addressed in Indian country," Volesky said. "The unfortunate situation is that the people suffer when you have these warring factions in tribal governments."
The Pine Ridge building retaken by the executive committee will need renovations to return it to the state it was in before the takeover, the release stated.
"Many tribal members were asking the executive committee to reassume control of the building because scattered offices made it difficult for the people to conduct their business," Two Bulls said.
Some who had remained wanted a return to a more traditional form of government on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, one of the nation's poorest areas.
"We wanted our voice to be heard, but that's not happened. So we're going to keep the building," Guy White Thunder, one member of a group of elders who stayed, said in January. He could not be reached for comment Sunday.
The original protest led to a new tribal council and president, who took office in December, and to an audit of tribal finances.
Reached by phone Sunday, Chief Oliver Red Cloud said he was remaining neutral on the retaking of the headquarters by tribal government. He was not part of the faction that stayed in the building beyond January.
Two Bulls, meanwhile, urged all sides to unite to solve their problems. She said she plans to ask the council to honor the original protesters.
Solomon said protesters' concerns will still get attention.
"Our goal is to end corruption and make tribal government accountable to the people," she said.
Steele noted in the release that indictments of some former tribal officials had been handed down after a probe of Oglala Sioux programs.
Husband and wife Manuel and Sandra Fool Head recently pleaded guilty to bank fraud and conspiracy to commit larceny. Authorities say they misapplied more than $1,000 belonging to the Oglala Sioux Housing Authority and conspired to get bank loans by giving false statements.
Manuel Fool Head was a tribal council member when he was arrested.
The Fool Heads were among nine people charged a year ago with fraud involving tribal programs.
"The people who took over the building in January 2000 were very brave and set off a chain of events that will affect tribal government for years to come," Steele said in the news release.
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