In other words, White supremacists are running amok. Undoubtedly, they believe their time has come for their race to reign supreme. They are reliving those days when their ancestors owned slaves just as their own White Christian God had ordained. There, I wanted to get that out of my system. Anyway, my article regards a similar situation here in my home district of Oglala.
Similar to the wild national scene, there is a significant amount of unconstructiveness here on the home front. For several decades, I have witnessed behavior that actually dissuaded our desires and hopes for our future. This situation has not accomplished anything for our prosperity as well as our posterity. As adults, we have an obligation to alleviate this situation for the sake of our children.
This undesirable behavior is widespread and multi-faceted. Following some research, I learned that a person’s anxiety or angst, irritability or bad temper and unnecessary aggressiveness are really symptoms from one’s unresolved trauma at an early age. Traumas unresolved makes for fixed toxic tendencies.
The majority of people her appear “normal” as they struggle to survive within this relentless poverty. I see an incredible amount of toxicity among a significant percentage of the district’s population. In fact, we had a small group of toxic people that “protested” a Tribal Council action back in 2012 and occupying our District Service Center building.
The general characteristics of a toxic person or group are an unwillingness or inability to take criticism, inconsistent lying, cliquishness (tending to form and use cliques), manipulation, intimidation and bullying, and narcissism (self-admiration). A toxic person or group can, if allowed to run rampant long enough, destroy organizational structures over time and disrupt an entire society.
This can include ignoring reputable protocols, rewarding loyalty, normalizing socially unacceptable behaviors (instigating internal strife) and by breaking down trust and eroding clear lines of authority. A toxic person’s more subtle and harmful influence is through what they do to the relationships between people around them.
The GOP is certainly reveling in these deviations within the legislative and executive branches of government. I saw this very same activity on the Tribal Council floor back in 1979-80 during my first term. I saw that things had not changed in 2008 during my second term and thus resigned within six months.
Anyway, all this is “water under the bridge.” We can’t change history but we can certainly learn from it. Even in war, strategists study combat actions and learn from them by eliminating tactics that didn’t work and are thus able to improve future operations. Also, older people are set in their ways and will not readily change.
What I hope to see is for those adults who are open-minded and upstanding to give our younger people an opportunity to build a solid path for our children and grandchildren to walk on. One way to accomplish this is to teach them what we have for government under this constitutional system. Our district can benefit greatly in the long run. It is that simple.
The current constitutional reform activity is the most positive thing to come out of “tribal” government in its 80-plus years of existence. The “tribal” Constitutional Reform Task Force has been trudging through this toxicity to get this done. Our Oglala Representatives have been doing their best to keep their constituents informed and have been doing a good job.
Their efforts are never acknowledged and their persons are never respected. Instead they are constantly vilified and chastised under this brazenly aggressive toxicity. As for the majority of the district voters, they appear indifferent as they do not attend our representative’s scheduled monthly meetings in the district. Instead the toxicity is always there dominating those meetings.
All of our district executive officers are young and they are constantly subjected to this toxicity since it is ever present. Our officers have endured this crushing but unnecessary toxicity but they are “hanging in there” and I commend them for it.
Regardless of the energy, intelligence, education, and maturity our current district leadership is offering, there is still the absence of formal education on “tribal” government, especially at the district level. There has been some discussion on this situation and a date was tentatively set aside for a day-long seminar regarding district government.
The date discussed was Sunday, February 18, 2018, from 9:00 to 4:00 at our local college center. I hope you come for the education. If you have a dislike for me, then I encourage you to come to terms with whatever it is that is causing your demeanor. I did not this toxic situation in our district. I am in favor of easing it out of the way so the rest of us can move in a direction that is beneficial to all.
I stand to be corrected but I don’t believe there is a textbook or even an educational institution in existence today that teaches the Indian Reorganization Act’s “constitutional” system of government, especially at the district level or even at the “tribal” level on the Pine Ridge.
I am inviting all young people to attend. I have been involved in district government since the mid-70s and have learned a lot. My desire to share this important information but if it does not happen, I have a lot of it on paper and will continue working to make it available to the public. There is not much more I can do to help our district.
(Ivan F. Star Comes Out, POB 147, Oglala, SD 57764; 605-867- 2448; matonasula2@gmail.com)
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