To the Editor, I humbly request your assistance in writing a newspaper column in the Native Sun News about our upcoming Cultural Conference and Pow wow in April. The column can cover culture behind bars, rehabilitation through culture and bring awareness to the criminal justice issues Native Americans face in South Dakota. For example, the 80 percent recidivism rate, high […]
2016-03-23
Transported to the land of freedom through song
To the Editor, On April 23, 2016, our brother and relatives inside the Jameson Prison in Sioux Falls will have a Pow wow and honor Chief Duane Hollow Horn Bear, Bill Means, Gabe and Diane Desrosiers, Mike and Denise One Star, Perry Little, Waziyatawin, Cyndi Weddell, Dr. Sherry Johnson, Crystal Owen and Jennifer Hudson. Our prisoners from the Pine Ridge […]
Altering history for the sake of a new nation
I’ve been spending a good portion of my time digging into historical events affecting “Indians.” I am not a history buff by any means but realizing that I am horribly lacking in terms of “Indian” history, I decided to remedy that. Also, I needed to know, at least for my own peace of mind, why our language and cultural ways […]
Technology distraction – a dinosaur perspective
Everyone who reads this column will realize that I am a dinosaur from an older “pre-cell phone era” and like it that way. But, I recently and reluctantly bought one at the urging of my cell-phone era children and other relatives who worry when they cannot get in contact with me, often for days when I take my monthly break […]
Wounds that can never heal
The power racism holds over childrenThere used to be a grade school just west of K-Mart in Rapid City, E.B. Bergquist elementary. Before it was torn down it was over 51 percent Lakota although in my day Lakota students comprised only a fraction of that total. There was a Fifth Grade teacher, Mrs. Mullin, and in a better world this column would be about what […]
Native Sun News interviews attorney Mario Gonzalez about Black Hills Claims Settlement
NATIVE SUN NEWS: It’s been 36 years since you filed the federal court case to stop the payment of the Black Hills Claim award to the Oglala Sioux Tribe. Many people who weren’t born or were small children then, are very misinformed about the Black Hills Claim. Can you explain the legal process that led up to the 1980 Supreme […]
Defense attorney fires back against GEAR-UP related charges
SIOUX FALLS (AP) –– The defense attorney for a Rapid City man facing felony charges from a financial investigation of South Dakota’s GEAR UP grant program argued Thursday that his client is a political scapegoat for a state and attorney general who allowed taxpayer dollars to be stolen. The investigation has resulted in charges against three people, including Stacy Phelps, […]
