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O'siyo Brothers and Sister!
The last issue of this newsletter (Vol 15,
Issue 19) included a story, "Tribe protests arrest of 11-year-old", that
described the shackling of an 11-year-old and detention in jail for
failure to appear in court as a witness. This week, the lead article,
"Mille Lacs Band Community outraged", describes the outrage felt by the
boy's tribe.
A couple of quick background notes are in order here.
The first thing you must understand is the 11-year-old "witness" was the
victim who was assaulted by another youth and shoved to the ground. Got
the picture?... a victim is further humiliated and degraded by the local
police by being detained and hauled before the judge shackled and in a
orange prisoner jump suit. (That'll be sure to teach a lesson in
compassion!)
The second thing you need to understand is this is absolutely about
another hostile rez "border town". There have been ongoing attempts to
encroach on tribal lands, a concerted attempt to disregard the Mille
Lacs Band's federal tribal status and other adversarial relationships
for a very long time.
This treatment of a child is absolutely outrageous, but let's go to why
it apparently happened and do a little "what if" journey into the future
and other places.
What if many neighboring towns who disdain Indians learn from this that
they can simply refuse to acknowledge the sovereignty of an adjacent
tribe's reservation or government, run roughshod over the tribal
citizens, and find that nobody can or will make them stop? That appears
to be going on here, and it's a foot in that door for other hostile
neighbors (and that's just about any community next to a rez) to go and
do likewise, or worse.
Every tribal nation needs to support the Mille Lacs Band and denounce
the mistreatment of this boy, and the disregard for the tribe. The sad
truth is failure to stop this sort of behavior in this place at this
time will very likely insure it will happen again, and the next incident
may be about your reservation and your tribal neighbor.
The band has asked the Minnesota Attorney General to intervene in the
case. If you would ike to encourage the appropriate action please send
your (clean, but heart felt) comments to the following:
Office of Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson
1400 Bremer Tower
445 Minnesota Street
St. Paul, MN 55101
(651) 296-3353
1-800-657-3787
TTY: (651) 297-7206
TTY: 1-800-366-4812
While you're at it, please include the Governor and Lieutenant Governor.
Governor Tim Pawlenty
and Lt. Governor Carol Molnau
Office of the Governor
130 State Capitol
75 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
St. Paul, MN 55155
Telephone: (651) 296-3391
Toll Free: (800) 657-3717
Facsimile: (651) 296-2089
E-mail: tim.pawlenty@state.mn.us
Dohiyi Ani Oginalii
Gary Smith (*,*)
wotanging@bellsouth.net
P. O. Box 672168 (`-') gars@nanews.org
Marietta, GA 30006, U.S.A. ===w=w===
http://www.nanews.org
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CONTENTS LIST OF ARTICLES IN
VOLUME 15, ISSUE 020
FOR ARTICLES GOT TO
WOTANGING IKCHE-Native American News
Editorial Section: . Abuse of Tribal Citizens
- Mille Lacs Band Community Outraged
- Racism Report Underscores Need for Rights Panel
- A Long Fall from Grace
- Arizona Tribes Threaten Suit Over Eagle Delisting
- Lakota Graduate Told to Remove Eagle Feather
- Virginia Tribes' Recognition Bill Passes House
- Judge Affirms Delta Smelt Ruling
- Tribes Need to Admit Meth is a Problem
- Columbus Critics Slam Dems, Ritter
- Spitzer, Senecas Meet as Friends
- Future of Navajo Rez Technology Looking Good
- Tribal Government can Both Help and Hamper Growth
- Residents Chastise Council Over Tribal Land
- Program Reintroduces Horses to Comanche
- A Special Day at Acoma
- Explosions Terrify Two Rocky Boy Women
- McCain Swears off Tribal Money
- Shadow Wolves Report Record Seizures of Drugs
- Shadow Wolves Seek More Recruits to Patrol Border
- Yellow Bird: How Do You Save a Culture?
- Killsback: Protecting Noavose
- Jodi Rave: Native Legal Advocates New Weapons
- Deer: Demanding Justice
- Giago: Indian Prophecies And Medicine
- ICT Editorial: The Emperors Have No Clothes
- Yellow Bird: Sickness Can Be Fate Worse Than Death
- A Plea from The Marshall Islands
- Victims Detail Devastating Impact of Sexual Abuse
- School Boards Accused of Unethical Tactics
- Two Face Charges, Including Shooting at Police
- Native Justice -- A 'Revolving Door' for Criminals on Navajo Nation
- Rustywire: Dancing with Spurs
- Verse: Hawaiian Book of Days
- Del "Abe" Jones Poems: Mother's Day
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"It is about time that our Navajo grandmothers
and grandfathers receive information in their home language."
"It is like a weaving; now that we have started, we are not going to
stop until the rug is finished and the rug is intricately designed from
all directions and in Navajo language." -- Leonard Tsosie, Navajo |