Letter to Officials from Lakotas

Letter to officials
September 6, 2004

Dear Senators and elected officials,

We have reached a kind a lawlessness on the Pine Ridge Reservation that has not been equaled since the 70’s. We, the people, have exhausted all remedies to fix the situation. Our Executive Board refuses to meet with us. The Council runs away from us in a scandalous hide and seek game they play with poor people’s lives. Three times we have scheduled a time to meet with them. Three times they have cowardly run from us. They are scheduled to listen to the people and their problems, and they do not show up at their duty station. Any other employee would be fired on the spot..

It’s that political time of year again where all of you are looking for that Indian vote. I haven’t seen any of you looking too hard for the Indian problem. Yet, here you come to the reservation with your empty promises, with your pockets full of dollars to fling at the sell-outs, who eagerly await with outstretched fingers. Although you have been presented with some real problems, you felt it might offend you moneyed interests to listen to the people. Therefore you chose to turn your back on the real people.

You tell us you are working for our sovereignty. We know that is just another post-modern bullet you use to fire into full blooded Lakotas who you already have down for the count. We are not free, we are not equal, we have no place at the table. You don’t even throw us a few crumbs. Sovereignty is something you use to make yourself immune from prosecution for all your illegal and fraudulent activities. You make laws to protect yourself. You harm the people and you damage their lives with your laws. Then you tell us that is sovereignty.

It’s bad enough that you give us nothing, but you buy officials to oppress us, imprison us, silence us, ignore us, except at this time of year. You come like yapping poodles with your empty promises. When presented with a real problem, you can really wash your hands of the whole thing.

We need an immediate removal of judges here on the Pine Ridge Reservation, because these judges are using the law to commit crimes against the people. They break the Tribal Code, the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1968, the Tribal Constitution, and the U. S. Constitution with totally disregard to the law they were sworn to uphold, and the people whose rights they were sworn to protect. What happens when the Court views the People as the enemy? That’s when we have a fascist state. Which is what we have on the Pine Ridge Reservation; a totally lawless, fascist state, where thugs and greedy morons rule in some kind of terrorist police state.

We have judges making decisions without hearings, judges hand out long term jail sentences and excessive fines. The reservation jails were not intended to warehouse prisoners in facilities where there is faulty plumbing, and prisoners are fed only once a day, serving 2 years sentences for misdemeanors., which is cruel and unusual punishment for a minor offense. Like one Lakota elder said, “Janklow can get 100 days for killing a man, whereas our grandson is serving a 2 year sentence for a misdemeanor.” Court documents, evidence, and police reports frequently are lost or are altered or a fabricated. Police routinely carry out illegal orders. Police frequently beat, mace, and rape prisoners. Just yesterday, the police had another uncalled for, high speed chase of a vehicle through Pine Ridge village, which resulted in a 3 car accident with injuries and damage to vehiciles.

Many times we have come to you with our paperwork and documentation, only to have you lose it. Many times we begged you to listen to us, only to have you kick us aside like dogs. Now you come with your hand out for our vote. Like a dog, we slouched away. But, no more. We can’t even get a full forum of Council members to listen to the problem. We go to the Executive who says to go to the Committee. The Secretary looses our paperwork and refuses to put us on the agenda.

We have Council and Executive robbing the people and the programs. We have judges covering for them. We have prosecutors and Secretaries who destroy records and/or whitewash them. We have police committing felonious acts and getting by with it, because they are protected by the FBI. We have the FBI falsifying documents and getting Lakota males sent off to prison. We have the BIA pulling all kinds of fraudulent and land thieving acts, with a Superintendent who acts as a very secretive dictator, who can trump any decision. The BIA is the place where over half of Indian land has been lost.

We need real help and the freedom to help ourselves. Everytime we come to you with a real problem, you tell us we are sovereign, and you cannot help us. So, at this time of year, when you come to us for help, we will have to tell you the same thing—you are sovereign so we cannot help you.

Until you have some solutions for these problems, we don’t need to hear from you. The only solution at this point is to have an investigation of the criminal acts committed by officials, and have these officials prosecuted like any other criminal. Having exhausted all remedies through the Court, Council, Executive and the BIA, we now appeal our case to the higher power, the U.S. Justice department to ask them for help in restoring justice on the Pine Ridge Reservation, and that the real lawbreakers, the judges, police, Council, and Executive and individuals who have misused the law, will be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law of the land, the U.S. Constitution.

Should you wish to contact Cante Oyate, you may e-mail me at jlschmidt [at] gwtc.net. If you have some way you can help out, please contact us.
Sincerely yours,

Cante Oyate



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