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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (July 6, 2006)
News from Indian Country Pdge 11 Sociologist wants more respect for American Indians in prison Arlee, Wash. (AP)—A soci ologist and University of Wash ington associate professor told the state Corrections Advisory Council the state prison system needs to respect American In dian culture and traditions to help rehabilitate female inmates. “Eliminate the repression of Native culture that goes on in the women’s prison,” said Luana Ross, a Salish who wrote a book critical of the prison system, based in part on her research at the Montana Women’s Prison more than a decade ago. “Let (American Indian) prayer leaders go into the prison,” she suggested at a meet ing Tuesday. “I witnessed a prison staff member that called Native religions ‘voodoo.’” American Indians represent 6 percent of the state’s popula tion, but comprise 17 percent of the state’s male inmates and 26 percent of female inmates. Ross suggested hiring female guard for night shifts and seek ing treatment instead of pun ishment for substance abusers. “If you are really serious about corrections, we need a focus on rehabilitation,” she said. “Prison is not doing (ad dicts) any good.” Ross’s research led to a book “Inventing the Savage: The So cial Construction of Native American Criminality.” Her niece, Lucy Leptich Cruz, 32, told the council that she was subject to derogatory remarks and abusive behavior while she served prison time on a drug charge. “I spent my whole life being proud of being Native,” Cruz said. “But it didn’t take very long (for corrections officials) to reverse that pride.” Corrections officials at the meeting were sympathetic to much of what Ross and Cruz said, but added that things have changed since Ross did her origi nal research in the early 1990s, and even since Cruz was in prison four years ago. Sen. Steve Gallus, D-Butte, who chaired Tuesday’s meeting in the absence of Lt. Gov. John Bollinger, noted that treatment centers that target meth addicts are being built, one in Boulder for women and one in Lewistown for men. He said a 50-bed “assess ment and sanction center” that is now within the women’s prison is being moved to a pri vate facility in Billings. In February, the state an nounced plans to hire a liaison between the prison system and Indian reservations as part of an effort to reduce the number of American Indians behind bars. The idea was modeled af ter one in Lethbridge, Alberta. The liaison would work with Anadarko Indian Center is searching for buyer Anadarko, Okla. (AP)—The manager of a 50-year-old American Indian memorial and tourist attraction is searching for someone to purchase the busi ness and preserve its history. George F. Moran, 71, has worked at Indian City USA since 1973 but says he’s ready to re tire. The park just south of Anadarko has been a well- known tourist attraction since 1955. Moran said he wants some one to purchase the tourist at traction and to make it a major tourist attraction again. The 198-acre park holds an Indian village that has life-size dwellings of seven Indian tribes, Indian dancers, a gift shop, mu seum and lodge, campground and an exotic game trail includ ing buffalo and antelope. The park represents the Kiowa, Caddo, Wichita, Apache, Paw nee, Pueblo and Navajo tribes. “We’ve had three serious groups interested in buying _ all local,” Moran said. “One is con sidering an offer. We had one developer make an offer, but it was turned down. They wanted to sell off the contents of the park _ the villages, the museum, the gift shop _ and carve it up for lots to build homes on. We don’t want that.” The park, which operates on a budget of $140,000, was first offered for sale in 2004 for $3 million when the park’s 230 shareholders voted to sell the business. Moran said Indian City USA used to get about 160,000 visi tors each year, but now the num bers have dwindled to between 50,000 and 60,000 visitors an nually. Attendance began to drop in 1985, and money for major improvements has be come virtually nonexistent. Moran’s late father, George C. Moran, helped build Indian City USA in 1955 with the help of a group of anthropologists from the University of Okla homa. The elder Moran man aged Indian City for 18 years before passing it off to his son. Moran said he has children and grandchildren, but that they all are taking different career paths. “What would Anadarko be like without Indian City?” Moran said. ‘Well, I don’t want to think about it, really.” Anadarko City Manager Rob ert Williamson feels the same way. “We’re known worldwide as the Indian capital of the world,” Williamson said. “Indian City is certainly a big part of that legacy. It’s a landmark and has been so for a number of years. Person ally, I’d like to see the city buy it and maybe work with the state to turn it into a state park. There is certainly some historic value there, and that would allow us to tap into grants and such to make improvements.” Indian City USA is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Crazy Horse sculptor’s wife runs the memorial at 80 Crazy Horse Memorial, S.D. (AP)—When Ruth Ross married sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski in 1950, her husband’s vow also became hers: to honor American In dians by carving the likeness of Sioux warrior Crazy Horse into a granite moun tain in the southern Black Hills. That promise is why Ruth Ziolkowski, who turned 80 on June 26, is now in charge of the world’s largest moun tain carving—one that is still being carved out after more than half a century. She didn’t set out to run a multimillion-dollar operation that spans a 1,000-acre com plex, draws more than a mil lion visitors a year and em ploys 176—including seven of the couple’s 10 children and several grandchildren. But after her husband’s death in 1982, Ziolkowski felt she had to carry through on his commitment. “It’s not a one-person deal. I’m the one that gets all of the accolades and all of the glory and it doesn’t need to be that way,” Ziolkowski said. “This is a team effort. It wouldn’t be here if we didn’t have a lot of great people.” June 25 marked the 130th anniversary of the battle that made Crazy Horse famous. On June 25, 1876, the Oglala Sioux war chief led the attack by hun dreds of Sioux and Cheyenne warriors against Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer’s 7th Cavalry, killing Custer and more than 200 of his troopers at the Battle of Little Bighorn. The former Ruth Ross grew up in West Hartford, Conn., and met Korczak Ziolkowski, a self-taught sculptor, when she was 13. In the late 1940s, she came to the Black Hills with other young people who vol unteered to help him start Crazy Horse. He took on the project at the invitation of Lakota Chief Henry Standing Bear, who was prompted by Gutzon Borglum’s carving of Mount Rushmore, 17 miles northeast of where the Crazy Horse Memorial would be built. “He decided it would be well worth his life carving a moun f- • •*>' **£«!«* •'‘ ■3 '»> r*;- tain, not just as a memorial to the Indian people,” Ziolkowski said of her hus band. “He felt by having the mountain carving, he could give back some pride. And he was a believer that if your pride is intact you can do anything in this world you want to do.” Ruth Ziolkowski’s main role early on, besides raising the children, was hosting visi tors. After her husband’s death, she took over as leader and made some bold deci sions. One of the first was to carve Crazy Horse’s face before carving his horse. The massive, lifelike face was dedicated in 1998, the 50th anniversary of the first blast. There is no prediction for how long the project will take to complete. “You get out of this life what you put into it. It all comes around in a circle. The Indians believe that, and you see it when you get to be 80,” Ziolkowski said. “There are lots of things that you did to someone else that comes back to you—and good or bad.” -JÎU Indians charged with crimes, to help them better deal with the courts and corrections process and understand their rights and options to negotiate lesser sen tences. The state interviewed six can didates and is down to two fi nalists, corrections officials said. The liaison will be based in Great Falls, working with Indians charged with crimes from Cas cade, Glacier, Hill, Liberty, Phillips, Teton and Toole coun ties. Fort Belknap Tribal President Julia Doney said the liaison po sition “will give us hope that our enrolled members will get a fair shake.” Ross said later she was heart ened to hear about new prison programs that incorporate Na tive values and practices. Corrections officials invited her to return to the prison to talk to inmates again. Warhawk logo revealed atULM Monroe, La. (AP)—The Uni versity of Louisiana at Monroe has unveiled its new Warhawk logo that replaces the longtime Indian mascot tossed out by the NCAA. The logo was revealed Mon day at the Fant-Ewing Coliseum where a black tarp was pulled back to reveal the Warhawk painted at center court. “I’m really impressed,” Dee Martindale, 1987 graduate, said. “I wasn’t so sure about the change at first. I didn’t want to get rid of Indians, but since we had to do it, I’m pleased with what we’ve got.” “I thought we got a good re action,” ULM President James Cofer said. “We’ll see how much people really like it now by how much merchandise begins to move.” Kelsey Bagwell, manager of the university bookstore, esti mated that $3,000 worth of shirts, hats, and other merchan dise was sold in the hour that it was available at the temporary stand the store set up inside the coliseum. Last August, the NCAA ruled that mascots and nicknames of ULM and 17 other schools were “hostile and abusive” and that those schools would not be al lowed to wear their uniforms depicting those images in NCAA postseason events. Spilyay Tyrooo July 6, 2006 Beer blockade stalled; tribal police, activists to talk Pine Ridge, S.D. (AP)—After arguing on a dusty road that serves as the Nebraska-South Dakota boundary, two American Indians agreed Wednesday to try to find ways to stop the flow of beer from tiny Whiteclay, Neb., to the dry Pine Ridge In dian Reservation. The agreement negated a planned blockade aimed at stop ping reservation residents from bringing in beer bought at four stores in Whiteclay. Members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe who planned the blockade and James Twiss, act ing police chief on the reserva tion, said they would try to meet— possibly as early as Thursday. Mark Vasina of Nebraskans for Peace, an activist group that has tried to end alcohol sales in the border town, said the day did not end like he thought it would but that he was pleased with the outcome. “I think this is a success be-* cause we got a commitment from the new police chief to deal with the problems of ille gal alcohol sales,” Vasina said. Sheridan County, Neb., Sher iff Terry Robbins had a differ ent take on the event: “Waste of time,” he said. The episode was just intended to draw me dia attention, he said. Alcohol is banned on the 16,500-member reservation. But four stores in Whiteclay sell an estimated 4 million of cans of beer every year, mostly to Indians. The stores have been a source of tension for years, and tribal . -? members have tried to y .:yf-; p >• • VM'tiV'l ' ft '-pH r y ,>j stop alcohol sales in Whiteclay through the courts, the county and the state licensing board. Twiss told blockade organizer Duane Martin Sr. of the Strong Heart Civil Rights Movement that his officers could not allow the blockade because of safety concerns if a motorist chose not to stop. Twiss said it was not clear whether the blockade would vio late the constitutional rights of people against illegal searches arid seizures. “A person’s vehicle is their property,” Twiss told Martin. Allowing the blockade would invite liability issues, Twiss said. “I’ve just got to make sure that we’re covered legally,” he said. “If someone decides not to stop, we’re going to be respon sible.” “Whose side are you guys on?” Martin asked Twiss. “Don’t try to make me be the bad guy,” Twiss said. Martin, who said he took on the blockade issue at the request of his people, kept pleading his case with Twiss, who grew up on the reservation and acknowl edged he drank illegally in Whiteclay as a teenager. For years the police depart ment has not done enough to go after bootleggers who buy large quantities of beer in Whiteclay and then distribute it on the reservation, Twiss said. He said his department doesn’t have the money or manpower to do more. He vowed to work with Mar tin and others to find some way to ease the problem. At least a dozen law enforce ment vehicles were parked nearby. Tribal officers lined the gravel road, and just to the south, Nebraska State Patrol and Sheridan County officers stood by on the state highway going into Whiteclay. A tribal police officer gave cold water and sports drinks to the other officers, who were in the hot sun. It appeared that fewer than a dozen people showed up to support the blockade. More than a dozen reporters and pho tographers also were on hand. Blockade supporters had said they didn’t plan to arrest any one but would confiscate any beer purchased in Whiteclay. The plan was to set up check points just inside the reservation. Volunteers in Whiteclay planned to use radios to tell checkpoint workers which vehicles should be stopped and searched for beer. , Sheriff Robbins pH said , n he ■. ; doubted the blockade’s legality because even if alcohol is banned on the reservation, it’s still illegal to take it from some body else. And anyone in Whiteclay radioing the descrip tion of vehicles to people at a blockade would be considered aiding and abetting a theft, Robbins said. “It’s still against the law to take anything from anybody,” he said. Republican U.S. House can didate Bruce Whalen of Pine ridge stopped by the gathering on his way to get his mail. He said the focus should be getting people off alcohol and getting them jobs because they’ll just go somewhere else for beer. “This is a dependent society, and we need to remove that de pendency,” Whalen said of gov ernment programs that provide most of the income on the res ervation. No problems yet as casino adds alcohol MISSION, Ore. (AP)—Beer and fighting can mix. The Wildhorse Resort & Ca sino, which only recently started serving alcohol, hosted the “Clash at the Casino” on a Sat urday night last month. A well- behaved crowd of about 1,000 turned out for the beer and a program of competitive mixed- martial arts fighting. Despite the presence of al cohol, all of the punching and kicking was restricted to the ring—though a few fans were asked to leave after using too much foul language toward the end of the event. The Umatilla Indian Reservation’s governing board of trustees voted last year to allow alcohol consumption at the casino. The board acted out of con cern that the dry casino was los ing business to bars and taverns that feature video poker slot «iz machines from the Oregon State Lottery. A proposed casino in the Columbia River Gorge would bring even stiffer competition. Charles Denight, public rela tions manager for Wildhorse, said the recently initiated prac tice of serving alcohol is all about providing customer ser vice, and it levels the playing field with local bars. “If you don’t have the drink ing part, they won’t come,” he said. ‘We think this adds a lot to the patrons’ enjoyment.” D enight said W ildhorse wanted to draw the under-35 crowd, a demographic that likes beer and was in abundance Sat urday night. Cassie Gordon of Pendleton, who attended the show, said having alcohol available was “definitely a perk.” Denight said Wildhorse serv ers and many managers—in- cluding himself—went through alcohol server training required by the Oregon Liquor Control Commission. Managers went through the training in order to provide support for servers, he said. D enight said W ildhorse plans on having wine tastings of regional wines, some of which are served in the restau rant. Some places, however, will remain off-limits for alco hol, such as Tamastslikt Cul tural Institute. The casino opened in 1994 and has becom e one of Umatilla County’s biggest em ployers. Three percent of the casino revenue goes to local nonprofit agencies, schools, libraries, cul tural and environmental groups through the Wildhorse Founda tion under an agreement with the state.
