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
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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.”
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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
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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
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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.