[A-List] FW: Lewis and Clark re-enactment protest

["Craven, Jim" <JCraven@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Mr. Omahkohkiaayo-I'poyi-inna,

I wanted to pass this press release onto you in case you had not seen it

yet.  Perhaps it is something to read on your show on KBOO.

Courtney Hermann
www.prairiedustfilms.com

Lewis and Clark 'genocide re-enactors' told to turn around

Lewis and Clark opened the door to the holocaust of the West

CHAMBERLAIN, S.D. - The American lie of Lewis and Clark unraveled as
Lakota, Ponca and Kiowa told re-enactors to turn back downriver or face
the consequences.

"What they wrote down was a blueprint for the genocide of my people. You
are re-enacting something ugly, evil and hateful," Carter Camp, Ponca,
told the Discovery Expedition camped on the Missouri River. On Saturday,
Sept. 18, an Indian delegation of elders, supported by young Indian
warriors, gave the expedition three days to go home and a stern warning.
If they did not turn around, they would call on all Indians who are not
assimilated, colonized and conquered to join them and to 
stop the expedition.

"You are re-enacting the coming of death to our people," Camp told the
expedition, while seated in a circle with Indian elders and Lewis and
Clark re-enactors, on the banks of the Missouri River."You are
re-enacting genocide.""We are the descendants of Red Cloud and Crazy
Horse," Lakota elder Floyd Hand told the expedition. "I didn't come here
in peace." Hand said they would not smoke the pipe today and if the
expedition continues downriver, the families of the expedition members
would suffer the spiritual consequences of small pox.

Referring to the tribal governments who welcomed the expedition, Hand
said those tribal governments reflect the same type thinking as the re-
enactors and are not the voice of the grassroots people. "The tribal
governments are not a voice for us. They are imitating us, like you are
imitating Lewis and Clark.""We want you to turn around and go home,"
Alex White Plume, Lakota from Pine Ridge, told the expedition White
Plume said Lakota are here on this land for a reason."We were put here
by the spirits." He said the Lakota never lost their language or
ceremonies and now they are making these requests: 
Lakota want their territory back, their treaties to be honored and to
continue their healing ways.White Plume said many Indian people have
become assimilated and colonized."We pray for our own colonized people.
We say they are in a prison in the white man's world."

White Plume said there was no point in the expedition coming here. "All
you did was open up these old wounds."Carter Camp warned the expedition
to halt or they would be stopped. He said the expedition has been told
lies and are spreading lies. Lewis and Clark is apart of the American
lie. "They had no honor. They came with the American lie. They murdered
60 million people."

Camp said Lewis and Clark said they came in peace. Referring to their
costumes, Camp said, "You guys probably believe that lie. That is why
you are dressed so funny today."

He said Lewis and Clark knew what happened to Indians in the eastern
part of the country and they knew that the missionaries followed the
soldiers. And it was the missionaries who left his people as remnants,
homeless in the streets.

Camp said the young warriors would not be as patient as the elders
seated in the circle. He also questioned whether the re-enactors had
asked permission of the grassroots Indian people to come onto their
territory."You chose to come amongst us without permission."

Camp said Sacagawea was a woman struggling to return home.  "We feel
sorry for that woman. We don't like the way she was treated." Camp said
Indians here did not like the first Lewis and Clark and they sure don't
like the second ones."Take those silly clothes off and come back dressed
like a normal human being. Don't come here to tell me what your
grandfather did to my grandfather."

Referring to the re-enactors "silly clothes," Camp said of the Natives
who came, "This is the way our people dress everyday. We are not trying
to play a game.""Go home and try to re-enact some truth for the rest of
your life." Alex White Plume said all that is good is being destroyed on
the Earth because of actions like these."Our people are dying because
our water is no good," he said, adding that the wolves and bears are
disappearing from the territory. Lakotas have to pay fees to go the
Black Hills to pray. "Today I can not even go up to the Black Hills to
worship. We believe everyone should have access to spirituality."

He said buffalo were once the basis of the ecosystem. Now, he said, "The
whole West is drying up."The Earth should be a priority and not your own
personal needs." Referring to the red, white and blue flag flying over
one of the three boats 
docked along the Missouri River, White Plume said, "We want that flag
taken down. We honor that flag because we won it at the Little Big
Horn." He said the flag could be given back, if their treaty was honored
and sacred lands preserved.
"We would like to ask you to turn around and not to proceed into our
territory. We didn't bring our bows and arrows, but we will continue to
harass you."

Alfred Bone Shirt of Rosebud told the expedition, "This is disgusting.
This is a slap in the face."Bone Shirt said the Lakota are a people who
never quit fighting for what they believe in. "If you decide to go up
river, it is bad, bad for you and bad for your families."

Bone Shirt listed the town of Chamberlain in a long list of racist South
Dakota towns. He described the testimony of the Indian Child Welfare Act
on KILI Radio the previous day, testimony of Lakota children being taken
away in large numbers and given to non-Indian families.

"Our prisons are full, our children are being taken away." Pointing out
the absurdity of the re-enactment, Bone Shirt asked if there would be a
re-enactment of Bush and Cheney invading Iraq."If you go up this river,
we have good warriors who can shoot arrows. Bone Shirt was ready for
action. "Let's sink some of those boats out here." Bone Shirt pointed
out that the Indian people knew what the re-enactors were thinking.

"When we leave, they will laugh behind our backs."And Bone Shirt said
Indians here know this type of racism."The state of South Dakota is the
most racist state and South Dakota condones this kind of behavior. We
want you to know, it has to end here." Russell Means said if the
expedition continues up the river, the Blackfeet are waiting for them.

Means said Lewis and Clark, like the myth of Columbus, is all apart of
the great American lie.
And there are many parts to the great American lie."Even the casino
Indians are not rich, that is another falsehood. They 
don't ever see cash," Means said, adding that the money goes to
investors and also to the state for taxes, which is illegal. Means said
Indians can't even start a business on tribal land without waiting an
average of eight years, and then it is only if the paperwork isn't lost.
 
"What you are perpetuating is part of the big lie," Means told the re-
enactors. Means said Indians have 40 percent of the nation's natural
resources on their lands, yet they are kept in concentration camps
called reservations and not allowed to participate.

"This is our river," Means said of the Missouri River running past. He
pointed out the water is being used by farmers, cities and power plants
without the permission of Indian people. "They don't honor anything.
This is an insult to our integrity." While there is no Bureau of Irish
Affairs or Bureau of other groups affairs, the Bureau of Indian Affairs
remains an instrument of genocide. On Pine Ridge, the average lifespan
is 44 years. "We are middle-aged at 22."

As Indians arrived at the Chamberlain park on the river, there were
three police and Sheriff units waiting at the entrance.
Hand told the group there was no need for the police to be sneaking in
the bushes and taking photos; they could do it in the open. "That is
what the federal government does."

Hand said white people are always looking for identity and always
taking. He told the re-enactors to find out who they are and live who
they are. Peyton "Bud" Clark, great, great, great-grandson of Clark,
thanked them for being open and candid. "We will be honest with you." He
said the expedition was called a commemoration because it was not a
celebration.

Clark said people in the eastern United States know nothing about Indian
people and it is nearly impossible to go to a library and find out any
truth about American Indians. Clark said he saw the expedition as a way
of listening to Indian people along the river. "What we did was create a
catalyst for open and honest dialogue for the healing to begin," Clark
said. "All you need to have is an open mind and an open heart and engage
in an open and honest dialogue." Clark also said their "funny clothes"
cost a lot of money.

Although Clark said the re-enactors were volunteers and were not paid,
Lakota and Ponca said white people never do anything without being paid.
They pointed out the expedition had received $85 million in funds, while
the Lakota, the poorest of people, had to pay their own way here to 
stop them.

Responding to re-enactors who defended the expedition as a means of
education, Camp asked, "Would it be all right if these guys were dressed
in sheets like the Ku Klux Klan? "Do you know that Clark would not free
his slaves?" One Native woman, Wicahpi Wakia Wi, came forward and said
she was ready to fight for her people. "I believe in armed struggle. The
act of genocide stops here. We are tired of living poor. We are not
afraid to die. I am willing to die. She said the expedition would not be
allowed to go any further. "You are not going on. I will organize every
sister from here to Oregon to 
stop you." One of the Native youths, Ahmbaska, spoke of the tribes who
had become extinct, their languages and cultures lost forever, and the
women and babies murdered by the U.S. military. "They stomped their
heads to save bullets."

Speaking directly to the re-enactors, he said, "This is not a show, this
is our hearts." His people, the Missouri, were exiled to Oklahoma. "My
people have never seen this Missouri River which was named after us."
Now, he said, on Rosebud, people are dying from the whopping cough.

Lewis and Clark were the beginning of the end in the West. "They came
and they took and they conquered. That is what you are re- enacting," he
said. Deb White Plume said for Lakota, it is a spiritual journey to halt
this expedition. She reminded the expedition of the diseases brought by
the invaders.

She presented Clark with a blanket, she said, "Small pox. Have it back."
Clark accepted the blanket cautiously.
White Plume chastised Clark and the other re-enactors for the tone they
addressed the Indians present with. "You are patronizing us, you are
condescending to us." She said their tone of voice said they were going
on up the river no matter what. "You hurt us. We don't want you here."

White Plume said she has only two children because she was sterilized
against her wishes. "I have two sons because your government sterilized
me." "Your government fought my family with guns and I survived and I am
here to tell you about it."
She said Lewis and Clark and those that followed "were the original
terrorists on this continent."

Pointing out they were surrounded by law enforcement, she said,  police
always surrounds Lakota. She said to the expedition, "You are here with
no respect." White Plume said they could not allow the expedition to
continue up the 
river to their sacred Sun Dance grounds. "How can you willingly want to
trample on anyone's sacred grounds?"


>From Jim C. (Omahkohkiaayo i'poyi)