YUWITAYA LAKOTA is the newsletter of the Lakota Sovereignty
Organizing Committee, Bear Butte Council, P.O. Box 5686, Rapid
City, SD 57709. Ph:(605) 341-6492.
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Elders Jailed, Casino Opened
Lower Brule, SD
When Lower Brule Reservation Tribal Chairman Michael
Jandreau ordered the elders out of their community center so he
could begin remodeling the building that was used as an elderly
nutrition site and other community services into the Golden Buffalo
Casino, the elders dug in. They circulated a petition to gather
signatures protesting the tribal council's action and organized a
vigil to occupy the building twenty-four hours a day to keep the
construction crews from entering. Their plan was disrupted on
December 13 when the community center was surrounded by tribal
police in the early hours of the morning. The police hooked a chain
to one of their cars, pulled the locked door off and arrested six
elders and several other tribal members for occupying their own
recreational center. Fourteen people were arrested and released the
following day. Charges were made ranging from disobedience to
falsifying signatures on a petition.
Not only were these people protesting the loss of their
community center to a gambling casino, they were also protesting
the impact that a casino selling liquor that operated 24 hours
would have on the young people on the reservation. Both the
elementary school and the High School are in the same building
complex as the community center.
On January 13 when the elders were ordered to present their
case before the Tribal Judge, the judge was not present and the
charges were dropped. Ellen Wright, one of the elders who was
arrested, lost her job as the nutrition director for the triber.
Meanwhile, the community center was surrounded by BIA
police as construction crews remodeled the building. The Golden
Buffalo Casino, complete with more than 100 slot machines, and
blackjack and poker tables, opened its doors on February 29.
Orville "Red" Langdeau, a member of the Lower Brule tribal
council, said the casino would provide more than 100 jobs to an
area with painfully high unemployment.
"You wouldn't believe the excitement down here," Langdeau
said.
Garfield Grassrope, a Lakota Elder who helped to organize
the protest, looks at it differently and states it is just another
"genocidal move on the U.S. side." He believes the BIA elders works
right along with the U.S. Government and does not represent the
needs of the people and the community.
Grassrope said only the tribal council and their families
are excited. The majority of the community is opposed to the casino.
He is also concerned that they used the symbol of the buffalo, a
sacred animal in Lakota spirituality, as a name for the casino.
"This casino is against our spiritual ways. We will
continue to fight," Grassrope said. "We keep praying. Through
ceremony, spirit told us something will happen to these people. They
said it is too early to tell us what it is. I feel bad for those
guys. Something is going to happen. This whole system is corrupt."
The late Two Crows stated on an interview of the KPFK's
American Indian Airwaves in Los Angeles that the interest of the
BIA or financial speculators is not the same interest as for the
Indian people. According to Two Crows, what happened in Lower Brule
is a prime example of why the Lakota Nation separated from the
United States Government last July.
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Michele Lord * Walk in Peace with
milo@scicom.alphacdc.com * our Mother Earth
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