The shadow of Wounded Knee hangs over much of the discussion. The Sioux were among the last to fight against American expansion into the West. In the dying days of 1890, their leader, Sitting Bull, was assassinated. About 120 of his followers along with 230 women and children took refuge at Pine Ridge, South Dakota, where they were surrounded by the US cavalry.

About 300 men, women and children were killed, along with 25 soldiers, mostly by their own shrapnel or bullets.

In the 1970s, the militant American Indian Movement reoccupied the site, leading to still more bloodshed, this time at the hands of the FBI and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

But that's just more of the hidden history of the National Parks development process.

Most of the national parks - Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Yosemite and Glacier - were created when the Roosevelt administration forced tribes from the land in the 1930s. Karl Jacoby, a professor of history at Brown University, said: "There weren't empty wilderness areas in the United States. They had to be created by the removal of Indians."

Lurking underneath this seeming good news is the reality that the Pine Ridge Rez is a third world country.  There are significant improvements since the 80% unemployment of the 70's, but:

Although Pine Ridge is the eighth largest reservation in the United States, it is the poorest reservation. Unemployment on the Reservation hovers around 20% and 49% live below the Federal poverty level.[1] Adolescent suicide is four times the national average. Many of the families have no electricity, telephone, running water, or sewer. Many families use wood stoves to heat their homes. The population on Pine Ridge has among the shortest life expectancies of any group in the Western Hemisphere: approximately 47 years for males and in the low 50s for females. The infant mortality rate is five times the United States national average. Reservation population was estimated at 15,000 in the 2000 census, but that number was raised to 28,000 by HUD, following a University of Colorado door-to-door study. [2]

While casinos are a sharp double-edged sword, the new casino on the Rez is providing both jobs and funds for a native-run health service.  (A short aside for Jerome:  the native radio station for the Rez is KILI-FM in Porcupine, SD.  It was run by Russell Means' brother, and they've both spent some time trying to get a wind turbine there so the FBI couldn't ever pull their power plug.  Sadly, it's something i never organized.)

But the return of a deserted portion of the Badlands, (they're called that because they're bad, though beautiful) is nothing to the controversy over the sacred Black Hills nearby.  The Paha Sapa (in Lakota) are the center of the universe for the tribes there, including the recent arrivals Lakota who drove out the previous tribes in the 1700's.  The Cheyenne have been there for 9,000 years according to the anthros, forever according to the People.

On July 23, 1980, in United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the Black Hills were illegally taken and that remuneration of the initial offering price plus interest -- nearly $106 million -- be paid. The Lakota refused the settlement, as they wanted the return of the Black Hills instead. The money remains in an interest-bearing account which now amounts to over $757 million, and in spite of their poverty the Lakota still refuse to take the money.[2]

I suppose this all underscores the reason i was so pissed by ATinNM's shit "joke" last weekend, and haven't commented since, as there was little reaction here.

Whatever happened to the hardy pioneering spirit that conquered a continent from Sea to shining Sea and pounded the Native American's red flesh back into the sand from whence it sprang?

I can still see the sad, withered faces of grandparents telling their stories of their kids being taken away to forced "Indian School," where their hair was cut and language forbidden until as late as the 50's.  Even today there are billions in BIA Trust Funds in dispute.

Cobell v. Norton is a class-action lawsuit filed on June 10, 1996, in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. to force the federal government to account for billions of dollars belonging to approximately 500,000 American Indians and their heirs, and held in trust since the late 19th century.

Through document discovery and courtroom testimony, the case has revealed mismanagement, ineptness, dishonesty and delay by federal officials, leading U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth to declare their conduct "fiscal and governmental irresponsibility in its purest form."
....
As a result of more than a century of malfeasance, the United States government has no accurate records for hundreds of thousands of Indian beneficiaries nor of billions of dollars owed the class of beneficiaries covered by the lawsuit. The suit encompasses approximately 500,000 Indian beneficiaries.
....
After a trial on Phase One - reform of the system - Judge Lamberth ruled on December 21, 1999 that the secretaries of Interior and Treasury had breached their trust obligations to the Indians. The court retained judicial oversight of the system for a minimum of five years, to ensure that it is overhauled, and ordered Interior to provide an historical accounting of all trust funds. An appeal by the government, arguing that the judge had overreached his authority, was unanimously rejected by a three-judge appeals court panel on February, 23, 2001.

Sigh.  Hopefully, as it's been a generation or so already, some of the hatred which spilled over from the FBI's Viet Era attack, complete with all the tanks and helicopters and surveillance and bullets and unsolved murders, on the Rez has died away some.  Lots of Lakota run around with FBI t-shirts, which of course stands for Full Blooded Indian.

Hokahe!

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin