Sioux Split on Suit Seeking Money for Black Hills.

[elleng]

Source: NYT/AP

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- The Sioux were driven from the majestic Black Hills more than 130 years ago in a series of battles that included Gen. George Custer's defeat at Little Big Horn, but some haven't given up the hope of getting back their sacred ancestral land.

Others say it's a pipe dream to think that the rugged land in southwestern South Dakota will be given back to them and last week filed a federal lawsuit seeking money.

The dispute has split the eight Sioux tribes. Some 5,000 tribal members have signed up for the class-action lawsuit, but just 19 plaintiffs are listed because many others live on reservations and fear retribution, said lawyer Wanda L. Howey-Fox of Yankton.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/04/23/us/AP-US-Black-Hills-Lawsuit.html

[xchrom]

1. it's land that should go back to them. nt

[LostinVA]

2. "Sioux" is the "White Man's" term

I have friends on Pine Ridge, and it drives me nuts whenever I see this term in a legit media source.

Lakota for the overall term, and then whatever "group" they belong to (ie Oglala).

[uppityperson]

3. Me too. Lakota is the name, not the wasicu's "sioux". Clips from the article...

"Some 5,000 tribal members have signed up for the class-action lawsuit, but just 19 plaintiffs are listed because many others live on reservations and fear retribution, said lawyer Wanda L. Howey-Fox of Yankton."


"But Charlotte Black Elk, who has been active in traditional native issues including the Black Hills, said she would never consider taking money for the Black Hills, which the Sioux hold sacred. ''To take the money would bless the theft,'' said Black Elk, who lives on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation."

"The U.S. Supreme Court in 1980 upheld a lower court ruling that awarded eight Sioux tribes $106 million in compensation, the 1877 value of $17.5 million plus interest. The justices said the government had to pay for taking the tribal property. But all the Sioux tribes have refused to take the money, insisting instead on the return of the land."

[Igel]

4. Eh.

It's an exonym. They're common as dirt, and inoffensive unless you're of a mind to be offended.

Some are trivially distinction from self-appellations. So "amerikanets" in Russian is fine; I personally object to "anglo", but find that nobody really cares. Most Chinese don't call themselves anything close to "Chinese", though, which is fine. Of course, mei guo ren (IIRC) doesn't sound much like "American".

I personally find them useful in a lot of cases, esp. when there's not a one-to-one correspondence between endonyms and exonyms. For example, "Eskimo" is more generic than any name that indigenous peoples around the Arctic circle give themselves. "Inuit" works as a p.c. equivalent in Canada, but not for Alaska where a lot of Eskimos aren't Inuit. Try calling a Mexican "Salvadoran" and see where it gets you.

Same for the Sioux. All Lakota are Sioux, but not all Sioux are Lakota. I really don't care about the various namings they've given themselves since the group-internal distinctions, while important internally, don't matter at my distance. Rather like not insisting on "Sorb" when "German" will do, or letting the distinction between "German" and "Luxembourger" lapse when "European" will do. I don't even care if "Sioux" really is a truncation of an Odawa Ojibwe exonym for the Sioux or not.

[azndndude]

5. Lawsuit would let Sioux take money for Black Hills

Source: Rapid City Journal

Lawsuit would let Sioux take money for Black Hills

Read more: http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2009/04/23/ap-state-sd/d97ntcmg3.txt

---

The USA "Beacon of justice to the world? Not in its own back yard"

[CountAllVotes]

6. they have been trying to get the Sioux to take money for years

and the story remains the same - THE BLACK HILLS ARE NOT FOR SALE AND CANNOT BE SOLD!

Another big f/u coming soon guaranteed!

:kick:

[SpiralHawk]

7. "We don't want no steenkin devalued moneybucks" - Lakota

"We want the USA to honor the legally binding treaties they signed with us -- for once" - Lakota

Nota Bene: The US Goverment has broken or violated EVERY SINGLE LEGAL TREATY it has ever entered into with the First Peoples of this land -- a stunning record of immorality, illegality, and faithlessness That's a fact - check it out

This faithlessness and lawlessness has a karmic cost -- ultimately -- a steep cost -- Broken Vows have consequences

[winyanstaz]

8. This is just bullshit...

unless you put the whitehouse up for sale..oops wait...too late..its already been sold.
Well maybe if you put the vatican up for sale...oops wait..they sold out the world already...
Well gosh..guess this holy land is NOT FOR SALE AT ANY PRICE!
What part of this land is SACRED to the Native Americans don't people get?

[newfie11]

9. The Lakota also tried to stop alcohol near Bear Butte

How did that go?

They were going to secede last year and take the Black Hills. I never heard what happened there.

Personally I think they would be wise to take the money.

[Ilovevermont]

10. Lawsuit would let Sioux take money for Black Hills

It is difficult to find an analogy in American culture to this situation. The Black Hills are sacred. Period. What part of that don't we get? The traditional Lakota people call the Hills "the heart of our home and the home of our heart." There is ancient knowledge there connecting the Lakota people, the Hills, and the stars. There is no amount of money in the world to tempt the old ones and even the young who know this.
I am not Lakota but have Lakota relatives and know that the only right solution is a return of the Hills to the Lakota people. In the poorest county in the USA, on the reservation at Pine Ridge, I have never met anyone who follows the old ways who would accept such a sale. Those who push for this would destroy the people and the culture. I don't speak for anyone, but I do know what I have heard and seen.

[Codeine]

11. They'll never get the Black Hills back,

so they might as well take the cash. I'm sure they could use it, and the 5,000 tribal member who have signed up to take the cash seem to agree.

I don't give a shit about Christian or Muslim notions of "sacred," so what makes Native religious traditions somehow more valid? That part of the argument just seems silly to me.

[Ilovevermont]

12. Black Hills

I guess the notion that indigenous people have held about the earth as mother and all land and life as sacred seems silly to some too. There are places that are special, though, and that has nothing to do with the biographies of human beings.
Whatever your religious outlook, if you cannot understand that the natural world is the real world, shove the money, then you won't understand so much of what native people have suffered. In the end, though, we may learn that you cannot kick your mother - and stab her and rape her - and get away with it.
And since history is still happening, we have no way of knowing whether the Hills will be returned in the future.

[RedCloud]

13. Rostros pálidos: Your words wound me more than your bullets.

n/m