Category Archives: News

By Rep. Kristi Noem

We have a fundamental responsibility to care for America’s veterans, but time and again, our efforts have fallen short. Recent years, in particular, have seen repeated instances of misunderstanding, mismanagement, and mistreatment when it comes to supporting our veteran community. Veteran suicides, for instance, occur at an average of about 22 per day. Tens of thousands remain homeless. In some areas, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has systematically ignored the urgent medical needs of our veterans.

And in South Dakota, we are caught in a years-long fight to keep the doors open at a Hot Springs VA hospital that veterans want and need. This is a facility that has served veterans for more than 100 years. Its position in the Black Hills provides a level of serenity that aids in the healing process – especially for those facing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury, and similar illnesses. Those who receive care there have lobbied hard to make sure it stays open, as has the community. Despite all this, the VA has incrementally depleted the number of services offered in Hot Springs and pushed forward a plan to close the facility altogether. This is not what our veterans want, nor what they deserve.

In late October, the VA released its draft environmental impact statement regarding the closure of the Hot Springs hospital. This is one of the final steps when looking to close a VA facility. The findings once again highlighted the dramatic impact a closure would have. The public now has at least 60 days to review and comment on the report before VA Secretary Robert McDonald issues a final decision. I’ve urged everyone who will be impacted to take part in this process.

George Washington said after the Revolutionary War had concluded that “The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war … shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by our nation.” Closing the hospital in Hot Springs – even reducing its services as the VA is already in the process of doing – does not leave a positive perception.

I’ve been focused on writing and supporting legislation that better serves our state’s veterans and their families. This includes provisions to stop the VA from closing the Hot Springs hospital as well as legislation to make it easier to fire VA employees who are failing to serve our veterans with integrity, efforts to improve mental health services for veterans, and bills to increase post-service job training.

There is a role each of us can play in our communities too. This Veterans Day, I encourage you to touch the life of someone who has served. Bring them and their family a meal. Volunteer at one of the many veterans-centered charities in South Dakota – whether that’s your local VFW, the American Legion, or another one. Attend a Veterans Day service. Or just tell them thank you. These women and men have put on our nation’s uniform and stepped into danger for the sake of our country and the values we stand for. It’s our responsibility to serve them when they return.

by Katie Hunhoff, South Dakota Mag

The massacre at Wounded Knee occurred when our state was just one year old, yet the effects of that cold winter day still reverberate throughout our state and our country. Dec. 29 marks the 125th anniversary of Wounded Knee. To remember, we dedicated much of our current issue of South Dakota Magazine to the tragedy.
We began by visiting Pine Ridge to find descendants of Wounded Knee survivors. We met Leonard Little Finger, who lives near Oglala. Both of Little Finger’s grandfathers, along with more extended family, were survivors of Wounded Knee. He is a direct descendant of Big Foot, whose band was decimated in the massacre. Little Finger had 39 relatives at Wounded Knee. Only seven survived.

Before the massacre, Big Foot and nearly 400 men, women and children were living on the Cheyenne River Reservation. Some were from Sitting Bull’s band, and had fled to Big Foot’s camp after Sitting Bull was killed farther north on the Standing Rock Reservation. Black Elk, in Black Elk Speaks, recounted that only about 100 of the almost 400 were warriors. The rest were women, children or elderly. But all were starving and cold. Big Foot was ill with pneumonia, but still decided to meet with Oglala Chief Red Cloud on the Pine Ridge Reservation to help work on a peace agreement with the federal government.

Soldiers had heard they were on the move and were on lookout. Big Foot’s band was known to have embraced the Ghost Dance, a new religious movement circulating among tribes. White soldiers saw it as a sign of disobedience and trouble because federal law prohibited any exhibitions of Native religion on reservations. But the weak, cold and hungry people that those soldiers met on Dec. 28 were not rebellious. Big Foot was taken by ambulance to the cavalry’s camp on Wounded Knee Creek, and his band was escorted to a nearby valley and instructed to set up camp.

Soldiers seized guns from the Lakota the following morning. The Lakota complied, but the cavalry believed that there were more guns that were being hidden and a search was ordered. Warriors gathered in the camp’s assembly area, and the soldiers began to individually search them. Although there are various stories on how the massacre began, our managing editor John Andrews writes that it is widely believed that it began when a young, deaf Lakota named Black Coyote held his gun over his head, proclaiming it had cost him money and he wasn’t going to give it up. As a soldier tried to seize the weapon, a bullet discharged. Both sides panicked, and the massacre began. It is generally believed that over 300 Lakota died. About 90 were men; the rest women and children. Most of the men were killed in the assembly area, but soldiers pursued the Lakota relentlessly as they tried to escape camp.

Little Finger believes it is a responsibility of tribal elders to pass on the traditional knowledge of what happened, and that the knowledge of each generation can formulate a response to the tragedy.

“Let’s say you look at time as a cloth,” Little Finger told us. “Then along comes some violence and tears it. You can stitch it, but you can never tear the threads that consist of that fabric. I come to that every day.”

It’s not easy to search for meaning in something like the Wounded Knee massacre, but it was in that spirit that we collected the stories for this issue. Besides seeking stories from descendants of Wounded Knee survivors, we also asked Native American leaders Elsie Meek and Craig Howe to discuss what Wounded Knee means today. We explore artistic interpretations of Wounded Knee and wrote a travel guide for our readers who might like to visit Pine Ridge. We also pored through photos of the massacre aftermath, debating which we should print and if they were too shocking. John Andrews studied the massacre from many sources and points of view to create the best accounts I have read of what happened on that terrible day.

In the end, I hope we did some justice to the Lakota experience and that we provide perspective on our state’s greatest tragedy.

by Dana Hess for S.D. Newspaper Association

PIERRE — At its meeting in January, the South Dakota High School Activities Association Board of Directors will vote on the first reading of a resolution asking member schools to consider not using stereotypical Indian imagery and Indian mascots.

The proposal comes from Roger Bordeaux of the Tiospa Zina Tribal School and the Native American at-large representative on the SDHSAA board.

Bordeaux sent a PowerPoint presentation to board members as well as all member schools detailing the negative impact that Indian mascots can have on Native American students.

The resolution cites examples of that harm from the American Psychological Association, the American Sociological Association and the White House Initiative on American Indian/Alaska Native Education.

The resolution concludes “it is very clear that Indian mascots, and any representation of stereotypical Indian imagery not only cause harm to American Indian youth, but moreover, such imagery is not suitable for educational settings which aim to foster healthy psychological development and/or student self-actualization.”

Throughout the discussion at their meeting Wednesday, board members emphasized that the resolution is in no way binding on school districts but is meant to start a discussion about the use of Native American school mascots.

“This is a very good discussion for us to be having,” said board chairman Jason Uttermark of Aberdeen.

Board member Steve Morford of Spearfish noted that a similar discussion had already taken place in the Winner School District where the school nickname was the Warriors. He said the school district kept the nickname but changed away from a Native American warrior as their symbol.

A search of South Dakota high schools found 16 with mascot names that might be considered offensive according to the SDHSAA resolution. Those schools include the Bennett County Warriors, the Britton-Hecla Braves, the Castlewood Warriors, the Cheyenne-Eagle Butte Braves, the Crazy Horse Chiefs, the Crow Creek Chieftains, the Estelline Redmen, the Iroquois Chiefs, the Lower Brule Sioux, the Marty Indian School Braves, the St. Francis Indian School Warriors, the Sisseton Redmen, the Wakpala Sioux, the Sioux Falls Washington Warriors, the Watertown Arrows and the Woonsocket Redmen.

The first reading of the resolution will be on the SDHSAA Board’s Jan. 13, 2016, agenda.

Dakota Wesleyan University freshman Kelsey Bertram of Winner found her way on the court in the Nov. 3 Tigers opener.
Bertram recorded 11 points in her first college game against Oglala Lakota College in Kyle.
Bertram will look to expand her role on the court when DWU visited Dakota State in Madison.