Lewis and Clark “Genocide Re-enactors” Told to Turn Around
Lewis and Clark opened the door to the holocaust of the West
U.N. Observer and International Report
CHAMBERLAIN, S.D. (Sept. 18, 2004) - 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, an Indian delegation of elders, supported by young 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 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.”
Deb White Plume of Pine Ridge gave the expedition a symbolic blanket of small pox. Another Lakota woman from Pine Ridge said she carries the DNA of the Lakota women who survived the slaughters that Lewis and Clark opened the door to. She said she is prepared to die for this cause.
“I believe in armed struggle,” Wicahpi Wakia Wi of Pine Ridge said. “The act of genocide stops here. We are tired of living poor. We are not afraid to die. I am willing to die.”
She told them they would not proceed up the river.
“You are not going on. I will organize every sister from here to Oregon to stop you.”
Lakota elder Floyd Hand, among four bands of Lakota here, told the expedition, “We are the descendants of Red Cloud and Crazy Horse.”
“I did not come here in peace.”
Hand said they would not smoke the pipe today and if the expedition continues up the Missouri River, 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 be able 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 are a part 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.
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 expedition’s three boats docked on 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 later 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, are 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, 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 of peoples’ 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 American Creek Marina bay on the river, there were three police and Sheriff units waiting at the entrance.
Later, seated in the circle, 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 William 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 was among 22 re-enactors traveling on the river with a keelboat and two large wooden pirogue canoes, with backup support of RVs.
Clark 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 comments by 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?”
Native women told the expedition that they carry the DNA of the survivors of the slaughters that Lewis and Clark opened the door to and the diseases they brought.
Ahmbaska, among the Native youths, 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, halting the expedition is a spiritual act. She reminded the expedition of the diseases brought by the invaders.
She presented Clark with a blanket and said, “Small pox. Have it back.” Clark accepted the blanket, a symbol of small pox, cautiously.
Deb 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 that 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 here, she said, police always surround 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?”
The Stop Lewis and Clark group has a website:
http://www.stoplewisandclark.org
Brenda Norrell
http://bsnorrell.tripod.com
other links:
http://www.brendanorrell.blogspot.com
Brenda Norrell is a staff writer for Indian Country Today
http://www.indiancountry.com
and a Contributing Editor for the U.N. OBSERVER & International Report.
Statements
Stop Lewis and Clark: Protest at the Bad River
By Debra White Plume, writing from the banks of Wounded Knee Creek
October 3, 2004
On September 25 and 26, 2004 approximately 30 people from the Stop Lewis and Clark group from the Lakota country of Pine Ridge, Eagle Butte, Standing Rock, and Nebraska traveled in car caravans to Ft. Pierre, SD to protest the commemoration of the Lewis and Clark Reenactment. Floyd Looks For Buffalo Hand, spiritual man of the Oglala band of the Lakota Nation, offered prayers for the resistance group as they prepared for their departure.
The L and C Expedition reenactment stopped at the Bad River, near the place that is now the state capital of South Dakota, to reenact their meeting of 200 years ago with the Lakota Nation. Grandmothers, young children, high school and college students came together on their home reservations to organize a public resistance to the commonly accepted message of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, which does not acknowledge the destruction that followed them when they entered Indian Country.
A surprise at the Ft. Pierre, SD Lewis and Clark Reenactment awaited the group of protesters when an elder of their own people came out dressed in traditional regalia and asked the men in the group if theycame to shoot him. The elder said the protestors were not invited there and not wanted there. Vic Camp, lead organizer for the youth group, responded that the protesters were not there to harm to anyone, they were there to engage in a peaceful protest and had a right to express themselves.
“We come here not as militant people, but on a educational mission. We want all people to understand history through more than one perspective, we deserve to have our voices heard”, said Vic Camp, Ponca/Oglala Lakota, who is a college student and young father from the Pine Ridge Reservation.
The people hired by the L and C Commemoration to act in the historic role of the Lakota people shared their perspective: they were in the reenactment to make money. Such is the poverty facing the reservations in South Dakota: Lakota people will hire on as actors in events that many indigenous people say in a travesty. The group of resistors wanted the Lakota reenactors to know that this protest will not devolve into an Indian against Indian issue.
“American policies have divided our people too long into two polarized groups: the colonized and the freedom thinking, we will not contribute to that dissention”, said Deb White Plume.
“The genocide of our people has been very thorough in many ways, in many indigenous nations-look at how many of our own people have had their Lakota spirits taken away - they are no longer Lakota in their spirits
- they have been colonized to think they are American and so they stand with Lewis and Clark. Native nations along the L and C route need to stand up and protest this torture of re-living our own holocaust: what would people say if there were a reenactment of the Jewish holocaust? Our native nations lost millions of people to the aftermath of the L and C entry to our lands. No one would be asking why there was a protest if the Jewish holocaust had a reenactment.”
Respecting the protocol of their people, the Lakota protesters had a drum group with them to offer honoring songs to their ancestors, and the Creator for guidance and help. The children in the group of protestors played with the children of the Lakota enactors. The children of the Indian reenactors came straight for the drum, their parents had to come get them. The drum beat is a natural part of the Lakota Universe, and the young children responded to the hearts. Although the resistance group advised Sheriff Pat Johnson that the protest was peaceful, the protestors were soon surrounded by SD Highway patrol and Dewey County Sheriff's office. The heavy law enforcement presence took photographs of the individuals protesting, and recorded the license plate numbers of their vehicles.
Tourists and others who went to the reenactment program posed questions to the protestors: “Why are you doing this?” and “What do you hope comes out of this?” The resistance group said they wanted awareness and acknowledgement that destruction to their native nations really did happen, they wanted the American history books to tell what happened from everyone's side, not just the American side. One young mother answered by asking her own question, "Why just tell President Jefferson's story? Why do the books not tell the story of the people of Red Cloud and Sitting Bull?”
A woman tourist who attended the reenactment told the protestors she was sorry about the destruction done to Indians and that she was not there to celebrate the demise of Indian nations, she actually thought Indians were happy and didn't know that the Indians of today were not happy.
From his home in Manderson, SD, Alex White Plume said his tiyospaye (extended family) stands firm in the resistance group and will continue the protest throughout Ft. Laramie Treaty Territory. “Our ancestors entered into a treaty with the U.S. and they have not lived up to their promises. America and the world needs to know this, and we intend to send this message out all along the way of the Lewis and Clark reenactment of genocide.” Carter Camp, in a telephone interview, said he has given his full support and involvement with the resistance. Both men are great-grandfathers and the patriarch of their family's. The resistance group has the support of their elders, who led the group at the Chamberlain, SD protest last week.
The resistance group of Lakota, Ponca, Northern Cheyenne, and Kiowa people maintains their message: Lewis and Clark should turn around and leave Lakota Country. If the L and C Commemoration continues their river travel, the resistors will protest at every stop along the river, delivering their message to the general public: Lewis and Clark Represent the Dawn of Genocide to Indigenous Peoples.
The next protest is planned for Mobridge, SD and the Kimball Bottom stop in Bismarck, North Dakota. Vic Camp says his ancestors fought and died for freedom to live the Lakota way and that the Lakota people of today will protest the reenactment as long as L and C are in their 1851 Ft. Laramie Treaty Territory.
The Stop Lewis and Clark group has a website:
http://www.stoplewisandclark.org
Stop Lewis and Clark!
Resistance Group Position Statement
(Released September 17, 2004)
A non-profit organization calling itself “Discovery Expedition of St. Charles, Missouri” has launched a multi-million dollar, 3 year bicentennial living history reenactment of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
A group of sovereign resistors from the Lakota, Dakota, Ponca, Kiowa, Northern Cheyenne & other indigenous nations (including tribal headsmen, spiritual leaders, grandmothers, students, & young children) have organized around the message: “Why Commemorate Genocide?”. We contend that the original Lewis & Clark Expedition was the Dawn of Genocide for all indigenous nations of this land.
In the 200 years since L & C opened the door to the devastation of our people & way of life, indigenous nations have experienced massacre, murder, land theft & the continued cultural genocide of our people today.
After the original “Voyage of Discovery”, Captain Clark wrote of the Teton Sioux, “These are the vilest miscreants of the savage race & must ever remain the pirates of the Missouri, until such measures are pursued, by our government, as will make them feel a dependence on its will for their supply of merchandise.”
Under the guidance of Thomas Jefferson, the architect of genocide, their mission was accomplished & the effects of their actions still hold true today among our indigenous nations.
The L & C Reenactment states that tribal governments are supporting them & welcoming them. It must be remembered that the Tribal governments across this land are colonial governments put in place & funded by the Interior Department of the U.S.government. These governments most often represent an assimilated, colonized viewpoint, & not the true feelings of their native people.
The spiritual genocide of indigenous people has not been successful!
Today there are families and tiospaye (extended families) that have a sovereign heart & Lakota spirit! Some indigenous peoples of this land have held onto our culture & ways of life, & continue to believe that the treaties our ancestors signed with the United States remain the supreme law of the land.
Just as our ancestors opposed the original trespassers into Oceti Sakowin Territory (Great Sioux Nation), we stand in protest to the reenactment of the Lewis & Clark 2004-2006 expedition, which represents the Dawn of Genocide to freedom thinking natural peoples of this land.
We must never forget the past & we must continue to teach the future generations about the devastation brought by European immigrants.
The Stop Lewis & Clark Resistance Group has made a commitment to stop this reenactment. If L&C continues this travesty, we will be present at every stop along the Mni Sose (Missouri River) to voice our opposition & educate the general public about the historical & contemporary American policies of devastation toward indigenous peoples.
For further information, please contact:
Alex White Plume at (1) (605) 455-1142,
Floyd Hand at (1) (605) 867-5762,
or Vic Camp at (1) (605) 455-1122
or visit our website at http://www.stoplewisandclark.org
You may also want to see:
The Lewis and Clark Expedition
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trr001.html
The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition
http://lewisandclarkjournals.unl.edu
Discovering Lewis and Clark
http://www.lewis-clark.org
Lewis and Clark
http://www.pbs.org/lewisandclark
Please continue for more photos ...
UPDATES
Denver Columbus Day protest on international terror watch list
Indian Country Today
http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096409698
Denver police arrest 245 for blocking Columbus Day Parade
Indian Country Today
http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096409699
Stop Lewis and Clark Resistance Group To Protest & Educate In Bismarck,
ND on Oct. 21
From Deb White Plume
The Dawn of Genocide represented by the re-enactment of the Lewis and Clark “Dawn of Discovery of 1804-1806” will be protested by a group of people who resist the message as portrayed as an $87 million travesty and delusion of historians who have ignored, and who continue to ignore, the voice of indigenous peoples and nations on this island.
A Rally sponsored by the Resistance Group on the evening of October 21, 2004 at United Tribes Technical College will educate those interested in learning the native version of the impact of Lewis and Clark opening the door to Indian Country. Natives, and non-natives as well, are invited and encouraged to attend the Rally: The Seventh Generation Gathering to Protest the Commemoration of Genocide.
The Rally will be held on the United Tribes Technical College campus at the James Henry Building, 3315 University Drive, and will begin at 5pm with an evening meal.
The Rally will open with a ceremony by Lakota spiritual leaders, and the Lakota drum group Crazy Horse Singers of the Pine Ridge, SD homeland will be present to sing traditional Lakota social songs. Native Hip-Hop artist Buggs Malone of the Minneapolis/St. Paul area will perform positive rap.
Speakers from the Oceti Sakowin (Great Sioux Nation) in South Dakota will share their knowledge from the Lakota perspective about the impact of the Euro-American invasion on the indigenous nations. Topic areas will include the effect of colonization and christenization of native nations on today's people: the myriad of social problems caused by the cultural genocide against people of the Oceti Sakowin and thoughts on how to reverse this condition through the revitalization of traditional Lakota life ways and through people reclaiming their kinship system, Lakota language, and spiritual way of life: decolonization; as well as talks on sovereignty, treaty rights and human rights. Experienced activists and leaders will share expertise and histories with the young activists and organizers.
The Rally will sponsor an “open microphone” to provide an opportunity for young activists to talk about issues facing their communities, bands, nations; and to open a dialog with other young people on how to impact the issues they feel are important.
Snapshot presentations at the Rally will include the proposed uranium mine near the Pine Ridge Reservation on the South Dakota-Nebraska state line, and the proposed nuclear waste dump Nebraska is planning for the Rosebud Reservation border with Nebraska; and the local issue of the proposed coal-bed strip mining for Couteau, North Dakota and its effects on sacred sites to the Oceti Sakowin. Other issues to be discussed include effective organizing and environmental racism.
The Stop the Lewis and Clark Resistance Group believes it is important to educate native nations and the general public about such topics, as these issues are a result of the invasion of native lands by the Euro-Americans who followed the blueprint laid out by Lewis and Clark.
Indigenous people and nations do not feel the same way about the “Louisiana Purchase” as do most Americans - that it was okay to purchase land at 3 cents an acre from someone who didn't even own it! The indigenous perspective will be shared about this “Ämerican” historical event as well as other events in the Lewis and Clark version of the
portrayal of “American” history.
The Stop the Lewis and Clark Resistance Group will protest the reenactment activities on October 22, 2004 scheduled for 11:00 am at Bismarck, ND on the University of Mary Campus. The Resistance Group will portray the truth as seen from indigenous eyes through the non-violent direct action to protest this $87 million travesty.
Additional information is available at the website:
http://www.stoplewisandclark.org
Lewis and Clark opened the door to the holocaust of the West
U.N. Observer and International Report
CHAMBERLAIN, S.D. (Sept. 18, 2004) - 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, an Indian delegation of elders, supported by young 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 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.”
Deb White Plume of Pine Ridge gave the expedition a symbolic blanket of small pox. Another Lakota woman from Pine Ridge said she carries the DNA of the Lakota women who survived the slaughters that Lewis and Clark opened the door to. She said she is prepared to die for this cause.
“I believe in armed struggle,” Wicahpi Wakia Wi of Pine Ridge said. “The act of genocide stops here. We are tired of living poor. We are not afraid to die. I am willing to die.”
She told them they would not proceed up the river.
“You are not going on. I will organize every sister from here to Oregon to stop you.”
Lakota elder Floyd Hand, among four bands of Lakota here, told the expedition, “We are the descendants of Red Cloud and Crazy Horse.”
“I did not come here in peace.”
Hand said they would not smoke the pipe today and if the expedition continues up the Missouri River, 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 be able 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 are a part 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.
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 expedition’s three boats docked on 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 later 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, are 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, 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 of peoples’ 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 American Creek Marina bay on the river, there were three police and Sheriff units waiting at the entrance.
Later, seated in the circle, 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 William 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 was among 22 re-enactors traveling on the river with a keelboat and two large wooden pirogue canoes, with backup support of RVs.
Clark 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 comments by 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?”
Native women told the expedition that they carry the DNA of the survivors of the slaughters that Lewis and Clark opened the door to and the diseases they brought.
Ahmbaska, among the Native youths, 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, halting the expedition is a spiritual act. She reminded the expedition of the diseases brought by the invaders.
She presented Clark with a blanket and said, “Small pox. Have it back.” Clark accepted the blanket, a symbol of small pox, cautiously.
Deb 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 that 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 here, she said, police always surround 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?”
The Stop Lewis and Clark group has a website:
http://www.stoplewisandclark.org
Brenda Norrell
http://bsnorrell.tripod.com
other links:
http://www.brendanorrell.blogspot.com
Brenda Norrell is a staff writer for Indian Country Today
http://www.indiancountry.com
and a Contributing Editor for the U.N. OBSERVER & International Report.
Statements
Stop Lewis and Clark: Protest at the Bad River
By Debra White Plume, writing from the banks of Wounded Knee Creek
October 3, 2004
On September 25 and 26, 2004 approximately 30 people from the Stop Lewis and Clark group from the Lakota country of Pine Ridge, Eagle Butte, Standing Rock, and Nebraska traveled in car caravans to Ft. Pierre, SD to protest the commemoration of the Lewis and Clark Reenactment. Floyd Looks For Buffalo Hand, spiritual man of the Oglala band of the Lakota Nation, offered prayers for the resistance group as they prepared for their departure.
The L and C Expedition reenactment stopped at the Bad River, near the place that is now the state capital of South Dakota, to reenact their meeting of 200 years ago with the Lakota Nation. Grandmothers, young children, high school and college students came together on their home reservations to organize a public resistance to the commonly accepted message of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, which does not acknowledge the destruction that followed them when they entered Indian Country.
A surprise at the Ft. Pierre, SD Lewis and Clark Reenactment awaited the group of protesters when an elder of their own people came out dressed in traditional regalia and asked the men in the group if theycame to shoot him. The elder said the protestors were not invited there and not wanted there. Vic Camp, lead organizer for the youth group, responded that the protesters were not there to harm to anyone, they were there to engage in a peaceful protest and had a right to express themselves.
“We come here not as militant people, but on a educational mission. We want all people to understand history through more than one perspective, we deserve to have our voices heard”, said Vic Camp, Ponca/Oglala Lakota, who is a college student and young father from the Pine Ridge Reservation.
The people hired by the L and C Commemoration to act in the historic role of the Lakota people shared their perspective: they were in the reenactment to make money. Such is the poverty facing the reservations in South Dakota: Lakota people will hire on as actors in events that many indigenous people say in a travesty. The group of resistors wanted the Lakota reenactors to know that this protest will not devolve into an Indian against Indian issue.
“American policies have divided our people too long into two polarized groups: the colonized and the freedom thinking, we will not contribute to that dissention”, said Deb White Plume.
“The genocide of our people has been very thorough in many ways, in many indigenous nations-look at how many of our own people have had their Lakota spirits taken away - they are no longer Lakota in their spirits
- they have been colonized to think they are American and so they stand with Lewis and Clark. Native nations along the L and C route need to stand up and protest this torture of re-living our own holocaust: what would people say if there were a reenactment of the Jewish holocaust? Our native nations lost millions of people to the aftermath of the L and C entry to our lands. No one would be asking why there was a protest if the Jewish holocaust had a reenactment.”
Respecting the protocol of their people, the Lakota protesters had a drum group with them to offer honoring songs to their ancestors, and the Creator for guidance and help. The children in the group of protestors played with the children of the Lakota enactors. The children of the Indian reenactors came straight for the drum, their parents had to come get them. The drum beat is a natural part of the Lakota Universe, and the young children responded to the hearts. Although the resistance group advised Sheriff Pat Johnson that the protest was peaceful, the protestors were soon surrounded by SD Highway patrol and Dewey County Sheriff's office. The heavy law enforcement presence took photographs of the individuals protesting, and recorded the license plate numbers of their vehicles.
Tourists and others who went to the reenactment program posed questions to the protestors: “Why are you doing this?” and “What do you hope comes out of this?” The resistance group said they wanted awareness and acknowledgement that destruction to their native nations really did happen, they wanted the American history books to tell what happened from everyone's side, not just the American side. One young mother answered by asking her own question, "Why just tell President Jefferson's story? Why do the books not tell the story of the people of Red Cloud and Sitting Bull?”
A woman tourist who attended the reenactment told the protestors she was sorry about the destruction done to Indians and that she was not there to celebrate the demise of Indian nations, she actually thought Indians were happy and didn't know that the Indians of today were not happy.
From his home in Manderson, SD, Alex White Plume said his tiyospaye (extended family) stands firm in the resistance group and will continue the protest throughout Ft. Laramie Treaty Territory. “Our ancestors entered into a treaty with the U.S. and they have not lived up to their promises. America and the world needs to know this, and we intend to send this message out all along the way of the Lewis and Clark reenactment of genocide.” Carter Camp, in a telephone interview, said he has given his full support and involvement with the resistance. Both men are great-grandfathers and the patriarch of their family's. The resistance group has the support of their elders, who led the group at the Chamberlain, SD protest last week.
The resistance group of Lakota, Ponca, Northern Cheyenne, and Kiowa people maintains their message: Lewis and Clark should turn around and leave Lakota Country. If the L and C Commemoration continues their river travel, the resistors will protest at every stop along the river, delivering their message to the general public: Lewis and Clark Represent the Dawn of Genocide to Indigenous Peoples.
The next protest is planned for Mobridge, SD and the Kimball Bottom stop in Bismarck, North Dakota. Vic Camp says his ancestors fought and died for freedom to live the Lakota way and that the Lakota people of today will protest the reenactment as long as L and C are in their 1851 Ft. Laramie Treaty Territory.
The Stop Lewis and Clark group has a website:
http://www.stoplewisandclark.org
Stop Lewis and Clark!
Resistance Group Position Statement
(Released September 17, 2004)
A non-profit organization calling itself “Discovery Expedition of St. Charles, Missouri” has launched a multi-million dollar, 3 year bicentennial living history reenactment of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
A group of sovereign resistors from the Lakota, Dakota, Ponca, Kiowa, Northern Cheyenne & other indigenous nations (including tribal headsmen, spiritual leaders, grandmothers, students, & young children) have organized around the message: “Why Commemorate Genocide?”. We contend that the original Lewis & Clark Expedition was the Dawn of Genocide for all indigenous nations of this land.
In the 200 years since L & C opened the door to the devastation of our people & way of life, indigenous nations have experienced massacre, murder, land theft & the continued cultural genocide of our people today.
After the original “Voyage of Discovery”, Captain Clark wrote of the Teton Sioux, “These are the vilest miscreants of the savage race & must ever remain the pirates of the Missouri, until such measures are pursued, by our government, as will make them feel a dependence on its will for their supply of merchandise.”
Under the guidance of Thomas Jefferson, the architect of genocide, their mission was accomplished & the effects of their actions still hold true today among our indigenous nations.
The L & C Reenactment states that tribal governments are supporting them & welcoming them. It must be remembered that the Tribal governments across this land are colonial governments put in place & funded by the Interior Department of the U.S.government. These governments most often represent an assimilated, colonized viewpoint, & not the true feelings of their native people.
The spiritual genocide of indigenous people has not been successful!
Today there are families and tiospaye (extended families) that have a sovereign heart & Lakota spirit! Some indigenous peoples of this land have held onto our culture & ways of life, & continue to believe that the treaties our ancestors signed with the United States remain the supreme law of the land.
Just as our ancestors opposed the original trespassers into Oceti Sakowin Territory (Great Sioux Nation), we stand in protest to the reenactment of the Lewis & Clark 2004-2006 expedition, which represents the Dawn of Genocide to freedom thinking natural peoples of this land.
We must never forget the past & we must continue to teach the future generations about the devastation brought by European immigrants.
The Stop Lewis & Clark Resistance Group has made a commitment to stop this reenactment. If L&C continues this travesty, we will be present at every stop along the Mni Sose (Missouri River) to voice our opposition & educate the general public about the historical & contemporary American policies of devastation toward indigenous peoples.
For further information, please contact:
Alex White Plume at (1) (605) 455-1142,
Floyd Hand at (1) (605) 867-5762,
or Vic Camp at (1) (605) 455-1122
or visit our website at http://www.stoplewisandclark.org
You may also want to see:
The Lewis and Clark Expedition
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trr001.html
The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition
http://lewisandclarkjournals.unl.edu
Discovering Lewis and Clark
http://www.lewis-clark.org
Lewis and Clark
http://www.pbs.org/lewisandclark
Please continue for more photos ...
UPDATES
Denver Columbus Day protest on international terror watch list
Indian Country Today
http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096409698
Denver police arrest 245 for blocking Columbus Day Parade
Indian Country Today
http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096409699
Stop Lewis and Clark Resistance Group To Protest & Educate In Bismarck,
ND on Oct. 21
From Deb White Plume
The Dawn of Genocide represented by the re-enactment of the Lewis and Clark “Dawn of Discovery of 1804-1806” will be protested by a group of people who resist the message as portrayed as an $87 million travesty and delusion of historians who have ignored, and who continue to ignore, the voice of indigenous peoples and nations on this island.
A Rally sponsored by the Resistance Group on the evening of October 21, 2004 at United Tribes Technical College will educate those interested in learning the native version of the impact of Lewis and Clark opening the door to Indian Country. Natives, and non-natives as well, are invited and encouraged to attend the Rally: The Seventh Generation Gathering to Protest the Commemoration of Genocide.
The Rally will be held on the United Tribes Technical College campus at the James Henry Building, 3315 University Drive, and will begin at 5pm with an evening meal.
The Rally will open with a ceremony by Lakota spiritual leaders, and the Lakota drum group Crazy Horse Singers of the Pine Ridge, SD homeland will be present to sing traditional Lakota social songs. Native Hip-Hop artist Buggs Malone of the Minneapolis/St. Paul area will perform positive rap.
Speakers from the Oceti Sakowin (Great Sioux Nation) in South Dakota will share their knowledge from the Lakota perspective about the impact of the Euro-American invasion on the indigenous nations. Topic areas will include the effect of colonization and christenization of native nations on today's people: the myriad of social problems caused by the cultural genocide against people of the Oceti Sakowin and thoughts on how to reverse this condition through the revitalization of traditional Lakota life ways and through people reclaiming their kinship system, Lakota language, and spiritual way of life: decolonization; as well as talks on sovereignty, treaty rights and human rights. Experienced activists and leaders will share expertise and histories with the young activists and organizers.
The Rally will sponsor an “open microphone” to provide an opportunity for young activists to talk about issues facing their communities, bands, nations; and to open a dialog with other young people on how to impact the issues they feel are important.
Snapshot presentations at the Rally will include the proposed uranium mine near the Pine Ridge Reservation on the South Dakota-Nebraska state line, and the proposed nuclear waste dump Nebraska is planning for the Rosebud Reservation border with Nebraska; and the local issue of the proposed coal-bed strip mining for Couteau, North Dakota and its effects on sacred sites to the Oceti Sakowin. Other issues to be discussed include effective organizing and environmental racism.
The Stop the Lewis and Clark Resistance Group believes it is important to educate native nations and the general public about such topics, as these issues are a result of the invasion of native lands by the Euro-Americans who followed the blueprint laid out by Lewis and Clark.
Indigenous people and nations do not feel the same way about the “Louisiana Purchase” as do most Americans - that it was okay to purchase land at 3 cents an acre from someone who didn't even own it! The indigenous perspective will be shared about this “Ämerican” historical event as well as other events in the Lewis and Clark version of the
portrayal of “American” history.
The Stop the Lewis and Clark Resistance Group will protest the reenactment activities on October 22, 2004 scheduled for 11:00 am at Bismarck, ND on the University of Mary Campus. The Resistance Group will portray the truth as seen from indigenous eyes through the non-violent direct action to protest this $87 million travesty.
Additional information is available at the website:
http://www.stoplewisandclark.org