Lakota Woman Wins Unprecedented Rape Case

This is really amazingly great news. Check it out: the Fort Laramie Treaty has never been used this way before.

From the Argus Leader:

A Native American woman from Wounded Knee won a historic ruling in federal court based on a century-old treaty between the U.S. government and the Oglala Sioux Tribe after she was sexually assaulted by a military recruiter.

The U.S. government must pay Lavetta Elk, formerly of Wounded Knee, almost $600,000 in damages after she was sexually assaulted by Army recruiter Staff Sgt. Joseph Kopf in his car January 2003, according to court documents. Judge Francis Allegra based the ruling on a "bad men" provision in the April 29, 1868, treaty between the government and the Oglala Sioux Tribe.

That provision of the Fort Laramie Treaty "provides that if 'bad men' among the whites commit 'any wrong' upon the person or property of any Sioux, the United States will reimburse the injured person for the loss sustained," court documents filed Tuesday indicated.

Go to the link above for the rest of the article. Thank you Sarah Deer for forwarding this news.

Is Rape Serious?

Did that question infuriate you? It's the headline of Nicholas Kristof's OpEd in the New York Times today.

Why does he even ask this? The beginning of the article says it all:

When a woman reports a rape, her body is a crime scene. She is typically asked to undress over a large sheet of white paper to collect hairs or fibers, and then her body is examined with an ultraviolet light, photographed and thoroughly swabbed for the rapist’s DNA.

It’s a grueling and invasive process that can last four to six hours and produces a “rape kit” — which, it turns out, often sits around for months or years, unopened and untested.

Stunningly often, the rape kit isn’t tested at all because it’s not deemed a priority. If it is tested, this happens at such a lackadaisical pace that it may be a year or more before there are results (if expedited, results are technically possible in a week).

So while we have breakthrough DNA technologies to find culprits and exculpate innocent suspects, we aren’t using them properly — and those who work in this field believe the reason is an underlying doubt about the seriousness of some rape cases. In short, this isn’t justice; it’s indifference.

He then goes on to tell the story about a serial rapist in Los Angeles who went on raping women while the rape kit lingered at the lab.

This is REALLY infuriating. Apparently the only place in the country that takes rape seriously enough to process these kits with proper speed is New York City. It's a serious problem in the rest of the country, especially in Los Angeles.

Human Rights Watch has THIS video on the problem in Los Angeles, which apparently is terrible.

Imagine if you're an American Indian or Native Alaskan woman. You can hardly get access to these kits, and then when you do......who knows.

Lets all write to our Congressional reps. Congress.org is a good place to start that process.

Pope Apologizes to Canadian First Nations for Boarding School Abuses

On Wednesday, the Pope issued a statement of sorrow to leaders of Canada's First Nations, after a meeting with a delegation.

Here is part of the story from a Candian Broadcasting Corporation report:

On the eve of its private audience with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican on Wednesday, a small delegation from Canada's Assembly of First Nations hailed the event as "historic and momentous."

During the meeting behind closed doors, the Pope is expected to read a statement about the Roman Catholic Church's role in the residential school system in Canada.

The church administered three-quarters of residential schools across Canada, but has yet to apologize for the abuse suffered by many of the 90,000 former students still alive.

Assembly of First Nations Leader Phil Fontaine is part of the delegation, which also includes elders and survivors.

The statement drew mixed reactions from other First Nations groups back in Canada, as reported by the CBC. Inuit leaders are scheduled to meet with the Pope later.

Here's an excerpt from some of the reactions. You can read the whole article here.

Now this is great, but note that the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a government apology last year. That was more meaningful for some people, given the level of denial that a lot of Catholic Churches are still displaying in Canada and the U.S.

What about American Indians and other Native Americans who are U.S. citizens? I think we've got a good opportunity with President Obama. There is a move underway to have him apologize too.

You can sign a petition toward that end HERE. They're not even half way to their goal and it only takes a couple of minutes.

Lakota Woman Wins National Award

This story is from the Rapid City Journal

A member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe and White Buffalo Calf Woman Society has won a national honor recognizing her work and dedication in addressing and preventing sexual violence.

Tillie Black Bear, executive director of White Buffalo Calf Woman Society, the oldest shelter on a Native American reservation, has been awarded The National Sexual Violence Resource Center’s 2009 Visionary Voice Award. Black Bear is considered a leading expert on violence against women and children.

She is a founding mother of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence and a founder of the South Dakota Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault. She is the first woman of color to lead the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Black Bear has worked as a therapist, school counselor, administrator and a college instructor.

Equal Pay Day is April 28, 2009

Equal Pay Day is April 28, 2009

Thank you Debra Kay Adams for sending this to me in an email.

On Tuesday, April 28, 2009 thousands of women from across the United States will join in a national day of action against unfair pay practices, Equal Pay Day. April 28 is the numeric day in the new year that a woman, on average, must work through in order to earn the same wages that a man was paid in the previous year. Red is worn on this day as a symbol of how far women and minorities are "in the red" with their pay because of pay discrimination. Women working full-time, year-round are paid only about 78 cents for every dollar earned by men. Because women earn less, they must work longer for the same dollars earned.

Even though laws such as the Equal Pay Act of 1963 protect workers from wage discrimination, the pay gap still exists. Wage discrimination laws are poorly enforced, and cases are difficult to prove and win.

Ledbetter Bill Becomes Law. On January 29, 2009 President Obama signed the historic Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law, making it the first legislation of his administration. The Act reverses the Supreme Court's 5-4 ruling in 2007 (Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co.) and restores the ability of victims of wage discrimination to hold their employers accountable for injustice and challenge the practice in court. Lilly Ledbetter was with the President when he signed the bill. (VIEW VIDEO from the signing http://www.nwlc. org/fairpay/ presidentsigns. html)

As an organization that is committed to empowering women, the national YWCA USA and local YWCA Clark County is working to raise awareness in our community about the wage gap that exists between women and men. The YWCA Clark County’s Public Policy Committee has chosen women’s economic justice as one of its top priority issues. Our board of directors approved a public policy statement on this issue (http://www.ywcaclar kcounty.org/ policy_weconomic advancement. htm). This is the second year the Women’s Economic Justice work group has led the agency’s advocacy work on this issue, spotlighting this specific form of discrimination.

On Equal Pay Day, here are some facts that you can share to help raise awareness about this issue:

The wage gap isn’t just a woman’s issue. Equal pay for women raises family income which means more money to spend on groceries, housing and child care. According to the National Committee on Pay Equity, nationwide, working families lose $200 billion on income annually to the wage gap. Lower wages also mean less income from pensions and Social Security, making women more likely than men to enter poverty at an old age.

The wage gap harms most women of color. According to the National Committee on Pay Equity, for women of color, the numbers are even worse — African-American women earn 69 cents and Latinas earn 59 cents for every dollar paid to men.

Pay inequity happens at all levels of employment. Today, women make up a majority of college students; however, the wage gap still exists. According to the American Association of University Women, in 2004, a typical college-educated woman working full-time earned $31,223 a year, compared to $40,798 for a college-educated man – a stark difference of $9,575.

Washington state ranks 38th in the equal pay comparison of states, according to the AFL-CIO Public Policy Department (http://www.pay- equity.org/ PDFs/payequitysu mmarytable. pdf), with a difference of 75.6% when women’s wages are compared to men’s wages. We are proud to share that our organization, which has a predominantly female workforce, acknowledged the importance of compensating our employees in a way that models our own values of equity and empowerment by establishing a goal to increase wages and benefits.

Resources

http://www.pay- equity.org/ day.html, National Committee on Pay Equity

Congress Must Act to Close the Wage Gap for Women, National Women’s Law Center, November 2008

http://www.nwlc. org/fairpay/ wagegap.html, National Women’s Law Center

Behind the Pay Gap, American Association of University Women, April 2007

Gaps in Learning, Gaps in Earning, American Association of University Women on the pay gap among college-educated women and men, state by state, 2008

Women's Economic Status in the States: Wide Disparities by Race, Ethnicity, and Region, Institute for Women's Policy Research

Women’s Earnings: Work Patterns Partially Explain Difference between Men’s and Women’s Earnings, General Accounting Office, October 2003

For more information on pay equity visit http://www.ywca. org/atf/cf/ {3B450FA5- 108B-4D2E- B3D0-C31487243E6 A}/Equal% 20Pay%20PDF. pdf

You can go the link below to join us in support of equal pay for women

http://www.nwlc. org/fairpay/ getinvolved. html




debra k adams, safechoice d v shelter director

YWCA Clark County ? 3609 Main Street ? Vancouver, WA 98663

Phone: 360.695.2655 ext. 212 ? Fax: 360.695.6677

Email: dadams@ywcaclarkcou nty.org

Website: www.YwcaClarkCounty .org

eliminating racism

empowering women

ywca

$500 Million for American Indian Tribes

It's almost too good to be true, but check out this AP article from the NY Times:

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Saturday that $500 million in federal stimulus money would go to American Indian tribes across the nation for schools, housing, infrastructure improvements and job programs on reservations.

Mr. Salazar made the announcement at the United Tribes Technical College here.

He was in North Dakota to visit several places, including an energy center on the Fort Berthold Reservation and the Great Plains Synfuels plant to look at its carbon capture project.

He also planned to visit North Dakota communities that were flooded this spring.

Serious business. We'll see what really happens.

The Forced Sterilization of Native Women

by WinterRabbit, Cross posted with permission from the Daily Kos.

Native American Holocaust, Forced Sterilizations, Leonard Crow Dog, Anna Mae Aquash, Dr. Connie Uri

The sterilizations of indigenous women were covert means of the continuation of the extermination policy against the Indian Nations. At least three indigenous generations from 3,406 women are not in existence now as the result. The sterilizations were not unintentional or negligible. They were genocide. What would the indigenous culture and political landscape be now? One can only imagine, but the sterilizations like the relocations - were forced.



First, the forced sterilizations must be seen in historical and a more modern context.

Leonard Crow Dog and Richard Erdoes. “Crow Dog.” pp. 6-7.
Only when we saw them building roads through our land, wagons at first, and then the railroad, when we watched them building forts, killing off all the game, committing buffalo genocide, and we saw them ripping up our Black Hills for gold, our sacred Paha Sapa, the home of the wakinyan, the thunderbirds, only then did we realize what they wanted was our land. Then we began to fight. For our earth. For our children. That started what the whites call the Great Indian Wars of the West. I call it the Great Indian Holocaust.

Native American Women and Violence
Native American women experience the highest rate of violence of any group in the United States.
A report released by the Department of Justice, American Indians and Crime, found that Native American women suffer violent crime at a rate three and a half times greater than the national average. National researchers estimate that this number is actually much higher than has been captured by statistics; according to the Department of Justice over 70% of sexual assaults are never reported.

Here’s a historical example of violence against Native American women during this general time, to complete laying the foundation.

Anna Mae Aquash
On February 24, 1976, Aquash was found dead by the side of State Road 73 on the far northeast corner of the Pine Ridge Reservation, about 10 miles from Wanblee, South Dakota, close to Kadoka. Her body was found during an unusually warm spell in late February, 1976 by a rancher, Roger Amiotte.[2] The first autopsy (reports are now public information) states: "it appears she had been dead for about 10 days." The Bureau of Indian Affairs' medical practitioner, W. O. Brown, missing the bullet wound on her skull, stated that "she had died of exposure." [1]

Subsequently, her hands were cut off and sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation headquarters in Washington, D.C. for fingerprinting. Although federal agents were present who knew Anna Mae, she was not identified, and her body was buried as a Jane Doe.

On March 10, 1976, eight days after Anna Mae's burial, her body was exhumed as the result of separate requests made by her family and AIM supporters, and the FBI. A second autopsy was conducted the following day by an independent pathologist from Minneapolis, Dr. Garry Peterson. This autopsy revealed that she had been shot by a .32 caliber bullet in the back of the head, execution style.[3]

The general historical foundation being laid, I ask what would the population of indigenous people be now, approximately three generations after the forced sterilizations?

Genocide or Family Planning?
According to the GAO report, 3406 Native American women between the ages of fifteen and forty-four were sterilized between 1973 and 1976.

The Scythe and the Scalpel:
Dissecting the Sterilizations of Native American Women in the 1970's
In the old days, genocide used to be so simple. Such things as biological warfare used to keep Indians warm with small pox infested blankets furnished by the United States government, and the only thing barren and infertile was the land set aside for reservations.In the 1970s, genocide became a little more complex.
Biological warfare invaded the reproductive rights of Native American women, making their wombs as barren and infertile as reservation land. The sterilization policies during this time perpetuated the genocidal tendencies that have made the eugenics movement a viable legacy of terror in the biological history of Native Americans.

Next, the specifics of who uncovered the forced sterilizations and why that conclusion was reached are vital. The dark moment of discovery came from a Choctaw- Cherokee physician named Connie Uri.

Kurt Kaltreider, PH.D. “American Indian Prophecies.” p. 71.
A Choctaw-Cherokee physician, Connie Uri, uncovered this program (large-scale sterilization) when she was asked by a young Indian woman for a womb transplant.

The Indian Health Service and the Sterilization of Native American Women

A young Indian woman entered Dr. Connie Pinkerton-Uri's Los Angeles office on a November day in 1972. The twenty-six-year-old woman asked Dr. Pinkerton-Uri for a "womb transplant" because she and her husband wished to start a family. An Indian Health Service (IHS) physician had given the woman a complete hysterectomy when she was having problems with alcoholism six years earlier. Dr. Pinkerton-Uri had to tell the young woman that there was no such thing as a "womb transplant" despite the IHS physician having told her that the surgery was reversible. The woman left Dr. Pinkerton-Uri's office in tears. 1

Kurt Kaltreider, PH.D. “American Indian Prophecies.” p. 71.
She (Connie Uri) scoured the records of the BIA-run Indian Health Service Hospital in Claremont, Oklahoma, and discovered that 75% of the sterilizations were nontherapeutic. Many of the women did not understand the true nature of the surgery, thought it was a kind of reversible birth control, or even signed the consent forms while groggy from sedation after childbirth.

A Look at the Indian Health Service
Policy of Sterilization, 1972-1976 by Charles R. England
The hospital records show that both tubal ligation and hysterectomies were used in sterilization. Dr. Uri commented: "In normal medical practice, hysterectomies are rare in women of child bearing age unless there is cancer or other medical problems" (Akwesasne Notes, 1974: 22). Besides the questionable surgery techniques being allowed to take place, there was also the charge of harassment in obtaining consent forms.

In addition, Montana also had instances of forced sterilizations.

The Indian Health Service and the Sterilization of Native American Women

Two young women entered an IHS hospital in Montana to undergo appendectomies and received tubal ligations, a form of sterilization, as an added benefit. Bertha Medicine Bull, a member of the Northern Cheyenne tribe, related how the "two girls had been sterilized at age fifteen before they had any children. Both were having appendectomies when the doctors sterilized them without their knowledge or consent." Their parents were not informed either. Two fifteen-year-old girls would never be able to have children of their own. 2

Kutr Kaltreider, PH.D. “American Indian Prophecies.” pp. 71-72.
Following Dr. Uri’s lead, Senator James Abourezk initiated a federal investigation of the General Accounting office. The resulting report gave the results of a survey from four out of twelve regions with Indian Health Services hospitals. In a three-tear period, over 3,400 sterilizations were performed; 3,000 of them on Indian women under the age of 44. In not one instance were the women offered consent forms that met the federal guidelines and requirements. About 5% of Indian women were being sterilized -

The Indian Health Service and the Sterilization of Native American Women

Native Americans accused the Indian Health Service of sterilizing at least 25 percent of Native American women who were between the ages of fifteen and forty-four during the 1970s.

Albuquerque, Aberdeen, and Phoenix also shared in “inconsistent and inadequate” medical forms. As was mentioned above, there was a federal investigation.

And Then There Were None by Kamet Larson
Most of the 3,400-plus cases involved women who have been sterilized by Indian Health Service doctors (by specially hired physicians in one-third of the cases) -- whether voluntarily or for reasons of medical necessity is unclear, since IHS records blur that critical distinction. Going through three years of files in four of the 52 IHS service areas, federal investigators could find no conclusive proof that the sterilized patients had given their fully informed consent as HEW (which operates the IHS) defines it. For “voluntary, knowing assent” HEW requires a description of what the surgical procedure or experiment is, its discomforts, risks and benefits; a disclosure of appropriate alternatives; an offer to answer questions; and an assurance that the patient is free to withdraw consent at any time without losing benefits. Forms on file in Albuquerque, Aberdeen, Oklahoma City and Phoenix were found to be incomplete on these basic points, inconsistent, inadequate, and “generally not in compliance with the Indian Health Service regulations.” Among the stacks of material looked at were physician complaints that preparing the required summaries of conversations with patients was “too time-consuming.” Had the IHS been as careless with its patients as with its own record-keeping?

What would the population of indigenous people be now? What would the indigenous culture and political landscape be now?

I don’t know, but one thing is clear to me: the sterilizations, like the relocations – were forced.

Source
"And...if ever we are constrained to lift the hatchet against any tribe, " he wrote, "we will never lay it down till that tribe is exterminated, or is driven beyond the Mississippi." Jefferson, the slave owner, continued, "in war, they will kill some of us; we shall destroy all of them". (Ibid)

sterilizations in the 70's
The following is a copy of an article by Joan Burnes which appeared in the Lakota Times last August 24th (1994).
- snip -
Emery A. Johnson, then-director of the IHS, told a congressional committee in 1975 that IHS "considered non-therapeutic sterilization a legitimate method of family planning... We are not aware of any instance in which such services have been abused."

To conclude, this is a video Sigrid shared with me. It says what I want to say in this conclusion.

We shall live again.

Editor's Note: You should also be aware that the U.S. was also up to this crap with Puerto Rican women (btw, as residents of a U.S. colony, Puerto Rican women are also citizens). From the 1930s to the 1970s ONE THIRD OF ALL PUERTO RICAN WOMEN WERE STERILIZED. Seems the only ones the government wanted reproducing were white northern Europeans. Good lord.

Please Sign this Petition

I'm putting this on top of the page again. Signing this takes all of 2 minutes, won't you do it?

White Bison is currently running the Wellbriety Journey for Forgiveness, to heal from boarding school abuse. I've been putting info on this here on the blog.

Part of this effort is also to pressure President Obama to issue a formal apology from the U.S. for sending Native Americans to boarding schools.

So, if you would sign the petition, we need to show the President that we're paying attention to this issue. Other governments, such as Australia, have issued apologies, so there's no reason the U.S. can't as well.

Go to the petition HERE.

Thanks.

Montana Legislature Calls for an End to the Violence Against Native American Women

OK, if we can get all 50 legislatures to pass these kinds of resolutions, we will really have increased public awareness of this issue. Good on you Montana representatives!

Here are some excerpts from an article from the Great Falls Tribune:

Amnesty International statistics say Native American women are nearly three times more likely to be raped or sexually assaulted than any other group of women in the nation.

Montana legislators kept those statistics in mind last week when supporting a joint resolution honoring Montana's Native American women by trying to stop the violence against them. The joint resolution from the state Senate and the House of Representatives passed by large margins in both chambers.

The resolution asks that legislators call upon federal, state and tribal officials to take action to stop domestic and sexual violence against the more than 27,000 Native American women in Montana.

According to the resolution, that will be achieved through:

Working together to understand the nature and prevalence of violence against Native American women.

Supporting access to services for Native American women.

Providing adequate resources for additional criminal justice and victim prevention and intervention services.

Ensuring that the federal government investigates and prosecutes violent crime on Indian reservations.

Thank you Montana!

Member of Pawnee Nation to head BIA

Gee, I really hate to quote Fox News, but the Utah station has the following report, which is more good news.

WASHINGTON - An American Indian who served as the attorney general of Idaho was nominated Friday to become the head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. President Barack Obama nominated Larry EchoHawk, a law professor at Brigham Young University and a member of the Pawnee tribe, to the post. EchoHawk was the first American Indian elected to a constitutional statewide office when he assumed the post of attorney general in the early 1990s, the White House said.

Go to the story at Indian Country today for more details.

Oh finally is all I can say! As well as THANK YOU PRESIDENT OBAMA. Now we're getting somewhere with those nominations affecting Indian Country. This nomination wasn't without some initial concerns if you look at the ICT article, but at the end he's being supported by everyone.

Please Sign This Petition

White Bison is currently running the Wellbriety Journey for Forgiveness, to heal from boarding school abuse. I've been putting info on this here on the blog.

Part of this effort is also to pressure President Obama to issue a formal apology from the U.S. for sending Native Americans to boarding schools.

So, if you would sign the petition, we need to show the President that we're paying attention to this issue. Other governments, such as Australia, have issued apologies, so there's no reason the U.S. can't as well.

Go to the petition HERE.

Thanks.

Better Late Than Never - Congratulations to Jodi Archambault Gillette

A belated congratulations goes out to Standing Rock Sioux member Jodi Archambault Gillette for being appointed to a key Obama post. Here's an excerpt from a Feb 9th article on Indian Country Today:

...Jodi Archambault Gillette has been named as one of three deputy associate directors of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. It is a historic appointment, as no other American Indian is believed to have ever held the position.

Gillette’s role will focus on overseeing Indian and tribal affairs in the office, which is dedicated to facilitating the exchange of information between governmental entities. In recent years, the office has largely served as a conduit between the White House and state and local governments.

Theresa Sheldon, a member of the Tulalip Tribes and a coordinator with the Native Vote Washington advocacy group, called Gillette’s appointment “historic and game changing.”

...snip...

Before joining the Obama campaign, Gillette was the director of the Native American Training Institute, a tribally operated non-profit organization. She has also long been a respected traditional Lakota dancer.

Good going President Obama, you have made an excellent choice here!

More Evidence of Boarding School Abuse and Intergenerational Trauma

I received this through the Boarding School Healing Project list. Since this is an editorial, I'm including the whole article. If you look at the author's background, I'm sure he'd want this information out there in full. The article appears in Indian Country Today.

Boarding 'school' brutality
By Steven Newcomb - April 06, 2009

A statement made in 1882 by Hiram Price, then U.S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs, may be taken as representative of the kind of thinking that went into U.S. Indian policy in the area of "education." In his annual report, Price declared that certain white men and women had "gone among the Indians. . for the higher and nobler purpose of helping these untutored and uncivilized people to a higher plane of existence."

Regular educational and missionary work among the Indians was the key, said Price: "In no other manner and by no other means, in my judgment, can our Indian population be so speedily and permanently reclaimed from the barbarism, idolatry, and savage life, as by the educational and missionary operations of the Christian people of our country."

In keeping with the above thinking, Indian residential "schools" were established by the U.S. government. (I use quotation marks around the word "schools" because it seems strange to use such a positive-sounding term to refer to those institutions) .

Thousands of Indian children were subjected to indoctrination and humiliation in those "schools," and this enforced institutionalizatio n of Indian children was designed to mould them into a form designed to match the white peoples' idealized mental image of what Indian people ought to be, and how they ought to live. The often dehumanizing and terrible conditions found in these "schools" continued from the late 19th century to at least the 1970s.

In 1932, Robert Gessner published a book entitled "Massacre: A Survey of Today's American Indian." In a chapter titled, "Flogging Children," Gessner recounted testimony delivered in May 1930 before "the Senate Subcommittee on Indian Affairs" The testimony concerned numerous instances of brutality committed against Indian children in the boarding "schools."

"The evidence was as startling as it was indisputable, charging the chief disciplinarian, Jacob Duran, and his assistant disciplinarians. . of beating a large number of children with leather straps, striking them on the head and mouth with fists, knocking them down, and kicking them with boots." Such dehumanizing treatment of children was undoubtedly designed to "reclaim" them from "barbarism, idolatry, and a savage life."

R. E. L. Daniel, head of the Yankton Sioux Agency in South Dakota, had not only received a pension "for his good behavior." He had also "received complete protection from the new Commissioner of Indian Affairs for having 'children beaten with leather straps, knocked down for sarcasm to the disciplinarian, struck with fist and hard objects until covered from face to knees with blood."

At the Phoenix boarding school, one boy, "Francis Makill, was beaten by the disciplinarian, " when the boy "asked him for a pair of khaki pants. The facts of this beating have been sworn into affidavit of March 22, 1930."

Ernest Somegastava, 21, in a sworn affidavit, stated "that during the past four or five years he has seen Jacob Duran 'whip boys between the ages of 10 to 14 years with a leather strap, two thicknesses sewn together, giving them five or six stripes each, respectively. " One former student, Willie Curran, testified "that he, being a big boy, was on one occasion commanded to participate in the mass flogging of 80 Indian boys, much smaller than he."

What "crime" had resulted in these Indian boys being flogged? They had, said the affidavit, gone off to a merry-go-round that was nearby the playgrounds of the Phoenix School. The disciplinarian, Elario, ordered the bigger boys to gather up the younger children and bring them to his office. He personally flogged six or seven of the young boys, and then ordered the larger ones to flog the rest. Two harness straps sewn together were used for the whipping.

Mr. H. J. Russell, a construction engineer with the Indian Service, wrote about what he had witnessed: "I have seen Indian boys chained to their beds at night for punishment. I have seen them thrown in cellars under the building, which the superintendent called a jail. I have seen their shoes taken away from them and then forced to walk through the snow to the barn to help milk. I have seen them whipped with a hemp rope, also a water hose." He saw them forced "to do servant's work for employees and superintendent without compensation under the guise of industrial employment and education."

Another man, W. Carson Ryan Jr., someone who had been charged with investigating such instances, described the jail he found on his trip to Wahpeton, N.D.: "The superintendent showed me a dungeon in the basement previously used for girls, up to his coming two years ago." The dungeon was described as 18 feet by eight feet, and "absolutely dark." "Girls told the superintendent, " said Ryan, "of two or three of them sleeping there on mattresses and rats crawling over them at night. Their food was bread and water."

These examples, and countless others that could be chronicled, clearly demonstrate intergenerational dehumanization and intergenerational trauma inflicted on Indian children in the so-called boarding schools. Such trauma has had a destructive psychological impact on indigenous nations and peoples that we still deal with to this day.

Steven Newcomb, Shawnee/Lenape, is indigenous law research coordinator in the education department of the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation in San Diego County, co-founder and co-director of the Indigenous Law Institute, and author of "Pagans in the Promise Land: Decoding the Doctrine of Christian Discovery" (Fulcrum Publishing, 2008).

Rosebud Sioux Woman Nominated to head IHS

OK, so now maybe things will improve. I know that's probably pie in the sky thinking, but this is the first Indian woman to run the IHS. It's still in the nomination phase, but I see no reason for her not go be confirmed.

Here's an excerpt from the story at Indian Country Today.

This is only an excerpt. If you read the whole article you'll see how much Dr. Yvette Roubideaux has done in the area of Indian Health, especially diabetes. I think this is an excellent nomination and bodes well for positive changes in the usually-pathetic IHS.

WASHINGTON – Rosebud Sioux tribal member Yvette Roubideaux, 46, was nominated March 23 by President Barack Obama to direct the IHS. If confirmed by the Senate, she will become the first American Indian woman to ever lead the agency.

Obama said in a statement that he has confidence Roubideaux, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, will be an effective advocate.

A White House release noted that she has conducted extensive research on American Indian health issues, with a special focus on diabetes in American Indian and Alaska Native communities and American Indian health policy.