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El Laberinto, 1971-1987
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WOUNDED KNEE, South Dakota.-- Five weeks after they seized the trading post and the church which sit on the Pine Ridge Reservation, several hundred Oglala Sioux, other members of the American Indian Movement (AIM), and their supporters are still holding the area. Their demands, which they issued when they took the two buildings, have remained the same: (1) that the Committee on Intergovermental Relations, chaired by Senator Edward Kennedy, investigate the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). (2) That the Senator William Fulbright's Senate Foreign Relations Committee look into the status of over 371 treaties signed by the U.S. government with various Indian tribes and (3) that tribes be allowed to elect their own officials. The takeover began on the night of February 27 when approximately 250 Indians took the two buildings on the Pine Ridge Reservation in the southwest South Dakota. (Pine Ridge is the second largest reservation in the country.) Inside at the time of the takeover were 11 people-mostly Anglo--who law enforcement officials claimed were hostages. They said they wanted to stay "because this is where we live." Almost immediately after the takeover, the FBI agents, U.S. Marshalls, police and Bureau of Indian Affairs and Justice Department officials surrounded the place. They came armed with M-16 Army rifles and at least 30 armored personnel carriers. [photo] [emblem] At one point two U.S. Air Force Phontom jets flew overhead on "reconnaisance missions" The tension has increased and decreased during the occupation. Federal forces have come close to invading a number of times, there have been ceasefires interspersed between shooting back and forth, and some negotiations.On March 11, the federal forces drew back and the Indians declared themselves an Independent Nation--"The New Oglala Sioux Nation of Wounded Knee." According to Terry Steel, an Indian present from the start of the Wounded Knee action, there are no jobs in the reservation. "There is a 65.9 percent unemployment and underemployment. We see in the papers that the government gives $20 million for this program and for that program, but all it does is just create directors and four or five secretaries in jobs that last a few years and then are gone." A large factory in the reservation makes dolls for Sun Bell Corp. with headquarters down south. The Shopping center is a branch of Ideal Markets and the service station is owned by Juskie Oil. All the profits go off the reservation to white people. Per capita income on the reservation is $800 a year. It's near impossible to get welfare. The treatment that the Indian brothers received in the reservation are not only local but can be seen throughout the country. It started when the first Indians were slaughtered and forced off their land to make way for European settlers, and continued through the Indian Wars in the 19th century, culminating at Wounded Knee in 1890. (lns- el Malcriado) [emblem]
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WOUNDED KNEE, South Dakota.-- Five weeks after they seized the trading post and the church which sit on the Pine Ridge Reservation, several hundred Oglala Sioux, other members of the American Indian Movement (AIM), and their supporters are still holding the area. Their demands, which they issued when they took the two buildings, have remained the same: (1) that the Committee on Intergovermental Relations, chaired by Senator Edward Kennedy, investigate the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). (2) That the Senator William Fulbright's Senate Foreign Relations Committee look into the status of over 371 treaties signed by the U.S. government with various Indian tribes and (3) that tribes be allowed to elect their own officials. The takeover began on the night of February 27 when approximately 250 Indians took the two buildings on the Pine Ridge Reservation in the southwest South Dakota. (Pine Ridge is the second largest reservation in the country.) Inside at the time of the takeover were 11 people-mostly Anglo--who law enforcement officials claimed were hostages. They said they wanted to stay "because this is where we live." Almost immediately after the takeover, the FBI agents, U.S. Marshalls, police and Bureau of Indian Affairs and Justice Department officials surrounded the place. They came armed with M-16 Army rifles and at least 30 armored personnel carriers. [photo] [emblem] At one point two U.S. Air Force Phontom jets flew overhead on "reconnaisance missions" The tension has increased and decreased during the occupation. Federal forces have come close to invading a number of times, there have been ceasefires interspersed between shooting back and forth, and some negotiations.On March 11, the federal forces drew back and the Indians declared themselves an Independent Nation--"The New Oglala Sioux Nation of Wounded Knee." According to Terry Steel, an Indian present from the start of the Wounded Knee action, there are no jobs in the reservation. "There is a 65.9 percent unemployment and underemployment. We see in the papers that the government gives $20 million for this program and for that program, but all it does is just create directors and four or five secretaries in jobs that last a few years and then are gone." A large factory in the reservation makes dolls for Sun Bell Corp. with headquarters down south. The Shopping center is a branch of Ideal Markets and the service station is owned by Juskie Oil. All the profits go off the reservation to white people. Per capita income on the reservation is $800 a year. It's near impossible to get welfare. The treatment that the Indian brothers received in the reservation are not only local but can be seen throughout the country. It started when the first Indians were slaughtered and forced off their land to make way for European settlers, and continued through the Indian Wars in the 19th century, culminating at Wounded Knee in 1890. (lns- el Malcriado) [emblem]
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