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Latino-Native American Cultural Center newspaper clippings, 1972-1988

Indian prisoners get to sweat lodge

By ELIZABETH BALLATINE
Register Staff Writer
A small, dome-shaped structure built of poles covered with blankets, in which heated stones are sprinkled with water, is the latest innovation for prisoners at the Iowa State Penitentiary at Fort Madison.
The sweat lodge, which works like a sauna, is part of an American Indian religious rite of purification.
It was authorized March 13 in an out-of-court agreement between six Native American prisoners and the Iowa Department of Social Services, which runs the prison system.
According to the settlement, prison officials must allow the prisoners to build the structure within two months, with their own materials, at a place designated by the warden after conference with the Indians.
"We of course see some difficulty with it," prison spokesman Ron Welder said Tuesday. "But it is their right to practice their religion, which is, after all, the oldest religion int he United States."
U.S. District Court Judge William C. Stuart didn't see it that way at first. Last September he denied the request for the structure, filed eight months earlier by Christopher Ross, a 30-year-old Lakotah Sioux Indian. 
Stuart originally held that Ross "clearly has been afforded a reasonable opportunity of pursuing his faith" because he could attend services at the prison's Indian Chicano Center.
The judge agreed with prison officials' refusal to allow the building of a fire -- essential to the sweat lodge ceremony -- because it was a fire hazard and because the heated rocks and water could be used as weapons by the inmates.
Noting his own unusual "liberal construction" of prisoner complaints, Stuart said that Ross nevertheless failed to prove that his constitutional right to freedom of religion had been violated.
Ross had filed his lawsuit acting as his own lawyer, but soon after Stuart's action two lawyers from the Native American Rights Fund in Boulder, Colo., plus Des Moines lawyer Gordon Allen, asked Stuart to reopen the suit.
The Colorado lawyers, Kurt V. Blue Dog and Walter R. Echo Hawk, filed sworn statements from several state prison wardens that sweat lodges in their prisons caused no extra security problems and they improved discipline. The lodges are permitted in prisons in Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico, California and South Dakota, among other states.
For example, Joseph C. Vitch, of the Douglas County Department of Corrections in Nebraska, said in court records that although he is a Roman Catholic, he finds the sweat lodge ceremony "a personally moving experience." 
The prison officials "fail to grasp the vast difference between the tribal religions of these Indians and the Judeo-Christian tradition which most of us are familiar with," Blue Dog and Echo-Hawk argued. They cited lack of awareness, insensitivity and neglect as characterizing government attitudes toward Native Americans.
The state did not oppose the Indians' arguments after Stuart agreed to vacate his original ruling.
"Once we determined there would be no extra cost, we thought we should provide it," said Hal Farrier, director of the state's corrections system.

Des Moines Register 3-25-81 Iowa (?)

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Indian prisoners get to sweat lodge By ELIZABETH BALLATINE Register Staff Writer A small, dome-shaped structure built of poles covered with blankets, in which heated stones are sprinkled with water, is the latest innovation for prisoners at the Iowa State Penitentiary at Fort Madison. The sweat lodge, which works like a sauna, is part of an American Indian religious rite of purification. It was authorized March 13 in an out-of-court agreement between six Native American prisoners and the Iowa Department of Social Services, which runs the prison system. According to the settlement, prison officials must allow the prisoners to build the structure within two months, with their own materials, at a place designated by the warden after conference with the Indians. "We of course see some difficulty with it," prison spokesman Ron Welder said Tuesday. "But it is their right to practice their religion, which is, after all, the oldest religion int he United States." U.S. District Court Judge William C. Stuart didn't see it that way at first. Last September he denied the request for the structure, filed eight months earlier by Christopher Ross, a 30-year-old Lakotah Sioux Indian. Stuart originally held that Ross "clearly has been afforded a reasonable opportunity of pursuing his faith" because he could attend services at the prison's Indian Chicano Center. The judge agreed with prison officials' refusal to allow the building of a fire -- essential to the sweat lodge ceremony -- because it was a fire hazard and because the heated rocks and water could be used as weapons by the inmates. Noting his own unusual "liberal construction" of prisoner complaints, Stuart said that Ross nevertheless failed to prove that his constitutional right to freedom of religion had been violated. Ross had filed his lawsuit acting as his own lawyer, but soon after Stuart's action two lawyers from the Native American Rights Fund in Boulder, Colo., plus Des Moines lawyer Gordon Allen, asked Stuart to reopen the suit. The Colorado lawyers, Kurt V. Blue Dog and Walter R. Echo Hawk, filed sworn statements from several state prison wardens that sweat lodges in their prisons caused no extra security problems and they improved discipline. The lodges are permitted in prisons in Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico, California and South Dakota, among other states. For example, Joseph C. Vitch, of the Douglas County Department of Corrections in Nebraska, said in court records that although he is a Roman Catholic, he finds the sweat lodge ceremony "a personally moving experience." The prison officials "fail to grasp the vast difference between the tribal religions of these Indians and the Judeo-Christian tradition which most of us are familiar with," Blue Dog and Echo-Hawk argued. They cited lack of awareness, insensitivity and neglect as characterizing government attitudes toward Native Americans. The state did not oppose the Indians' arguments after Stuart agreed to vacate his original ruling. "Once we determined there would be no extra cost, we thought we should provide it," said Hal Farrier, director of the state's corrections system. Des Moines Register 3-25-81 Iowa (?)