The drum - heartbeat to a Nation

Struggling to be heard

2007-12-07T02:56:00.000-08:00

Drummers – are you struggling to be heard?
The Lakota (Sioux) American Indians have been for over 100 years. Many traditional Lakota ceremonies which use drum rhythms were outlawed by US government along with their cultural identity and basic human rights.

My appeal is to raise awareness and support for the Lakota people living on the Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations in South Dakota USA. Pine Ridge and Rosebud were originally part of the Great Sioux Reservation established in the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868. Today, the descendants of families who defended their land at Little Big Horn in 1876 and those who survived the Wounded Knee massacre of 1890 are living with the legacy of the atrocities. They endure hardship, neglect and extreme poverty in third world conditions on reservation land.

This once vast area which included the Black Hills has been broken up and consistently raped for gold and minerals since the Treaty violation in 1876. Pine Ridge and Rosebud are now reduced to the most barren areas of South Dakota. But even this land, once regarded as ‘worthless’ by the US government, is now being plundered. For uranium. Abandoned uranium mines cause appalling health problems to Lakota families with high rates of cancer, miscarriages and birth defects. Defenders of the Black Hills is a US registered charity whose actions are to ‘restore and protect the environment of the Black Hills and the surrounding Treaty Area to the best of their ability’. Please make donations to them online via their website.

US government policy holds the Lakota in submission. Land that has not been seized is held 'in trust' and can never be used as collateral to create infrastructure, finance industry or forge an economy. There are never any prospects for employment apart from the few jobs available in the corrupt US controlled administrative sector. Many traditional Lakota families live in old battered trailers or dilapidated wooden cabins without proper sanitation and exposure to asbestos and black mould. Lakota Aid is a UK registered charity seeking donors who will send money directly to traditional Lakota people living on the Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations. Please contact them via their website for further information.

The Lakota struggle is neglected by the media, and ignored by the
US government. My name is Dave Terrey, a drummer and I've created ‘drummersuk’ to support this struggle. Read my blogs and check my links. Retune your heads. Support their struggle. If you do make donations please quote drummersuk as your reference.

Thank you

Dave - daveterrey@ntlworld.com

Un-natural disaster appeal

2007-12-07T02:54:00.000-08:00

The picture you see here is not from a Tsunami or Hurricane disaster that will gain global media awareness and have massive financial aid structures put in place to eventually rebuild, refurbish and return to normal.

THIS IS ‘NORMAL’ to the Lakota!

This is the home of a Lakota woman living on the Pine Ridge reservation, showing every-day living conditions. Her trailer will not be replaced, rebuilt or refurbished because the need for financial aid will not be recognised.

Many residents are living in these conditions and need urgent financial support. The weather in this area is prone to extremes. Along with hurricanes – that are not recorded and won't make the press – the summer burning heat buckles the metal of these trailers and the winter brings freezing winds that howl through the gaping holes. This home was literally ‘picked up’ by a hurricane and dumped back down again.

Continual neglect from US governments over many years has resulted in an unstable foundation for the Lakota people, as you can see here, but also socially and economically. The link 'Lost in the wilderness' is a picture gallery that illustrates the poverty and neglect on the reservation.

You can help by either contacting Lakota Aid to donate to individual Lakota residents or to Defenders of the Black Hills with larger donations.

Photo courtesy of Lakota Aid

Propane gas appeal

2007-12-07T02:53:00.000-08:00

The Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations have to rely on propane gas for their heating and cooking. There is no mains gas supply to the reservations and electricity is expensive. Many Lakota cannot meet the cost required to sustain regular supplies of propane. Some do not even have a propane tank, like the one in the picture being installed, and are using small portable heaters which are unsafe and insufficient.

Propane gas is needed all year round. Winters in South Dakota can bring temperatures as low as minus 20-40 degrees below freezing, so propane fuel is the difference between life and death!

Families can be cut off in extreme weather conditions and freeze to death if they do not have propane for heating. Some trailer homes are vastly overcrowded and Elders will sleep outside in an old battered old car they may own, simply to allow women and children to be indoors.

You can help by either contacting Lakota Aid to donate to individual Lakota residents or to Defenders of the Black Hills with larger donations.

Photo courtesy of Lakota Aid

Healthcare and the elderly

2007-12-07T02:52:00.000-08:00

Diabetes is an acute problem and a real killer. It needn’t be with proper medical care. Because the Lakota people live in such a remote and barren part of US, and very little is done to help them with healthcare, the dialysis patients have to rely on transportation to take them the vast distance to the hospital at Pine Ridge for their treatment, many having to go 2-3 times a week. If they cannot organise transport they simply miss out on their dialysis, get sicker and sicker and eventually die in a very miserable way!!

The elderly also need properly equipped care homes to support them in old age, and more hospital or clinic facilities built and staffed by American Indian people. The unemployment rate is extremely high on the reservations. Ninety percent of the help needed there is to fund people to be trained in skilled areas such as healthcare, carpentry, electricians, plumbers etc, the list is endless.

You can help by either contacting Lakota Aid to donate to individual Lakota residents or to Defenders of the Black Hills with larger donations.

Photo courtesy of Lakota Aid

Uranium contamination

2007-12-07T02:50:00.000-08:00

As oil reserves diminish and a global race for uranium takes place, further land will be taken from the Lakota. Uranium exploration could be halted if US government would uphold the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868. Agreements in the treaty give ‘ownership’ of land to the Lakota people. Since the treaty betrayal and destruction of the Black Hills, the Lakota have fought for the US government to honour the treaty. Defenders of the Black Hills continue this struggle today.

The disastrous effects of uranium mining in South Dakota are now apparent at the Pine Ridge Reservation. Contamination to crops, rivers and water systems caused by toxic poisons, radioactive dust and other hazardous waste needs to be brought to public notice and addressed.

Charmaine White Face Coordinator of ‘The Defenders of the Black Hills’ is continually campaigning for change and is a key figure in the human rights struggle for her people. The article below recognises her achievements concerning the uranium issues. Please check the ‘Defenders’ website for information about uranium contamination. The picture shows contamination to a river running through the Reservation.

Photo courtesy of Lakota Aid

Taken from The Defenders of the Black Hills website

CHARMAINE WHITE FACE TO RECEIVE NUCLEAR-FREE FUTURE RESISTANCE AWARD

1 Aug. MUNICH–The Nuclear-Free Future Awards honours individuals, organisations and communities for their outstanding commitment towards creating a world freed from the threat of nuclear weapons and atomic energy. This year, the Award jury members – who include Johan Galtung (Norway), Val Kilmer (New Mexico), Chris Peters (California), Kirkpatrick Sale (Massachusetts), Galsan Tschinag (Ulan Bator), and Christine von Weizsäcker (Germany) – have selected Charmaine White Face to receive, endowed with a money purse of $10,000, the Nuclear-Free Future Award in the category of Resistance.

Educated as a biologist, Charmaine White Face is the moving spirit behind the Defenders of the Black Hills, an organization that monitors abandoned uranium mines on sacred Lakota Lands and seeks the remediation of hazardous waste ponds that contaminate the region with high levels of radium 226, arsenic, lead and iron. A central part of Ms White Face’s message is that not just the Lakota, but all of us are threatened: aquifers cover massive areas of the continent, rivers empty into one another, radioactive dust is carried by the wind, and toxic poisons in the soil nourish grass and feed crops that eventually work their way into the mainstream food chain.

100 years to rise again

2007-12-07T02:49:00.001-08:00

The year 1968 saw a vanguard for human rights struggle and change around the world. The rise of the American Civil Rights Movement culminating in the assassination of Martin Luther-King Jr, world protest against the Vietnam War - especially concerns that the US military had been untruthful about its operations during the Tet Offensive, and a general strike by students in France bringing the downfall of the De Gaulle administration were all landmarks in recent history. However, One hundred years after the Lakota fought for land rights to be established in the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, the year 1968 marked the beginning of powerful protest by American Indians against decades of injustice and oppression.

In 1968 Dennis Banks an Ojibwa would have an idea to monitor police activity in Minneapolis where a lot of abuse of the Lakota people was taking place. In light of two incidents, the shameful degrading assault on Raymond Yellow Thunder leading to his death and the murder of Wesley Bad Heart Bear, Banks would consolidate the American Indian Movement and head a series of major campaigns for his people including the Trail of Broken Treaties in 1972 and the Wounded Knee Stand-Off in 1973.

Picture left 1873
Dull Knife (seated) and Little Wolf were invited to Washington with other Lakota leaders to discuss treaty rights, for the ‘Sioux Agency’ now the Pine Ridge Reservation. This picture was taken at the White House in 1873 where talks took place. The Dull Knife family encampment was massacred by US cavalry troops in 1877. Many managed to escape to the mountains including Dull Knife and Little Wolf.

The Dull Knife family history from past to present day is told in the excellent book ‘The Dull Knifes of Pine Ridge’, available on Amazon. Read my review.

Picture right 1973
Dennis Banks (right) founder of the American Indian Movement (AIM) and AIM key member Russell Means initiated the Trail of Broken Treaties in 1972 to hold talks with Washington administrators concerning policies in the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty. Although prior arrangements had been made, their arrival was met with complete contempt by Government officials. With total frustrations over the filthy and inadequate accommodation allocated to them they took over the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) building in Washington. The picture shows them triumphant after all federal charges were dropped when massive FBI corruption emerged in the trial of the Wounded Knee Stand-Off.

Their stories are told in two brilliant autobiographies. ‘Ojibwa Warrior – Dennis Banks and the rise of the American Indian Movement’ and ‘Where White Men Fear To Tread – Russell Means with Marvin J Wolf, both available on Amazon. Read my review.

Importance of the 1868 Treaty

2007-12-07T02:47:00.000-08:00

Reference in my blog to the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 is essential. In this treaty the Great Sioux Reservation was established. The land mass was vast, around 60,000,000 acres. Agreements in the treaty granted the Lakota sovereignty - ownership of this land. Had the treaty not been violated for greed and profit, the Lakota would have seen the continuation of their culture and had the independence to trade as a sovereign Nation.

Many Lakota leaders and campaigners have fought, and are still fighting, for the treaty to be honoured and it's high on the agenda of Defenders Of The Black Hills. The Treaty remains in tact in the White House.

In 1876, the Treaty was violated by the US Government, and this betrayal opened the way for many other US government policies designed to destroy this vast reservation and break the Lakota. ‘Termination’ - dividing the reservation up into smaller individually owned plots and the ‘Relocation’ of families to major cities such as Los Angeles and Cleveland were two. These exercises proved to be a disaster and lead to the situation in which the Lakota exist today - exiles in their own homeland and the poorest Nation in modern America.

The residents of Pine Ridge - the Oglala Lakota, and Rosebud - the Sicangu Lakota, are living under the control of the US government Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). The injustices meted out to the Lakota at the time of the violation and betrayal of the treaty have never ceased and have resulted in lifetimes of misery. However, in this adversity the traditional Lakota are managing to maintain their culture and see it flourish – small is beautiful.

The US government should be put under pressure to revisit these treaty rights and make the commitment to change. The United Nations should take notice of appeals made by the Lakota – Tetuwan (Teton Sioux Nation) Treaty Council to be recognised. If Barak Obama truly represents the rainbow nation, then he must make this commitment to the Lakota. He also needs to remember that red is the first colour in the rainbow.

Awareness of this treaty is key to understanding the Lakota struggle.

Lakota – Allies

Tetuwan – People who live on the prairies

Oglala – To Scatter their own

Sicangu – Burnt thigh

Book reviews

2007-12-07T02:46:00.000-08:00

The Dull Knifes Of Pine Ridge
by Joe Starita
Hardcover: 388 pages
Putnam Pub Group (T) (April 1995)

Beginning in the present day (mid 90's), Joe Staritas' book tells a sensitive and informative story of Lakota life spanning four generations. As well as being a rich and fascinating family history containing many heart-rending and humorous moments it also reveals the shocking social and political issues the Oglala are facing from events directly after the Little Big Horn through to the present day. This is essential reading for anyone - like myself - who seeks to learn about the Lakota and reservation life after the 1890 Wounded Knee massacre, and is excellent pre-reading for those who want to look deeper into the issues it covers and more current ones.

Dennis Banks and the rise of the American Indian Movement
by Dennis Banks (Author), Richard Erdoes (Author)
Paperback: 362 pages
University of Oklahoma Press (1 Mar 2005)

Dennis Banks’ book is compelling. Beginning with an intense last few days at the 1973 Wounded Knee Stand-Off, and his escape. What follows is the moving story of a young boy torn from his traditional family life at Leech Lake Reservation and sent to a military style boarding school. His return as a young man 11 years later leaves him questioning his identity - in his words ‘they made me into an apple - red outside but white inside’.

With a desperation to get away – ‘anywhere’ – he joins the Air Force. His posting to Japan, a country which he loved, and an event there which made him become aware of human rights, prefixed his future as a political leader. With poverty the cause of his only ‘petty’ crime when he returns, a spell in jail gives him time to read about Native American history, their struggle and other human rights issues.

This intriguing story continues with his reasons for establishing the American Indian Movement (AIM) and their achievements. It gives an in-depth account of the Wounded Knee Stand-Off, and corruption in the subsequent trial, where the judge dismissed the case against Banks and fellow AIM leader Russell Means. Alliance then turns full circle as infiltrations of the movement by the FBI are revealed.

The book concludes with Dennis’ recent projects and achievements, and his move back to Leech Lake where he is applying traditional skills including making maple syrup and harvesting wild rice. Now the family business. He describes the loves and losses in his personal life and the political struggle with genuine honesty and passion leaving the reader in awe of this great leader. We must thank Dennis Banks for telling his story and Richard Erdoes, a long-time friend, for bringing it to life.

Where White Men Fear to Tread - Russell Means with Marvin J Wolf
by Russell Means
Paperback: 592 pages
Publisher: Saint Martin's Press Inc.;
St Martin's Griffin Ed edition (1 Dec 1996)

This is a big book, over 500 pages but don’t be put off. As you read through the chapters it reveals the story of a complex man. Talented, flamboyant with a passion and commitment that is driven by anger.

The family’s decision to move to California from the Yankton Reservation could easily have seen a very bright young boy integrate into the ‘American Way’. Early schooling found Russell bored because the work was too easy. As a teenager he rebels and starts dealing drugs and drinking in these formative years.

Oppressed by his mother, only summer vacations back to South Dakota to visit his grandparents would find an ease for his building frustrations. It was also on these trips that he finds work and becomes aware of traditional Indian culture.

A government relocation package takes Means to Cleveland. With a fight to get decent accommodation and employment from the deal, he starts a Community Centre to help other Native Americans in the same situation. This soon becomes a valuable asset to the community.

While passion grows to help his people, a chance meeting with American Indian Movement (AIM) members Dennis Banks and Clyde Bellecourt would have a major impact on Means’ life. ‘How can I join’ asked Means. ‘You just did’ replied Banks. Means’ work with AIM is legendary and the book takes you through all its major campaigns and other political struggles as this story unfolds.

His flamboyant charismatic character will eventually lead him to ‘the movies’, securing amongst others a lead role in ‘Last of the Mohicans’ alongside Daniel Day-Lewis. Although a leading figure in this film he was still the subject of racial prejudice, being referred to as ‘chief’, by key film crew members.

Russell Means’ anger, he relays, is directly linked to abuse from his mother and manifests in his frustrations to help his people in their struggle for human rights. It is also expressed many times in the book by the word ‘bullshit’ to describe most of the dealings with US authorities. While writing this book Means would decide to have treatment for his anger which he now has under control.

Help given to Rosebud resident

2007-12-07T02:45:00.000-08:00

Drummersuk collected money from donations for Clifford White Eyes Senior to help him through this freezing winter. Clifford pictured far right, is a traditional Lakota Elder living on the Rosebud reservation. He is pictured with Garvard Good Plume, second left, a director with the Defenders of the Black Hills, and two friends.

As you can see from the picture housing conditions are poor. We can only try to bring change in the long term by raising awareness to the problems, but in the short term urgent financial help is needed.

Clifford was the first person to receive a donation through my blog campaign launched in December 2007 and this has given me the encouragement to continue. You can help people like Clifford by making donations through Lakota Aid for individual Lakota people, and help fight the destruction of their homeland through Defenders of the Black Hills.

Photo courtesy of Lakota Aid