Every Saturday, Buffalo Post features stories from Native Sun News, published in Rapid City, S.D.

By Randall Howell
Native Sun News Correspondent

RAPID CITY – Sometimes, political candidates do everything right and still lose the general election.

That’s the situation that the only American Indian on this year’s South Dakota statewide ballot has found himself in more than once during his political career.

However, Ron Volesky, an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, doesn’t see himself as a loser at all. If anything, he’s a self-confident “this year” candidate.

“I intend to win the state attorney general’s race on Nov. 2,” Volesky, a Huron-based attorney, told Native Sun News.

“It’s shaping up to be a tough race,” said Volesky, who faces the state’s incumbent attorney general, Marty Jackley, a Republican running in a state that has been dominated by GOP officeholders at the statewide level for decades.

“We’ve got to get the vote out, particularly in places such as the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Rosebud, Cheyenne River, Standing Rock – all nine reservations across the state,” said Volesky, who is the Democratic Party’s candidate for the office of the state’s attorney general.

“I’ve got the experience to meet the challenges in that office,” said Volesky, a Harvard graduate. “But I need help from the Indian vote. I ask South Dakota’s Native Americans to empower themselves so that we get a good vote on Nov. 2.”

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Not to start your weekend on a downer, but here’s the entire story from the Bismarck Tribune’s Kay Kemmett via Associated Press:

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — The broken pieces of the Rising Eagle sculpture are finally back together, almost a year after vandals reduced the American Indian art to rubble last July.

Just north of the Pioneer Park sand volleyball courts, the Rising Eagle seating area is fixed but the space for the sculpture is bare. The sculpture, created by United Tribes Technical College students, will be restored within the next couple of weeks.

“It is scary when you think that someone would want to do something like that,” said Paul Quist, president of the Bismarck Park Board, about the vandalism.

Heska, a former student of UTTC, approached the Bismarck Parks and Recreation District about reconstructing the art and has been a staple in the UTTC maintenance shop working to recreate Rising Eagle since August.

“I think it’s important that someone step up and try to rectify a wrong,” Heska said.

Heska, of the Standing Rock Reservation, prefers to be called by his American Indian name rather than Steven White Mountain.

“It’s important to me that I’m known by Heska,” he said.

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More than a thousand people on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation have signed a petition seeking a vote throughout the reservation on retaining the University of North Dakota’s Fighting Sioux nickname.

That petition will be considered at the tribal council’s May 4 meeting, unless a special meeting is called sooner, Lauren Donovan of the Bismarck Tribune writes here.

Recently, the nickname was officially retired by the State Board of Higher Education. But the issue remains volatile, with North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven telling the board that the Standing Rock Tribe’s position should be considered, as long as it’s held before Nov. 30, Donovan reports.

Even though the State Board of Higher Education moved to officially retire the name for the University of North Dakota earlier this month, the issue is not over.

Petition organizer Archie Fool Bear, a supporter of the nickname, says the name can be “un-retired.” He tells Donovan:

“It’s not over. We’re 1,004 strong and we signed our names. Our people need to be heard. This is a democracy, not a dictatorship.”

Fool Bear said even if the tribal constitution doesn’t provide a referendum process, the council created precedent two years ago by holding a reservation-wide vote on whether to change their tribal name from Sioux to Oyate.

The National Collegiate Education Association terms the Fighting Sioux nickname “hostile” to tribes, and set the Nov. 30 deadline for a decision on it.

The Board of Education, of course, jumped ahead of that deadline, but nickname supporters cite it in their arguments.

Gwen Florio

Tetona Dunlap is a graduate student in journalism at the University of Montana. She is an enrolled member of the Eastern Shoshone tribe from the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming.

The other day I was eating lunch with two friends in the cafeteria at the University of Montana. It was crowded as it often is around noon, students filled tables while chatting loudly, the sound of utensils clattering against ceramic plates. However, no matter how crowded or noisy, none of us at our table could help but notice the grinning red face across the room.

Seated at the table next to us was a guy wearing a Cleveland Indians T-shirt and baseball cap. His back was to us, but emblazoned across it was Chief Wahoo. All of us at the table were from different tribes, but we are all equally offended by this stereotypical and racist image smirking at us as we ate. We made sarcastic remarks like, “Is that what we look like?” noting its red face, big nose and sky-high feather. We laughed at its absurdity, our laughter blending with the laughter of our fellow students enjoying their lunch.

When I first learned that the North Dakota State Board of Education ordered the University of North Dakota to drop its Fighting Sioux mascot, I was overjoyed. In 2005, the National Collegiate Athletic Association banned college logos and nicknames it considered “hostile and abusive.”
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Just because the North Dakota Board of Higher Education yesterday retired the state university’s Fighting Sioux nickname doesn’t mean everyone has accepted the pending change.

“This is Sioux country. This whole state is Sioux country,” women’s basketball coach Gene Roebuck said today at a news conference, the Associated Press reports here.

“It’s going to be hard for me to move on and to accept any other type of logo,” says Roebuck. She wore a jacket with anIndian head logo designed by a Native student at UND. The school has had the mascot for more than 80 years.

Getting rid of it paves the way to UND’s participation in the Summit League, which set getting rid of the nickname as a criterion.

As the AP’s Dave Kolpack reports:

The NCAA in 2005 and 2006 listed 19 schools with American Indian mascots and images that it considered “hostile and abusive,” and banned them from postseason play pending name changes. Nicknames the NCAA deemed offensive ranged from Indians to Braves to the Fighting Illini.

Some universities, like Florida State (the Seminoles) Central Michigan (Chippewas) and Utah (the Utes), were allowed to keep their nicknames by getting permission from local tribes. The University of Illinois was allowed to keep its Fighting Illini nickname, but a mascot dressed in buckskins and headdress, Chief Illiniwek, was banned.

The name was dropped even though the two Sioux tribes within the state — the Spirit Lake Nation and Standing Rock Nation — couldn’t reach agreement on the issue. Spirit Lake backed the nickname; Standing Rock had yet to resolve the issue.

Senior BJ Rainbow, at the office of American Indian Student Services, senior BJ Rainbow says he likes the change but worries about hard feelings and a possible backlash.

No timetable has been set for a new nickname.

Gwen Florio

Here’s the entire story from the Associated Press, which will be updated:

MAYVILLE, N.D. (AP) — The North Dakota Board of Higher Education has determined that the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux nickname is retired.

The determination came Thursday after a state Supreme Court ruling that said the board had the authority to change the nickname at any time. The court rejected an appeal that sought to delay action.

The board had voted last May to retire the nickname. A motion on Thursday to reconsider that vote died for lack of a second. Board president Richie Smith said before the vote that he thought no further action was required to retire the nickname.

A group of eight Spirit Lake Sioux tribal members who support the nickname had wanted the courts to bar any decision before a Nov. 30 deadline set in a settlement agreement involving the NCAA, the education board and UND.

The justices in their ruling said the board could change the nickname before the deadline.

The Standing Rock Tribal Council decided today to await a decision by the North Dakota Board of Higher Education’ on the University of North Dakota’s Fighting Sioux nickname before the tribe takes action.

That council’s move disappointed tribal members who support the nickname, the Fargo-Moorhead Forum reports here.

Archie Fool Bear had collected more than 1,000 signatures on a petition to put the issue on the ballot. But he says tribal council didn’t even discuss his petition at today’s meeting.

The NCAA considers such nicknames “hostile” and “abusive.” In North Dakota, the decision as to whether to keep the nickname was given to the state’s two Sioux tribes.

Members of the Spirit Lake Tribe voted last year to support the name, but opponents are seeking to undo that approval, the Grand Forks Herald reports here.

A lawsuit by supporters is before the state Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, the State Board of Higher Education, meets Thursday at Mayville State University. The nickname issue is on the agenda — UND wants to join the Summit League athletic conference as soon as possible — but board members also await the Supreme Court’s decision, which could force them to wait until Nov. 30 to retire the nickname.

Gwen Florio

Indigenous women come up short in Bolivian land redistribution
Bolivia’s ongoing program by President Evo Morales to redistribute property from wealthy landowners to poor, indigenous people (see video above) – who make up 60 percent of the population – doesn’t always include women. As this Indian Country Today report shows, from 1997-2008, 47 percent of titles granted to individuals have been in the name of a man only, while 20 percent were in a woman’s name; the rest went to couples. Nongovernmental groups like La Coordinadora de la Mujer are working to change laws that discriminate against women when it comes to land ownership.

Minnesota works to change failure rate among Natives on probation
While Indian offenders make up a relatively small part of the Minnesota judicial system, one in five American Indians fail probation and are sent to prison. The American Indian Policy Center, is working on liaison programs to try and change that, according to this Minnesota Public Radio report.

Blackfeet, Salish and Kootenai officials hold joint meeting
Officials from the Blackfeet Tribe and Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes in western Montana met last week to talk about how they could better work together. Such a meeting has been discussed for years – now that it’s happened, more are planned, according to the Char-Koosta News.

Standing Rock officials plead not guilty to embezzlement
Two officials from the Running Antelope District on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation have pleaded not guilty to federal embezzlement charges, according to the Rapid City Journal. Running Antelope District treasurer Wayland Yellow Earrings, also known as Waylon Yellow Earrings, 39, of Little Eagle, and Kenneth Mark Walking Eagle,each are accused of taking more than $1,000.

New Age guru accused in sweat lodge deaths faces new lawsuit
The Arizona man charged in the deaths of three people in a sweat lodge ceremony is being sued by people who say they lost thousands of dollars paid in advance for the Native American-style ceremonies held by James Arthur Ray, according to the Associated Press. A week’s program at his retreat outside Sedona could run nearly $10,000.

Gwen Florio

Here’s the entire story from the Associated Press:

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Standing Rock Sioux tribal members may be voting on whether to support keeping the University of North Dakota’s Fighting Sioux nickname.

Tribal backers of the nickname turned in petitions with just over 1,000 signatures to the tribal government’s offices in Fort Yates on Monday.

Former councilman Archie Fool Bear helped organize the effort. He’d like to see an election within four months.

Tribal Chairman Charles Murphy says the Standing Rock tribal council could consider a resolution at its next meeting April 6, if the petitions are OK.

A referendum on the Spirit Lake Sioux reservation last year showed 67 percent support for keeping UND’s nickname.

North Dakota’s Board of Higher Education is considering dropping the name.