When you hear the words “politics” and “Wounded Knee” together, you tend to think of the American Indian Movement standoff there with the FBI in 1973.

But “Wounded Knee: Party Politics and the Road to an American Massacre,” by Amherst history professor Heather Cox Richardson — takes a look at the climate that allowed the massacre of Chief Big Foot and his followers, most of them unarmed, on Dec. 29, 1890.

As author Stew Magnuson writes in his blog, A View from A Washichu, the book covers a lot of familiar territory about that awful day. And it doesn’t answer lingering questions, such as who fired the first shot. But, as Magnuson writes:

I’ve never believed that it mattered. The Army should not have been on the reservation in the first place. The bigger question then is why U.S. troops came to the South Dakota reservations to quell the seemingly harmless religious rituals that were part of the Ghost Dance religion? Hysteria in neighboring white communities over the perceived dangers of the dancing was certainly one factor.

So who is at fault?


In short, the Republicans, Richardson asserts.

In his review of the book for the Chicago Tribune, Steve Fiffer writes that “Heather Cox Richardson’s superb new book should come labeled: Warning! Reading the contents may lead to depression.”

All of which makes us want to read more. Good thing the weekend’s coming up!

Gwen Florio

Tags: A View From a Washichu, buffalo post, Chief Bigfoot, Ghost Dance, Gwen Florio, Heather Cox Richardson, Stew Magnuson, Wounded Knee, Wounded Knee - Party Politics and the Road to an American Massacre

In his new blog, A View From a Washichu, author Stew Magnuson (“The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder: And Other True Stories from the Nebraska Pine-Ridge Border Towns”) takes a look at a recent story about the town of Whiteclay, Neb., infamous for existing mostly to sell beer, and mostly to residents of the nearby dry Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. (His column appears every other week in Native Sun News.)

But as Magnuson notes, the story in the Rapid City Journal by Mary Garrigan wrote about folks from Pine Ridge who also shop in Whiteclay to buy groceries. What Garrigan didn’t cover, and Magnuson does, is the stores’ practice of extending credit to people:

One reason consumers go to Whiteclay, and that the article missed is the Whiteclay grocers’ policy of extending credit.
Some of the comments posted after the online article described all the merchants there as “greedy and selfish.”

One retired grocer told me that when the family retired and sold their store after nearly 40 years in business, they had some $25,000 of credit on the books. They could have gone after some of this money, but they let it go.

I have on file a Letter to the Editor written to the Sheridan County Star by Clem Crazy Thunder in 1999 after VJ’s grocery store was lit on fire during the Hard Hart/Black Elk murder protests. “Without VJ’s Market my family would not have even been able to survive,” he wrote. “VJ’s provided food for my family on credit … Without the trust we had built with the former owner (The late Randall Thies) we would have never been able to put food on the table.”

So all business owners are automatically “greedy and selfish?” I don’t think so.

Magnuson also takes an opportunity in the piece to riff on the online comments section provided by many news organizations, including the Missoulian, which hosts Buffalo Post, and of course on Buffalo Post itself. He joins a long, long line of people lamenting the tone and often thinly veiled (or just plain open) racism of those almost-always-anonymous comments. Fortunately, most of the comments on this blog have stayed clear of the muck and in fact often are very informative.

As Magnuson says, “Writers should say what they mean, mean what they say, and have the courage and conviction to stand behind their comments.”

To which I can only add, “Amen.”

Gwen Florio

Tags: Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Stew Magnuson, The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder - And Other True Stories from the Nebraska-Pine Ridge Border Towns, Whiteclay

Writer Stew Magnuson (“The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder: And Other True Stories from the Nebraska-Pine Ridge Border Towns”) today memorializes Billy Gibbons, who died last month at the age of 75.

In his blog, A View from a Washichu, Magnuson writes here that:

Gibbons was the son of a Lakota woman, Elsie Long Cat, and a white father, William Gibbons. Billy was raised in Wounded Knee, but had made Gordon, Nebr., his home since the 1950s.

He was a man who had both feet firmly, and proudly, planted in both cultures. And maybe it’s no accident that he made a Nebraska border town his home.

Gibbons came to Gordon and began a drywall business after serving in the Korean War. That how he made a living. More important was how he lived.

Magnuson describes how, among other things, Gibbons helped him defuse a potential confrontation after an American Indian Movement protest in 1972.

It’s a lovely tribute. Check it out.

Gwen Florio

Tags: A View From a Washichu, American Indian Movement, buffalo post, Lakota, Native American news, Stew Magnuson, The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder - And Other True Stories from the Nebraska-Pine Ridge Border Towns, Wounded Knee

Here’s what Stew Magnuson wonders about these days:

Stew Magnuson

Do we really need another book on the Battle of Greasy Grass/Little Big Horn?

Or Chief Standing Bear of the Poncas and his quest to be recognized as a man under the eyes of the law? Or about the Comanches? Is there more to be written about the Wounded Knee tragedy? (The first one in 1890, that is).

These are questions that recently came to mind after a plethora of new books on Plains Indian history has been released during the past year. …

But what do all these books have in common?

One, they are all written by white folks. (I’ve written about the issue of white authors writing about Native issues in the past, so I’m going to put that observation aside.)

The other thing they have in common is the era. These are all books that take place in the 19th century during the so-called Wild West days, the period of confrontation between the United States and the Plains Indian nations.

Magnuson’s well-qualified to take on that issue. He’s a white author whose book, “The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder: And Other True Stories from the Nebraska-Pine Ridge Border Towns,” was published last year by Texas Tech University Press. The Nebraska Center of the Book named it the 2009 Book of the Year.

His book, however, deals with contemporary issues. You can his musings on the other books in his blog, “A View From a Washichu,” which also appears every other week in the Native Sun News.

Gwen Florio

Tags: A View From a Washichu, Battle of the Greasy Grass, Battle of the Little Bighorn, buffalo post, Gwen Florio, Native American books, Native American news, Nebraska Center of the Book, Plains Indians, Stew Magnuson, Texas Tech University Press, The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder - And Other True Stories from the Nebraska-Pine Ridge Border Towns, Wild West

That’s the solution proposed during a panel discussion today on Whiteclay, the notorious beer-store town on the Nebraska-South Dakota border.

The tinyy town sells an estimated 4 million cans of beer annually, most of it to residents of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation across the border in South Dakota. The reservation is dry, but is plagued by alcoholism.

This year, the Nebraska Legislature has been examining ways to alleviate the problems caused by Whiteclay. And today, the forum at Bellevue University also addressed the issue. Kevin Abourezk of the Lincoln (Neb.) Journal Star, covered the meeting.

“If you want to do something about Whiteclay, put a factory in Whiteclay,” said Lance Morgan, president and CEO of Hochunk Inc. “Create a different environment where people don’t run to get away from the problem.”

As Abourezk reports here:

Morgan offered the story of his own tribe’s economic successes as a blueprint for possible success at Pine Ridge. With a new school, new hospital and new housing, the Winnebago people have managed to create jobs and hope, he said.

“What we’ve been able to do is create economic prosperity, or a measure of it,” he said. “The real problem to me is poverty. If we can figure out a way to deal with it, I think we may have a way to deal with the situation.”

The forum also featured The discussion featured Omaha Creighton Prep High School President Tom Merkel and Oglala Sioux Tribe President Theresa Two Bulls, who attended video conferencing, and others.

While Two Bulls said the reservation’s alcohol ban needs to be strictly enforced, Stew Magnuson, author of “”The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder,” a book that deals in part with Whiteclay, described prohibition at Pine Ridge as a “complete failure,” because it only leads to bootlegging.

Gwen Florio

Tags: Alcohol abuse, Bellevue University, buffalo post, Gwen Florio, Hochunk Inc., Native American news, Nebraska Legisalture, Oglala Sioux Tribe, Omaha Creighton Prep High School, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Stew Magnuson, The Death of Raymond Little Thunder, Theresa Two Bulls, Whiteclay, Winnebago Tribe

If you want to know more about Whiteclay – the speck of a Nebraska town just south of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation that sells more than 4 million cans of beer a year, mostly to Indian people – here’s a great opportunity.

A panel discussion next month at Bellevue University in Nebraska will examine the issue.

“This event provides an excellent opportunity for students and guests to learn more about the Whiteclay experience and join in the conversation,” Bellevue professor Patrick Artz tells Kevin Abourezk of the Lincoln Journal Star, here.

Efforts – largely unscuccessful – have been made for years to mitigate the misery caused by Whiteclay. (See video above.) A bill before the Nebraska Legislature would allow communities near Whiteclay to apply for state aid to fight problems stemming from alcohol.

Here are the details of next month’s program:

The discussion, “Whiteclay: The Next Generation,” will start at 11 a.m. in the Hitchcock Humanities Center on the university’s main campus, 1000 Galvin Road South, in Bellevue. ….The event is free and open to the public.

The hour-long April 7 panel discussion features tribal leaders, including Oglala Sioux Tribe President Theresa Two Bulls and Lance Morgan, president and CEO of Ho-Chunk Inc., a Winnebago corporation.

Father Tom Merkel, former superintendent of Red Cloud Indian School on the Pine Ridge Reservation and current president of Omaha Creighton Prep High School, also will participate.

Other panelists include: Native activist Frank LaMere; Mark Vasina, director of “Battle for Whiteclay”; Stew Magnuson, author of “The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder”; and Taylor Keen, director of the Native American Center and a Creighton University instructor.

Folk musician Michael Murphy will start the event, and Creighton Prep and Red Cloud Indian School students will contribute short videos on the theme of the next generation.

Gwen Florio

Tags: Alcohol abuse, Battle for Whiteclay, buffalo post, Creighton University Native American Center, Father Tom Merkel, Frank LaMere, Gwen Florio, Ho-Chunk Inc. president Lance Morgan, Mark Vasina, Michael Murphy, Native American news, Nebraska Legislature, Oglala Lakota, Oglala Sioux Tribe President Theresa Two Bulls, Omaha Creighton Prep High School, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Red Cloud Indian School, Stew Magnuson, Taylor Keen, The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder, Whiteclay

We were thrilled last year to write here “The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder” won the Nebraska Center of the Book named ““The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder: And Other True Stories from the Nebraska-Pine Ridge Border Towns” as its 2009 nonfiction book of the year.

Its author, Stew Magnuson, will be featured tomorrow on the Native America Calling radio show. (Listen online here.) The show starts at 1 p.m. Eastern, noon Central and 11 a.m. Mountain.

Magnuson will be talking about Whiteclay, Neb., the infamous border town that sells millions of cans of beer each year to residents of the officially dry Pine Ridge Indian reservation. Watch the video above for Magnuson’s report on a 1999 protest there.

“The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder” traces 130 years of shared history between the Oglala Lakota people on Pine Ridge and the towns such as Whiteclay that border it.

It recounts the death of Lakota ranch worker, Raymond Yellow Thunder at the hands of four white men in 1972, and the subsequent involvement of the American Indian Movement in the case.

“The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder” is available in bookstores throughout Nebraska, Amazon.com or can be ordered by phone from Texas Tech University Press at 1-800-832-4042. To learn more about the book and Magnuson, and to watch video interviews with him, go to his Web site, here.

Gwen Florio

Tags: "The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder: And Other True Stories from the Nebrasaka-Pine Ridge Border Towns", buffalo post, Native America Calling, Native American news, Nebraska Center of the Book, Oglala Lakota, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Stew Magnuson

The Nebraska Center of the Book has chosen “The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder: And Other True Stories from the Nebraska-Pine Ridge Border Towns,” by Stew Magnuson, as the 2009 Nebraska nonfiction book of the year.

“As a native Nebraskan, I’m really grateful for this honor,” Magnuson, who wrote the book from his grandparent’s home near Stapleton, Neb., tells the North Platte (Neb.) Bulletin here.

North Platte Bulletin reviewr Linda Read Deeds terms it “a page-turning narrative history of 130 years of co-existence and conflicts.Tales of uneven justice permeate these pages.”

The book traces 130 years of shared history between the Oglala Lakota people on the Pine Ridge Reservation on the southern border of South Dakota and the Nebraska towns that border the reservation.
It recounts the death of Lakota ranch worker, Raymond Yellow Thunder at the hands of four white men in 1972, and the subsequent involvement of the American Indian Movement in the case.

And it tells of Whiteclay, the infamous border town that sells millions of cans of beer each year to residents of the officially dry reservation.

After years of complaints about Whiteclay, Nebraska’s Legislature is holding hearings on the problem this month and next.

Manuson’s book has also won a bronze medal from ForeWord Magazine for regional nonfiction books independently published and has been nominated by the Writers’ League of Texas as a nonfiction book of the year and the Center of Great Plains Studies for a Great Plains distinguished book of the year.

“The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder” was published by Texas Tech University Press under its Great Plains series.

“The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder” is available in bookstores throughout Nebraska, Amazon.com or can be ordered by phone from Texas Tech University Press at 1-800-832-4042. To learn more about the book and Magnuson, and to watch video interviews with him, go to his Web site, here.

Gwen Florio

Tags: "The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder: And Other True Stories from the Nebrasaka-Pine Ridge Border Towns", buffalo post, Native American news, Nebraska Center of the Book, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Stew Magnuson, Whiteclay