http://www.latimes.com/features/books/la-bk-treuer3feb03,0,6983731.story

Letter to the Editor from Peace and Justice Center member Barbara Sogn-Frank:

 

South Dakotans should demand that our local media provide more coverage on the impact of large-scale animal confinement units on air, water and land quality and their potential and proven health effects on lives around them. 

 

Longview Farms LLP, a business from Sioux County , Hull , Iowa , continues construction of a 7600 head confined hog unit in Charles Mix County , South Dakota .   Legal action is being taken by several, separate groups including: The Concerned Parents of the Head Start Program (recently lost case), citizens of Marty and surrounding communities, the Yankton Sioux Tribe, and the Tribal Employment Rights Office to try to stop construction of a business that threatens the land, air and water in the area that they live in, as well as the surrounding environment.   Let’s find out about the veracity of reports that this company has a record of court orders against them in other states for repeatedly disregarding environmental safeguards. 

 

According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, “CAFOs are not the inevitable result of market forces.  Instead, these unhealthy operations are largely the result of misguided public policy that can and should be changed.”  A recent report by the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production found:  “runoff (from CAFOs) also carries antibiotics and hormones, pesticides, and heavy metals.”

 

This story is not getting substantive coverage by our local news.  When it’s been mentioned, the story has been portrayed mostly as an isolated conflict limited to disagreements between the Yankton Sioux Tribe and Longview Farms.  In doing so, the media minimizes the scope of the issue and this slant plays upon malicious prejudice and serves no one.

 

Also sobering is that there was little investigation by the media of an incident in April.  Supporters of the confinement unit used “good-ol’-boy” connections to elicit excessive use of force (44 state patrol cars and what looked like sniper riflemen taking aim) to intimidate a modest number of families with children present, students, and people from the religious communities who, well within their rights, were peacefully demonstrating in opposition to this action by Longview Farms. 

 

Let’s not trade the integrity of our land, water and the health and well-being of current and future generations and let’s not trade the integrity of our legal and law enforcement system for the creation of a few low-wage local jobs, with profits flowing to a few and pouring out-of-state. 

 

Sincerely,

Barbara Sogn-Frank

Some time ago, when the Alex Johnson Hotel came into being, Indians were compensated  to dance in the street. Dancing for the dollar was not a part of the Lakota way of being, but life had changed so dramatically that survival was no longer a matter of woableze and of choice. The physical wars were fought and lost or won, depending on the point of view. Cultural evolution was in fast-forward for the Lakota. The dignified elders and leaders of the camps were now exhibiting their honor songs and dances in order to survive in the new cash economy. Poverty was no longer dictated by natural law; not having provisions to last an unusually long winter. Poverty was now the lack of the shiny coin.

Still today, the success of the pow-wow seems to be determined by the purse, the amount of available dollars for the dance competition. Our woableze can be stretched from one extreme to the other, in thinking of the effects of competition pow-wows and I wanted to get your opinion. Not that I think that we can stand in the way of a strong current, we can still have some discussion about this matter.

Some say that the competition pow-wows bring pride to the young people and are the means of some income to a poverty-stricken population. For the practical minded, it is a time to see relatives in one place and a time when they can relax without having their racism shields up. That is the positive extreme of the cultural scale. On the other end, I hear comments, especially from elders, like, “Eces lehanl mazaska un ecela wacinp lah”  (People only dance for money now days) or “Wambli wiyaka ki wakan ska un akiciyap” (Eagle feathers are sacred but they’re using them to compete) or “Wicincala ki lehanl igluonihanpi sni ca kejagjag wacip” (Girls are dishonoring themselves by kicking their legs around) and most frequently, ”Imahag’ic’iya waci pica sni, ecela akiciya wacipi ca”  (You can’t just dance for enjoyment because all there is competition dancing).

Elders, having experienced pow-wows in another time, are probably uncomfortable with the too-fast evolution. And we only know today’s pow-wows as they are, but we should look back as best we could (woableze) and think of the qualities of those celebrations, evaluate what is happening today and process that into what we need to preserve for the future (wacintanka).

I heard a story from a friend that bothered me. Two young women tied for first place in the fancy shawl category at one of these competition pow-wows and were to dance again to break the tie. During the noon meal, one of them dumped her wojapi all over the other’s dress. How Lakota is that? I think our ancestors would devise an Iktomi (trickster) story about the jealousy that competitiveness breeds. What would help Lakota people be able to discipline themselves against this type of jealousy? Do we still have the ability to waableza and to be wacintanka in the pow-wow scenario that is such an important factor in our contemporary lives?

I don’t mean to offend pow-wows dancers who participate in competition dancing. I know many good people who do and do so with good intentions. My intention here is to raise the questions: What will our pow-wows look like two generations or seven generations from now? Will it resemble what our ancestors originated the gatherings for in their time?  

Personally, I am quite in awe of the management skills, the wit and the humor of the M.C.’s (masters of ceremony) of pow-wows. They are much more than that. I think they are unsung heroes in cultural evolution.

Some good friends and others are working on “decolonization”, which is to create an awareness about what beliefs and practices we’ve adopted from Euro cultures by oppression, without woableze and that have warped our own beliefs and practices.  There are so many fast-track changes that are happening, not only to indigenous cultures, but to all of America. We could all benefit from “decolonization” and woableze.

 

When I hear the term “undo racism”, I just shake my head. I appreciate the sincere intention, but undo-ing something that is so ingrained in human behavior is no small endeavor. There is serious denial to overcome and then knowing what to do. Collective, conscious effort is so necessary for improving the quality of a community.

Meanwhile, we experience it on a daily basis and deal with it the best we could. We’ve all heard those that will say there is no racism.  Don’t you wish you could paintball everyone who treats you crappy? 

I mentioned Carol Maicki’s opinion before that white folks must deal with their own attitudes. That may be a good point. I remember the police department making an attempt at cultural sensitivity training for their police officers and it quickly degenerated into a war zone with historical trauma and historical guilt grenades being lobbed back and forth. Now, the idea was not bad at all and not impossible at all, but we haven’t quite figured out how to accomplish the mission in an effective way yet. Maybe we should ask Bush.

To get back to Rezified’s comment, to vent can be healing and we need a safe place to do it. Certainly, experiencing racism is very real and when we don’t vent (talk about it), the emotions can get pretty snarly inside. Is a support group a possibility?

I know when I encounter racist behavior, especially by employees in a public place, I have to quickly gauge if the person is treating everyone badly or just me. Then I have to quickly decide if I have the time to request the manager and lodge a complaint. When I don’t have the time, I still have to bring attention to the behavior. BUT, I don’t want to engage in conflict or reinforce the person’s beliefs (that we’re BAD people). I’ve tried things like, “I’m sorry you’re having a bad day” or “Are you okay?”  

There is the possibility too that the person just doesn’t know how to communicate with OTHER people! I’ve tried openers like, “Pretty hot today, huh?” and get a friendly response from someone who otherwise looker pretty sour to me. My children call it killing them with kindness. Mom’s famous words. Believe me, it took a long time to get here. My father used to say, “Tanmahel taku oyaksu ki anisicin kte” (what you put inside will go bad on you). So, don’t let a stranger load you up with anger!

 

Again, Merman, I thank you for your comment. It’s always a pleasure to hear from you.

Unfortunately, being silenced happens almost daily in a Lakota person’s life and we endure that in silence. It’s so hard to assert ourselves when, by our cultural standards, it feels downright rude. As you mentioned, we often retreat into silence and that is not always good for our spirit either. It’s a challenge to maintain the spirit in a healthy way while negotiating between two cultures in conflict.

 

Wow! Thank you, Rezified for your bittersweet thoughts.

I sincerely believe that people’s feelings about the past are represented by that mountain. It’s about all those good things that previous generations have taught us. When our own people are corrupted by modern influences, we must discipline ourselves to hold on to what will surely help humanity survive THAT GREAT HARDSHIP that our elders believe is still coming. There is hope, not to go back to as it was, but to go on to the next era with our values and disciplines intact.

You know, people cringe at the thought of sharing cultural characteristics, like the rituals. If you really think about it though, those rituals helped us to remember how to be, how to discipline ourselves to be wacintanka and to waableza and to waas’inye shni ye and much more. Maybe we have this high level of discomfort when others want to participate in these rituals because they are not a functional part of our communities and therefore, cannot practice what the rituals represent. Maybe we see them come from and go to who-knows-where, fragmented pieces of humanity and maybe that is why we agitate.

When we go to the Meade County commissioners meetings regarding the liquor licensing near Bear Butte, I can’t help being in awe of the chasm between people who are giving heart-wrenching testimonies and those country commissioners sitting there like deer in headlights. What a difference between the message being sent and the message being received! I get the impression that they don’t know how to process and factor in the opinions that are coming at them, so they just do what they know how to do.

I have been doing too much talking and not enough listening. What are your opinions about protecting the sanctity of Bear Butte? 

Wacintanka (wah-cheenh-tanh-kah) defies single-word English translation. Ask a number of Lakota speakers and you will likely get a number of English translations: patience, persistence, endurance, and so forth. As we go on in our discussions, I will share more anecdotes on this particular Lakota term. Condensed, I believe it means discipline and it can be quite a science. The science of Wacintanka. Sounds a bit like Tao-te-Ching, doesn’t it? I don’t know much about Tao, but wacintanka is very diverse in its application and permeates all that is good in the Lakota way of being.

The reason that I want to use it in this particular post is to talk about NOT having to be right all the time. Earlier I mentioned my Grandfather’s observation about Euro-Americans; about the need to be right all the time. That behavior has frustrated me to no end, but I think it is today’s way to be. Did you ever talk to someone that wasn’t quite listening to what you were saying, but kept interrupting and being one up on you, no matter what you were talking about? I happen to have a sibling like that, so it now seems to be an American habit and not specific to any culture. I do remember when many older Lakota people weren’t like that, otherwise I wouldn’t notice the collective contrast. I would venture my opinion that BEING RIGHT was a cultural feature that had no place in a culture that strived for harmony.

No matter what I said (I wasn’t bragging but answering my sibling’s questions), it seemed like (this person) did it better or knew more. So anymore, I just listen and answer a simple “yes” or “no”. That doesn’t seem like a vibrant relationship now, does it? An important factor is that my sibling was born and raised in the city and has been out in the Euro world, probably too long.

This scenario might represent the relationships that are out there. AMERICA’s way seems to be about being greater, better, sexier, and wealthier than the next person. 

This is where wacintanka was important in relationships, disciplining of the self to listen to the other person, they too have their story. Being in a world of differing cultural behaviors, I sometimes feel the urge to interrupt, having only heard half of the story! Because we came from another place, we came with a cultural consciousness and must fight with the dastardly urge to be one up on other people! From an oppressed place, enthno-centrism feels so good! But the Lakota ancestors are next to us, whispering, “Wacintanka ye”. Oh, some days, it is hard to be Lakota! 

Thank you, Merman for your comment. Having parents from each culture can be a blessing. You get insights from two cultures and gain the skills to negotiate both. I further appreciate your observation that most folks are too lazy (or just don’t know HOW) to do the “woableze” that is required to be a decent human being.

What is sad is that the onus seems to be on us to bring about change. A dear friend, Carol Maicki, once said that only white people can bring about that change for themselves. 

Just where did that RIGHTEOUSNESS come from? And why?