AIM Support Group of Ohio & N. KentuckyUpdates and Announcements
Saturday, May 17, 2003http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2003/05/16/news/local/news18.txt March on Whiteclay planned By Steve Miller, West River Editor WHITECLAY, Neb. - Pine Ridge Reservation residents and supporters will march again on Saturday, June 7, to protest the unsolved murders of two Pine Ridge men whose bodies were found four years ago just north of Whiteclay. The march to Whiteclay will protest the investigation into the deaths, other unsolved murders in Sheridan County, Neb., and continuing beer sales in Whiteclay, according to organizer Tom Poor Bear of Wanblee. A series of marches to protest the murders and beer sales began shortly after the brutally beaten bodies of Wilson "Wally" Black Elk Jr., 40, and Ronald Hard Heart, 39, were found June 8, 1999, in a field between Whiteclay and Pine Ridge Village. The two had last been seen in Whiteclay, Poor Bear said. Poor Bear, Black Elk's half brother and Hard Heart's cousin, criticized the FBI for what he called the lack of progress in the investigation and for not maintaining communication with the murdered men's families. The FBI has said in the past that it checked out every lead in the murders of Black Elk and Hard Heart but had not come up with enough evidence to make an arrest. The FBI and Bureau of Indian Affairs officers on Pine Ridge are still investigating the case, according to Mike Elton, special agent with the Rapid City office of the FBI. "As far as the investigation, any information that would come in will be investigated," Elton said Monday. "All leads have been investigated, and any leads that would come are high priority." Poor Bear said American Indian Movement activists Vernon and Clyde Bellecourt likely will take part in the June 7 march, and AIM leader Dennis Banks has been invited. Also scheduled to attend are representatives of Nebraskans for Peace, a group that has lobbied to close down the Whiteclay beer sales; the Democratic Party of Nebraska; and religious and civil-rights groups. The march will converge on Whiteclay from two directions. Pine Ridge residents and their supporters will begin the march at 1 p.m. from Billy Mills Hall in Pine Ridge north of Whiteclay. Nebraskans for Peace and others will march to Whiteclay from the south. In Whiteclay, the groups will hold a rally to protest the unsolved murders, alleged liquor-regulation violations by Whiteclay bar owners and eight other unsolved murders in Sheridan County, Poor Bear said Monday. Rally organizers will seek a report from the FBI and the BIA updating the investigation on the Black Elk-Hard Heart case, he said. "We would like to see a special team of investigators other than the FBI to investigate crimes against our people." The group will also ask for a federal grand jury to investigate the case. After the rally, the group will walk to Camp Justice, just across the Nebraska-South Dakota border, for a meal, honorings and prayers. Camp Justice was established in 1999 to keep focus on the murders and related issues. "Since the physical presence of Camp Justice, none of our people have been found dead in Sheridan County in the last four years," Poor Bear said. The first march to protest the deaths, on June 26, 1999, ended with the looting and arson of a Whiteclay grocery store. Subsequent marches were peaceful, although several activists were arrested in a later march for crossing a police line. Poor Bear said a boycott of the Whiteclay stores that sell beer didn't work. Whiteclay is about 200 feet from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, where alcohol is banned. The reservation has one of the nation's highest alcoholism-related mortality rates. The Whiteclay stores annually sell more than 4 million cans of beer, virtually all of it to Pine Ridge residents, according to Nebraskans for Peace. Nebraskans for Peace contends that Nebraska police don't enforce open-container and public-drunkenness laws in Whiteclay. Nebraska officials counter that the sale of alcohol is legal and that whenever a violation is cited, a ticket is issued. Pine Ridge residents, tribal officials and Nebraska activists have lobbied the Nebraska Legislature to shut down or limit the beer and wine sales in Whiteclay, so far unsuccessfully. Contact Steve Miller at 394-8417 or steve.miller@rapidcityjournal.com posted by Webmaster@ AIM Support 10:49 AM Last updated:
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