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[source: NativeNews; Sat, 12 Feb 2000 12:08:24]

Published Saturday February 12, 2000
Indians Lose Pine Ridge Ruling
BY DAVID HENDEE
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
 
 
Nine American Indians challenging the shrunken modern-day
boundaries of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in Nebraska
have suffered a legal setback.

Sheridan County Judge Charles Plantz ruled that the State of
Nebraska has jurisdiction in the tiny village of Whiteclay
and on dozens of square miles of surrounding land.

Nebraska's authority was challenged in a case involving
misdemeanor criminal charges.

The defendants in that case, including Oglala Sioux activist
Russell Means, claim that Whiteclay is legally part of the
reservation and falls under only tribal and federal
authority.

Plantz is expected to issue written reasons soon for his
bench ruling, which came last week.

Jerry Matthews of Hay Springs, Neb., the defendants'
attorney, could not be reached for comment.

Deputy Sheridan County Attorney John Freidenburg said he
hopes the misdemeanor criminal case will now move on to
trial.

The dispute involves Means, seven other Oglala Sioux from
the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and Frank LaMere,
a Winnebago from South Sioux City, Neb.

The defendants were arrested July 3, 1999, during a march to
Whiteclay from the nearby village of Pine Ridge, S.D. They
led about 650 others protesting the unsolved slayings of two
Oglala men and the sale of beer in Whiteclay to reservation
Indians.

The protest came a week after some Indian marchers looted
and burned a Whiteclay grocery store. This time the marchers
were met by troopers in riot gear.

The nine were arrested and ticketed for obstruction of a
police officer and failure to comply with a lawful order.
The charge of obstructing an officer is punishable by up to
a year in prison and a $1,000 fine. The other charge is
punishable by up to three months in jail and a $500 fine.

After a series of postponed and canceled court hearings,
Plantz directed the attorneys in the case to present their
case on paper.

Plantz directed the defendants to enter pleas or other
prearraignment motions by Feb. 18.

The defendants have said that a key question facing the
court is how President Theodore Roosevelt's decision in 1904
to slice off a piece of the reservation in Nebraska that
served as a buffer between Indians and white settlers
squares with the fact that treaties are pacts between
sovereign nations.

President Chester Arthur had established a 50-square-mile
buffer zone south of the Pine Ridge in 1882 to discourage
white merchants from selling alcohol to reservation Indians.

The buffer was retained in 1889 as a part of the reservation
when Congress carved six Sioux reserves out of what remained
of the land set aside for them in the Fort Laramie Treaty of
1868.

The Pine Ridge Reservation is the nation's second-largest
and home to about 23,000 Oglalas. Only one square mile of
the reservation - directly west of Whiteclay - lies in
Nebraska.

--
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