OGLALA COMMEMORATION YOUTH CONCERT
JUNE 26TH
Pine Ridge Reservation
Oglala, South Dakota
SHOWTIME: 5pm
JULIAN B
Folk Singer
JIM PAGE
Anishnabe - hip-hop, soulin
NAMA winner:
WAYQUAY
(pending due to family illness)
STEEL RIVER
acoustic performance from Band Members Robert and Monte Briggs
Hip-Hop - Pine Ridge Hiphop Artist
JD NASH
known by many as Stella
SPIDERZBACK
Elk Nation
NATIVE ERA
"One of the problems that we have seen at the United Nations' Indigenous peoples' meetings is an absence of traditional leadership, especially from our own region in North America. For many years because of his dedicated commitment to this work, with virtually no resources, Tony Black Feather has ensured that the traditional Lakota perspective is always present and always voiced. He is not only respected for his work by our own people, but increasingly, as one of the key "elders" of the Indigenous Peoples caucus, Indigenous peoples from all over the globe greet and listen to him. He is admired for his good humor and common sense approach to issues that many of us complicate in the complex environment of international advocacy."
www.tsntc.org
Bruce Ellison was a member of the Wounded Knee Legal Defense/Offense Committee and has been representing Leonard since trial. Not only did he witness specific incidences during the Pine Ridge Reign of Terror, he has researched, studied and documented the FBI's involvement on Pine Ridge and the FBI's activities against AIM. Perhaps more than any other, Bruce Ellison is familiar with the legal history of the Peltier case, as well as cases of other AIM members unduly prosecuted during that era.
freepeltier.org/lpdc_info.htm#legal_team
Vernon Bellecourt: AIM Grand Govering Council
Wabun-inini, Vernon is a principal spokesman for the American Indian Movement and a leader in actions ranging from the 1972 occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington to the 1992 Redskin Superbowl demonstrations. He is Co-founder and first Executive Director of the Denver AIM Chapter. His involvement at Wounded Knee in 1973 led to a Federal indictment. He is a special representative of the International Indian Treaty Council and helped organize the first Treaty Conference in 1974. He was jailed for throwing his blood on the Guatemalan Embassy to protest the killing of 100,000 Indians. He was elected to a 4-year term in his White Earth tribal government and developed a model program for the spiritual education of Indian prisoners. Vernon is President of the National Coalition on Racism in Sports & Media and recipient of the City of Phoenix, Martin Luther King Human Rights Award 1993.
Tom is a Mohawk Indian from the Akwesasne Reservation in New York, who went to Pine Ridge as a reporter for Akwesasne Notes (a well-respected Native paper with an international circulation) during the Wounded Knee Occupation in 1973. There he met and married Loretta Afraid Of Bear, a full-blood Oglala Lakota woman, and has lived on or near Pine Ridge ever since. Tom's projects began in the early 1980s with a $500 grant from Plenty to begin a gardening project on the Reservation. Today, Tom runs a program that employs 12 people, tills approximately 200 gardens and provides seeds, seedlings and know-how to the gardeners. His group, with support from Running Strong for Native American Youth, also does house renovations and other community service projects. Housing, jobs and fresh vegetables are three of the most needed resources at Pine Ridge. Loretta runs a program that markets beautiful Lakota fine arts and handicrafts, attending shows all over the United States.
www.plenty.org/pineridgehouse.htm
Sandy Flye & Lacreek Civil Rights Committee, Racism in Bennett County SD
Intro: The LaCreek District Civil Rights Committee was formed in response to grassroots concerns about violations of civil rights by the Bennett County Sheriff's Office located in Martin, South Dakota. For months now, the Committee has been documenting instances of racial profiling through traffic stops and other abuses of authority by the Sheriff's Office. Authorities in Bennett County have not been responsive to the expressed concerns of the people about racial profiling and abuses by the Sheriff and his deputies. Committee members have used proper channels to bring the problems to the attention of the authorities, but to no avail. They attended the regular meeting of the Bennett County Commissioners in April 2001 and voiced community concerns. They provided written testimony on racial profiling through traffic stops in the county to the Commissioners. They discussed the issues with the Mayor of Martin. They invited the Sheriff's Office to several meetings to discuss community concerns. Unfortunately, the authorities have ignored requests for assistance and nothing has been done. While the authorities have not been moved to address the issues, a grassroots movement of concerned people has developed in response to the behavior of the Bennett County Sheriff's Department. A major focus of the movement has been to gather information about the abuses.
Tom Poor Bear: Camp Justice
Tom is Spokesperson and organizer of Camp Justice, a cluster of tipi's located at the site where the bodies of his brother Wally Black Elk and cousin Ron Hard Heart were found (near Whiteclay Nebraska) south of Pine Ridge Village. Tom is actively pursuing justice for the two deaths pressuring federal police agencies to solve the murders. Tom is a member of the American Indian Movement and a veteran of the Wounded Knee 1973 Occupation.
www.campjustice.net
Russell Blacksmith: NCAI Youth Council /Lakota Student Alliance Youth Speaker
Russell is the grandson of Tokala Revitalist Russell Loudhawk. Blacksmith was recently elected to serve on the National Congress of American Indians Youth Council. Blacksmith has tirelessly worked to educate and awaken Lakota Youth throughout the Great Sioux Nation about Treaty Rights and Issues.
Leland Little Dog: Sicangu Treaty Law Club
Leland also assisted with researching and teaching of Lakota Star Knowledge. A Book was published by Sinte Gleska University in 1992, as a result of his work.
Thomas Dockstader: New Chairman, LPDC.
Dockstader will be in attendance with the new staff and Board of Directors for the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee. They will give updates of Leonards Case.
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
