| Welcome to the official site of OGLALA COMMEMORATION Committee PMB 523 - Hwy K - Ofallon, MO. 63368 |
| NEWSLETTER AUCTION SCHOLARSHIP SCHOOL DRIVE |
| INTRODUCTION: The violent assault on Lakota peoples became evident from the Massacre of Chief Bigfoot's Hohwo-ju ( Minneconjou) people in December 1890 at Wounded Knee. This began to signify the type of "campaigns" the US goverment embarked on during the mid to late 19th century in Lakota Treaty Territory, thus resulting in sentiments of self-defeat on the part of the Lakota and began the historic unresolved grief crises. Then, of February 27, 1973, members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) were asked by Oglala Lakota Elders, Chiefs, and Headsmen to lead the takeover at Wounded Knee to librate the people into a different form of thinking and positive change. On that day, AIM was holding hearings in Calico community where they documented over 1000 statements from Oglala Lakota peoples regarding the mistreatment from corrupt tribal and federal offcials. Instead, in the years following the 1973 takeover, AIM supporters were assassinated, brutalized, or murdered my fellow Oglala Lakota peoples in what some say was a US -lead Counterinsurgency War on the reservation. In June 1975, a shootout at the Jumping Bulls residence in Oglala SD between FBI agents and members of an AIM encampment led by Leonard Peltier prompted more assault on Lakota peoples. Since the 1976 Imprisonment of Leonard Peltier and the documented deaths of over 60 AIM supporters on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, the Oglala Lakota have suffered great levels of traumatic stress. Over two decaded of US census records have shown the amounts of stress attributed to the improverished conditions on the reservation. The extreme proverty condition becomes a factor in calculating the depth of suffering. This history doesn't disturb the US government, but the International community hasn't ignored it. Neither should our coming generations of Lakota peoples who are destined as future leaders in the struggle for survival of a way of life being under attack. OUR VISION: In 2000, at the 25th Anniversary of the famous 1975 "Incident at Oglala", the Lakota Student Alliance joined with thre AIM Support Group of KS to form a committee which would address Indigenous issues at a local level, inclusive of Peltier's imprisonment. "HONORING OUR WARRIORS" held annually June 26th. We feel that wounds and scars will heal but only if we, ourselves, are shown the methods of healing them. We are lead to believe that most issues in this struggle encourage forms of alternative justice and traditional as well as contemporary, methods of sustainable living. On the Pine Ridge reservation there is occasion to explore all these forms and methods. Thus, we have reached our 11th year of commemorating the events that led up to Peltier's imprisonment as well as struggling to address the hostoric unresolved grief facing our people. We need the help of our Elders, Headsmen, and Tiyospaye's. as well as our national and international support. |
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