"For more than 100 years the white editors of the largely white owned media in the State of South Dakota, have had the freedom and the opportunity to push the state governor and legislators to create a Native American Day as an official state holiday.

For more than 100 years they have had the freedom and the opportunity to push the governor and the legislators to make an effort to heal the terrible race relations between Indians and whites in South Dakota by proclaiming a year when Indians and whites could visit each other and talk about their problems, their differences and their commonalities, in essence a Year of Reconciliation.

Those 100 years passed without constructive action by any of the white media because they did not have a vested interest in what happens on the nine Indian reservations in the state. It may not have been because of racial prejudice on their part, but more than likely it was because they just didn�t give a damn. Indians were out of sight and out of mind."

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Tim Giago: Indian contributions to Native American Day irrelevant to white media in South Dakota (The Native American Times 10/16)

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