Family turns to tribe for help after incident of workplace bullying.
Incident at Lakota Thrifty Mart prompts dispute
By Brandon Ecoffey
Native Sun News Managing Editor EAGLE BUTTE — When Josh McNaughton, a non-tribal member, threatened Keith Little Thunder that he would cut off his long hair a series of events were set in order that now has one Eagle Butte family demanding action from their tribal government. Earlier this year while working at the tribally owned Lakota Thrifty Mart, tribal member Keith Little Thunder was threatened in the workplace by Josh McNaughton a non-tribal member originally from New York State who was also an employee at the grocery store. After working with each other for several weeks McNaughton became verbally abusive to Little Thunder and several other Native employees of the store. After berating Little Thunder for his work performance, McNaughton, according to Keith Little Thunder, his family, and testimony from an administrator at the store threatened to cut off the hair of Little Thunder. “He (McNaughton) was always yelling at us about how we were doing things so I would go off and work by myself and try to just get my job done. Josh was always bragging about how he was ex-military and how he was trained to kill people and that he was an MMA fighter. One day when I was in the isle alone where no one could see me he came up to me and told me that he was going to cut my hair off,” said Keith Little Thunder. Shocked by the threat Little Thunder notified his parents Harry Little Thunder and Della Scares the Hawk. According to the family after not receiving any action from the store they went to vice president Wayne Ducheneaux II who asked them to put everything down on paper. In front of the tribal council on April 30, 2013 Ducheneaux restated how he had become aware of the incident. “I asked how long this had been going on and he (Keith) said for some time now, but that say when he spoke with me was the first time they did everything officially, wrote it down as a complaint, I stressed to them both you know, if you’re in fear for your son’s safety, our court system has a remedy for that,” he said. In the same statement the vice president said that he called Cindy Marshall an employee of Lakota Thrifty Mart with suggestions on how to remedy the situation for the time being. When Native Sun News contacted Lakota Thrifty Mart we were told by Cindy Marshall that the store no longer had anything to do with the incident. “We have nothing to do with that anymore. I can leave a message for Bernie LaPlante but I doubt he will return your phone call,” she said. When asked about the employment status of both Little Thunder and McNaughton Marshall responded by saying, “I will not answer questions about the employment status. I said we no longer have anything to do with this." According to testimony from Bernie LaPlante the stores general manager to the tribal council after he was made aware of the incident by the vice president he brought both employees together to talk it out. He would state that Lakota Thrifty Mart advises their employees to not bring personal problems in to the work place or to take what happens at work home and to give the store a chance to deal with problems in house. “…we have a structure set up. If they have a grievance we have a grievance process. Keith chose not to use any of that, he went home and told his mom and dad that he was having problems with Josh and of course they got upset as any parents would and defended and he dealt with it as soon as we could. Since that time as far as I know it was fine. We brought Keith in and he was satisfied with the decision that we made and he said he would talk to his parents and it was all good,” he said. Harry Little Thunder disputes that he said things were copasetic and claims that he was advised to change his story about the incident. “They took me in a room and closed the door. They all kind of attacked me and only wanted to hear his side of the story and when the store wrote up the statement they did it is all wrong,” said Little Thunder. “It wasn’t what I said and they changed everything around,” he added. LaPlante said that they had reprimanded McNaughton for the incident with Little Thunder. After the reprimand however McNaughton was then promoted to a supervisory position but during his 90 day probation period another incident occurred (LaPlante did not describe in detail) and was then demoted back to his original position. The family was unsatisfied with the store’s response and took their complaint to the tribal council and asked them to remove McNaughton a non-member from the reservation. On the council floor Harry Little Thunder, Keith’s father, read a letter where he cited the Ft. Laramie Treaty. “As a tribal member of the Itazipco Tiospaye of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe I am representing a tribal member in this case. This is an official letter exercising the 1868 treaty, Article I and Exclusion law of the constitution bylaws. In accordance to the laws, Article I interprets the description of the “Bad Man Clause” with the crime being identified to cause harm and the Exclusion law that interprets removal to expelling an individual permanently from the exterior boundaries of our Indian reservation with prejudice,” he read. After a short debate a motion was made by councilmember Robin LeBeau to exclude McNaughton from the reservation and was seconded by Derek Bartlett. The council would go on to vote 12-0 with 3 abstaining to remove McNaughton. According to the Cheyenne River Sioux tribal constitution McNaughton had 20 days to appeal the council’s decision to the tribal court. After appealing to the tribal court Judge Claymore chose to throw out the council’s removal order thus allowing McNaughton to remain on the reservation. The decision has outraged the family and now has them demanding action and accountability from tribal government. “I couldn’t believe that she (Judge Claymore) overruled the council and allowed a non-member more weight than our own people,” said Harry Little Thunder. The family is now asking that Judge Claymore, tribal President Kevin Keckler, administrators at Lakota Thrifty Mart and the three council members who abstained be held accountable for their decisions surrounding the incident. President Keckler in transcripts of the council meeting where McNaughton was removed seems to have been supportive of the family and the decision to remove McNaughton from the reservation; however the family feels that the President should hold the judge accountable for overriding the decision of the council. President Keckler was unavailable for comment when NSN attempted to contact him. Joe Brings Plenty, former president of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, who chose not to run again after serving for one term, said that racism in Eagle Butte is real but often unknown. “The difference between us and places like Pine Ridge is that there is a lot more racism towards tribal members because of our location and because of the high amounts of non-members on our reservation. A lot of times no one speaks about it or pretends it doesn’t happen but I have also been told by people that they would cut my hair off but that hasn’t happened. Hopefully the tribal government will step up and do something about this,” he said. (Contact Brandon Ecoffey at staffwriter2@nsweekly.com) Copyright permission by Native Sun News
Join the Conversation