The flag of the Oglala Sioux Tribe.
Garfield “Little Dog” Steele is a current Oglala Sioux Tribal Council representative from the Wounded Knee District on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. He has recently raised a question about the local media publishing articles authored by myself. He has gone as far as suggesting to the Native Sun News that if they continued publishing my articles, that he would have the newspaper boycotted. Thus, in order to protect NSN against a politician who has no soul, scruples or even honesty, I decided to temporarily quit writing about the corruption going on within the Oglala Sioux Tribe. But Garfield went too far so I’m going to allow the readers to make a decision on what they want to hear. Garfield assumes that I purposely write about him and expose all the crazy, wild, idiotic decisions that he made during his term in office, but that’s not true. I write about all of the corruption that goes on and usually it’s Garfield who leads the pack, so naturally he would be at the root of a lot of my articles. So I’m not purposely picking on him, it’s just that he continuously does things that are newsworthy. So Garfield has decided to “get even” as much of the council representative normally do and has looked into my past and has used some of this information to come up with some really untrue assumptions that is attacking my family, kids and grandkids. This article does not have to be published, but I have decided to publish it anyway to set the record straight. In 1990 I became involved with a girl who fooled everyone about her age. She appeared to be much older and was getting into bars, purchasing liquor in towns like Rushville, Chadron and White Clay without being asked for an identification card. A lot of the people around my group assumed that she was older, but she really wasn’t. Subsequently, I was charged with being with her as a minor. When we went into court, my attorney got me off the charge because the girl fooled everyone about her age. The law that was used is in 18 USC Sec. 2243 (c) defenses (1); it is a defense which the defendant must establish by evidence that they reasonably believed that the other person had attained the age of 16. My attorney Mr. John Fitzgerald, Sr., later became a South Dakota State Justice. He said I was free and clear of any charges and can leave, but there was a catch. He said they were going to go after the girl and put her in jail. So at that time in 1990, I instructed Mr. Fitzgerald to enter a guilty plea for me with the purpose of keeping the girl out of trouble. So I went to jail for 18 months and the girl went free. After I came home, I had gotten immediately reacquainted with the girl and we were married on March 26th, 1993. We spent the next 20 years together and have 3 children and 1 grandchild. We have recently divorced and I continue to keep all of our children and grandchild. Garfield is bent on destroying my family and has taken it upon himself to publish bunk that is nowhere close to the truth. In a recent publication, he accuses me of being a child predator and asks why I haven’t taken the time to apologize to my alleged victim. He writes: “Why hasn’t Mr. Whalen written an editorial to the victim for the crime he was sentenced for? Why hasn’t he ever apologized to his victim publically?” Apparently, Garfield is as dense in the brain as they come. There is no victim to apologize to. I took the fall for someone to keep them out of jail. I later married her and had a long standing 20-year family relationship with her. Now the only victim that I can identify is my entire family because Garfield is wrongfully accusing me of something that is not factual and it’s hurting my children and grandchildren, not to mention my former wife. Garfield should look into the mirror. His wife took the blame for transporting drugs into the reservation. It is well alleged and rumored that Garfield, who is a current council representative, is (allegedly) a long standing drug dealer and gang member. I took the blame for someone and went to jail to protect her even though I got out of the charge. Garfield cannot be called a man because he let his wife do time for drugs that (again, allegedly) belonged to him. He can continue to bash me all he wants, but the facts are clear. Yes, I went to jail in 1990 and no, I didn’t have to go. The prosecutor threatened to take my wife to jail for her role in our relationship. So I took the blame and went for her. Now that the reader knows the truth I will let them decide on whether or not to continue reading my articles where I expose crime and corruption within the Oglala Sioux Tribe. I understand how it is to be in jail for a long term, now the corrupt politicians such as Garfield “Little Dog” Steele should experience the same thing and get off his high horse, and since he is alleged to be selling illegal drugs, he should quit selling such drugs and death to kids and the general public. I did my time and paid my debt to society. I have become a citizen of truth and honesty and have never recommitted any type of crime; my record has been crystal clear with the one blotch on it. I came home and married my alleged victim and have had 20 years of marriage with her. We have 3 beautiful children and a very beautiful grandchild. Garfield has no right or standing to falsely accuse me of being something that I am not. Jeffrey Whalen can be reached at Jeffrey.Whalen2@gmail.com
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