Brandon Ecoffey

A note from the editor’s desk
By Brandon Ecoffey
Lakota Country Times Editor
www.lakotacountrytimes.com

As most people who read LCT know, I grew up on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. As a child I enjoyed the presence of a reservation wide Little League circuit that took us to all of our districts including Wounded Knee, where we always met our stiffest challenges. The teams that I played on and the teams that came out of Manderson were always considered to be the top two teams on the reservation and from what I can remember we usually split double headers with them.

What I also remember about playing against Manderson was that their teams were always respectful, they always played the game hard, and they had the nicest coach who’s son was also the most dominant pitcher I had witnessed in my youth. The coach’s name was John Eagle Bull and his son was named Jefferson Eagle Bull.

Fast forward 20 years, and for whatever reason that the creator decided, that same dominant pitcher reentered my life when I saw the tape of former Oglala Sioux Tribal police officer Rebecca Sotherland brutally assaulting him while he lay handcuffed on the ground.

On Tuesday, a federal jury found this dangerous criminal not guilty of deprivation of constitutional rights by the use of unreasonable force by a police officer, assault with a dangerous weapon, and obstruction of a federal investigation by filing a false report of the incident. Despite Tasing a handcuffed and clearly intoxicated man 23 times a jury failed to recognize that this was in fact an assault.

For me this incident struck me at my heart because with a few simple twists of a fate the victim of this woman’s despicable acts could have very well been me.

The reaction of anger from our people is expected and it is spilling over as we have continually been denied justice by residents of Rapid City and the law enforcement community all over the state of South Dakota. As my father, who was a cop for more than thirty years said, “There is no justice for Lakota people in this state.”

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The feds have forever bragged about their 97% conviction rate as they have scared poor and minority offenders into accepting plea deals that require them to spend years in prison despite minimal evidence and solid chances of beating their case. Well, this time the prosecutors rolled over and played dead. How in the world can you not secure a conviction when a videotape makes it so obviously clear that this woman tortured and attempted hurt this man.

The US attorney’s office has made their living prosecuting dark skinned males for far pettier crimes than what Rebecca Sotherland did to Jefferson Eagle Bull. The threat of mandatory minimum sentencing has worked for the feds because-males with brown skin,-will not win a jury trial in this part of the country. We also know that the United States Attorney’s office has never had a problem with spoon feeding information to cooperating witnesses as they have railroaded our people in to the prison system for decades.

This time around, it was a pretty little white girl sitting in that offender’s chair —and the feds must have seen her as a real person. I hope one day they see my people as human too.

Brandon Ecoffey is the editor of LCT and an award winning journalist who was born and raised on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Brandon earned his education at Dartmouth College where he studied in Native American Studies and Political Theory.

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