Opinion

Brandon Ecoffey: South Dakota's attorney general is no friend to Indian Country

Friday, July 1, 2016

Brandon Ecoffey

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

For whatever reason the media in South Dakota has developed a habit of jumping through hoops each time Attorney General Marty Jackley asks them to. For evidence of this one simply must look at the hatchet job that KELO land has done on Oglala Sioux citizen Stacey Phelps in regards to the accusations levied against him by the state.

The most recent report from the station is just another example. Last week KELO again created more click-bait for their Facebook page when they produced a headline that read “State: Phelps Spent More Than $200k in Gear Up Grant Money On Meals, Personal Items.”

Now the headline reads exactly the way the State wanted it too. It makes it seem like Phelps had simply went on a spending spree where he was living lavishly by shopping at Sam’s Club and scamming the tax-payer out of tens of thousands with meals at the “swanky” Olive Garden.

It makes me wonder if KELO had ever taken the time prior to all this to visit a Gear Up summer program prior to this? Did they know that many of the kids who attended this program would come with little more than the clothes on their backs and that the program would supply these kids with what they needed? KELO must be aware that many Lakota students come from homes that are so poverty ridden that school supplies would never be a priority in a family’s budget. Then again maybe they are as out of touch with our people as it seems.

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Those of us out here on the western side of South Dakota have learned to take a wait and see approach to any case filed against a Native person by the office of Marty Jackley. Each time there is an issue involving Native interests his office has conveniently taken the side most detrimental to us. Just look at the stances the state has taken against the Indian Child Welfare Act and in favor of the Keystone pipeline. Are there any issues that the AG’s office has decided to back Native people on?

When this is all said and done Phelps may be found guilty. Until then, those of us in the Native media will wait to pass judgement. We would hope KELO would do the same.

(Brandon Ecoffey is the editor of LCT and a citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation who was born and raised on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and earned his education at Dartmouth College.)

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South Dakota Media Coverage:
SD Department Of Education Files Claim Against Westerhuis Estate (KELO 6/30)
Jackley wants prison time for Gear Up defendants (The Sioux Falls Argus Leader 6/30)
AG: Gear Up money misspent at restaurants, casinos (The Sioux Falls Argus Leader 6/28)
Prosecutors: GEAR UP defendant misused nonprofit's money (AP 6/27)