Opinion

Ernestine Chasing Hawk: Exposing corruption on the reservation

Thursday, November 10, 2016

Welcome to the Oglala Lakota Nation. Photo by Pete Markhan

Blaming the messenger for the message
By Ernestine Chasing Hawk
Native Sun News Today Editor
nativesunnews.today

When Melanie Two Eagle Black Bull wanted to share information that she perceived as corruption within the political system of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, she specifically asked for a journalist that was not an Oglala Sioux Tribal member. She wanted an unbiased writer who would not slant the story to protect their own.

She also said she came to Native Sun News Today because she believed we would publish her story because the other reservation newspaper had a vested interest in staying out of controversial tribal politics for financial reasons.

As journalists we are to remain unbiased and give both sides ample opportunity to tell their side of the story. However as a human being who has always fought for the rights of the oppressed, whose passion for journalism is to give a voice to those who have been silenced by their oppressors, I knew all too well the song and dance that would be played by those in power.

While I listened to Melanie share information about an elitist group of people living on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation who hoard the revenue stream and the jobs, I couldn’t help but be reminded that over the past 13 years that I’ve worked as a journalist, I heard time and time again that people living on Pine Ridge were the poorest people in the Nation.

Then when I looked at the documents Melanie presented as well as other documents Native Sun News Today obtained from other whistleblowers, I was appalled at the disparity in the income gap.

Then Donn Fire Thunder, a council representative from the LaCreek District, shared that not only are the unsica people living on Pine Ridge the poorest people in the Nation, but also for the past four months their sole means of subsistence, what is referred to as General Assistance (GA), has not arrived from the federal government.

The cliché about how the poor keep getting poorer and the rich keep getting richer is a sad reality on the Pine Ridge Indian reservation. Then I had to wonder how the people in power continue to live with themselves, how do they justify taking way more than what is their fair share of the revenue generated by the tribe.