Black Hills Indian community elects interim board
Formal installation ceremony Jan. 16 at Mother Butler
By Ernestine Chasing Hawk
Native Sun News Today Staff Writer
nativesunnews.today
RAPID CITY – In what some have termed “historic” the Rapid City Indian community nominated and elected by acclamation five men and five women to represent tribal people living in sacred He Sapa (the Black Hills).
During a meeting on January 9 at the Mother Butler Center, Mark Lonehill, Lawton Thompson, Cameron Lafferty, Robert Cook, George Jewett, Ernestine Chasing Hawk, Cante Heart, Shirley Garnette, Marlyce Miner and Bev Running Bear were elected to serve on an interim board.
The action was taken in response to the Great Plains Tribal Chairmen’s Health Board’s attempt to take over services at Sioux San Hospital via a PL93-638 contract, and build a new IHS facility at an eastside location.
Three separate groups, the Unified Health Board, the GPTCHB and the Mniluzahan Wicozani Health Board met on a regular basis and devised a plan for GPTCHB to takeover services at Sioux San Hospital on February 18 and planned to relocate services to land east of Rapid City donated by local developer Hani Shafei.
The Sioux San Hospital
in Rapid City, South Dakota, will remain under control of the Indian Health
Service after the Rosebud Sioux Tribe withdrew from an effort that it had
started with the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and the Oglala Sioux Tribe. Photo by
Kevin Abourezk
However many in the Rapid City Indian community did not believe they had input in that decision making process and openly voiced their opposition at Rapid City Common Council meetings, via the local media and during several public meetings held at the Mother Butler Center.
An ad hoc committee called Rapid City Concerned Indian Community Members was formed consisting of Charmaine White Face, Mark Lone Hill, Theresa Spry, Jeannie Ashley and Pat Lee. The committee stepped up and began a campaign to inform all tribal members living in the Black Hills about what they perceived as a threat to their health care services.
Among the concerns they voiced was that although elected tribal leaders were involved in this decision making process, Indians living in Rapid City and the Black Hills area are not allowed to vote in tribal elections, thereby denying them equal representation, a right guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.
Another concern they raised was the question of jurisdiction and whether or not the three tribal resolutions drafted to support the GPTCHB takeover were legal off the reservation. They also questioned the process by which the Unified Health Board and the Mniluzahun Wicozani Health Board were selected.
The committee led by White Face and Lee initiated legal maneuvers to stop the Sioux San takeover by filing a request for an injunction, first in the Oglala Sioux Tribal Court, then in Federal Court. Although the injunctions failed, an intuitive Council member from the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, Kathleen Wooden Knife was listening and voiced the concerns of tribal people living in the Black Hills before the Rosebud Sioux Tribal Council.
On Tuesday, December 18, the Rosebud Sioux Tribal Council voted unanimously to rescind resolutions 2018-116 and 117, thereby making the takeover of Sioux San and the move to what was termed Shepherd Hills “null and void.”
IHS announced their pullout of negotiation two days later.
During the meeting at the Mother Butler Center on January 9, a new Constitution was adopted and the interim board was elected by the approximately 70 Rapid City Indian community members present.
According to a press release from the RCCICM a Resolution that was drafted “In response to efforts by the Oglala Sioux Tribe’s continued actions to move the Sioux San Health Facility from its current location” was unanimously passed by a vote of community members present.
For more information about the commitee contact: Charmaine White Face at 342-1626, Mark Lone Hill at 224-532-1227, Theresa Spry at 431-2160, Jeannie Ashley at 545-0883, or Pat Lee at 341-4360.
Contact Ernestine Chasing Hawk at staffwriter@nativesunnews.today
Copyright permission Native Sun News Today
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