[Mb-hair] Defend Bear Butte media release~Please Pass On

[Barbara Siomos]

My name is Carter Camp, I'm a Ponca Indian and I have been chosen to be the
"Eyapaha" or "Traditional Speaker" for the Inter-Tribal Coalition to Defend Bear Butte.

 ( <http://www.defendbearbutte.org/> www.defendbearbutte.org). 

As such, I would like to announce a major effort by over thirty (30) Sovereign Indian
Nations in America to stop the obscene
developments which are being built all
around the Mountain each of our Nations
hold sacred and inviolable. For over a
century our Nations have attempted to
explain to the encroaching Americans that
this Sacred Mountain is a place where we
come to pray and it holds an exquisitely
important place in the ancient religious
ways of each of our Nations. 

For example, during each of America's
World Wars, plus Korea and Viet Nam, our
Nations and our Veterans pilgrimage to
Bear Butte to pray for the victories of
American Armed Forces and the safe
return of our tribal warriors who fought in those wars in such great numbers.  In fact
all year around hundreds of Indian people make their pilgrimage to Bear Butte to
pray, fast, and hold religious ceremonies.

The Mountain holds such tremendous
meaning to our people that many of us
believe our entire way of life will be
destroyed if the continued exploitation of
the land around Bear Butte is allowed to continue by local and State governments. 

Now because those same local and state
governments refuse to hear our pleas to
mitigate the developments or in any way
cooperate with our requests for a five-mile
buffer zone around her base, we must 
attempt to convince them in a more direct
way. Therefore we have decided to hold
another "Great Gathering of the Nations"
such as the one Hunkpapa Chief Sitting 
Bull held in the mid 1800's for the same
reason. to protect our sacred grounds. 
Chief Sitting Bull gathered 6,000 of his
people; we plan on gathering over 10,000
native people on Bear Butte during this 
year's "Sturgis Bike Rally" to stand and
march in witness and protest to the destruction of our most holy site.

Each day of the "Rally" we plan on exercising our Constitutional right to
assemble on Bear Butte and march to the
Sturgis City Hall and/or the various scenes
of noisy, drunken debauchery taking place
around the slopes of our sacred mountain.

Our people will begin gathering to hold
ceremonies on the Fourth of July and we
will continue to gather our people until
August when a "Grand Council of the
Tribes" will be held to determine our
future course of actions. All Traditional
Societies will take their place in the grand
circle; Traditional Chiefs will lead societies
of Kit Fox, Dog Soldiers, Ponca He'Thuska,
and other Lakota Tokala and Akicita to 
take their places at the front of the people.

Our effort will be led principally by 
American Indian Veterans who have fought
for America in all of her wars.

The second effort will be an International
boycott of the Broken Spoke Saloon and all
booze serving campgrounds within the five-mile buffer zone. This effort will be 
spearheaded by the newly formed biker
group "BIKERS FOR BEAR BUTTE" who will
take it upon themselves to inform the biker
nation that Meade County and South 
Dakota are turning a deaf and racist ear to
Indian people and only the bikers 
themselves can take the proper steps to
enforce the buffer zone by asking all bikers
not to patronize any campground, booze
party, or concert venue within the buffer zone. They will "request" in the strongest
terms that their fellow bikers stay off 
Highway 34 and 79 within five miles of Bear
Butte. This effort has already begun and will grow much stronger before the "Rally".

In closing I would like to assure the people
of South Dakota that our gathering and
marches will be peaceful and within
Constitutional bounds. We will seek permits for our marches and gathering
places and we intend to comply with 
existing laws. But in the end, we fully
intend to protect the sanctity of our sacred
mountain no matter how long it takes; we
have done so for hundreds of years and we
intend to continue as long as she is being
shown disrespect and remains under attack. 

We further ask the people of South Dakota
to help us by writing or calling their
legislators and asking them to enact the
five-mile buffer zone as law.

In 2001 the World Trade Center ruins 
became "Sacred Ground" to all Americans
so it seems America can understand the
concept with which our people have 
regarded Bear Butte from time immemorial. 

All we're asking is that South Dakotans
give our sacred mountain the same respect
given to New York's sacred site. 

Carter Camp, Eyapaha

Inter-Tribal Coalition to Defend Bear Butte.

<http://www.defendbearbutte.org/> www.defendbearbutte.org

605-455-2508 





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