 Reservations I will ask Mr. Phulf Kroh to start us off in his negotiation with an Indian prayer. I do not wish him on the law. Not with the law, Stipul. Oh, oh. And we're not going to wait any further. We must go on with the negotiation. Now I'm going to ask Mr. Patterson at this time how much authority and how much power he has to negotiate with us on so many matters. Mr. Patterson. We are sending five White House representatives to meet with you for the purpose of examining the problem concerning the 1868 treaty, the Presidential Treaty Commission, which you propose as a method of re-examination of that 1868 treaty. The White House representatives are not themselves a treaty commission. They come to listen to your views. At this time, Mr. Chief, I would appreciate if my associates could join me here. You see, just a minute. They have a schedule of agenda that they want to do before anything. We don't think that the 1868 treaty can help you decide. We don't think that the 1868 treaty can help you decide. Mr. Posto would like to ask one question with a simple answer, yes or no. Mr. Posto would like to ask one question with a simple answer, yes or no. Mr. Posto would like to ask one question with a simple answer, yes or no. Today I met one of the good representatives of the government. He said I want him to take a good look at me and my mother earth. Oh, my country, let me talk. This is my country. He said this is my country and he said I want to ask him a simple question. He said can be reinstated back to 1868 treaty on that simple question. I want Mr. Patterson to say yes or no on a matter. Can we be reinstated back to 1868? That's right. This is the letter which the government gave on May 4th. And as you remember, it said, we will come here to meet with you for the purpose of examining the problems concerning the 1868 treaty. What is your specific question? Can we, can the five of us rewrite the treaty? We're cut off by introducing the Indian Bureau and the negotiation the treaty making period was cut off by introducing the Indian Bureau. Can you say the Indian Bureau, what you mean is that in 1934 you had the Indian Order? 1871, 1871. 1871 which, talking about the... Before that we was a nation making treaties with the government of the United States. We have ever... Act of Congress. Yes. No, we want to be reinstated back to that period of time and be a sub-government nation. That's what he had. I understand. I'll give you the answer. In 1871, the Congress passed this law, which is what you described. Our treaties are a supreme law of the land. And he can change it. He can change it again. No one in the executive branch, even the president if he were standing here personally, can change that law. The only way that law can be changed is if the Congress changes it itself. And the president can't do it, and I can't do it, and nobody can do it. Only the Congress could change that law in 1871. Mr. Patterson, what we are trying to reach here is at one time we had our own system of carrying you for internal affairs of our tribe called a goshpiyamani, which was a council, same as you call the tribal council now. And that was our system of government. This is the question that they're referring to. Can we re-institute our goshpiyamani system? What you're referring to is the Indian Reorganization Act, isn't it? It would set up the tribal council. I understand. The Congress passed the Indian Reorganization Act in 1934. And that was, that established the system of elected tribal government in not just Odellas, but in Indian country, among Indian people throughout the country. And the president, again, if he were here himself, can't change that act of Congress. The Congress can change it if they see fit. Many of the Congresses is planning to come here and hold hearings here on the Pine Ridge Reservation, among the Odella people. But I would be dishonest to you, and I will not be dishonest to you. If I said that the president or I or my colleagues could change the law of the Congress. That's the law. I hope I've made it clear. And any other answer would be a dishonest answer, and I'm not going to be dishonest to my friends here. I don't think there's any doubt, or there shouldn't be any doubt in your mind, that there's been a total breakdown of tribal government on this reservation. That we have a dangerous, explosive situation here on the Pine Ridge Reservation. A situation that demands immediate action. The abuse of the Indian people on this reservation is continuing. Between now and November, when the primary election is held, I guarantee you, if nothing is done immediately, you're going to have on your hands the deaths of several people on this reservation. Mr. Patterson, I want to talk to you. We don't want tribal council. We don't want BIA. We want our tonight 1860s treaty. The reason why we don't want BIA is because when we send our kids to school, they have long hair. We have long hair. Our ancestors have long hair. And when they go to school with long hair, they're aimed. What is aimed? They're Indians. Right now we have pending a divorce action between the Indian people and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The grounds are extreme cruelly. And what bothers me is that we know that the marriage has ended. But you don't know it. And those of you and your colleagues who are in the Interior Department, you've talked continually for two days about changes you're going to make in tribal government. In other words, efforts to patch up the marriage. But we want you to know that the marriage is dead. Bobby Kennedy says something that's stuck in my brain forever since. He said, if you Indian people want freedom, he said you're going to have to remember that you're going to have to fight for it every day. We want our 1860s treaty back. So we are standing on our 1868 treaty. And we're going to stay there. Otherwise there will be another wound at me. I was shot at. But our Great Spirit watches us. So you want to be careful. And we talked about the BI and all the corruption that was there and all the grievances we had. But they wouldn't listen to us. We went from task force to task force. Trying to tell them what it was like on the reservation. They said, that's your problem. You white people come there. The people in the White House not listening to the Indians. We have hardship. The tribal government is not doing a damn thing for us. I myself can't say it because I never worked in the tribal... I never was associated with the tribal government. Because we don't get no help from there. We can't beg, but we never get anything. I think the time this white people should listen to the Indians. We see our grandfather die talking about the 1860s treaty and about the Black Hills claim. I think this time, I think the white people should listen to the Indians and let them governor themselves. Terrorizing these people on the reservation. Is anyone of you from the Civil Rights Department of Washington? Good. Then can you take some complaints back to Washington for us? Because of these police. They said, feast fire. They made our American Indian movement people put down their weapons. Now we don't have no weapons. And they throw flares at us. What rights have they got? Such things as this is going on on this reservation. I intend to say that I have civil rights. Now if you can take documents, take them back to Washington because of civil jurisdiction, they say we don't have no civil rights. They're depriving us of our civil rights. My grandmother always told me, never believe a white man, he speaks with work terms. And everywhere I went throughout the United States, even down into Redneck country in Texas, I found out that we had the majority of the support of the American people. Two weeks later they took another poll where they asked if they sought the American public because they thought Richard Nixon was involved in the Watergate issue. Sixty-three percent of the public said they thought he was involved. So the American Indian movement and the people who were in Wounded Knee had more support in the President of the United States. That's what we're at, but we've got to realize that. The American Indian movement is not going to stand by and we make our same statements that we made prior to coming into the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation where they had restraining orders against the whole movement. So we are not going to stand by and watch our people be brutalized anymore. Indian women's daughters being raped, Indian homes being fire bombed on this reservation or any other reservation in the United States. And 25,000 dollar bonds and 11 indictments and possibilities of over 100 years of prison is not going to stop the American Indian movement from protecting Indian people's rights in this country. The American Indian movement is here to stay and I'm sure it's going to be around a lot longer than these gentlemen sitting right at this table here today. All of these crimes, as you call them, these deeds that the Washington, the white man has committed time and time again a million fold, which they call business ventures and virtues and so forth. If an Indian does it, it's a crush. Who created Russell Meade, Dennis Banks and all the others? Remember this and that defense there. The federal government created them. You gave them births. And that's why you're out here today or you could be in your nice air condition, your nice air condition offices back in Washington. But maybe Mr. Nixon was adamant that he ordered you out here and get out there and talk to those Indians. My gosh, they're tearing up things over there. I've got my hands full with it. Even them smoldering embers in the heart of every Indian. They're still there. The T-Tolso nation still lives. You haven't snuffed it out yet. We believe that nature is God. We have to live by nature. Before the coming of the white man, we were alone in this vast country. No one to depend on. No one to lean on. We have to find our way in life. We depend on the wild games that was given to us by the Great Spirit, yes, we believe. As we progress, we seek the power that gave us life. And in order to find that power, we have to adjust our lives to that of nature. Whoever is behind this power which gave us life must love his world. This is the religion of the red man. In following this religion, they became one of the greatest nations on the face of the earth. I don't believe that as long as this world is in existence, there never will be another nation that will enjoy what the Indians have enjoyed before the coming of the white man. They were free. There was no known crime. There were no Indian problems. I know that everybody here agree with me that we have enjoyed a life which is supreme under the law of nature. Because we say that nature is God and God is nature and we believe in it. The peace pipe which was presented to the Sioux Indians a few hundred years ago was a simple instruction that when they are in trouble, when they are in need of guidance, it covers all things. They must use it to communicate with the Great Spirit which we have done. During the white man's set foot upon our country, we smoked the peace pipe with them. We made treaties with them. The only law we have among our Indian people, we must never tell a lie. No matter how bad, we must never lie. This is Indian religion. Long before the white man never came to this area, this region, their creator put Lakota here and he gave them a set of rules to follow instead of laws that told them how to set up their council and run their government and to take care of their people. A traditional method where your council comes together and they sit in a circle and they make decisions in the way that the creator shows them to do this. This is the type of government that sat when that treaty was made in 1868. That was the government that existed there. That's when the minds were won because they were operating at that time the way the creator gave to the Ogallala people themselves. This is how it was done. And I'm telling you, that's the kind of government that was here that governed this land long before any white man ever even thought of coming here. If you are going to get the power back that belongs rightfully to this great Lakota, you are going to have to go back to that old way. You've got to disband the BIA, the method, the method of governing that the white man has showed you to do. I know he's imposed this on you for a long time and it's very difficult to even imagine what it would be like to go back and have our council sit the way it did 200 years ago when no one could tell you what to do. You shouldn't have to ask them to take this resolution back. You shouldn't have to ask them for anything. Because the creator gave you this land. The creator gave you Lakota, this land, and he gave you a way to govern this land. When you started to adopt the white man's ways of governing your people and taking care of them, the power of Lakota began to dwindle down. The next meeting you have, you go back and find those people that know how they did it 200 years ago and conduct your meeting in that manner and use your medicines. Then when you go to the white man the next time you won't have to ask him, you can tell him, this is what we are going to do because you made a treaty with us. It's not a father and son agreement. It's a brother and a brother agreement in a treaty. When you wrote a treaty with him, you made him your brother, not your father. A father has the right to reprimand his son, but a brother doesn't have the right to reprimand his brother. A brother doesn't have to have his brother's permission to do something in his own territory. And from what I've seen happening now, it isn't too late to go back to that, to bring yourself back and put your counsels together and bring their minds together as one. You should never let them have you bring you to a place where you lower yourself, where you have to ask them to do something. Give them the resolution and tell them you take this back to the President of the United States. We demand of you to take that message to the United States because this is your territory. Possibly the only place that we can really get justice is that if we form somewhat of the United Coalition of all Indian groups that have treaties with the United States and take that to the world's court, that we have to do it together and we'll still stand with you. And we're very proud of what you've done. Our Lakota brothers. That's the way it is. To this pretty law, I will say, as a medicine man through my vision, white men is no good. They should get on the boat and go home. And I think we definitely need another meeting. I think in the meantime that this commission should return to Washington, consult with your superiors, and give us some answers. I cannot, I cannot this afternoon, as a representative of the White House, also play judge. You know, I've heard the things you've said. We've all heard the things you've said. But I'm not the judge. I haven't got all the facts in my hands and I haven't got, I'm not trying to hear both sides. I haven't heard both sides. So please don't put me in the position or don't go away and quote me. All I'm saying is this, that Indian people all over the country must have fair tribal government. And we are going to try to make sure that that happens. Mr. Franklin is going to send me an order or a message of saying that. I'm saying that. And we will try to do that. If you want me to speak with Fortton, I'll speak differently. But I don't think you do. I think you want me to speak straight to you. This is all at the beginning. And that if we have to meet together again and talk, I hope you'll bring results at the end. So we thank you from all of us for your being here and spending two days with us and discuss some of the things we have and that's been bothering us for a long, long time. I hope you do something about it. But stay.