Bigfoot Memorial

Chief Big Foot National Memorial Park

Updated November 5, 1995

Debate and Dialogue
Original-Sender: milo@scicom.alphacdc.com (Michele Lord)
This article is copied from a flyer given to me by a friend who was in Wounded Knee last week.
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Stop Chief Big Foot National Memorial Park Bill: August 05, 1992
Hello!! The purpose of this event is to hold a peaceful demonstration to create a public awareness of the Chief Big Foot National Part Draft Bill. Several groups sponsoring this event have studied and reviewed this proposed bill and are strongly opposed to the passage of this bill. The intent of the bill is to develop a national park within and around the Wounded Knee Massacre Site. The National Park Service will plan, develop, and construct the park with the guidance of the Oglala Sioux Tribe and the Wounded Knee Survivors Association. The Tribal Council recently approved resolution 92-85, which authorizes the draft language of the proposed park plan.
The following major issues of concern are:
1. The Wounded Knee community will be forced to relocate as lands are acquired and deemed necessary by the Secretary of the Interior to develop the park.
2. A 99 year leasehold agreement is required wherein the Oglala Sioux Tribe tranfers land, surface and sub-surface rights (water, minerals, and the bones of our people in the mass grave site,)
3. The Management of the park will be with the Park Service which has a history of inefficiency, ineptitude, and mismanagement.
4. Law enforcement jurisdiction will bring the Cheyenne River, National Park Rangers and the State of South Dakota law enforcement systems the reservation. This is state jurisdiction under the guise of economic development.
The Oglala Sioux Tribal Council has ignored the opposition of the most affected community, the Wounded Knee Sub-Community, in their resolution against the Chief Big Foot National Memorial Park Plan and Bill. As Lakota people on this reservation, we will all be affected by the alteration of the sovereignty powers currently exercised under the Treaty of 1868. This bill will be another step toward the final termination of Lakota people by the U.S. Government and State of South Dakota Please consider the implications of this bill on future generations and work to stop this land give-away.
Pila Unyapi-Thank You; Wounded Knee Sub-Community; Wounded Knee Landholders Association; Native Resource Coalition ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ [The following is a letter to Congresspeople that can be used with minor changes or you may write your own letter using the information. -Michele]~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Re: Chief Bigfoot National Memorial Park and Wounded Knee Memorial Act of 1992
So little of what was, still remains. In our constant battle to preserve the past and make amends for deeds of long ago, we often loose sight of the impact of our decisions. The "Chief Big Foot National Memorial Park and Wounded Knee National Memorial Establishment Act of 1992." is one such perfect example. This bill not only contains significant drawbacks, but t's rapid development and unpublicized modifications create overtones of private, not public interest. As an American citizen, I urge you, as a legislator, to vote AGAINST this Bill.
Consider the following:
-In the 1940s, 126 families' land was condemned for bombing practice. Some of those families were relocated to Wounded Knee. After the 1973 occupation in Wounded Knee, families were relocated to Pine Ridge. Are we going to relocate again in 1992?
-The Bill calls for a minimum of 1,000 acres of the Pine Ridge Reservation in the State of South Dakota. This area has already lost nearly 1 million of it's 2.7 million original acres (established by 1868 treaty). There is no limit on maximum acreage (in the Bill).
-The Bill calls for the transfer of all surface and sub-surface (water, minerals, etc.) rights to acquired lands. Why?
-The proposed area encompasses a large watershed and will certainly affect water usage in this arid climate.
-The Bill is adamantly opposed by the Wounded Knee District, Wounded Knee Community, Wounded Knee Landowners Association, and lacks the support thereof.
-The history of this Bill is marked with miscommunication and concealment. It is unnumbered, a common tactic used to hide a controversial Bill. Repeated requests to produce this Bill and associated Feasibility Studies yielded no results until recently. Information reaching the Tribal level is dubious, at best.
The culture of the Oglala Sioux Tribe must be preserved. The wishes of the people, and their desire for privacy and spirituality must be honored. Let us not spoil this with tourism, family displacement, and broken trust, one of the last few living examples of history.
For once, Let Us Do What The American Indian Wants, Not What We Think He Wants. I charge you, as an elected official, to carefully scrutinize this Bill and protect the People of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. *VOTE NO*
milo@scicom.alphacdc.com
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Original-Sender: "Elizabeth B. Pollard" A follow-up to our earlier message about writing your senators and congressmen opposing the establishment of a national park at Wounded Knee. We have received replies from both our congressman and our senator. Both are the usual non-committal expressions of thanks, but our representative went a step beyond by doing some legwork concerning the House Resolution. He determined that the bill has a different number than the one we provided earlier, and included some other information about it.
Accordingly, I am transcribing his letter below both to show the new number and information about the bill, and to give an idea of the tone of the responses. -- Liz
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Pollard:
I received your letter expressing your opposition to the establishment of a national monument at Wounded Knee, South Dakota.
You state in your letter that this is provided for in H.Res. 2032. I have been unable to find a bill designated as H.Res. 2032 nut I have found a bill designated as H.R. 5856 that does authorize the establishment of the Chief Big Foot National Memorial Park and the Wounded Knee National Memorial in the State of South Dakota.
At the present time, there are two cosponsors of this legislation, introduced by Representative Johnson of South Dakota. Furthermore, after its introduction, H.R. 5856 was referred to the House Committee on the Interior and Insular Affairs. No further action has been taken on this bill but should it come to the floor of the House for a vote, I will certainly keep your views in mind.
Thank you for writing. If I may be of further assistance to you, please do not hesitate to let me know.
Sincerely; Bud Cramer; Member of Congress
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If you have not yet written to your representative regarding this issue, perhaps this information will be of use.
Elizabeth & Grosvenor Pollard uahebp01@asnuah.asn.net

Date: Tue, 28 Mar 1995 17:41:40 -0700 (MST)
From: Robert Johnson [johnsorl@Colorado.EDU]
Reply-To: Robert Johnson [johnsorl@Colorado.EDU]
DECOLONIAL CRITIQUE IS A THEORY AND METHODOLOGY WHICH CRITICALLY EXAMINES THE PARTICIPATION OF THOSE IN THE FURTHER PHYSICAL AND CULTURAL GENOCIDE OF THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES OF HUMANKIND, AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A NEW WORLD ORDER WHICH WILL SUBJECT THE PEOPLES OF THE EARTH TO WESTERN BUSINESS AND "SECURITY" INTERESTS.
---Robert Johnson
The following is a brief commentary concerning the U.S. National Parks Service "plan" to "commemorate" the massacre at Wounded Knee of men, women, and children of the Tribes by American soldiers in further institutionalizing the occupation of the lands of Native Americans. Today, men and women in anthropology and archaeology are willing to collaborate with this illegal injustice and further act of desecration and violence against the cultural heritage of Native Americans:
I agree with Jordan. The thought of a white-sponsored Wounded Knee Memorial is sickening. To commemorate a spineless massacre of mostly women and children as if it were some kind of gallant army battle shows just how far the yuppie culture will go to purge its guilt-ridden conscience. If the government wanted to make a REAL difference they would start by returning several tens of millions of acres of high plains country to the Lakota and Cheyenne Nations, including the tourist, biker, and gold-mine -ridden Black Hills. Honor and amends will never truly be possible for those of the "European mind", as Russell Means puts it, because such a shameful past cannot be retributed.
And this is not all in the past. I work with Indians in South America, with tribes who still have their lands, and for the most part, traditional cultures, intact. Right now, multinational corporations, trained in the exploitative capitalism which "built" this country, are moving in on the Indian lands for timber and mineral resources, with or without (usually) the consent of the tribes, but with total consent of the nation-state govts artificially superimposed over the tribal lands. Many of those selling off the Indian lands are people of color, which shows, of course, that the anti-Nature, profit-oriented mindset is a disease to which all cultures are susceptible.
All this makes me think ahead to a time when the Earth has no Wild Nature, and no native people living close to the land, and all the techno-people will have an aching longing, buried deep in their genes, for a world that has been irreversibly lost. How will they make "amends" for that?
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How do those in American archaeology and anthropology rationalize their employment in National Parks and state parks systems which continue the illegal occupation of Native American lands taken by force and fraud by the United States Government?
How can they rationalize their continuing participation in the cultural appropriation and desecration of Native American sacred geography?
How can those not content or employed in this "anthropological industry" within the United States justify their morality in effecting these same practices in foreign lands compounded with the fact that all too often they conduct their "research" amidst the systematic murder of the indigenous peoples they "study?"
If anyone would like to respond to this "decolonial critique," please make your comments on the main list groups.

Original Sender: cbs.cis.com!bill (Bill Faulk); 04/30/94 PRIMARY BILL LIST

SENATE BILLS
S.278 Sen Daschle
A bill to authorize the establishment of the Chief Big Foot National MemorialPark and the Wounded Knee National Memorial in the State of South Dakota.
02/02/93 07/29/93 - Subcommittee on Public Lands, National Parks. Hearings held. Cosponsors: 3 02/02/93 See HR.2435

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