Evening star., 1955-11-26
indion-Giver Policy?

sfEut0sI0VC Obt@y.
AS former chairman of the
Oglala Sioux Tribal Council
and for many years q leader
smong Indians of the Pine
Ridge Reservation in South
Dakota. ! write in answer to
Dorothy Thompson's recent
article defending the new
policy of the sale Of Indian
land to outsiders established by
the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
About so years ago the Fed
eral Government took q step
from which our people are still
suffering today and win con-
tinue to suffer unless some
thing is done about 1t. The
Government broke up most of
our tribal lands and gave each
Sioux Indian a piece Of it.
known as an allotment" Most
Of these aIlotments, which were
tracts Of grazing land, were
too small 10 support an Indian
family.
Our people are poor people
and have always been under
pressure to sell their land to
outsiders. These outsiders
usually like to pick out the one
tract Of land in a unit that
has the water on it. Once
they have that one, the other
tracts fall into their laps at q
low price. That is why the
tribe has always opposed the
sale Of so-called key tracts.
For some time the. Govern
ment co-operated with the
tribe. For the past Is years
1t has tried to undo the damage
Of the splitting up of the land.
Allotments were put into
grazing units and used for the
benefit Of all the owners. But
this year q new policy Of the
Indian Bureau came along.
Now 1t does not make any Diff
ference that many Indians
owning land In a unit are go
Ing to be hurt. Key tracts can
be sold to outsiders.
We objected to the new
policy and lots of other Indian
tribes objected to 1t. So the
Bureau Of Indian Affairs tried
to get some Indians to support
the policy. They finally got
one tribal chairman, the chair
man of the Navahos, and they
nave been giving his statement
q lot of publicity.
We Sioux Indians got q good
laugh out Of that one. It's q
real joke. This time the In
dians put one over on the bu-
reau. Because the Navahos,
who told the bureau they are
supporting the new policy on
allotments, have allotments
only outside their reservation.
Their reservation was never
split up: they hold most of
their land in common and
there is q law against selling
1t. The new policy makes no
difference to them. So when
the bureau asked them to sup
port it, they must have said to
themselves: Its no skin of
our backs" And they told the
bureau: Sure, we are for it.
Just don't touch our land. But
go ahead. you and them fight!"
We Sioux know this and
that's why we have been
laughing about the Navajo
statement and the bureau
propaganda.
Miss Thompson thinks 1t is
all right for our land to be
sold. That way, she thinks,
we can become normal Ameri-
cans. I wish that before she
wrote this she would have
come out to our reservation.
/ wish she would have talked
to our people here before she
fell for the bureau propa-
ganda. We could have shown
her what happens to Indians
who sell their land. We could
have shown her the dirt floors
in the cabins in which these
people now live on the reserva-
tion. We could have shown
her what happens to those
that move away. We could
have shown her the misery Of
the Sioux people that live in
the slurnS Of Rapid City. I
am sure she would have agreed
with us on one thing: That is
not normal American life.
/ also want Miss Thompson
to know that just because I
want to stay in the cattle busi-
ness on the land on which I
was born and which was the
land of my forefathers, that
does not mean I want to be a
museum exhibit. ! don't wear
a blanket and ! don't think I
am quaint. but / share with
my fellow trtbesrnen the idea
that we want to keep the last
remains Of our Sioux lands.
We think we can make q hv-
ing on It II we are given half
D chance.
william Fire Thunder.