IHS breaks word to tribes over Sioux San

RAPID CITY—Looking down from the high ground that runs along the north side of Canyon Lake Drive, stands what remains of the Sioux San Indian Hospital, a three story, two wing building built back over a century ago as part of the Rapid City Indian Boarding School. The building has been repurposed several times since then, first as a facility for the Civilian Conservation Corps then as a sanitarium for Native patients with tuberculosis then in the 1970’s as a hospital for the Rapid City Indian Community, the building held deep sentimental significance for thousands of community members, as well as thousands more relatives back on the home reservations. But on April 6, 2023, just after 7 am, on a crisp, sunny morning, on muddy ground covered by large swaths of melting snow, IHS Director Roselyn Tso gave the green light to demolish this building.

The tribes had been told that demolition would not begin until 8:30 am, but by the time concerned tribal members began to arrive at the site, the destruction of the rear addition was well underway. The construction foreman was just getting off his cell phone to IHS when Oglala Sioux Tribal President (OST) Frank Star Comes Out arrived with his entourage, and the foreman announced there would be a 30-minute long work stoppage. Star Comes out was not only their representing OST, but was also present in his capacity as president of the Great Plains Tribal Chairman’s Association. (GPTCA) When Star Comes Out tried to talk to the foreman, he was rebuffed with an obviously prepared statement, and when he identified himself as OST president, the foreman walked away, repeatedly saying, “No comment.”

Twenty-two minutes later, both the East and West wings were directly attacked. As the bright orange support beams and the crumbling innards spilled onto the muddy ground, generations of history, both dark and wonderful, billowed out in dust clouds, lost to the ether. People who had first walked these halls as toddlers when Kennedy was president looked on helplessly, as window glass shattered, support beams buckled, brick splintered, and walls collapsed.

OST Executive Secretary Donna Solomon was on site that morning to witness the opening destruction of the building. She had not been idle in the days leading up to the scheduled demolition. Solomon said every effort had been made to work with regional IHS Director Joe Amiotte. “We got ahold of Joe. He said, ‘I’ll be right there,’ but he didn’t even come down. So, Frank (Star Comes Out) left, said ‘I gotta get back on the phone with the headquarters, and go back to Mario’s (Mario Gonzalez, OST attorney). So, I tried to call Joe, and he said, ‘Donna, I’ll be there in 20 minutes,’ and when I heard that, I said, well, you told the president of the tribe you were gonna be right here like ten minutes ago and you’re still not here and now you’re telling me you’re gonna be here in 20 minutes?”

Solomon stops her recollection here, and adds, “They were stalling, they were misleading.” By “they” she means Amiotte and IHS Director Roselyn Tso.

Solomon says of Tso: “She was waiting on documents; we were forwarding her some documents from Great Plains (GPTCA), plus I was waiting for Stacy Two Lance to send me the action of the committee (on March 30 the tribes let Tso know of their displeasure about the demolition of the building). (Tso) agreed to get those documents and she was going to review them and then she was going to call us back.”

Gonzalez had been preparing legal action for the tribe to save the building.

“He had worked all that night to get the document ready,” Solomon said.

“I thought we had until one (pm), that’s what they (Tso) had told us,” Gonzalez said.

On site, Solomon was trying to buy time for Gonzalez to complete his task, trying to halt construction long enough to allow the tribes and the Rapid City community could respond, as they were unaware that the demolition had started over an hour earlier than slated.

“I said who’s your crew boss,” Solomon told NSNT. “They said Mike and Dan, talk to them. I said, you need to stop because we are on phone with Roselyn Tso and she says she’s gonna stop this…I think it was all pretty much determined they were going to go with it.”

“They had their mind made up,” Gonzalez added.

On March 30, Star Comes Out had told Tso, “I feel like we been sitting on the back burner in everything we’ve asked for when it comes to health care. Our people are crying for better health care, but nobody’s been listening. It’s time we changed that.”

At that time Tso claimed to have worked with Amiotte to be “better responsive to tribes” and yet all those involved with the Sioux San demolition came away thinking just the opposite was true.

“Communication is key, as all three chairman have discussed,” Star Comes Out told Tso. “But we need to work on trust issues, too. So, I’ll be looking forward to that conversation, and I’ll be watching.”

Tso has been director of IHS for six months. Despite the understanding ostensibly reached on March 30, IHS proceeded to conduct themselves in a diametric manner when it came to the Sioux San.

When Solomon asked Tso who made the decision to proceed with the demolition after a 30-minute break, Solomon said Tso said, “I made that decision.” Star Comes Out then said, “Without us?”

“She was supposed to get back on the line with the president,” Solomon said, “after her review of the documents that were sent to her, but she instead gave the order to continue. That morning when they started tearing down the building, they weren’t watering it down, and so the dust was all over, and my daughter said, Mom, get away from there.”

The prevailing wind carried dust, which had elements of asbestos toward a health clinic, a middle school and an elementary school.

With the demolition almost completed, little can be done by any tribe or the Rapid City Indian Community. The only two questions remaining are, what will be done with the cleared land, and how can tribes trust IHS, the Interior Department, or the Biden Administration from here on out, given how badly they abused that trust over the Sioux San?

(Contact James Giago Davies at skindiesel@msn.com)

 

 

The post IHS breaks word to tribes over Sioux San first appeared on Native Sun News Today.

Visit Original Source