Is it safe on Pine Ridge?

PINE RIDGE – The Voices of the Elders committee members have repeatedly expressed their fears to be in their homes and outside of their homes due to the violence on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. In other words, they are living in a state of constant fear. This past Friday night, August 2, 2022, their fears were confirmed when Thomas Thunder Hawk Jr., the father of six, was shot multiple times in the process of protecting his son who was in the middle of an altercation over a girl. 

The Pine Ridge powwow was packed with residents of the reservation and visitors alike. This is the height of tourist season, after all, with people clamoring to experience Native American life and culture. One can watch the video available online which shows the women dancers running away from the direction of the shots fired. They were running for their lives. 

Thomas Thunder Hawk Jr. or Tom as he was known, was airlifted from the powwow grounds to Monument Hospital in Rapid City where he passed away around noon on Sunday morning, August 4, 2022. An active member of the Voices of the Elders Committee and a relative of Tom, sent out word five minutes after his death to their colleagues on the committee who are determined to make the Pine Ridge Reservation safer for all. Their dedication is commendable and it remains clear that they will not back down. It is tragic that it took the death of a fine man to galvanize their message but it remains clear that this group of Elders will not let Tom’s death to be in vain. His passing represents a true loss to the Porcupine community and the rest of the Pine Ridge Reservation.

The shooter was a young man without any emotional control who let his anger and aggression snatch the life away from another while ruining his own life and the life of the victim and the victim’s family in that moment. These people have been forever changed and may never recover from their loss. It is up to the tribal administration to put the necessary procedures in place to ensure that such a thing does not happen again. Things move slowly in Tribal politics but events of this magnitude cannot afford to move slowly. Safety measures need to be identified and put into practice immediately.

“Our son was having a conflict with another individual who shot him,” Thunder Hawk’s significant other and mother of six of his children, Tracey Coleman, said. “When my son was there at the powwow with his dad, the bullets were meant for our son. His dad went over there, and he was the one who was shot.”

The Voices of the Elders have many additional years of living to inspire us with their wisdom and experience. They have lived through violence and events that have shaped the character of future generations living on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Hardship is a fact of life on Pine Ridge but those in the position of authority need to create opportunities for the young and future generations so that hope can be nurtured and cultivated in order for change to occur and even seem attainable. Alcohol and narcotics need to be pushed out of the community to ensure that the young are not taken over by perhaps the lowest possible expression of humanity, that of substance abuse.

The Voices of the Elders is calling on everyone who has attended one or more of their district meetings since they began this effort to block out the date of August 22nd and come to the meeting to express your views and learn how you may participate in order to develop a plan of action. The Tribal Council needs to ensure that other innocent people do not lose their lives. Too many times, council members are not showing up for council meetings and quorums are not met to pass a simple vote. That cannot be allowed to continue. If you run for office then you must carry the responsibility to perform the duties you have signed up to do. Innocent, good people cannot be allowed to lose their life because enough security has not been put in place and people have not been screened thoroughly for weapons and substances.

On a grassroots level, people need to get involved. The next meeting of Voices of the Elders was originally planned for August 14^th at the Prairie Wind Casino. The venue will remain the same but the date for the meeting has been changed to Thursday, August 22^nd from 9 a.m. till 4 p.m.  Lunch will be served. 

Please make the time to be there to support the work of Voices of the Elders but to stand beside them and get to work in order to bring change for the good to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

Voices of the Elders can be reached at WTOmniciye@gmail.com.

(Contact Mia Feroleto at mia.feroleto@gmail.com)

The post Is it safe on Pine Ridge? first appeared on Native Sun News Today.

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