{"id":25477,"date":"2021-07-09T06:52:10","date_gmt":"2021-07-09T11:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/native-independence-events-smother-noems-fireworks-wish\/"},"modified":"2021-07-09T06:52:10","modified_gmt":"2021-07-09T11:52:10","slug":"native-independence-events-smother-noems-fireworks-wish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/native-independence-events-smother-noems-fireworks-wish\/","title":{"rendered":"Native independence events smother Noem\u2019s fireworks wish"},"content":{"rendered":"
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RAPID CITY \u2013 Grassroots Native treaty rights events here during the national Independence Day holiday this 4th of July featured a peaceful but spectacular civil disobedience action: Four indigenous technical climbers scaled downtown\u2019s landmark private grain elevator to drop a gigantic, inverted U.S. flag from the top.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn upside-down flag represents being in distress and is a prominent symbol across Indian Country,\u201d NDN Collective organizers said in a media release. \u201cThat flag belongs to us. So-called Independence Day is the day that U.S. colonizers officially claimed stolen Indigenous lands as their own \u2014 the day they celebrated and continue to celebrate an outright lie that America is or has ever been a place of freedom and justice for all,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

A supportive crowd watched climbers unfurl the flag, emblazoned with the slogan \u201cLANDBACK\u201d. NDN Collective generated the slogan for the 2020 Independence Day observance, when 21 demonstrators peacefully submitted to arrest in a civil disobedience action for the same treaty rights cause.<\/p>\n

The flag bore a patch of \u00a0\u201c1,505\u201d\u00a0 for the mounting number of unmarked graves detected recently during Indian boarding school investigations. \u201cColonial violence is why we are currently unearthing hundreds and thousands of our children at boarding schools both in the so-called United States and in so-called Canada,\u201d NDN Collective commented. There is no repair or justice until Indigenous peoples reclaim our land.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the climbers descended from the 100-foot tower using its built-in exterior ladder, Rapid City police officers arrested them one-by-one for trespass. The officers searched them, zip-tied their hands, put them in the windowless rear compartment of an unmarked white paddy wagon, and hauled them off to the Pennington County Jail.<\/p>\n

Climber Krystal Two Bulls called on \u201cthe Indigenous peoples of the world who have been forcefully removed from their lands \u2014 at the hands of militarism, imperialism, capitalism and corporativism \u2013 to stand and join the struggle to get our LANDBACK!\u201d<\/p>\n

Two Bulls, who described herself as \u201ca caretaker and protector of the Black Hills,\u201d is Northern Cheyenne and Oglala Lakota. She is NDN Collective\u2019s LANDBACK Campaign Director. \u00a0LANDBACK is a movement to reclaim Native rights, such as those guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution by the abrogated 1868 Ft. Laramie Treaty that protected the Black Hills as indigenous jurisdiction.<\/p>\n

The organization said the event aimed to \u201crefute the dominant narrative\u201d about the flag\u2019s symbolism. \u201cThis action marks a notch in the paradigm shift, one that has a long lineage,\u201d said climber Nadya Tannous, An NDN Collective LANDBACK campaign organizer.<\/p>\n

The climbers wore lighted headlamps to make their way to the ground where officer lit the night-time scene with floodlights. Arrested with Two Bulls and Tannous were climbers Tytianna Harris and Martin Aranaydo. Supporters greeted them as they were released after booking the same night.<\/p>\n

The Pennington County States Attorney\u2019s Office is prosecuting their cases, according to the Rapid City Police Department. Assisting police with traffic control and crowd management on the scene at 426 Omaha St. were South Dakota State Troopers, Pennington County Sheriff\u2019s deputies, and the Rapid City Fire Department.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re incredibly thankful for all of the public safety personnel, many of which were forced to work on their day off, who helped ensure this event was carried out in the safest manner possible,\u201d Chief of Police Don Hedrick said in an official report.<\/p>\n

The demonstrators lacked permission for the action at the silo on the corner of Fifth St., according to his department. The civil disobedience took place in the framework of NDN Collective\u2019s 4th of You Lie March, Rally & Feed.<\/p>\n

Joining the organization in berating \u2014 instead of celebrating \u2014 the occasion were members of its action network, as well as AIM, Camp Mni Luzahan Creek Patrol, and Tokala Okolakiciye.<\/p>\n

Local law enforcement was on board for the first part of the event, which opened with a gathering at Halley Park and featured a scheduled walk to the Pennington County Jail \u201cto call for justice for our incarcerated relatives and for all Indigenous people, past and present, who have been targeted and over-criminalized by colonial government and law enforcement systems on our own lands.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drummers and singers accompanied the evening march. Meanwhile, the civil disobedience at one of the tallest structures in town came as a surprise to many, including Pennington County Sheriff Kevin Thom. \u201cIt was clear halfway through the course of the event that organizers intended to deceive us about the plan for and extent of the demonstration,\u201d he lamented.<\/p>\n

Another national grassroots group, IllumiNative joined in the July 4 effort to edit the historical narrative, saying that the conventional observance of Independence Day in the United States \u201cperpetuates the myths of American exceptionalism, Manifest Destiny, and white supremacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

IllumiNative asked the public to seize this Independence Day as an opportunity to learn about five Indigenous stands<\/a>, including the Rapid City event, that counter the \u201cmyths used to justify land theft, genocide, and violent action against Native peoples.\u201d<\/p>\n

The discourse, echoed in numerous simultaneous events across Turtle Island, eclipsed the message that South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem had hoped to perpetuate with a fireworks display at Mount Rushmore National Memorial. She wanted it to be like the one she achieved on this occasion last year to bolster former President Donald Trump\u2019s reelection campaign whistle-stop here, which cost taxpayers some $800,000, according to court findings.<\/p>\n

In the end, she lost both court and administrative battles for the 2021 fireworks at the mountain carving of four early U.S. presidents that inspired the non-profit destination marketing organization Visit Rapid City to brand the locale as The City of Presidents.<\/p>\n

Yet she faced the music with resolve in a pre-holiday missive July 2, addressing the principles of the Declaration of Independence. \u201cAmerica is the greatest nation on earth because our founding fathers took the time to articulate them, fight for them, and secure them for all of us,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

(Contact Talli Nauman at talli.nauman@gmail.net<\/a>)<\/p>\n

The post Native independence events smother Noem\u2019s fireworks wish<\/a> first appeared on Native Sun News Today<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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<\/span><\/div>

RAPID CITY \u2013 Grassroots Native treaty rights events here during the national Independence Day holiday this 4th of July featured a peaceful but spectacular civil disobedience action: Four indigenous technical climbers scaled downtown\u2019s landmark private grain elevator to drop a gigantic, inverted U.S. flag from the top. \u201cAn upside-down flag <\/p>\n

Read More<\/a>
Shared by Native Sun News Today<\/a> July 9, 2021<\/p>\n

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