Beginning at 10:00am Friday morning, June 29th, the Strong Heart Warrior Society with support from its allies and requested assistance from the Oglala Sioux Tribe Department of Public Safety Highway Division will implement a traffic blockade of White Clay, Nebraska in order to stop the illegal transport of alcohol onto Pine Ridge Reservation on one of the busiest days of the summer as monthly checks come out prior to the July 4th holiday. Strong Heart will enforce Oglala Sioux Tribe Code 88.01 and Lakota customary law to keep alcohol off of the dry Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

Putting the Heat On! White Clay Blockade Set for June 29th

Cante Tenza Okolakiciye - Strong Heart Warrior Society

Free & Independent Lakota Nation

Box 512, Hill City, South Dakota 57745  | 605-517-1547  | Lakota Oyate on Facebook

June 27, 2012

PRESS ADVISORY

Notice of Upcoming Blockade in White Clay, Nebraska

CONTACT:  Delbert High Hawk 605-899-9997 and Leo Cordier 605-407-1516

PUTTING THE HEAT ON!  WHITE CLAY ALCOHOL BLOCKADE SET FOR JUNE 29th

Strong Heart to Enforce Tribal Code 88.01 and Sovereign Customary Law

WHAT:  Beginning at 10:00am Friday morning, June 29th, the Strong Heart Warrior Society with support from its allies and requested assistance from the Oglala Sioux Tribe Department of Public Safety Highway Division will implement a traffic blockade of White Clay, Nebraska in order to stop the illegal transport of alcohol onto Pine Ridge Reservation on one of the busiest days of the summer as monthly checks come out prior to the July 4th holiday. Strong Heart will enforce Oglala Sioux Tribe Code 88.01 and Lakota customary law to keep alcohol off of the dry Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

“We are asking for these stores to leave the Lakota people alone,” said Strong Heart Itachan (Headsman) Canupa Gluha Mani (Duane Martin Sr.). “Our culture is dying because of this epidemic.”

“If laws such as tribal ordinance 88.01 are ineffective because of the continuing illegal flow of alcohol and drugs, then remove it and let full sovereignty, which is traditional customary law, enforce the ban on this dry reservation,” Martin said.

WHEN: Friday, June 29th from 10:00AM to 11:00PM

WHERE:  Border between Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota and the town of White Clay, Nebraska.

WHO:  Cante Tenza Okolakiciye, known as the traditional Strong Heart Warrior Society of the Lakota Nation, with support from its allies. Laci Hale (Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe), who assisted with support for Vern Traversie, will be coordinating the participation of the women. In addition, Chief Robert Greenwald of the Oglala Sioux Tribe (OST) Department of Public Safety has been notified and assistance from Highway Division officers has been requested per previous blockades.  Strong Heart is also calling on OST lay advocates Susan Schrader and Carmen Yellow Bull to monitor the behavior of public safety officers in the enforcement of OST and sovereign customary law.  Local, state, national and international media have been notified of the blockade.

WHY: The small border town of White Clay sells over 13,000 cans of beer a day, or FIVE MILLION cans of beer a year to mostly Oglala Lakota people in an ongoing act of physical and spiritual genocide of the Lakota people. With direction from traditional Grandmother societies in Pine Ridge Reservation, Strong Heart has been at the forefront of trying to stop the illegal flow of alcohol into the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation for over 12 years. This zero tolerance ban is defined in Oglala Sioux Tribal Ordinance 88.01 as well as traditional Lakota customary law.

MORE:  Strong Heart is calling upon Tracy Toulou, Director in the Office of Tribal Justice, Department of Justice, as well as United Nations Human Rights rapporteur Dr. James Anaya to issue a statement of support to the Lakota warriors societies who are trying to save the future generations from alcohol and drugs. Both Toulou and Anaya have promised to meet with traditional grandmothers from Pine Ridge but have yet to keep their promise. Strong Heart also asks other Native nations to take a similar stand in their communities to protect their people.

“We want the alcohol sales to end in White Clay once and for all so we can do the positive things for our Lakota people,” Martin added. “We don’t want to keep repeating the same history over and over.”

Cante Tenza Okolakiciye also known as the Strong Heart Warrior Society of the Lakota Nation is an ancient Lakota warrior society as well as a broad-based civil rights movement that works to protect, enforce and restore treaty rights, civil rights, and sovereignty of the Lakota people as well as Native people and their communities across Turtle Island.