Copyright © 2001 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved

Rapid City, South Dakota - Garry Rowland, Akicita Itanscan of the Mato Paha Okolokicye, and the traditional Lakota/Dakota/Nakota [LDN] OCETI SAKOWIN Council, has requested that all AIM chapters be contacted for support of his Hunger Strike for traditional rights, now in its 8th day in the Pennington County [Rapid City] jail. Garry is a long-time veteran of AIM for 30 years.

Anyone who knows Garry, a fullblood Lakota/Cheyenne, 49 of Wounded Knee District, knows he is deadly serious when he says, "I have staked myself to the ground. I know the death-songs, and I sang one [the morning of January 26 when the Fast and hunger strike began]. I am ready to die."

"Any day is a good day to die."

"During the Ghost Dance Uprising, they tried to take everything away, and they're doing the same to us [here in jail]." He and 6 other warriors are on Hunger Strike because they have been denied adequate medical treatment. 2 of the warriors have been put in isolation, and we can't get in to talk to anyony of them. Among other atrocities Garry is being denied his cardiac medicine unless he pays for it himself, since he had a quadruple bypass surgery 10 years ago, and of course he can't begin to afford the outrageous prescription costs. Also, Darren Brings Plenty almost bled to death and the cops only then, when he was found in a pool of blood, rushed him in a cop car to the emergency room of the regional hospital.

This of course is only the latest in a series of civil rights violations in South Dakota, including the murders of Indians in Rapid Creek, at White Clay, Mobridge, Sisseton, and recently the collusion of Senator Daschle and Governor Janklow is recommending against a pardon for Leonard Peltier.

Garry sees this as the time to stand up finally for Traditional Government and our ancient Spiritual Freedom, both being denied by the criminal american and christian establishments. As Time Lame Deer said in a call of support from the Northern Cheyenne Nation, "It's repression every day here, from morning to night on the Concentration Camps. I can't understand why AIM and the Elders don't just declare Traditional Government. All we gotta do is do it!"

This latest struggle in a lifetime of great work for the people began on christmas day when the racist Rapid City Journal ran a cliched mugshot of Garry on the obituary page, quoting the cops saying he was a fugitive and "should not be approached, as he is armed and dangerous." What was his crime? Failure to appear in US Court on a charge of marijuana possession!

He had protested the jurisdiction of the Feds, and on the night of January 3 he and his family were stopped by armed FBI, BIA, and US Marshalls at Red Shirt Table where they were on their way to Buddy Red Bow's grave to do a honoring Pipe Ceremony. He and his family were brutally thrown to the cold ground and road at gunpoint.

This was on sovereign Oglala Lakota territory. Garry was not busted for possession of marijuana - he was busted for being a warrior, a traditional warrior, standing up for the sovereignty and jurisdiction of his Nation according to the Treaties, and for being a leader of the warriors, the Akitcita Director of the Bear Butte Council, according to the 1851 Fort Laramie Treaty with the Confederacy including Cheyennes, Arapahoes, Crow, and Mandan among others.

Garry is an uncompromising opponent of the Wounded Knee National Memorial planned by Daschle and some of the IRA Tribal Council people, on his home land. He is opposed to the countryfication of KILI Radio, originally organized by AIM in 1983 as a traidtional Lakota Voice of the Nation, and the continuing CIA presence of his non-Native program manager Tom Casey.

Garry and I have been down many good red roads together, and I know he is deadly serious about this Warrior Hunger Strike. Many of us here are heartbroken that the genocide and hatred of americans has gotten so bad that we are driven to such desperation.

We ask for your Prayers and I'm sure Garry in his remaining few days will have a few more messages about strategy to Renew our People.

Khwe, Piva, Wastelo!

For further information contact David Seals by, phone: 605-343-5176, email: Libyad817@aol.com, or by postal mail: 918 4th St. Rapid City, SD 57701

To voice your opinion contact:

Mayor Jim Shaw, Rapid City
300 6th St, rapid city, SD 57701
phone: 605-394-4110
e-mail: mayor@ci.rapid-city.sd.us

Senator Tom Daschle
[Rederal jurisdiction issue, and protest denail
recommendation on Peltier Pardon, as well.]
1313 W. Main St  rapid city, SD 57701
phone: 605-348-7551 or 1-800-424-9094
e-maiL: web_comments@daschle.senate.gov

Sheriff De Glasgow,
300 Kansas City St.
Rapid City, SD 57701
phone: 605-394-2665