Copyright © 1999 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved

The following letter to President Clinton was written by children at Grass Mountain Demonstration School, an alternative school. CPT-South Dakota requested the letter and a short explanation preceding it from the editors of Knife Chief News, a community newspaper of the Pine Ridge Reservation.

The students at the Grass Mountain Demonstration School initiated and carried this project through from start to finish. At their request, we adults in the School have given them advice and assistance. They have worked diligently for two weeks to compose and revise many times their invitation and letter. They did not always initially agree about what they wanted to say, or how to say it. In the end, they even had discussions about specific word choices. They used a consensus process to make their decisions.

The older students took turns as recorders on the chalk board while the whole group composed their letter. The older students entered their letter into the computer for revision work. They also addressed the envelopes. The whole group selected one person to do the calligraphy for the invitation.

The invitation was initially written on paper, which the students made from recycled magazines. The students made their own ink from sweat lodge firewood charcoal and insect gall nuts which they gathered. They were disappointed that they could not get their homemade ink to work with their homemade paper. They finally settled on store-bought ink and some paper given to them when they went on one of their field trips as part of their studies of the whole printing industry. The student's parents are pleased with their children's work.

[Charlie Garriott is the lead teacher at Grass Mountain Demonstration School.
Contact the school at Sicangu Lakota Oyate via Box 562, Rosebud, SD 57570.
Phone: 605/747-2942 (evenings).]

President Bill Clinton
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500

Mr. President,

Maybe you are asking yourself, "Who are these children?"

We are all relatives in the same tiospaye (extended family). Our tiospaye is known for keeping alive our Lakota spirituality, language, and culture - even when your government said that is was against the law for us to do these things and tried to make us stop. Our tiospaye is known for keeping the Treaty alive. We never gave up our homelands to anyone. Our Uncici (Grandmother), is our School Elder. Her name is Tasunke Hiyopi Win. She is 82 years old. She prays with us and teaches us how to live the Lakota way. In our school we pray every day. We study Lakota history, and the histories of other nations, including your Nation's history. We study math, geography, and astronomy. We know the Lakota constellations and our People's sacred teachings that go with them. These teachings are at least 3,000 years old. We work with horses, gardens, and gathering plants. We built our own schoolhouse and outhouses using natural and non-toxic building materials. We are learning how to make electricity from sunshine.

We recycle many things other people throw away. Sometimes for fun we camp in our old time tipis. We butcher buffalo and deer, and tan hides. We work with computers. We learn how to write and read Lakota and English. We read wisdom stories which people all around the world have written down. We work with Lakota art and music, and music and art from around the world. We do community service work.

Uncici tells us that we are "Wakanyeja." In or language that means that we are "sacred beings with spiritual power." We believe her with all of our hearts. The iyeska wicasa (medicine men) in our tiospaye who help us tell us the same thing. They respect our power. Mr. President, maybe you are asking yourself, "Why are these children doing this?"

For three years in school we have been studying the 1851 and 1868 treaties between your Nation and our Nation. Our families talk about these treaties a lot. Our families helped to make these treaties. Our families keep these treaties alive still today.

We know something is wrong! We study "current events" in school. We know the people of Albania are being attacked by the people of Yugoslavia. We know what this is like. Our families know what it is like to have our homelands invaded and taken over, and our homes burned. Our leaders have been assassinated. Our families have been murdered. Our grandmothers, mothers, aunties, sisters, and cousins have been raped by the U.S. invader.

This land was originally confiscated from us by the US invader soldiers. These are not just things we study in books. Uncici tells us about how she was tied in chairs and beat up, and locked in dark rooms without food because she would not give up her Lakota language and spirituality and culture. Those people who did that to her worked with your government. They told her that rats were going to eat her in the dark. They did lots of bad things to her. Uncici tells us how her Uncici, and other family members, were murdered by your soldiers at the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890. She tells us how her own mother escaped that massacre by running and hiding. All of our families have stories like these. Really bad ones. We know what it is like to be considered dirty, and less than human. Still today. Your Nation has been "ethnic cleansing" us for over 100 years. Still. Your troops still occupy our homelands. We know that you have been trying to help make peace in Kosovo. WE think it is time for you to help make peace with us. We think it is time for your Nation to stop treating us the same way Yugoslavia is treating Albania. Do you? If you agree with us that something is wrong, and you want to make peace with us, we are willing to help you to do your part as President of the United States to make peace with us. The old Treaty Song we sing tells us what your part is. We will sing that song to you, and help you to understand your part. If this is what you want, now it's the time to take our step toward making real peace with us; with our Lakota nation. Mr. President, maybe you are asking yourself, "Why is now the time to take this step toward peace with these people?

We know you are thinking a lot about making peace in Kosovo. We also know that you have not done very well making peace with our Nation, and other Native nations who are your neighbors. What makes you think you are going to "play in the away game" in Kosovo, when you are "benching it" here at home? We can help you to "get in the home game" - now.

In our Lakota culture the adults know that it is the Lakota way for them to listen to, and pay close attention to the elderly and children. The ones who work with us do. In our school we study great people from other cultures around the world. We see that these great people also listen to, and pay close attention to their children. They want freedom for their children. When we tell you about great people, we mean people like Jesus, Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King, Jr., Chico Mendes, Malcolm X, Mandela, and Gandhi. (Our first Grass Mountain School student - he is a role model for us and is going off to college in the fall - even got to spend time with an elderly man from India. When that old man was a boy he lived with Gandhi. His true stories about Gandhi are good ones.) We have something to say to you. We know that these great people we have learned about, who were not Lakota, would have listened to us as if they were Lakota. Will you listen to us? Will you pay close attention to us now? Will you receive what we have to give to you?

Another reason for you to consider taking this step toward peace with us now, is that we are the next generation peace keepers for our Lakota Nation.

We are not going away. The Treaty is not going away. The Spirits have told us so. If you do not make peace with us now, then you will only complicate peace making for your daughter's generation. Finally, as President of the U.S.A., you now have a special chance to start the process of making peace with us by returning to our Nation 200,000 acres of land along Mni Sose (Missouri River). This land is now available because it is not needed for the Pick-Sloan dam project. This land was originally confiscated from us by the U.S.A. Because this land is "declared excess to the project," it is now going to be given back to "someone." That "someone" should be our Lakota Nation, not your state of South Dakota. This land is our land. We belong to it. That is what Uncici tells us. That is what the "medicine men" tell us. That is what our old Treaty Song tells us. We were separated from each other in violation of the Treaty. The land should be given back to us. This will not be a very difficult goal for you to achieve. It will be a long time before you get this easy a chance again to start the peace making with us. It is an ideal way for you to "get into the home game." Then, people in Yugoslavia and the rest of the world might listen to you. They might believe that you are an honest peace leader.

We figured out that for three years we have been preparing for this special moment in both of our histories. When some of the adults said that we could not build our own school building, we listened to our hearts, and the voice of Tunkasila (Grandfather God). With help from the Spirits and the adults who believe in us, we built our own school building. If you get spiritual help then you too can build something many adults say cannot be built - everlasting peace between our nations. With hope we are praying that you will listen to your heart, and see the wisdom Tunkasila has shown to us children to show to you.

Thank you for reading our invitation and letter. We will wait to hear your answer.

With Respect,

Tate wakan win Little Elk
Bridgett Hollow Horn Bear
Cyrus Stone
Abe Quick Bear
Laura Brush Breaker
A.J. Walking Bull
Brittney Larvie
Frank Adams

Information provided by: Kathy Kern, Rochester, NY of CPTnet
Kathy.Kern.guest.48855@MennoLink.org

Christian Peacemaker Teams is an initiative among Mennonite and Church of the Brethren congregations and Friends Meetings that supports violence reduction efforts around the world.
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