Reservation Deaths: Feds to re-examine Pine Ridge cases (AP via Native Times)

[OmahaBlueDog]

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) – The U.S. Attorney’s Office in South Dakota will re-examine a list of nearly 40 deaths that Oglala Sioux tribal officials say were insufficiently prosecuted or investigated, U.S. Attorney Brendan Johnson said Thursday.

Johnson’s statements came after Oglala Sioux Vice President Tom Poor Bear and council judiciary committee chairman James Toby Big Boy sent a list of 39 specific deaths on or near the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The two men believe the cases should be reopened or reinvestigated. They had earlier sent a letter to Johnson but had not included the list of names.

“We’ve got the list now. I’m grateful to have the list,” Johnson told the AP Thursday. “We’ll go through those cases. If there are cases we can prosecute, we certainly will. Even if the case is 30 years old, if we get the information necessary, we will prosecute.”

However, Johnson said it would be challenging to gain enough new information to prosecute cases that are several decades old.

Read more at: http://www.nativetimes.com/news/crime/7249-reservation-deaths-feds-to-re-examine-pine-ridge-cases

[newfie11]

1. The tribal police at Pine Ridge are part of the problem

I remember a patient of mine telling me about the meth and coke everywhere. I asked her why she didn't call the police and her reply was they use/sell it also. Rosebud and Pine Ridge are the two poorest Rez's I personally have been to in SD. Cheyenne River and Standing Rock (in ND), while not great, are better than the other two. I remember being told by a tribal cop to be sure and be out of Cherry Creek before dark and he lived there.

I don't have an answer on how to improve their lives. Most industry will not build on the rez. Stores that have tried were broken into and/or vandalized so much they left. Even if that were not the case, the fact that the Lakota has a time schedule all of their own makes it difficult to run a business. I still have Lakota friends in Eagle Butte but things don't change. Standing Rock and Pine Ridge both have casinos. The one at Standing Rock seems to have helped the community. They even have curtains on windows.