The Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 1988-09-07

              No Bed Lake i
would be
wording
busrr
£tf*/\(
News Briefs
■
i
swap j
Phoenix, Aria, (AP) -
Arizona will exchange
jobs,
BIA Phoenix Area
Director James Stevens
will swap jobs with
dor Wilson Barb
Junior of the BIA
Navajo Area office in
Window Rock, the
department said.
Interior Department
spokesman Bob Walker
said Wednesday the
moves are routine
and are being made
under the government's
practice of periodically
shifting managers so
they gain experience in
new areas.
a San Carlos
has been a BIA
employee since 1963
and has been Phoenix
area director since
1982. Barber, a Navajo,
a BIA em-
loyee for 21 years and
eadeo the Navajo area
Barber and Stevens
wiii take over their new
jobs Sept. 11 and Oct.
26, respectively,
Walker said from
Washington.
EPA to fine 3M
Washington, D.C.
(AP) - The Environmental Protection
Agency says it plans to
levy a $1.4 million civil
fine against Minnesota
Mining and Manufacturing Corp. for illegally
importing and using two
: :■ m&ped i M oh emic a! s.:;:; ■ ■
tllli
Fri- \d cut I
proposed penalty in half
because the Maple-
wood, Minn.-based
company voiutarily disclosed the violations
immediately after they
occured.
jency said it
ri'icY
s in
dates'ii
com par
■:4m:yjm
confi der
Fede
manufa
and con
chemic;
approve
agency
notice
new ch
d.
The<
days tc
charges
InM?
pany sj
F#itfi*
unable
made
mmr':::-
the
lark
IATK
Indian
making ti
3
;...... j/;"-;;-
MILY PAGE:
■   ■ ■    ■ ■       ':.' -: ::.■:■" ■    ■ ■.■'- .:    ■ ■ ■
y .■.://-yyy;'-;^},\: \\yy.y:
The
Oji bwe
News
"News by and for the Ojibwe Nation"
Copyright Ojibwe News, 1988 THIRTY-FIVE CENTS
Issue 16 Wednesday, September 7,1988 |
A Weekly Publication
Bemidji, Minnesota 56601
Last survivor of Indian massacre looks back
By Nicholas K Geranios
Associated Press Writer
Yakima, Wash. (AP) -
The last survivor of what
many historians regard as
the last massacre of
Indians in U.S. history
thinks returning to the site
after more than seven
decades may finally bring
the scope of the tragedy
home to her.
"It would be strange
because I feel like I stand
off from all of it," said Mary
Jo Estepp, who was an
18-month-old child when,
taken from her dead
mother's back after the
ambush in Nevada in 1911.
"It's in the distance, you
know."
Though she is now
making plans for the visit
with friends, she lived most
of her 78 or so years with
only an outline of her past.
Many details were finally
supplied a few years ago
by the author of a book
about her grandfather, an
Indian named Shoshone
Mike who refused to live on
a reservation.
The ambush, by a white
posse, left Mike and seven
other Indians dead in the
snow near Winnemucca,
Nev., on Feb. 26, 1911, 21
years after the last major
Indian massacre, at
Wounded Knee, S.D.
According to researchers, Shoshone Mike
refused to settle on the
Mary Jo Estep is the last survivor of what many historians regard as the last massacre of
Indians in U.S. history. AP/Wide World Photos
Fort Hall Indian Reservation in Idaho and instead
roamed the mountains near
Twin Falls with his sons,
daughters and grandchildren.
The Indians lived off the
land and worked for farmers, living in peace.
But in 1910 one of Mike's
sons was killed by a white
horse thief, and the family
retaliated by killing the
killer. Not trusting white
justice, Shoshone Mike
took his family and fled into
Nevada.
The 12 Indians survived a
brutal winter by stealing
cattle for food. When four
ranchers discovered the
loss, the Indians killed
them and took their horses.
Posses from Nevada and
California pursued the
Indians for 300 miles until
Feb. 26, when they caught
the ragged band sleeping
and slaughtered four men,
two women and two boys
during a brief battle. One
posse member was killed.
The four surviving children were put in the Reno,
Nev., jail because there
was no place else to put
them.
!n his 1973 book about
Shoshone Mike, titled "The
Last Free Man," author
Dayton Hyde noted the four
surviving children, but he
was unable to find out what
happened to them.
A friend of Ms. Estep
contacted Hyde after
reading his book, and Hyde
traveled to her home in
Yakima.
There is still much Ms.
Estep doesn't know about
the time before she was
lifted from that blood-
soaked cradleboard after
falling face-down in the
snow. The identity of her
father is unclear, as is her
age and whether she was
born a Shoshone or a
Bannock Indian.
Still, she said, "They
know my mother was one
of Shoshone Mike's daughters. Her name was Snake."
The massacre in Nevada
appears to have been the
last of its kind in the United
States, said Frank Bergon,
a professor of Native
American cultures at Vas-
sar College in Pough-
keepsie, N.Y., whose novel,
"Shoshone Mike," was
recently published by
Viking. Hyde agrees.
Many massacres of
whites and Indians occurred in the 19th century.
"What makes this significant is it occurred in 1911,
when there were automobiles, airplanes and movies," Bergon said. "The fact
that it did occur in the 20th
century makes the whole
thing surreal."
After the massacre, the
federal government ordered
Evan Estep, then the superintendent of the Fort Hall
Indian Reservation, to pick
up the children.
Ms. Estep's memories
begin with the train trip
north in November 1911.
"I remember when we
went to the dining car I
wouldn't eat the food," she
said. The exception was
raisins in the raisin bread,
which tided her over. They
may have reminded her of
food her family ate, but she
isn't sure.
The other three children
died of illnesses within a
year. The toddler survived
tuberculosis and was
adopted by Estep and his
wife, Rita, who were childless. They guessed she
was about 18 months old
when she was found.
Survivor/ page 3
AIM at 20 quietly continues struggle
By Mary R Sandok
Associated Press Writer
Mi nneapol is (AP)-
Twenty years after its
founding, the American
Indian Movement
continues its struggle for
native American rights
using methods that differ
from the violence and
confrontation that marked
its early days.
"The American Indian
Movement broke a hole
through the wall and
everyone else came
through," said Rosemary
Ackley Christensen,
director of Indian
education for Minneapolis
Public Schools.
"People may not have
always liked the form
these strategies took, but
I appreciate what these
men have done."
But other Indian leaders
are critical of AIM's
legacy.
The violence of their
tactics created a backlash
against people on the
reservations," said Tim
Giago, editor of the
Lakota Times, a weekly
Indian newspaper
published in Martin, S.D.
"AIM got a lot of
national attention, but not
all of it was good
attention. It upset people
in Congress, who voted
against bills that would
have helped American
Indians. We're still
recovering from that,"
Giago said.
The group began a 20th
anniversary celebration
Thursday at Fort Snelling
State Park featuring
dancers and drum groups
from around the country as
well as speeches by AIM
leaders.
"We have much to celebrate," said AIM spokesman Vernon Bellecourt,
whose brother, Clyde, was
a founder of AIM and now
is its executive director.
"But we have to look at
the fact that our lands and
resources are still being
exploited."
One of the organization's first acts was
organizing a patrol to
monitor allegations of
Eolice harassment and
rutality against Indians in
Minneapolis.
But the concerns that
brought about 150 Indians
to a July 28, 1968,
meeting-concerns such as
housing, education and
jobs-went beyond the
borders of Minnesota, and
in the early days often
were overshadowed by the
tactics employed by AIM
leaders.
Among the events that
brought AIM notoriety
were the seizure in 1972 of
the Bureau of Indian
Affairs building in
Washington, D.C, and a
1973 riot in front of the
courthouse in Custer, S.D.
Also in 1973, the 71-day
occupation at Wounded
Knee on the Pine Ridge
Indian Reservation in
South Dakota left two
Indians dead and a federal
marshall permanently
paralyzed.
Felony charges against
AIM activists Russell
Means and Dennis Banks,
who led the uprising, were
dismissed after an
eight-week trial by a
federal judge who cited
misconduct by the
prosecution.
A 1975 shootout on Pine
Ridge left two FBI agents
dead and resulted in the
conviction of AIM activist
Leonard Peltier, who was
sentenced to two consedu-
tive life terms in prison.
The case of Peltier, who
has maintainedhis
innocence, was taken up
last year by the Soviet
Union, which claimed he
was a victim of American
political repression.
Christensen, who has no
formal ties to AIM, said
the violence during the
early years of the
movement divided the
Indian community, but she
would not judge the AIM
l©3.d©rs
" "We'all know the FBI
isn't always right, and we
also know that they pick
on people. During those
times, our boys had to
deal with the FBI.
"God knows, the FBI and
white people had a hell of
a lot more weapons and
other things than Indians
had," Christensen said. "I
respect and admire people
who are not going to give
up against all odds."
AIM activists in the
early 1970s also opened
schools for Indians and
organized legal rights and
job training projects.
Don Allery, historian for
the Red Lake Tribe, said
he was involved with AIM
during its formative years
but became disenchanted
with the organization early
on when it didn't follow
through on complaints
about such things as job
discrimination.
"The route they took, I
guess it served a
purpose," Allery said. But
le said he thinks AIM
failed "on anything that
required a consistent,
ongoing followup."
Vernon Bellecourt says
AIM's accomplishments
include such things as the
Red School House in St.
Paul and the Heart of the
Earth Survival School in
Minneapolis.
The American Indian
Opportunities Industrialization Center in Minneapolis, he said, has
"trained hundreds of
people, taking them off of
welfare and puttiing them
in jobs."
He said the movement in
1988 has "taken on a new
character."
"If we went out to
shopping centers and
danced around like fools
doing a rain dance, we'd
have all the major
networks, newspapers and
wire services to cover it,"
he said. "But the media
fails to see the beneficial
programs across the
country."
Protecting treaty rights
and sacred Indian burial
grounds is among the goals
of today's AIM, Bellecourt
said. AIM also is concerned
with protecting the
interests of Indian nations
throughout the world, he
said.
Means, an early member
of the group who has since
resigned, cited as
accomplishments the
integration mentioned by
Bellecourt, but he came to
a different conclusion about
AIM's future.
"AIM people are now
integrated into every
productive and responsible
segment of Indian and
non-Indian society," said
Means, who ran an
unsuccessful campaign to
become the Libertarian
Party candidate for
president this year. "The
American Indian Movement
has accomplished the
impossible: AIM has worked
itself out of a job."
Giago said the need for
political advocacy
continues. But he said
AIM's negative image in
many people's minds may
hamper its efforts to lead it.
"We need a militant
group. Somebody's got to
keep stirring the pot
because our numbers are
so small," he said.