Janklow calls Civil Rights Report "Garbage", April 5, 2000
Robert Many Horses Death Investigated, Oct. 1999 
Racism up, Tourism down in South Dakota

See March 2000 U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Report at Native Americans in South Dakota: An Erosion of Confidence in the Justice System

Scene from October 4, 1999 protest participated in by members of six tribes and non-Indian supporters. Racism up in South Dakota and Tourism down is an emerging theme. Recent unsolved murders of Indian people in the border towns of White Clay Nebraska, Mobridge South Dakota, and in Rapid City have led to marches, and to other actions designed to push the criminal justice system to respond. The increasingly anti-Indian public policy climate, led at the state level in South Dakota by Governor William Janklow and at the national level by Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) is receiving increased attention from tribal members and from non-Indian groups in South Dakota, including the South Dakota Peace and Justice Center.

Janklow: Civil rights report is "garbage"
(Fire on the Prairie note: US Commission on Civil Rights Report is available at Native Americans in South Dakota: An Erosion of Confidence in the
Justice System

by TERRY WOSTER
Sioux Falls Argus Leader
published: 4/5/00

PIERRE-Gov. Bill Janklow on Tuesday called a federal report "garbage" that reported that racial tension in South Dakota is worse than in New York or Los Angeles, and said he didn't bother to read most of it.

"I haven't read the report, because I don't read garbage," Janklow said during an hour-long appearance on a South Dakota Public Radio call-in-show. "I'm so sick of these people that badmouth my state."

Janklow said he has read only the conclusions of the report, issued eight days ago by the South Dakota Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Janklow called the civil rights group "one-day wonders."

His comments irked Faith Taken Alive, an American Indian activist and community leader from McLaughlin.
"The people who presented testimony in December 1999 had no reason to lie, fabricate stories," Taken Alive said. "The reason they (the commission) came out is the people. And the people are not garbage."

Although Janklow acknowledges the state needs to deal with its racial problems, he said it's up to adults to teach children how to live without prejudice.

The governor said he will sponsor legislation next session to outlaw geographic names in South Dakota that include the word squaw, which is a derogatory term for American Indian women. That's the first bill he'll propose, he said.

"For all the criticism, I'm the guy that took the mural down," Janklow said, referring to a 90-year-old painting on the wall of the governor's reception room that showed settlers trampling Indians. Many Indian people found the painting offensive.

Art War Bonnet, executive director of American Indian Services Inc. in Sioux Falls, said everyone knew racism exists in South Dakota.

"The Civil Rights Commission was here 20 years ago and received the same testimony," War Bonnet said. "The question is what to do about the problem. The first step is recognizing it, and Janklow has done that."

A bill to eliminate squaw from South Dakota place names is a good step, said Dorothy Butler, a member of the state advisory committee from Brookings. "Why, that's wonderful," she said. "It is a positive thing, it's one thing."
Chuck Woodard, a university professor in Brookings who served on a reconciliation committee a decade ago, agreed.

"I appreciate any progress, large or small," he said.

Montana took such a step a year ago, he said, and the governor of Maine signed a similar bill into law this week.
"I think racism begins quite often at the verbal level," Woodard said. "What we call people affects how we think of them, and that influences how we treat them."

When the late Gov. George Mickelson called for a year of reconciliation in 1989, it raised hopes in South Dakota, he said.

"Progress has been very slow in some areas, nonexistent in others," Woodard said.

The public-radio program was Janklow's first extended public reaction to a report that said a widespread perception exists among Indian people that South Dakota has a dual system of justice. That attitude is so pervasive, a letter accompanying the report said, that Indian people have lost confidence in the democratic institutions.

The report recommended the state adopt hate-crimes legislation, beef up its Human Rights Division and create a public-defender system statewide. It also urged Janklow to call a summit to start a dialogue aimed at recommending new legislation and policies to make state government more responsive to the needs of the Indian people.

South Dakota has had a hate-crime law since 1993, Janklow said. Specifically, that law prohibits intimidation or harassment of anyone because of race, color, religion, ancestry or national origin.

Janklow said no one from the advisory committee or Civil Rights Commission talked with the state Human Rights Division to see if they needed more staff or to ask if they had a backlog of cases, or even what types of cases they handled.

"They're not interested in substance," Janklow said. "They were far more interested in headlines than substance."
The governor didn't respond directly to the proposal for a summit. He did say at one point that if South Dakota has racial problems, it should deal with them.

"To the extent that anyone wants to discuss them, I'd love to discuss them," he said. "I hate racism in all its forms."
Janklow said much of the federal report came from a day-long series of meetings held in Rapid City. Much of the material gathered during that hearing offered no supporting evidence, he said.

Janklow's criticism isn't fair, said John Dulles, regional director for the Commission on Civil Right's office in Denver.
"It's a report of a state advisory committee," he said. "The report is a product of people who live in South Dakota."
Butler said that while some of the material in the report was an expression of the racist treatment some people experienced, it also included examples of legal cases that suggested different treatment for Indian and non-Indian defendants.

"In all, it isn't so much that we bad-mouth the state, but that there seems to be truly an erosion of confidence among Native Americans," she said.

Told that Janklow hadn't directly talked about a summit on race relations, Butler said: "That's one that probably may not happen."

Janklow also said he thinks federal law-enforcement officers got a bad rap in the report. They work hard to investigate crimes against Indian people, he said.

"The criminal justice system, it's the fairest system in terms of being color-blind," Janklow said.
A caller said Janklow seems defensive each time a report criticizes South Dakota. Janklow said he was on the offensive Tuesday.


Violation of Civil Rights Investigated
Mobridge Tribune, Thursday, October 07, 1999
by Eric Davis

Two FBI agents have been sent to Mobridge to investigate as to whether the placing of Robert Many Horses body in a garbage can was a violation of federal civil rights laws.

The FBI agents from Aberdeen will determine, through extra investigation of the case, if the four Mobridge teens violated Many Horses' civil rights by placing him a garbage can.

Many Horses was found dead in a garbage can in a Mobridge alley on June 30. The charges against the Mobridge teens arrested in the case, Layne Gisi, 19, Joy Hahne, 18, Jody Larson, 19, and Ryan Goehring, 16, were dismissed last week after magistrate judge Tony Portra concluded that the state failed to establish a case against them. plaint Senior supervisor for the FBI in South Dakota, David Heller of Sioux Falls, said the agents will investigate further into the death to see if there was a violation of Many Horses' civil rights, but will not investigate handling of the case by the Mobridge Police Department or Walworth County State's Attorney Dan Todd.

Heller said that the investigation by local law enforcement was inclusive.

The agents will look at the information that the police obtained and incorporate it into their investigation.

After the investigation has been completed by the FBI, the findings will go to the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Attorney's Office in South Dakota.

"The Department of Justice and U.S. Attorney will review it and then make a decision on whether federal charges apply," Heller said.
Gisi had been charged with manslaughter in the first and second degree and aggravated assault. Hahne, Larson and Goehring had been charged with aiding and abetting, accessory to a crime and misprision of a felony. All charges against the four defendants were dismissed last week.