Mary Aurelia Johns:"Are we still having to deal with Keith Harper – I thought he was taken off the table and the Senate moved on to more important matters..."

Thursday, May 29, 2014 - 

Mary Aurelia Johns:

"Are we still having to deal with Keith Harper – I thought he was taken off the table and the Senate moved on to more important matters. Because a letter has been sent to the Senate from former Presidents of NCAI I thought it would be important to voice my objections to Harper being confirmed. I don’t doubt for one minute the organizations support for him and their ability to garner these individuals support. It goes with the territory. The President of NCAI has lost its once important role of true advocacy for Indian Country and now it has become a mouth piece for the Obama Administration. What I want to know are how Harper will make a stand on the Keystone Pipe Line being built across the Treaty lands of the Lakota; how it will be built under the Moreau and Cheyenne River. Both of these rivers are major water ways that dissect my reservation (Cheyenne River) and can have terrible consequences to our drinking water. The Oceti Sakowin (the Lakota, Dakota, Nakota Nation) is adamantly opposed to this pipeline being built and many of our leaders have gone on record in opposition to it. I would also like to know Harpers stand on Uranium Mining in the Black Hills area in South Dakota the pollution of Pine Ridge, Rosebud, and the Cheyenne River Reservations once more will be polluted if this is allowed to happen. Furthermore, I want to know what his stand is on Hydraulic Fracking that is going on in North Dakota – it is a well-known fact that the United States and the Rich Oil companies have agreed to sacrifice the Western Half of North Dakota for oil extraction. The Upper Main Stem Dams on the Missouri are polluted with the chemicals from the fracking which is going on Tex Hall’s reservation. They are now finding chemicals in the Oahe which is where all of the Lakota Tribes on the Western part of South Dakota get our drinking water. These are blatant violations to the Oceti Sakowin Nation’s Human Rights. The truth of the matter is this – Harper will have to toe the company line when it comes to what he can and cannot do. He’ll have to support the position of the U.S. and it hasn’t always been what is good for the Indigenous people. “Just because” isn’t “good enough”… Just because he’s an Indian isn’t good enough for me… why isn’t he making a fuss about the Cobell Payments being paid out? Why isn’t he speaking out regarding the Indian Health Service, or Indian Education, or the taking of Indian children, or any of these real issues that touch the lives of Poor Indians? All of these Presidents of NCAI with the possible exception of Joe Garcia are wealthy by Indian Country standards so what do they care about the fact that a large number of Indian people suffer from poverty. As long as they can have dinner with the President of the United States they have blinders on to the real truth of what is happening here where I’m living and working."

Read more athttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/05/28/ncai-presidents-harper-role-model-indian-country