This rebuttal to the one sided slant of the ABC documentary “Children of the Plains” counters the atypical stereotyping that exists with the general population.

About 50 Todd County High School came up with the idea of presenting a single word that described a character trait that would showcase what they do have on the reservation. The students shot, directed and edited the video, said Johnny Whirlwind Soldier, a 17-year-old senior.

Feather Colombe explains ”I think we wanted to make this video and needed to, because what the other people _ the outsiders _ they don’t know is that us Natives, we choose to live a certain way and we never wanted all this poverty. We just live our lives happily … We see ourselves rich,”

ABC has not responded to an email seeking comment about the students’ video.

More Than That

]]> http://ryeder.wordpress.com/2012/01/28/more-than-that/feed/ 0 ryeder todd county http://ryeder.wordpress.com/2012/01/20/the-world-of-disgusting-politicians/ http://ryeder.wordpress.com/2012/01/20/the-world-of-disgusting-politicians/#comments Sat, 21 Jan 2012 03:47:30 +0000 ryeder http://ryeder.wordpress.com/?p=3690 ]]> I challenge you to read this and NOT have the will to pass it on to all your friends!

No one has been able to explain to me why young men and women serve in the U.S. Military for 20 years, risking their lives protecting freedom, and only get 50% of their pay. While Politicians hold their political positions in the safe confines of the capital, protected by these same men and women, and receive full pay retirement after serving one term. It just does not make any sense..

Monday we learned that the staffers of Congress family members are exempt from having to pay back student loans. This will get national attention if news networks will broadcast it. When you add this to the below, just where will all of it stop?
This will take less than thirty seconds to read. If you agree, please pass it on.

This is an idea that we should address.

For too long we have been too complacent about the workings of Congress. Many citizens had no idea that members of Congress could retire with the same pay after only one term, that they specifically exempted themselves from many of the laws they have passed while citizens must live under those laws. The latest is to exempt themselves from the Healthcare Reform… in all of its forms. Somehow, that doesn’t seem logical. We do not have an elite that is above the law. I truly don’t care if they are Democrat, Republican, Independent or whatever. The self-serving must stop.

If each person that receives this will share it, in three days, most people in The United States of America will have the message.. This is one proposal that really should be passed around.

Proposed 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution: “Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators and/or Representatives; and, Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators and/or Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States .”

The REAL Heroes...

The people who live here are poor — in a way few Americans are poor. There are no grocery stores or restaurants. There’s only electricity when it’s possible to pay the bill.  This is where Janice Howe grew up, on a barren stretch of land that has belonged to the Dakota people for more than 100 years.

“I’m the eldest of nine kids,” she explains, settling into a chair in the kitchen. “I went to college and I got my bachelor’s degree in nursing.”

Her sister lives across the street. Her parents live across the road. Her daughter lives two doors down with her four grandchildren — two young granddaughters and two twin babies.  And then one evening two years ago, Howe’s phone rang.  It was a social worker from the Department of Social Services. She said her daughter Erin Yellow Robe was going to be arrested for drugs..

Howe couldn’t believe it. She had never seen any sign of drugs or any other problems.

And then the social worker changed Howe’s life. She said she was coming to take Howe’s grandchildren away.

The next morning, a car pulled up outside Yellow Robe’s house. Howe’s daughter wouldn’t let go of her one-year-old twin babies. She kept saying she hadn’t done anything wrong.

The social worker buckled the babies into car seats.

“They were sitting in the cars,” Howe says, choking up. “They were just looking at me. Because you know most babies don’t cry if they’re raised in a secure environment. So I went out there and took their diaper bags. And they left.”

But as Howe watched the car pull around the bend, she realized the social worker took the two babies, but allowed Howe to keep her two granddaughters, 5-year-old Rashauna and 6-year-old Antoinette.

According to state records, almost 90 percent of the kids in family foster care are in non-native homes or group care.

State officials say they’re doing everything they can to keep native families together. Poverty, crime and alcoholism are all real problems on South Dakota’s reservations and in the state’s poorest areas. But, state records show there’s another powerful force at work — money. The federal government sends the state thousands of dollars for every child it takes.

Federal Financial Incentives For Removing Children

Every time a state puts a child in foster care, the federal government sends money. Because South Dakota is poor, it receives even more money than other states – almost a hundred million dollars a year.

Bill Napoli was on the state Senate Appropriations Committee until he retired. He says he remembers when the state first saw the large amounts of money the federal government was sending the Department of Social Services in the late 1990s.

“When that money came down the pike, it was huge,” Napoli says. “That’s when we saw a real influx of kids being taken out of families.”

He said there was little lawmakers could do to rein in the department. This was federal money, and it went straight to social services.

“I’m sure they were trying to answer a public perception of a problem,” he said. “And then slowly it grew to a point where they had so much power that no one — no one — could question what they were doing. Is that a recipe for a bureaucracy that’s totally out of control? I would say so.”

Read the complete report from NPR / LAURA SULLIVAN and AMY WALTERS :…Click here.

Janice Howe fought the state of South Dakota for a year and a half to bring her grandchildren back home after they were placed in foster care.

The Crow Creek Sioux Reservation is located in the central portion of South Dakota, 26 miles northwest of Chamberlain, South Dakota, which is on Interstate 90. The reservation boundaries on the west and south include Lakes Sharpe and Francis Case – the large reservoirs formed by mainstream dams, Fort Randall and Big Bend dams, on the Missouri River.

The reservation covers an area of about 400 square miles within Hughes, Hyde and Buffalo counties. Of this area, about 35 square miles are covered by major reservoirs and about 201 square miles are owned by the Tribe and Tribal members.

The terms of the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 placed the Lakota on one large reservation that spanned parts of North Dakota, South Dakota and four other states. After the defeat of the Indian tribes in the Indian Wars of the 1870s, the United States broke the original reservation into smaller ones. Not only did the U.S. government reduce the Indians’ acreage, but it also splintered the Tribe.

In 1889, the United States reclaimed 7.7 million acres of the Sioux’s sacred Black Hills and randomly assigned Sioux families to live on the Crow Creek Reservation, splitting up many extended families. The Crow Creek Sioux Tribe consists of the members of the Isanti and Ihanktowan divisions of the Great Sioux Nation.

]]> http://ryeder.wordpress.com/2012/01/16/ohio-peace-officer-drafts-ndaa/feed/ 1 ryeder OK-Window-Final3copy http://ryeder.wordpress.com/2012/01/14/another-path/ http://ryeder.wordpress.com/2012/01/14/another-path/#comments Sat, 14 Jan 2012 15:54:44 +0000 ryeder http://ryeder.wordpress.com/?p=3659 ]]> I have been toying with this idea for some time now and finally made the effort.  Where it is going, no one knows, but it is subject specific.  I will take ideas, suggestions, opinions and guest writers.  It is a subject that I deal with everyday.  And no, to find out what the subject is, drop by for a quick visit….

Click to Visit   

While lauded as legislation that will offer the United States and her interests greater protection and enable us to win the War on Terror, Section 1031 tramples on Habeas corpus (a common law legal action that allows prisoners to seek release from unlawful detention) and constitutional rights promised to U.S. citizens in the Fourth Amendment (protection against unreasonable searches and seizures), the Fifth Amendment (right to a Grand Jury and protection against double jeopardy and self-incrimination), the Sixth Amendment (right to a public, speedy trial, to be confronted by witnesses, and to have the assistance of public counsel), and the Fourteenth Amendment (right to due Process and equal protection). One may infer that Section 1031 puts the First Amendment (right to freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of assembly) in jeopardy too, because the wording of the law is so broad and vague that what exactly is deemed “terrorist” activity or aiding “associated forces” is left open to interpretation. It’s not unrealistic to foresee that citizens will become wary of participating in any dialogue, group or activity that may put them in danger of being seized by the government and detained indefinitely.  Understand that Section 1031 will also supersede the rights enumerated in ICRA, The Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968, that makes most of U.S. Constitutional rights applicable to Tribes.

Read more by Ruth Hopkins:  Americans are the New Indians

While one section of the bill seems to exclude U.S. citizens from all aspects of this legislation, the key lies in the placement of discretion of exactly who fits the broad definition of a “terrorist” or broader still, someone who has engaged in a “belligerent act.” The bottom line is that the NDAA bill contains language that will codify, or make into law, the much debated act of defining U.S. citizens as enemy combatants. It will leave that discretionary power to the executive branch. And there seems to be a full frontal assault by Democrats and Republicans alike to whitewash the bill’s actual ability and intent.   The NDAA  gives the U.S. Military and other agencies in the government Egyptian military style powers of arrest and detention of Americans anywhere, anytime and for any reason.

The act also allows them to be indefinitely detained without access to an attorney or a trial by jury. Indefinite means they could be held for life.

Amendments to exclude American citizens were rejected by the Obama administration and senate vote.

Some say this is one of the worst pieces of legislation regarding the constitutional rights of Americans to ever be signed into law.

Want to know which of your elected mushrooms raped the Bill of Rights?

The lengthy list of the Senators who passed this bill:

There are those situations where simplifying is difficult, so I place the entire problem on the back burner and allow the fog of war to disperse before putting it out front again. By this time, I have usually dissected the problem into logical little bytes that my brain can wrap around…usually, form a battle strategy and hit them head on, though I bring out a flag of truce occasionally. The Art of Simplicity is a project still in it’s immaturity but is gaining form and function. Left to natural law, this form can grow into a complexity unto itself, so this is a constant I need to be aware of. But, with practice, it is becoming easier to control.

For some, my approach may seem too elementary, but I have taken the five most important things in my life and have eliminated the rest of the clutter. Those things I have no control over are considered ineffective and only slow down the process of the following essentials:

Self: is the idea that I am the most important person to myself. If I am not strong, then I can not pass this strength onto any other aspect of life.

Family: is the safety net when life gets crazy and the foundation of strength and connection.

Dreams: or goals keep the spirit in tune with the personal piece of the world and gives me the direction to continue.

Gratitude: is the ability to give thanks for the gifts I was given.

Enrichment: is the continuing path I follow that allows me to gain knowledge and use the gifts I were given to share with others.

Winter feed

AMY’S RANCH SLANTS

We are now bringing in a new year after one that has been a challenge to most of us. With this new year comes new hope and new expectations. No matter what the challenges we face, knowing that we survived this past year, gives us a stronger perspective of what we can accomplish if we stay on course with our dreams and goals.

According to a recent survey, about 78% of the population do not know what their true passion is and maybe the discovery of what your true passion comprises of is not as simple as it may seem. You have to ask the right questions to find your passion in life. You exist in a busy world, overflowing with demands from others, filled with the stressors that stifle desires and ambition. You need to find the time to find some answers to a few important questions.

Though I do not believe in making New Year resolutions, I do believe in dreams. Without dreams in life, living becomes stagnant. And existing in a stagnant life destroys the spirit. There is no time to be complacent in your life nor is there any time for procrastination, impotence or of low spirits. You do not have the time to sit and wonder. You only have time to actively seek out those dreams that will offer you the choices you desire to make life worth living.

What makes you happy? Whatever puts a smile on your face is an indication of where your passion lays. “Our passions are the winds that propel our vessel. Our reason is the pilot that steers her. Without winds the vessel would not move and without a pilot she would be lost.”

What ignites your creativity? Think about something in your life where you seem to always expand its horizon. Whatever makes you creative, is something that you are passionate about. “Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will.”

What makes you unafraid of failure? When you do something you are passionate about, your confidence in your abilities and creativeness is infinite. How can you not reach success when you follow your heart doing what you love to do? That is success itself and failure is only an opportunity to begin fresh. Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it…Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.

WISHING EVERYONE THE GREATEST OF NEW YEARS.