CPTnet
June 14, 1999
South Dakota: CPT and LaFramboise Warriors Honored
by Patty Burdette

"This is the way the tribes tell you that you are one of a select
few who are doing what is above and beyond what is expected,"
said Clayton Quiver of the Oceti Sakowin spiritual encampment on LaFramboise
Island near Pierre, SD.

Bob Epp (Henderson, NE) accepted an award on behalf of CPT at a Lakota
honoring ceremony on the Rosebud reservation on June 3. The hand-lettered,
framed buckskin plaque read: "Great Sioux Nation Certificate of
Appreciation, Christian Peacemaker Team, Honoring your courageous and
dedicated stand protecting Fort Laramie Treaty Rights at the Oceti Sakowin
Camp on La Framboise Island."

CPT, the Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council, Makoce Luta
(Sacred Red Earth) Coalition, South Dakota Peace and Justice
Center and the seven Lakota men who began the spiritual
encampment each received an individualized plaque.

Through the honoring ceremony, the seven Lakota reservation
tribes which make up the Great Sioux Nation demonstrated their appreciation
for the warriors who have been resisting the transfer of Treaty Lands to the
State of South Dakota. The term translated as "warriors" (akicita) in the
traditional Lakota sense emphasizes nonviolent courage, commitment and
bravery.

"To be a warrior is to be a shield, without a weapon, ready to
lay down my life for the people without hesitation," explained Tom Cheyenne,
akicita. "Warriors stop something bad from happening to the people without
weapons, just with our presence," said Rich Shangreaux, another camp
akicita.

Earlier in May, in a ceremony conducted at the LaFramboise Island camp, the
seven young men were inducted into an ancient warrior society committed to
protecting the people without using weapons. This induction ceremony had not
been performed in over a century, according to Shangreaux.

Zintkalazi, another of the seven, said, "When we take our stand
here it has always been in my mind that as the Teton Oyate
(Lakota People) we are the ancestors of those yet unborn. We do this for
the future generations as our grandfathers taught us. They shed their blood
and gave their lives for this land," he explains. "It brought spirit back
into my life."