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Native Sun News: 'Oz' genocide editorials subject of a protest
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Filed Under: National

The following story was written and reported by Evelyn Red Lodge. All content © Native Sun News.

Andrew Iron Shell, David Claymore, Mandi Long Wolf and Staci Luton at protest in Rapid City.

RAPID CITY, SOUTH DAKOTA — The United Urban Warrior Society of the Black Hills conducted a peaceful protest outside the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center last week.

“It went great as far as raising awareness about The Wonderful Wizard of Oz author L. Frank Baum’s editorials calling for genocide against all American Indians,” UUWS President James Swan said. “I want to say the Rapid City police department was very accommodating. There were no issues between us.”

He said that on Friday evening people passing by were more apathetic than anything “like they were wondering why anybody cares,” he said. “There just wasn’t much of a reaction by the people in general, but the Civic Center staff was rude.”

“There was white, male staff outside snickering, gesturing, staring, and pointing at us. One even said the ‘f’ word as I was driving by yelling, ‘shut the [expletive] truck down.’ They were all in Civic Center uniforms,” Swan said.

As part of the protest, copies of the previous week’s article, Protest set for Wizard of Oz, published in Native Sun News were handed out, as a group of drummers sang and played.

Swan found it astounding that the protest by the Lakota people was apparently considered so meaningless to the Rapid City Journal that, even though the local television stations covered the protest, not one word appeared in the daily newspaper.

“I thought that keeping its citizens informed was the job of the newspaper, but I suppose if the protest ruffled the feathers of the Journal’s editor, he would then consider keeping this information from his readers,” Swan said.

The next protest by the United Urban Warrior Society would probably be held in the front of the Rapid City Journal to point out the way they are discriminatory in their news coverage, Swan concluded.

(Contact Evelyn Red Lodge at welakota@yahoo.com)