Question About Shannon County, SD

[BamaLefty]

Is that a county filled with Indian reservations? I ask because they have overwhelmingly voted Democratic in every Presidential election.

Example:

Kerry 84.6% 3,566

Bush 12.5% 526

Other 2.9% 122


http://uselectionatlas.org/USPRESIDENT/

[BamaLefty]

1. Now That I Notice It,

is the same true for Todd County?

[liberalhistorian]

4. Yes, both Todd and Shannon Counties

are in Indian reservations. Todd County is in the Rosebud Sioux reservation and Shannon County is part of the Pine Ridge Oglala Sioux reservation.

[alrightjim]

6. about Todd County

Todd County is the rosebud Reservation, home of the Sicangu Lakota, wheras Pine Ridge is home to the Oglalas. There is some cross over. My mother is from Pine Ridge but she has land on Rosebud through marriage. The difference between Todd County and Shannon County is basic: Todd County has a high number of white folks living on the rez, not as temporrary professionals, but folks that were born and raised there on farms and ranches and call the place home, Shannon County does not.

Over the decades the white folks in Todd County have mixed quite a bit with the Sicangu through marriage and just plain old fashioned out of wedlock pregnancy but a central core have not done this and rest assured they do NOT tend to vote Democrat. A good many think Reagan should be on Mount Rushmore.

The thing to remember is this: on election night Thune went to bed over 500 votes ahead of Tim Johnson, with only Shannon County to yet report. He woke up a loser, having lost the election by about the same number of votes. This sent a shock wave through the institutionalized racist underpinnings of the GOP, believe me. They worked their butt off on the reservations in the next election for Thune, and the Democrats DID NOTHING MEANINGFUL OR SINCERE to counter this strategy. They took that Indian vote for granted.

Jimmy

[newyawker99]

11. Hi alrightjim!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[joshorton]

2. re

Yes, both are reservations.

[existentialist]

3. all reservation counties in South Dakota

and the same is true of Corson, Dewey, and Ziebach counties; if you are in any of those SD counties you are on an Indian reservation.

[newyawker99]

12. Hi joshorton!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[alrightjim]

5. Hi Bamalefty

Shannon County is different than all the other Indian counties in South Dakota, save Jackson County which is the other county which comprises the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

Whereas the other reservations in the state opened themselves up to white settlement, via white townships and such, Pine Ridge never did, and it is a thoroughly "Indian" Indian reservation. My mother was born in Wounded Knee and raised in Kyle and the only white folks she knew were the nuns and priests at the mission, the rez doctor and the agency people, maybe some repairmen up from White Clay or Rushville, Nebraska.

This is why the place has been the ideological backbone of the American Indian Movement. There is a high degree of iyeska folks on that rez (breed Indians) of which I am one, and they bounce back and forth between "down home" and the Indian gehtoo in Rapid City a hundred miles northwest, and they filled the ranks of AIM back in the Seventies. The rez votes democrat, sure, but Indians are not liberal by nature, other than having a tolerance for people's differences, and a respect for the individual. They vote against the Republicans because the GOP has been so blatantly and haughtily racist for the past half century it was support for the Democrats by default. There is no love for Daschle or Herseth or Johnson. They just beat the hell out of the likes of Thune or Abnor, or...and I hate to even type his name...Janklow. Janklow's behavior toward Lakota people alone has ensured they will vote GOP until Mount Rushmore erodes to the nub. Not that they ever really get anything out of it, it's the difference between a poke in the eye with a sharp stick or a poke in both eyes with a sharp stick.

Hope this helps.

Jimmy

[liberalhistorian]

7. Oh, God, Janklow-

don't even get me started on that fucker! He makes me ashamed to be white. I was sickened when he just got a slap on the wrist for KILLING another man by just sailing through a stop sign without even trying to stop, after being given several speeding tickets within the year.

He was so blatantly racist and anti-Indian it was beyond belief, he made you think you were back in the 19th century frontier. I just moved to Rapid City last month, thank GOD he's no longer the damned governor. The damage he did to Indians in SD is incalculable. And he's the main reason why Clinton didn't pardon Leonard Peltier, who has now spent nearly three decades in a federal prison for murders he didn't commit. But, hey, he's Indian, so he had to be guilty, right?

:sarcasm: :sarcasm:

I am now working for a legal services agency, on a grant-funded project helping Indians to stop fractionation of their land and to keep as much Indian land as possible in trust. I work on the Pine Ridge reservation twice a week, and that is absolutely fascinating. PR has always fascinated me, I've read about and studied it for over twenty years, and it's so nice to finally be able to actually do something for its people. The blatant racism from whites in Rapid City is really disgusting to deal with, though, I'm always getting comments like "how can you work with those people", etc., etc. I've had to learn how to deal with that shit. Then again, that's what Indians have had to deal with for five hundred years, so I suppose my white ass can handle it for several months, lol!

[alrightjim]

8. Citizen Janklow and some other stuff

Hi Liberalhistorian.

LH wrote: "don't even get me started on that fucker! He makes me ashamed to be white."

My goodness your French is impressive! Part of me is white, but Janklow doesn't make me ashamed of it, he just makes me ashamed to be human.

LH wrote: "I was sickened when he just got a slap on the wrist for KILLING another man by just sailing through a stop sign without even trying to stop, after being given several speeding tickets within the year."

Ain't he a peach?

LH wrote: "He was so blatantly racist and anti-Indian it was beyond belief, he made you think you were back in the 19th century frontier."

He was a hero to many. He had that horrid dental work and all that spittle and it didn't matter. He was their Colonel Custer. "Bill says it's okay to hate Indians, honey." "Yeah, isn't that great, dear!!"

LH wrote: "I just moved to Rapid City last month, thank GOD he's no longer the damned governor. The damage he did to Indians in SD is incalculable. And he's the main reason why Clinton didn't pardon Leonard Peltier, who has now spent nearly three decades in a federal prison for murders he didn't commit. But, hey, he's Indian, so he had to be guilty, right?"

I think he did pull the trigger, LH, but no way that man should be in prison, not when people charged in the same incident were acquitted in Iowa. It was clearly self defense; had he not shot those men he'd be shot dead and in the boneyard. His defense should have acknowledged he was in the firefight, blasting away, but that he did so to protect himself and his friends.

LH wrote: I am now working for a legal services agency, on a grant-funded project helping Indians to stop fractionation of their land and to keep as much Indian land as possible in trust."

You got here fifty years too late for my family. We Giagos got absolutely reamed in that regard. My mom has some acreage on Rosebud, but none of the family holding around Kyle. Sad, that heritage is completely lost to my generation.

LH wrote: I work on the Pine Ridge reservation twice a week, and that is absolutely fascinating. PR has always fascinated me, I've read about and studied it for over twenty years, and it's so nice to finally be able to actually do something for its people."

I like Puerto Rico, too. Good boxers, good baseball players. Oh, you mean PINE RIDGE! Sorry. You read about it and studied it? Try living it, that is a whole nuther kettle of fish. Well, you are living it now, glad you are helping the Oglalas out.

LH wrote: "The blatant racism from whites in Rapid City is really disgusting to deal with, though, I'm always getting comments like "how can you work with those people", etc., etc."

You should have been around to witness it back in the Sixties. The school system was something to behold. Come to think of it, glad you didn't have to witness that.

LH wrote: "I've had to learn how to deal with that shit. Then again, that's what Indians have had to deal with for five hundred years, so I suppose my white ass can handle it for several months, lol! I've had to learn how to deal with that shit. Then again, that's what Indians have had to deal with for five hundred years, so I suppose my white ass can handle it for several months, lol!"

Don't ever let a person tell you because you aren't Lakota you can't understand it. I've dealt with dozens of white folks like you in my life LH, and by and large they DO understand, because I thnk it is like the inipi guys say---mitakuye oyasin---we are all related. I believe there is a visceral dignity and compassion in all good men, white people like you, iyeskas like me, even the long dead historical lakota, and I think all good men, all ikce wicasa, know and understand.

Many Indians will be standoffish with you, dismissive even. Don't let that rude behavior discourage you. They think they are doing the right thing, but like any person else, they can get misguided. The traditional Lakota judged each man individually. I am not much of a traditonal anything, unless it's a traditional wiseass, but I have always tried to judge each person one at a time, give each person I don't like the finger one at a time, that's the best way to get by. Just don't finger a cop or a drug dealer, I've done both and the cop almost arrested me and the drug dealer stuck a gun in my face. Not a wise policy.

Jimmy

[liberalhistorian]

9. Hi Jimmy,

welcome to DU, glad to have you here. You mention the name Giagos, are you any relation to Tim Giagos, the publisher of Indian newspapers and kick-ass columnist?

I've been very pleasantly surprised and gratified by the treatment I've received at Pine Ridge so far. I have yet to have any kind of unpleasant or standoffish experience with any of the Lakota, including the traditionals and older residents I've met. I especially enjoy going to the senior centers in the PR communites, the older people really kick ass but they're very friendly and not in that phony kind of friendliness, either. I think they understand that I'm not from the BIA or any other government agency and that I'm not there to steal anything from them or to fuck them over, I'm there to really try to help them. There's one family I'm helping with estate planning now, their land isn't too fractionated yet but it could have been had they not decided to use our agency's free services. I'm not patronizing or condescending with them, either, as I know some other well-meaning whites tend to be; they're usually very surprised at how much I know of their history, culture and traditions. I was even invited to a traditional sundance taking place in a couple of weeks, which I will be very honored to attend. I can't wait for it, either!

[alrightjim]

10. Hi liberal

Liberalhistorian: "welcome to DU, glad to have you here."

Thanks. I been trying to settle in some spot but haven't as yet located it. The SD board is okay but relatively dead. Arguing about Tom Cruise over in the Lounge. Never thought I'd post on a topic like that but too many of the posts were insufferable and I had to say something.

Liberalhistorian: "You mention the name Giagos, are you any relation to Tim Giagos, the publisher of Indian newspapers and kick-ass columnist?"

Well, LH, the name is Giago, a corruption of the Spanish Gallego, as the surname arrived at Pine Ridge courtesy of Mexican Indios coming north to work cattle in Nebraska. Not a lot of white girls standing in line to marry them so they married Indian girls and that is where the Giago family comes from. Tim is my uncle, my mother's youngest brother. The other half of our family are the Tapios, a corruption of the Spanish surname Tapia. Not sure why it became Tapio, but probably because the original Mexican Indio, Demetrio Tapia, had an "o" at the end of his first name and this was probably transposed during enrollment.

Glad you have had no unpleasant rez experiences. I am especially happy you are helping folks with their land issues. Most help arrives with a Bible or a lecture about alcohol. Nothing wrong with a Christian trying to preach the good news to skins, and alcoholism is a problem and should definitely be discussed, but lots of other everyday concerns Lakota folks have are not addressed, only the cultural hot button generally gets serviced.

You drive down to the ridge then everyday from Rapid? That can be a grind. How are you settling into the Rapid community? Most of the Indians live in the north part of the town. I'm not sure what the social life is like there anymore. I haven't lived in Rapid since 1982.

Jimmy