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Resistance to Lakota Honor Song Brings Call for Chamberlain Boycott

Area students and a Lakota/Dakota drum group will honor all Chamberlain High School graduates with a Native song at Sunday's graduation ceremony. They'll do it outside the high school as graduates leave the building.

For not accepting that honor song as part of the formal graduation ceremony, Crow Creek Sioux tribal chairman Brandon Sazue is calling on us to boycott Chamberlain:

Sazue said he already has begun to boycott businesses in Chamberlain and is urging the tribe and individual tribal members to do the same.

“I love Chamberlain. I went to school there. I shop there. But right now I’m boycotting it, because of the school board’s decision.

“How do you make change? You make change by action. I will boycott until they let our kids have an honor song,” he said [Peter Harriman, "Tribal Leader Wants Boycott of Chamberlain," that Sioux Falls paper, 2013.05.16].

A local economic boycott of Chamberlain will be hard to sustain. Local folks looking to respect Chairman Sazue's call to protest will have to drive 22 miles east to Kimball or 30 miles west to Kennebec just to get groceries. That's a lot of driving to ask of local folks for daily needs. Folks urging a boycott may want to to focus on tourist traffic, which is about to kick into high summer gear. Get the word out, tell folks bound for Mount Rushmore and Yellowstone to plan ahead, bypass Al's Oasis, and get their gas and grub in Mitchell or Murdo.

4 Comments

  1. El Rayo X 2013.05.17

    Al's Oasis is in Oacoma, not Chamberlain. Boycotting Al's pies should be a criminal offense.

  2. Flatlandluver 2013.05.17

    Boycott that ugly town, yes some Natives work there, need the income but the rest of us can easily go over to Al's, if need be, the tribe can schedule a bus to go to Highmore, Pierre and/or Mitchell. Esp. around pay days/EBT, etc. Don't they know when any English music they play honors white students, or it's been that way for so long that they don't see it.

  3. caheidelberger Post author | 2013.05.17

    Oacoma is part of the Chamberlain School District. Al's Oasis is arguably the best known eatery in the local market. Those fine pies could be the most effective boycott target.

  4. Douglas Wiken 2013.05.18

    Chamberlain should stop all music at the graduation ceremony. Hand the kids their diplomas and congratulate them and then say "goodnight to all".

Comments are closed.