Last updated on 2013.12.01
In reconciliation news less provocative than Rep. Steve Hickey's call to free Leonard Peltier, KELO-TV is retreating from some sacred Indian land and building a new TV broadcast tower elsewhere.
After a 2010 ice storm knocked their 700-foot KPLO broadcast tower off Medicine Butte and left Doug Wiken without The Big News at Ten, KELO put up a temporary tower. The Lower Brule Sioux Tribe protested, saying that after 53 years of occupation, KELO should remove its tower from what they consider a holy site. Anyone who has driven Highway 34 and 47 can get why Medicine Butte would be considered a sacred site: it's the one tall thing you see out there above the river and vast plains.
KELO didn't have to move their tower. Their parent company, New-York based Young broadcasting, owns the land, and Medicine Butte is outside the official boundaries of the reservation. But KELO decided, why fight? They picked a new tower site six miles to the southwest, down in the flat. They made up the altitude by building a thousand-foot tower. KELO says with higher power, the new tower will beam a stronger signal than the old Medicine Butte tower. They'll start taking apart the old tower December 1.
So there you go, Douglas! You'll be getting Angela Kennecke louder and clearer... thanks in part to a decent gesture from KELO toward our red brethren.
Update 2013.12.01: Two towers remain on Medicine Butte. AT&T Wireless has a tower that the FCC is currently reviewing at the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe's request. South Dakota Public Broadcasting has the other tower; SDPB exec Julie Andersen says her organization has a good relationship with the Lower Brule Sioux and that moving the SDPB tower would be too expensive.
This was a most gracious gesture by KELOLAND and many Sioux are grateful for the respect they have shown.
Often times it is small gestures that matter the most and can culminate in larger meaningful gestures.
I sure hope those thankful Sioux have a pilgrimage to those sacred buttes as soon as Young/KELO gets the mess cleaned up. Wonder what the extra tower height cost for this mindless gesture? Modern technology bows to the stone age.
KELOLAND just earned a large dose of respect, credibility and thanks!
I hope KELO made a rational decision based on engineering and maintenance rather than superstition and ignorance; otherwise, this tower move is a grotesque waste of money. If Young Broadcasting is publicly traded, I wonder what they are telling stockholders. It would be mildly amusing if the extra power required raised the electric rates for the reservation.
And out of mouth of Wilken we once again find filth and ignorance. While many worthwhile citizens in South Dakota, of both races, hope to find racial reconciliation, Wilken drives the knife deeper into their hearts. Wilken remains the epitome of what is wrong with South Dakota.
I wasn't aware that Native Americans made pilgrimages, they did however go to sacred buttes and mountains to pray. Wilken probably knows Native American history better than I do.
Unless Wilken is an atheist, he needs to be reminded that if Lakota spirituality and Christianity are based on "superstition and ignorance" so is his!
I hope KELOLAND made their decision to move the tower not based on cost, engineering or maintenance, but because it was the right and respectful thing to do.
There is nothing "mildly amusing" about the price gouging of Native Americans on South Dakota's reservation by so called electrical coops.
It's best to read Doug's comments as white trash slam poetry and not as planks of the South Dakota Democratic Party.
I never met a Democrat I didn't like, until I started reading Wilken.
I think Will Rogers never met him.
Good job, KELO!
Cornelius, you must have a terrible guilt complex for leaving the reservation in order to produce such vituperation and nonsense on behalf of a stone-age culture. Give up TV, the internet, electricity, antibiotics, sleep on the ground, freeze in the winter, bake in the summer and return to your native roots.
It would also be mildly amusing if electric rates went up for all the crazy whites pushing for the XL pipeline. Incidentally, rural electrics are equal opportunity exploiters of whites and Native Americans. And for reasons I don't quite understand, the SD PUC does not regulate cooperatives.
There goes Wilken once again telling Native Americans what to do and where to live. How will Native Americans ever survive without his profound wisdom?
Cultures evolve, traditional beliefs and spirituality remain the same. I can live anywhere and retain the teachings and values of my ancestors.
Wilken obviously has established lines of reservation boundaries, I have not. Rapid City is a part of the Fort Laramie Treaty and thus a part of Native American lands.
Wilken, I have no guilt about where I live and my beliefs, but you should.
If you could patch together your mongrel ancestry, you move to those ancestral lands and worship your false gods, you live without modern communication technology and healthcare, it surely has poisoned your mind and soul.
Anybody can say "we are are equal opportunity employer", but do they practice it?
"I wasn't aware that Native Americans made pilgrimages, they did however go to sacred buttes and mountains to pray."
"A pilgrimage is a journey or search of moral or spiritual significance. Typically, it is a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person's beliefs and faith, although sometimes it can be a metaphorical journey into someone's own beliefs. Many religions attach spiritual importance to particular places: the place of birth or death of founders or saints, or to the place of their "calling" or spiritual awakening, or of their connection (visual or verbal) with the divine, to locations where miracles were performed or witnessed, or locations where a deity is said to live or be "housed," or any site that is seen to have special spiritual powers."
That sounds like the same things to me.
Roger I get it. You don't want Doug to say anything that is upsetting to you about your race of people and you want him to stop. At the same time you feel no obligation to do the same. You don't want Wiken to say anything about how the natives live yet you have no trouble putting the peddle to the metal telling him or any other white man what and how they should act. I'd like to think that you are just a hypocrite but it sure looks more and more like you are even more racist then you think he is.
It doesn't really matter to me anymore. The two of you can go on and on if you want to. Will that fix anything? NO. Will taking a tower down change anything? Maybe for a week and then it's same old, same old.
"There is nothing "mildly amusing" about the price gouging of Native Americans on South Dakota's reservation by so called electrical coops."
That's funny Roger. Prove it or quit saying it. I'm sure the natives are paying the same rate as everyone else out here. But then again I might be wrong, all you have to do is prove what you said. Or is this the scenario. You don't think that the natives should pay as much as anyone else? In that case it doesn't look like you want anything like equality.
I'm through trying to help a "people" now I'm going to stick with individuals. There just seems to be to much poor me talking coming from those of the native people that are less then a quarter blood. It must be rough going to a party two generations late and find out nobody wants to share the cake with ya.
Now as far as the "Fort Laramie Treaty" goes. I'm all for giving back that land that the Indians themselves didn't sell to the outsiders. That's how my family got ours and no we didn't steal it we were friends with the previous owners and their families for generations long after they sold it to us. I'm not to sure how those people that live elsewhere will feel about that kind of deal though.
The Blindman
Well said Blindman. I'd let them argue forever, thoroughly enjoy watching racists argue with each other, especially when neither of them understand that what they say is racist and will deny with their last breath that they are racist. I'm not racist but then again, having family here since the 1700's, I also consider myself a Native American rather than a mongrel.
Dithmer,
Thanks for the pointless and meaningless definition of pilgrimage, apply to the culture that uses it. If you find a simple term "of going to the mountain to pray to the creator or similar phrase offensive and needs to be redefined, so be it.
Dithmer, I will not compromise my integrity by responding to allegations of racism. I'm used to that racist ploy, when a Native American responds, sometimes sharply, to a man demeaning his culture, he in turn is called a racist. That nonsense didn't work for me decades ago and it won't work here.
I've said on this blog before, I encourage you and Wilken to comment on Native Americans as it is a demonstration of the racist attitudes that we deal with everyday.
Dithmer, if you have paid attention, I have tried to limit my comments directly at you or Wilken, not all whites in South Dakota. To go beyond that would to be to betray friends and associates of all demographics.
If you think I am racist for calling out you and Wilken, go ahead and give it that label. I call it being prejudice against willful ignorance. Why do you it so necessary for you to defend Wilken anyway? Birds of a feather?
Dithmer lives in a comfortable little world of la la land. If he hasn't witnessed or experienced a wrong doing it couldn't possible be so. On the Pine Ridge Reservation, Nebraska Public Power serves the town of Pine Ridge and surrounding communities, Lacreek Electric serves the rest of the reservation. And yes I have compared the rates of the two companies and have found Lacreek Electric higher, much higher, for the exact same homes. No, Native Americans should not pay less because they are Native, but it should be equitable.
And a hearty THANK YOU for "I'm through trying to help a "people now...". If you call self-righteous, judgmental, condescending opinions help, the Lakota people are surely better off without your assistance. Your idea of help is probably like when you "help" load a cow in a truck to take him to slaughter, hey but you "helped" load it in the truck.
By the way Dithmer, I'm very familiar the history of how those land sales in Bennett County went down. How much an acre did you pay? How much land did you lease and how much did you pay an acre? You are probably one of those good guy ranchers that will say "well, I did pay him a few hundred on the side". No records kept.
Poor little Roger
The Blindman
Roger, it is about time you put up or shut up. Your claims about discrimination against Native Americans by electric companies, the post office, etc. have been BS. The case for Native Americans can be made, but is not helped by being flexible with the truth and calling the same kind of comments you make regarding whites and ranchers as being made innocent of racist attitudes, but any comments by anybody else regarding reality rather than romantic mythology regarding native culture as being only from racist motivation.
I believe Native Americans are no more or no less intelligent than even "mongrel whites" and that they can use that intelligence equally well as any of us if they choose to. Providing excuses for intellectual laziness does not help whites or non-whites. Offering such excuses seems to me to be essentially racist.
Anyone who believes in the value of mind/spirit past wet gray matter is intellectually lazy, right Wiken? It's Reality According to Wiken, or you're just dumb. If Wiken hasn't seen it, it doesn't exist.
Bree, you apparently have some problems with reading comprehension.
If we are going to legislate, educate, progress, etc., are decisions need to be made on the basis of observable, measurable reality not mythology and humbug.
Those who take humbug seriously may not be intellectually lazy, or dumb, but they may make themselves and those taking their humbug seriously irrelevant .
So a good 96% of the country is irrelevant, right Wiken? That is of course the approximate percentage of the American population professing a belief in "romantic mythology" and humbug. It's amazing how the country hasn't gone up in the flames of its own irrelevancy. Clearly 96% of the country isn't capable of legislating, educating, or progressing since they all suffer from the disease of mythological culture.
Doug "the Indian hate" Wilken,
I have not spoken about all white people being racist, never, I have pointed my comments directly at you or often times Dithmer, you seem to have a problem with comprehension.
Even though I am a Native American, the First Amendment affords me the same rights granted to you, therefore I will no "put up or shut up".
Personally I don't care if you believe or don't believe my experiences and observations and here's why, you are totally IRRELEVANT!
Let me repeat that, "Doug Wilken is irrelevant", can you comprehend that?
I don't question your right to make stupid irrelevant statements and I respect your right, but respecting you and the right does not mean I must also respect or appreciate your nonsense. Faith in the sacred nature of a pile of dirt or rock generated by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, or glaciers does not make sense to me since rational explanations are available that don't depend upon any idea of sacred objects or unseen beings, etc.
Even though I respect your right to express assertions about the value of mysterious Native American culture, I see no reason to value a culture that is rapidly disappearing and irrelevant or nearly so in a society that has sent man to the moon and decoded human and other genomic codes.
And, I don't hate you or any other Native American that I know or have been associated with. Your assumption that disagreement with your nonsense necessarily implies hatred or racism of some kind is unwarranted.
The same is true of Whites, Asians, Hispanics, whatever...I can respect their right to express stupid ideas, lies, factual errors, religious nonsense, faith in whatever and still not respect those bits of nonsense and yet respect them as individuals with individual rights and their right to blather.
And, I and others..even Bill Dithmer..have a comparable right to disagree and dismiss nonfactual romantic visions of White or Indian frontier life and mythology.
Wiken respects the Sioux' right to their beliefs and culture so much that he expresses contempt for a private company's decision to honor a request by said culture to move a tower on private land.. a decision that has absolutely no effect on his life.
I also respect your right to express stupid ideas and blather nonsensically Wiken. lol.
Bree,
I was hoping to find you in here
If you would do me the favor of delivering a message to Doug "the Indian Hater" Wilken.
Since I will no longer communicate directly with him or those like him that spew hate and contempt. His perverse concept of equality is troubling, maybe he could get some psychological help.
At 15:26 today I told him that his opinions are IRRELEVANT to the Lakota, they have survived many Doug Wilken's and they will survive him.
As of this writing what he fails to comprehend is that he is even more IRRELEVANT!
Thanks for passing on the message and keep up the good fight!
Joseph, my illustrious (lol) white American lineage goes back to Jamestowne and the Mayflower ships, and it doesn't make me a Native American. I'm still a white mutt unless I'm on tribal citizenship rolls, which I am not. I don't know why people want to confuse a conversation by trying to change the accepted definitions of well-known words. You're a white "mongrel" like the vast majority of Americans. Accept it and get over it.
No problem Roger. I find Wiken's pride in his warped illogical mind rather amusing personally. But maybe my sense of humor is a touch warped, lol.
Even corporations, according to SCOTUS, have the right to be stupid, wasteful, and non-functional even if their actions are based on irrelevancy. And, just like individuals of any color, I have the right to express my discuss for those corporate actions and ideas.
I see nothing at all "perverse" about being able to separate a person from their expressions of ignorance and mythology and treat the person and the expressions as separate. To do otherwise seems to me to lead to all kinds of nonsense...as is obvious from previous two posts.
Wiken, you sure do spend a lot of time railing angrily against other people's beliefs and private decisions made because of those beliefs despite the fact that your opinions will have absolutely no effect on said beliefs or decisions - which I find to be an illogical waste of time.
Also, you do not express your opinions regarding these matters of "stupid mythology" in a calm, coherent manner. Your decision-making process appears to be controlled by animal emotions untempered by logic.
Bree,
Another message for "the Indian hater, if you don't mind.
I wonder why non-believers in anything they can't see, hear or feel think that their inane philosophies are superior to yours or mine. And mostly, why is they continually find the need to belittle and demean something that they have no control over.
Because an Indian hater doesn't like or respect Native American spirituality, does he think they'll change to please him? Wouldn't that in itself be some form of "inane mythology"?
Bree, thanks for the delivering the message and thanks again to KELOLAND and their gracious show of respect.
I don't have any illusions about Bree or Roger changing their minds on anything. I do hope that others who might read this are not influenced by their nonsense or at least see the logical holes in their assertions and vituperation.
One of my acquaintances has dementia. He once was brilliant. I can respect him and sympathize with his wife and son, but I do not have to admire the nonsense and delusions that now plague him no matter how public-spirited and helpful he was when he was fully sane.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/lewy-body-dementia/DS00795
There is too much in common between the mythology and spirit-world nonsense asserted as having value here and the dementia he suffers from. He can't do anything about his problem, but those who do not wish to keep repeating their mistakes can make better choices and in the process make more sense.
I don't get it either Roger. You and I would probably disagree on any number of political topics - but these would be things we both agree exist and effect our lives. Our disagreement at least would be logical. I can't imagine getting upset and arguing about something I didn't think existed, and had no effect on my life as far as I was aware. It would be like arguing about the color of sand on a planet that likely doesn't exist orbiting a sun light years away, and getting emotionally worked up about the topic.
Douglas, a mind built in the framework of spirit cannot suffer from dementia. Dementia is a problem of the physical mind, because the material framework of the brain decays and eventually ceases to function. The physical mind can be built from truth and lies. Lies create distortion, disharmony, and insanity in the mind. The insane mind is unreal. But the spiritual mind can only be built from truth, and only true spiritual values survive. The sane mind is spiritual and real.
The pile of grey matter between your ears that you think is so great will eventually decay and cease to function. Only your truths can survive, and those truths cannot be found in material study.
We can choose to allow our brilliance to decay, or we can choose to love and grow in truth. Material death is inevitable, but spiritual death is a choice.
Spirit doesn't just have value, Wiken. Spirit is what is truly real, and all the material things you think are real are shadows that barely exist.
Bree,
Well stated in both of your recent posts.
I have a nephew that is a baptist minister and a niece that is a devout member of the Mormon Church. Both of these religions are a radical departure from what they were taught as children and both are religions I have strong disagreements with.
I don't demean or criticize their choices, I embrace them, being truly happy that they have found a faith that will help develop some inner peace and grow into decent human beings. Whether it is "stupid" or "mythical" is beside the point, what matters is that they have found happiness, I admire that.
I RESPECT their choices and anybody else's that help them become RESPECTFUL members of society. Mostly, I'm happiest that they aren't going through life toting bags of hate, resentments and inane judgmental opinions.
The world would be a better place if we were all a little more open-minded. I'm an unorganized Christian and many of my Christian brothers would be shocked at my beliefs. But they'd probably have a seizure if they knew that many of the Founding Fathers were Deists who didn't believe in the Trinity, didn't believe in the divinity of Jesus, and didn't believe in the Bible. And yet the Deists, and the Unitarians, and the Protestants, and the Catholics all came together as brothers to create a new nation, under God. That didn't mean they agreed who or what God was. And it didn't mean they'd toss an atheist out on his ear.
I believe in the value of group prayer and I wouldn't mind attending worship at an organized Christian church. But the last two I tried were more interested in raising funds for the Pastor's pet projects (that I was completely unimpressed with) than praying. And the Pastor of the last church was more concerned about proving that dinosaurs walked the Earth 6,000 years ago in order to support his belief in the inerrancy of a literal interpretation of the Bible than leading the congregation in worship.
So I am glad that your niece and nephew were able to find churches that made them happy where they could pray. I am somewhat envious as I haven't found one yet. My church is currently the sky so maybe we have something in common lol.
"The puritans won the war, killing Metacom in 1676, tracking down members of the Wampanoag and other Algonquian bands, and selling those who did not escape to Canada into slavery in the Mediterranean and the West Indies."
Vince Two Eagles and The Rez of the Story: Thanksgiving Roots
http://www.yankton.net/opinion/editorials/article_eab30bbc-45ce-11e3-95f5-001a4bcf887a.html
"ouglas, a mind built in the framework of spirit cannot suffer from dementia. Dementia is a problem of the physical mind, because the material framework of the brain decays and eventually ceases to function. The physical mind can be built from truth and lies. Lies create distortion, disharmony, and insanity in the mind. The insane mind is unreal. But the spiritual mind can only be built from truth, and only true spiritual values survive. The sane mind is spiritual and real."
The above is total BS and nonsense double-talk. I suspect most of the "visions" seen by prophets, saints, et al are actually a form of mental illness and dementia. Some may have been because of molds that produce effects similar to LSD. Of all kinds of thought, spirituality and religious faith in the unknown and unseen are most likely built on lies of leaders and chieftains having found a very cheap way to control populations indirectly.
Only a few years ago, some brain disorder or damage was labeled
"In the most recent study, Johnstone studied 20 people with traumatic brain injuries affecting the right parietal lobe, the area of the brain situated a few inches above the right ear. He surveyed participants on characteristics of spirituality, such as how close they felt to a higher power and if they felt their lives were part of a divine plan. He found that the participants with more significant injury to their right parietal lobe showed an increased feeling of closeness to a higher power."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/20/god-spot-in-brain-is-not-_n_1440518.html
And a little more reality for the spiritually demented.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200111/god-the-brain
Douglas, you cannot prove the existence or nonexistence of God or spirit anymore than you can currently prove the color of sand on a distant planet. The ant on the ground cannot tell you what the back of a giraffe looks like.
The man who tries to measure the volume of the ocean with a 12" wood ruler is the one who is demented.
Wiken you believe that when you die here, when your material body ceases to function, that you will cease to be. All of your arguments against God will be forgotten. Your previous existence here will be forgotten within a number of years. No one here will remember your name or speak of you. Do you even have children who will remember you here?
Why are you arguing about this topic Wiken? Isn't it completely futile? You believe that the universe will carry no memory of you. What you think, what I think, ends inside our skulls and our thoughts die with us here according to you - so why do you care? Why do my beliefs bother you, why do they make you angry enough to argue against them if I am just a rapidly fading pile of molecules? Isn't it illogical for you to become emotionally worked up about a topic that you believe will have absolutely no bearing on the future, and no effect on the universe?
Now, which one of us is acting in an irrational manner?
Your lunacy is relevant because you try to inject it into real world politics and governance where it is nothing but sand in the wheels.
Please point out to me where I have injected my belief system into politics or governance. I was born in a nation founded under God, with a motto of In God We Trust. This "lunacy" was injected into the governance of this nation centuries ago, before you or I were here. So in reality, you are the one trying to inject your irrelevant beliefs into the governance of this nation. You are the one getting upset about words on a dollar bill that you believe have no meaning. Rather than being pleased that you were born in a free nation where you can believe whatever you choose, you are angry that 96% of the country disagrees with you and believes in a higher power. And even though that overwhelming monotheistic majority, in a nation founded by people who believed in God, willingly tolerates your abnormal beliefs - you cannot tolerate our beliefs even though you can't do anything about it and those beliefs have no bearing on your life here.
You certainly are an intolerant and irrationally angry person.
Bree,
An atheist promoting and attempting to impose his lunacy is equal to an evangelical preacher demanding that you be reborn before you can got to heaven. One is obnoxious as the other. Whether I believe one or the other is beside the point, what I do is to RESPECT their opinion, I do not have to accept either.
It is not just a Constitutional Right, but human nature to choose to believe in a higher power or not.
What is happening here is that the atheist/Indian Hater, believes that if he doesn't subscribe to a higher power, it gives him a license in insult, demean and hate without any moral consequences.
If the dude is wrong, when he dies and goes to St. Peter at the Pearly Gates to beg entrance to heaven, St. Peter will undoubtedly tell him, "God didn't believe in you, sorry".
Roger, are you saying atheism is lunacy, and all atheists are lunatics? (The credibility and non-institutionalization of the blog is at stake. ;-) )
Absolutely not Cory.
Granted, many Christians believe atheism is lunacy or something equal to it.
You missed my comment about respecting any belief, be it atheist, Christianity, or something else.
I did err in not specifically directing my comment to the dude whose name I can no longer say. My mistake.
Please understand that I would never intentionally attempt to scar the sanctity of Madville.
I think Cory believes in God, he just doesn't know he does. Is that projection? lol.
Just making sure, Roger! As for sanctity, you'll never make a saint of me. (Beat that link, Bill Dithmer!)
And Bree, don't make me get cranky. I know what I believe and what I don't.
>-P
Ok, Cory - I was just teasing you.
O:-)
Cory,
Tell us what you believe! The sadistic side of me wants to watch the atheist dude beat you up!
OK, I can see it now, statues on the dashboards of cars everywhere:
Saint Cory of the Blogosphere
Roger, that's a call for a church of disappointment. :-D
For the record, I believe there is no higher power watching us or taking offense at our placement of TV towers on high hills. However, I do find useful the Christian principle that we are all sinners and the Lakota notion that we can find wakan in everything. Discuss....
I grew up near Spirit Mound and went to school in a town named after the "little spirits" that supposedly inhabited the hill. "Wakan" reminded me. Never did see on of the little devils however.
We should build a TV tower on the huge pile of strawman arguments produced by Roger and Bree. I am not imposing anything on anybody. I just don't think the real world revolves around mythology and demented or drug-induced visions. KELO can waste as much money as it wants and advertisers and taxpayers will pay for any extra costs incurred by pandering to nonsense. I don't think mythology justifies that even if KELO made such a calculation and decided PR value was greater than technology costs.
"in a nation founded by people who believed in God".. another assertion not necessarily connected to any facts. Their knowledge of kings ruling under the authority of a god and the inquisition of the Holy Roman Empire may have been more of driving forces.
What is that adage about ASSUME?
If you choose to scroll my comments, there is not a single word from me on my beliefs. I have not stated that I am religious, Christian, atheist or believer in Lakota spirituality. I'll admit that was intentional, what I believe is nobody's business but mine and don't share that intimacy publicly.
What I have done is to endorse KELO's gracious gesture to the Lakota by relocating the tower.
Furthermore, I have respected the Lakota culture and spirituality and have defended their right to worship as they wish, as I do with all faiths.
Here's what I do believe, over the years I have learned the difference between good and bad and right from wrong and have found a way to live my life with those principals.