Christian Peacemaker Teams help in dispute between Native Americans and bikers
-24/07/06
Christian Peacemaker Teams help in dispute between Native Americans and bikers
-24/07/06
Christian Peacemaker Teams workers in South Dakota, USA, has this month (July 2006) been working with people involved in a dispute affecting an indigenous site holy to the Lakota, Cheyenne and other Native American communities.
The issue concerns the granting of an alcohol license to the owner of Free Spirit Campground, two miles from Bear Butte, SD. CPT is backing a local referendum.
“Would you put a toilet in a cathedral?”Ö “Would you put a biker bar on Mount
Sinai?”Ö “It’s my land; I paid for it. Can’t I do what I want with it?”
These were some the questions that reverberated around the Meade County
Courthouse on earlier this month during a public hearing, writes Jill Foster for CPT.
Foster explains that the Meade County commissioners were debating whether to grant beer licenses to two new biker venues within three miles of Bear Butte.
Bear Butte ñ as Ann White Hat from the Alliance to Protect Bear Butte explained during time for public testimony ñ was from the beginning a place of worship and prayer for the Lakota, Cheyenne and other Native American communities.
Carter Camp, and others from the Coalition to Defend Bear Butte, testified that the mountain was the birthplace of the Lakota people and necessary for their continued existence. Many said that the toilets and bars adjacent to the Butte are a desecration. More of the same, which would inevitably arrive with the new partying sites, would destroy its holiness.
Earlier in the week, two Christian Peacemaker Teams volunteers, John Spragge and Jill Foster, patrolled Hagger’s Grocery parking lot, joining the effort to get enough voter signatures to require the county to hold a referendum on the granting of new liquor licenses.
A member of the National Guard, while signing the Bear Butte petition, mentioned that his duties entailed protecting the national monument at Mount Rushmore. Another woman wanted to know why the defence of the Gettysburg historic area against a casino had made the national news, but not Bear Butte.
For Ulysses Riley, the owner of Free Spirit Campground two miles from Bear
Butte, something else was at stake ñ his ownership of the land and his right to use it. The Meade County commissioners agreed the Butte was sacred, but shut off further public discussion and granted Riley the beer licenses.
Christian Peacemaker Teams is a hands-on violence reduction and creative peacemaking organisation which works for conflict transformation in various parts of the world – especially the Middle East, Colombia and North America. It is backed by Mennonites, other peace churches and an ecumenical range of supporters.
[Also on Ekklesia: Briefing on media accusations against Christian Peacemaker Teams; Briefing on Christian Peacemaker Teams; Christian peacemakers stay committed to Iraq; Norman Kember on his experiences in Iraq and CPT’s work]
Christian Peacemaker Teams help in dispute between Native Americans and bikers
-24/07/06
Christian Peacemaker Teams workers in South Dakota, USA, has this month (July 2006) been working with people involved in a dispute affecting an indigenous site holy to the Lakota, Cheyenne and other Native American communities.
The issue concerns the granting of an alcohol license to the owner of Free Spirit Campground, two miles from Bear Butte, SD. CPT is backing a local referendum.
“Would you put a toilet in a cathedral?”Ö “Would you put a biker bar on Mount
Sinai?”Ö “It’s my land; I paid for it. Can’t I do what I want with it?”
These were some the questions that reverberated around the Meade County
Courthouse on earlier this month during a public hearing, writes Jill Foster for CPT.
Foster explains that the Meade County commissioners were debating whether to grant beer licenses to two new biker venues within three miles of Bear Butte.
Bear Butte ñ as Ann White Hat from the Alliance to Protect Bear Butte explained during time for public testimony ñ was from the beginning a place of worship and prayer for the Lakota, Cheyenne and other Native American communities.
Carter Camp, and others from the Coalition to Defend Bear Butte, testified that the mountain was the birthplace of the Lakota people and necessary for their continued existence. Many said that the toilets and bars adjacent to the Butte are a desecration. More of the same, which would inevitably arrive with the new partying sites, would destroy its holiness.
Earlier in the week, two Christian Peacemaker Teams volunteers, John Spragge and Jill Foster, patrolled Hagger’s Grocery parking lot, joining the effort to get enough voter signatures to require the county to hold a referendum on the granting of new liquor licenses.
A member of the National Guard, while signing the Bear Butte petition, mentioned that his duties entailed protecting the national monument at Mount Rushmore. Another woman wanted to know why the defence of the Gettysburg historic area against a casino had made the national news, but not Bear Butte.
For Ulysses Riley, the owner of Free Spirit Campground two miles from Bear
Butte, something else was at stake ñ his ownership of the land and his right to use it. The Meade County commissioners agreed the Butte was sacred, but shut off further public discussion and granted Riley the beer licenses.
Christian Peacemaker Teams is a hands-on violence reduction and creative peacemaking organisation which works for conflict transformation in various parts of the world – especially the Middle East, Colombia and North America. It is backed by Mennonites, other peace churches and an ecumenical range of supporters.
[Also on Ekklesia: Briefing on media accusations against Christian Peacemaker Teams; Briefing on Christian Peacemaker Teams; Christian peacemakers stay committed to Iraq; Norman Kember on his experiences in Iraq and CPT’s work]