David Swallow on Horse Confiscation on PineRidge

The Sacred Horses from the Pine Ridge Reservation
that have been confiscated by the Tribal government will be sold at the slaughter house on Mothers Day
Following is the slaughter house info:




Statement by David Swallow, Jr., (Wowitan Yuha Mani)
Teton Lakota Spiritual Leader, Sun dance Chief of the

Medicine Wheel Sun dance, and a Headman of the

Lakota Nation Band of Wana Way Gu (Broken Bow)

Statement Date; May 3rd 2010
Transcribed To and edited by Keith Rabin and Allison

Gutirrez-Bundy

Hau, Mitakuyepi na Mita Kola. [ Hello. Greetings my

relatives and my friends. ]

My name is Dave Swallow Jr. My Lakota name is Wowitan

Uha Mani, Walks With Pride. I'm a Lakota. I live on the

Pine Ridge Indian Reservation [South Dakota]. I was born

and raised there. Pine Ridge Indian Reservation is The

United States Prisoner of War Camp Number 344. That's

where I was born and raised.

We are the People of the Lakota, Nakota and Dakota

People. We have adopted the Sacred Horse, [ Sunka

Wakan ] into our nation and into our families. It is part of

who we are. It is hard in our ways to remember our lives

with out our Horses. They are part of our family. We give

them names and honor them. They take part in our

ceremonies. They are part of our lives, not only for

transportation but also the Sunka Wakan help heal our

minds, bodies and spirits.

Sunka is the Lakota word for "dog". Before the horse,

Sunka helped us with our transportation. They also are

our family members. When Sunka Wakan, the "Sacred

Horse" came, it became a blessing a gift from our

Creator to be forever in our lives.

Today, our grandchildren and children still need the

Sunka Wakan for our healings of body, mind and spirit.

Some of the grandparents and parents save their money

for months just to buy a colt, a Sunka Wakan for their

children and grandchildren. This keeps our children and

grandchildren away from alcohol, drugs and gang

activities. This why we need our Sunka Wanka is part of

our families.

But today, in 2010, the Oglala Sioux Tribal Council at the

Pine Ridge Agency created their own laws against the

People of the Reservations and one of these new laws is

against our Sacred Horse [ Sunka Wakan ]. Two

Councilmen from the Porcupine District of the Pine Ridge

have spear headed this law. The whole Tribal Council

supports it. Without asking the People on the Pine Ridge

Reservation to whom they are to represent, they created

new Park Ranger positions on the Reservation to

confiscate the People's horses, impound the Sacred

Horses of the People and then charge the owners an

outrageous amount of money to get their horses back.

It seems they have no intent to return the Horses to the

People.

Every other foreign nation conquered by the United

States has received huge efforts towards rehabilitation

and rebuilding. Yet, while the U.S. cries about 20%

unemployment, we have 80% unemployment. We

remain isolated and have living conditions which are as

bad as or worse than any third world country. Our life

expectancy is only 48 years old for men and 52 years

old for women.

On March 2, 1889, the Senate and House of

Representatives of the United States of America

established the Reservations. They said we are to live

here on the Reservations, hunt and fish without any

permits and the Reservations were established as "Open

Range" without any fences. It seems to the " The

People" [ The Lakota Oyate ] that the Oglala Sioux Tribal

Council has forgotten these rules set by the Senate of

the United States of America and has taken upon itself

some goal of not only hurting the Horse itself but the

People and the families of the Lakota People .

This is a Reservation. We are NOT living in a park or a

National park. It is the land of the People. We already

have the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Police, the Oglala

Sioux Tribal (OST) Public Safety Law Enforcement, the

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the U.S.

Marshals watching over us. I believe we Lakota Oyate

have enough jurisdiction watching over us . Now come

the Oglala Sioux Park Rangers, confiscating our Sacred

Horses and arresting us if we don't cooperate. The

Oglala Sioux Park Rangers are selling our horses to local

ranchers (who then sell them to slaughter houses for

slaughter) or the OST Rangers sell our horses directly to

slaughter houses. THIS NEEDS TO BE STOPPED AND

RETURN OUR Sacred Horses returned back to the

People.

We are the People of the Sacred Horse. It is as much to

our lives as your cars and trucks are to yours.

We have a treaty council, a council of elders, all kinds of

councils but none of them are effective. The government

and state have kept us hungry and distracted with their

projects which accomplish very little. But they need to

know. If we are to survive, people need to understand.

When were talking about the Black Hills, its not just the

land that was lost but our way of life. Its not just money.

Money is the least important thing. We have lost our

way of life.

When we talk about the Sacred Horses, It is not about

only Horses it is about everything.

Ho hecetu yelo, I have spoken these words.
David Swallow, Wowitan Yuha Mani
Porcupine, South Dakota - Pine Ridge Indian Reservation


WAYS THAT YOU MIGHT HELP:
Forward to others on your email list(s)
Post on social networking sites
If you have National Media contacts please contact them
If you know prominent people please contact them.
Your help is urgently needed to get the word out. If you

like horses (or any animals) people all over Turtle Island

need to know what is happening and the tribal council

needs to know that the world is watching. To date 2800

horses have been confiscated and 1,000 sold off to

slaughter.

If you are able to help please contact me via email at:

info@thebuffaloheartproject.org

Contact Governor Rounds
Office of the Governor
500 E. Capitol Ave.
Pierre, SD 57501
(605)-773-3212
Now that the horses are off the Reservation we can ask

the Governor to intervene.
to email you must go to this url and click contact.
www.state.sd.us/governor/

*This was first seen by me on FaceBook. I called my neice who lives in Wanblee and owns many horses and she tells me this is not a widespread, wholesale rounding up of horses, but it is done in cases where it is evident that the horses are being abused or neglected. We'll wait and see what comes of this and if it does indeed continue.