Anger Over Plan to Sell Site of Wounded Knee Massacre

[The Straight Story]

WOUNDED KNEE, S.D. — Ever since American soldiers massacred men, women and children here more than a century ago in the last major bloodshed of the American Indian wars, this haunted patch of rolling hills and ponderosa pines has embodied the combustible relationship between Indians and the United States government.

It was here that a group of Indian activists aired their grievances against the government with a forceful takeover in 1973 that resulted in protests, a bloody standoff with federal agents and deep divisions among the Indian people.

And now the massacre site, which passed into non-Indian hands generations ago, is up for sale, once again dragging Wounded Knee to the center of the Indian people’s bitter struggle against perceived injustice — as well as sowing rifts within the tribe over whether it would be proper, should the tribe get the land, to develop it in a way that brings some money to the destitute region.

James A. Czywczynski of Rapid City is asking $3.9 million for the 40-acre plot he owns here, far more than the $7,000 that the deeply impoverished Oglala Sioux say the land is worth. Mr. Czywczynski insists that his price fairly accounts for the land’s sentimental and historical value, an attitude that the people here see as disrespect.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/31/us/wounded-knee-site-for-sale-stirring-controversy.html?_r=0

[MineralMan]

1. I didn't know it was in private ownership. I've not been there, either.

That presents some real problems for those who want ownership in tribal hands, for sure.

[TwilightGardener]

2. It's absolutely sickening to see non-Indians trying to profit off of US genocide and calling it

"sentimental and historical value". And forcing the tribe to come up with the money to try to save it, in what amounts to blackmail. This is the second time this is happening--I used to live in Rapid City, I am ashamed of the craven right-wing assholes that populate that area. BTW, the actual land out there is good for grazing and little else--this guy is a grade-A douchenozzle.

[TeamPooka]

5. +1000

[SomethingFishy]

3. I can't believe they printed this:

"dragging Wounded Knee to the center of the Indian people’s bitter struggle against perceived injustice" Yeah "perceived" injustice. Still can't admit we stole their land and fucked them over.

[starroute]

6. Newspapers have become craven that way

You see them attaching the word "alleged" to crimes for which someone has already been convicted. Or saying things like "environmentalists claim" about purely factual matters of pollution or scientifically-confirmed health effects.

I don't know whether its fear of corporate retaliation, or simply the tendency of the news media to reduce everything to matters of "he said, she said" and never take a stand on where the truth lies. But it's undermining the ability of the citizenry to obtain accurate assessments of situations.

[xchrom]

4. Give it to the Oglala & take the write off.

[Apophis]

7. I've done a lot of archaeological work for the Oglala and this sickens me.

Why can't the greedy SOB give the land to the Oglala Sioux and write it off on his taxes?