Debra White Plume.
Dahcotah Sioux country.pdf
I was illegally incarcerated for 28 days in October 2010 without an arrest warrant, without an officer being witness to a crime being committed by me, and without any substantial evidence against me. The 5 officers involved in my arrest and questioning heard nothing from me other than they were in violation of being foreigners on Lakota Oyate territory, that they had no jurisdiction over me, a Lakota wombyn, and that if they wanted to investigate anything, let's investigate how their agencies have been illegally enforcing their iron rule over our people for hundreds of years and using it to commit terrible crimes against us. Apparently, they didn't like that too much, and as a result, my son paid the highest price for his mother's beliefs and Indigenous Resistance. How would you feel, at 2 years old, to be snatched away from your loving mother with no idea of what's going on, then placed with complete strangers who know nothing of your culture and life, and who then proceed to abuse you? Well, this has been happening to our people for hundreds of years, i.e. the boarding schools, genocide, massacre... etc. Ugh. But it doesn't mean that we have to bend over and let it continue to happen! 
Number 4 out of the 4 most important creations I've created in my life ~Temoc~ Instead, I found out that they filed an abuse and neglect case against me, and intented to keep my son, because apparently " I would not perform my parental responsibilities" so they placed him with white people, who apparently, would. Well, lil Temock was coming into visits extremely withdrawn and emotional, bruised, bitten, scratched, with busted lips, and even once with a swollen gashed eye that took weeks to heal. When I raised a fuss with DSS, Supervisor Deb Horan told me that I was overreacting, and that his marks were "normal, and age-relevant." 
After much struggle standing on my own in the fight to get my son back and to free myself from beneath the yoke of this system which failed miserably to adhere to its own law, I finally met by chance Duane Martin Sr., the headsman of Cante Tenza Okolakiciye, the Strong Heart Warrior Society. I had already turned to many sources for help but most did absolutely nothing for us, or were unable to help. So Duane agreed to help me, and together we notified the League of Indigenous Nations of Canada of our situation. The League of Indigenous Nations has the power to enforce international law, which supercedes state and federal law, and investigates them when they abuse their power against native people. So, we received word today that a complaint is being issued against all agencies involved in this case. The attorney general of South Dakota wants to dismiss both cases if they revoke the complaint, but at this point, after all that my son and I have gone through, and on a broader scale, what my people are suffering through, and what my ancestors died for... I say NO WAY! Now it is time for the truth to come out! 
