League of Indigenous Nations and Cante Tenza Okolakiciye challenge South Dakota .
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Publisert tirsdag 07. juni 2011 11:34
League of Indigenous Nations and Cante Tenza Okolakiciye challenge South Dakota to return my child immediately or else!!!
The State of South Dakota, particularly the Department of Social Services (DSS) has been illegally holding my child, Temok, for the last 8 months in their foster care system.

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!
After I was released from jail I realized that DSS had no intentions of returning my child to me, even though they repeatedly told me while I was incarcerated that "I was one of the best moms they had ever seen, and that as soon as I get out of jail, they would be happy to release my son to me."

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 Well, lil Temock was coming into visits extremely withdrawn and emotional, bruised, bitten, scratched, with busted lips, and even once with a swollen gashed eye that took weeks to heal.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."
I realized that the State agencies involved in my case - the Rapid City Police Department, The Department of Social Services, and the Pennington County Court System - had intentions of punishing my child and I because I stood up against them in defense of our rights and the rights of our Lakota Oyate to be free and left alone after I began to study the law and build a case against them. It was eye-opening! I discovered that over 25 South Dakota Codified Laws, 6 Constitutional Laws, 5 Supreme Court Rulings, The International Declaration of Indigenous Peoples Rights, The Rights of the Child and the Woman as protected under International Law, the Vienna Convention of 1961, The Fort Laramie Treaties, the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, the Genocide Act (Public Law 100-606), and basic human, civil, and indigenous rights had been violated in our case. So I drafted up and submitted motions to dismiss both cases against me supported by affidavits and violations of law, yet Judge Jeff W. Davis threw them all out and threatened to label me as incompetent to stand pro se if I kept it up. Ugh...
So... the story is so much longer than that... but to make it shorter...

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!
An order is being issued in the morning for my son to be returned home immediately... and things will progress from there. We will have media support as we go to pick him up tomorrow. We want to ask the public for their support in this case, as we stand up against the corruption and the mass civil rights violations that have occured in these cases. Please stand behind us as we fight for our rights and therefore, the civil rights of all people as a whole. There is much more to come! Haho! Hoka Hey!
Mitakuye Ieyuha,
Stephanie Rouillard
Cante Tenza Okolakiciye
Tetuwon Council Judicial Member