Police Say Tasering 8-Year-Old Native American Girl Was Justified

We have heard so much lately in the news about police abuse, police murdering innocent individuals, choking unarmed victims to death. Purposefully abusing their authority against those who look up to them for help in times of need.

The United States has become a "hot spot" for violence by police against the public. 

They seem to be taking on the old status and manners of the "SS" from times gone by. 

And they get away with it.

Here is another example of police abuse. Not against an adult, but against an 8 year old child. 


http://countercurrentnews.com/2014/12/native-american-police-over-reacting/

The mother of an 8-year-old Native American girl is suing police who maintain that they were justified in using a taser on the child. The family lives in Pierre, South Dakota and belong to the Rosebud Sioux community.

Four police officers decided that this young girl who had a small paring knife was “a danger to herself,” requiring them to taser her.

But her mother says that the officers should have used non-violent means to neutralize the threat they believed the 70-pound girl posed.

It all happened back in October of 2013, but since then family members have obtained attorneys Dana Hanna and Patrick Duffy and their tribe has released public statements against the incident of irrational police brutality.

“Within seconds,” the officer’s electroshock weapon discharged snares into the chest of the 70-pound girl, the lawsuit reads.

“The force of the electricity shot through her body, lifted her, and threw her against a wall. After the officers had stunned (the girl) into high voltage submission, they pulled the fish-hook like Taser darts from her chest, gave her emergency medical attention, bandaged the holes left by the razor-sharp hooks, and called the ambulance.”

Pierre Police Chief Bob Granpre, however, says that the police acted properly, and a two-month long investigate claims the same thing (PDF).

Attorney Dana Hanna recounts the incident, saying that the “four trained police officers surrounding a 70-pound, 8-year-old Indian girl,” should have used tactics that were less violent and not so risky to the young girl’s health and possibly life.

“One distracts her, another grabs the girl’s arm. That’s what they should have done,” Hanna continued.

“She had a kitchen paring knife, but hadn’t cut. She was a kid throwing a tantrum. They should have made an attempt to grab the kid, not use a weapon to throw her into a wall. A Taser’s not meant to kill, but it does kill. Many people have died after being hit by a Taser by cops. It never should be used on a little child. She certainly wasn’t presenting a danger to officers.”

The girl’s father, Bobby Jones added, “I don’t fault for the police being there because they were called. They were there. But what happened while they were there is why I’m upset,” in an early interview he did with local KSFY.

Hanna says that the girl, “L.M.J.”, is currently receiving mental and emotional counseling from a child counselor, as a result of the trauma she experienced at the hands of police. We’ll keep you updated on how the lawsuit proceeds.

(Article by Moreh B.D.K. and David Adawehi)

Native Lessons

Councel

"We as men should not fear our mates; we should listen to their counsel." -- Oren R. Lyons, Spokesman, Traditional Circle of Elders

The Elders say the men should look at women in a sacred way. The men should never put women down or shame them in any way. When we have problems, we should seek their counsel. We should share with them openly. A woman has intuitive thought. She has access to another system of knowledge that few men develop. She can help us understand. We must treat her in a good way.

Great Spirit, let me look upon the woman in a good way

By: Don Coyhis

"Come forward and join hands with us in this great work for the Creator." 

--Traditional Circle of Elders, Northern Cheyenne 
The Elders have spent years learning to pray and communicate with the Great Spirit. Their job is to pass this knowledge onto the young people. The Elders have told us we are now in a great time of healing. The Creator is guiding them to help the young people figure this out. We must get involved and participate. 

We should pray and see what it is the Great Spirit wants us to do. We need to sacrifice our time to help the people and to be of maximum use to the Creator. Every person is needed to accomplish this great healing.

Creator, whisper what You want me to do.

#TAIRP #NATIVEPRIDE



Abraham Lincoln Orderd The Hanging Of Natives Who Rebelled Because They Were Forced To Starve Under His Leadership 

Police Killing of Unarmed Native American Continues To Receive Little Media Attention

http://countercurrentnews.com/2014/12/justice-for-corey-kanosh/#

December 7, 2014 5:14 pm
·

The tragic case of Corey Kanosh, 35, has received very little media attention, in spite of the growing outrage over police shootings of unarmed, innocent citizens. In Corey’s case, we are not dealing with an African American man shot by white cops, but an unarmed Native American man who was suspected of crimes that he was later proven innocent of, who was given only seconds before police opened fire on him.

Corey was a member of the Paiute Tribe of Utah. In spite of the historical injustices committed by the State against Native Americans, his story has received virtually no national attention. Now, his friends and family have been pushing to move the legal process forward, but so far they have only raised a tiny amount of money.

“The hold up on progressing has been due to lack of money to fund the oh so dreaded legal process,” they explain. “We need your help. Please help us on our way to get this case back up and ready. It’s time to take on the unwilling non-cooperative Millard County Sheriffs Department.”

Corey was shot by a Millard County sheriff’s deputy after he was wrongly suspected of car theft.

Sheriff’s spokeswoman Lindsay Mitchell explained that a 911 call was made about the theft of a car from the Kanosh Paiute Indian Reservation. But Corey had nothing to do with that.

Watch the report in the video below…

Police claim that Corey tried to fight off the deputy who attempted to handcuff him for crimes that he never committed. This raises the question of when self-defense is acceptable against police who attack us without probable cause. Was Corey justified in trying to defend himself? Do you believe the official story?

Chief Dan George. Words Of Wisdom.

Walk with Creator daily.

Live your life in truth; always.

Integrity is necessary in life.

Show respect always.

Never pretend to be what you are not; for if you do this, your intentions in life are not sincere; they are selfish.

Never decieve your relations, or your friends.

Never take, without giving back.

Always be helpful to those in need.

Be thankful for what you have been gifted throughout your lifetime, before asking for something more.

Never take people or time for granted.

Keep your soul free of evil, and dark intentions.

Compassion and love are powerful medicine.

Pray always.

Judge Suspends Fort Lauderdale’s Ban On Feeding Homeless Amid Global Backlash

By John Vibes on December 3, 2014

Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/judge-suspends-fort-lauderdales-ban-feeding-homeless-global-backlash/#dTBYv4ohtPJX0lKu.99

Fort Lauderdale, Florida – As we reported last month, the city of Fort Lauderdale has been arresting homeless advocates for the crime of providing free food to people who need it.

90-year-old Arnold Abbott has been at the center of the controversy since the beginning, because he has refused to comply with a newly imposed local ordinance against feeding the homeless.

Abbot has been a charity worker for over 20 years and has continued to feed the homeless despite multiple arrests and fines. In some cases, Abbot was back on the streets the very next day after getting arrested, only to be shut down minutes later by police.

Videos of the arrests went viral, and quickly caused outrage all over the world. Local politicians have been fighting to justify their actions, but have only made themselves look worse with their callous comments to the media.

This week, as a result of that backlash, Broward Circuit Judge Thomas Lynch suspended the ordinance.

“We’re elated the judge has entered the stay,” John David, Abbott’s attorney told reporters after the ruling.

The judge was responding to a legal challenge filed by Abbot after his arrest. However, this does not mean that the law has been abolished entirely, Lynch told the Associated Press that he wants the dispute resolved through legal mediation or trial by the end of the year. The judge did not give any indication as to which way the ruling would go.

As the case is being mediated, the suspension will prevent police from arresting people for feeding the homeless, but this temporary reprieve will last just 30 days unless the court rules in favor of Abbot.

Now it seems that even the politicians who put the ordinance into effect are backpedaling on the issue.

“We’ve been trying to find some amicable resolution. We hope that Mr. Abbott meets us half way. We’ve asked him to meet us half way in the past. We would prefer to enforce our municipal ordinances, but whether the judge was trying to take a little steam off the kettle, whether the judge was trying to give a little period of quiet during the holidays, I’m not sure what was the logic behind his decision,” Mayor Jack Seiler said in a statement.

This fight is nothing new, Abbot has been fighting against the city for years, just so he can provide this free service to his community. In 1999, Abbot was banned from feeding the homeless and successfully sued the city after a lengthy legal battle.

---

John Vibes is an author, researcher and investigative journalist who takes a special interest in the counter culture and the drug war. In addition to his writing and activist work he is also the owner of a successful music promotion company. In 2013, he became one of the organizers of the Free Your Mind Conference, which features top caliber speakers and whistle-blowers from all over the world. You can contact him and stay connected to his work at his Facebook page. You can find his 65 chapter Book entitled “Alchemy of the Timeless Renaissance” at bookpatch.com.

Man Arrested For Feeding Homeless Gets Arrested THIRD TIME This Month

http://countercurrentnews.com/2014/11/man-arrested-for-feeding-homeless-gets-arrested-third-time-this-month/#

The story about 90-year-old Arnold Abbott’s arrest for feeding the homeless in Fort Lauderdale, Florida went viral earlier this month. Then, on Tuesday – just two days after his first arrest – Abbott was arrested again. Just last Wednesday, he found himself in cuffs a third time, and the local mayor is not backing down from this totalitarian law.

The city’s ban on “public food sharing” went into effect October 22nd. Abbott, the founder of Love Thy Neighbor Foundation, a local nonprofit organization that feeds the homeless, says that he never thought for a minute about complying with the dictates of the mayor.

The first confrontation occurred on November 2nd when an officer literally told the humanitarian hero to “’Drop that plate immediately.’ As though it were a weapon,” Abbott recalled.

Abbott has now decided to file a motion against the city to uphold a 1999 ruling that permits his organization’s feeding of the homeless.

In the meantime, Abbott says he will keep showing up to feed the homeless at 5:30 every Wednesday, regardless of how many times police arrest him.

“I appreciate all of your concern for my safety,” Abbott said to his supporters, “but I have faced the Klu Klux Klan on many occasions, and I have no fear of spending the night in a Fort Lauderdale jail,” Abbott wrote on Facebook. “I thank you all, and I pray that we all stay strong. We shall prevail!”

If you agree that the police and local government have gone way too far, and that Mayor Seiler has overstepped his bounds and is regulating private, protected activity, the please take a minute share this article with your friends and family, and encourage them to contact the Mayor and let him know that you support Abbott and that private donations should not be punished!

To contact Mayor Seiler, please call (954) 828-5003 or send an e-mail to jack.seiler@fortlauderdale.gov.

Admin note: We urge you make your voice heard in this matter.

Arresting and hand cuffing a 90 year old man for feeding the homeless is outrageous. 

The Shocking Rates Of Violence And Abuse Facing Native American Kids

BY TARA CULP-RESSLER POSTED ON NOVEMBER 18, 2014 AT 9:12 AM

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/11/18/3593300/violence-native-american-kids/


Darrell Follette and Ida Follette recount the day their daughter committed suicide on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation

CREDIT: AP PHOTO/MICHAEL ALBANS

A panel of experts has released a lengthy report detailing the extent of the public  health issues plaguing American Indian children who live on tribal land, concluding that these kids’ lives are being “destroyed by relentless violence and trauma.”

According to the researchers, American Indian kids suffer from disproportionately high rates of abuse and neglect, and most of them aren’t receiving any treatment for those issues. They experience post-traumatic stress disorder at roughly the same rate as service members returning from the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. And they’re twice as likely as any other race to die before the age of 24.

“Today, a vast majority of American Indian and Alaska Native children live in communities with alarmingly high rates of poverty, homelessness, drug abuse, alcoholism, suicide, and victimization,” the report states. “Domestic violence, sexual assault, and child abuse are widespread. Continual exposure to violence has a devastating impact on child development and can have a lasting impact on basic cognitive, emotional, and neurological functions.”

To remedy these issues, the group is pressuring Attorney General Eric Holder to extend more legal protections to children on Native American reservations, including allowing the government to criminally prosecute non-Indian people who commit violence against kids in tribes.

There are 566 federally-recognized Native American tribes across the country. Under a 1978 Supreme Court ruling, however, those tribes are prohibited from exercising criminal jurisdiction over outside defendants — something that’s historically hampered their ability to crack down on sexual violence.

Lats year, with the passage of an expanded version of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), Native American women gained these type of protections from domestic violence and abuse. The Justice Department has been rolling out a pilot program to integrate this new legal standard on some tribal land. Now, if women on those reservations report an assault perpetrated by a non-Indian, the tribe’s police chief will have more recourse to go after that perpetrator.

But VAWA only applies to women — and doesn’t extend the same type of protection to American Indian children who are victims of abuse or assault. That’s a loophole that the expert task force, which was assembled by the Attorney General’s office specifically to provide a better snapshot of the issues with violence on reservations, wants to close. In communities where the rates of sexual abuse are high and the youth suicide rate has been climbing, experts want to find a better way to support young people.

The new report puts forth several recommendations for strengthening the safety net for Native American kids, including increasing the Department of Justice’s funding for tribal justice programs and establishing a federal Native American Affairs Office that employs an official dedicated to overseeing issues related to minors living on reservations.

Some of the proposed policy changes in the report can be accomplished through executive actions, while others require new state and federal legislation. But it’s possible there will be some political resistance. During the recent fight over VAWA, the added protections for Native American woman were a sticking point for Congressional Republicans, who didn’t want to extend tribal authority. Before VAWA was eventually re-authorized, Republicans refused to pass the expanded version and allowed the law to lapse in the first time since its 1994 passage.

Despite the potential political controversy, the authors of the report state their objectives in terms of basic civil rights and justice, noting that “lives are at stake.”

“This is a defining moment for our nation and for this generation,” the report concludes. “How we choose to deal with the current public safety crisis in Native America — a crisis largely of the Federal government’s own making over more than a century of failed laws and policies — can set our generation apart from the legacy that remains one of great unfinished challenges of the Civil Rights Movement.”

Tags:

 

• Department of Justice
• Native Americans
• Sexual Assault
• Suicide

Cancer cured by 'medicine man', First Nations man says

CBC – 9 hours ago

CBC - Cancer cured by 'medicine man', First Nations man says

An Anishnawbe man from northwestern Ontario says traditional healing practices "got rid" of his leukemia, and he's concerned recent controversy over the treatment of two First Nations girls in southern Ontario will rob others of a cure.

On Nov. 14, an Ontario judge dismissed an application from McMaster Children's Hospital in Hamilton that would have forced chemotherapy on an 11-year-old First Nations girl. Earlier this year there were concerns that children's aid would intervene in the case of another First Nations girl after her family withdrew her from chemotherapy.

"People who [were] trying to take the child away, they're just close minded about the possibilities of traditional healing," said Daryl Archie. "I'm alive and well and a good example that it does work."

'All those needles'

The 47-year-old from Big Grassy River First Nation, was diagnosed with leukemia when he was a 19-year-old and sent to Winnipeg for chemotherapy. He said doctors gave him a 50/50 chance of survival.

"Some of those medical treatments they do are pretty painful. They stick a big needle into your hip bone for marrow with no pain killers at all," Archie said, recalling that the chemotherapy drugs made him feel "antsy and anxious."

"Eventually I got tired of the drugs and all those needles."

After about 6 months of unsuccessful treatments Archie left Winnipeg. "I guess I felt like I'd just go home and, I don't know," he said, his voice trailing off. He was close to death. "I wondered why is this happening to me?"

Archie went to Roseau River First Nation in Manitoba and took part in traditional Anishnawbe ceremonies.

Sweat lodge and shaking tent

But then Archie's sister found "a traditional healer, a medicine man, who I could go see who would help me," he said.

He travelled to Roseau River First Nation in Manitoba and took part in traditional Anishnawbe ceremonies like the sweat lodge and shaking tent and was introduced to a healer named Eddie Two-Teeth from Montana. Two-Teeth conducted more ceremonies and Archie travelled with him to the United States.

"He gave me some medicine, it was a small tree and he told me to wrap it in a circle (it was about six to eight inches across) and to boil that and drink the water from there and to drink it for 30 days," Archie said.

The healer told him to keep a positive attitude and when the 30 days were up to go to a doctor for a blood test.

 "So I did and my doctor, after the test came back, he told me my blood was just as good as his," Archie said. "So that told me I was rid of the leukemia."

'With the help of the Creator'

Archie said he has remained healthy in the decades since he was cured. He's not sure why the traditional ways worked for him when chemotherapy failed, but believes it's related to prayer.

"With traditional medicine, it's with the help of the Creator and with western medicine it's all just all chemicals and drugs that they put into your body," he said. "With the ceremonies, the Creator is right there. They don't even talk about that in the hospital."

The families of both of the First Nations girls choose to remove them from chemotherapy. They have sought alternative treatment at a clinic in Florida that they say is in line with traditional indigenous medicine. Questions have been raised about the clinic and the qualifications of the man who is treating them.

​Teresa Trudeau is the traditional healing coordinator at Anishnawbe Mushkiki in Thunder Bay.

'Credibility comes from the community'

Archie isn't familiar with the details of the girls' treatment, but he said he felt confident about Eddie Two-Teeth's skills as a healer "from talking to the people in Roseau River and what they've seen and people that had gotten healed already from this medicine man," he said. "That kind of reinforced my belief in him."

​Teresa Trudeau said that's the way verification of healers generally works. Trudeau is the traditional healing coordinator at Anishnawbe Mushkiki in Thunder Bay, one of several Native Health Access Centres across Ontario that provide both western medicine and First Nations healing.

"Credibility comes from the community when it comes to traditional health care," Trudeau said. "That's how someone becomes recognized. The references are very important."

Traditional and western medicine can work together

Trudeau said the most common misconception she encounters is that patients must choose between seeing a doctor or seeing a healer.

"It's not an either/or, you can work hand in hand with traditional and western medicine, in fact it's necessary," she said, adding that healers often rely on diagnostics such as blood tests or x-rays to better treat their patients.

Trudeau said there are some standard plant-based medicines that are used by healers to treat a variety of ailments, but "medicine people" will also use ceremony to receive a vision of a particular medicine to use for an individual seeking their help.

"A ceremony to seek that medicine is necessary," she said. "With spiritual guidance, through prayer, the traditional healer will see that medicine visually, it will come to them, the particular medicine that individual will need. It's not to say that one medicine will work for everybody."

True "medicine people" are rare, Trudeau said, perhaps one or two per province in Canada. But she adds traditional healing is accessible to everyone.

"We are healers within all of us. That's what our healers do. They show us how to heal ourselves on our own. That's part of empowerment, is teaching people how to do that," she said.

"It's not the healer who heals us. You heal yourself."

8 Things The History Books Don’t Tell Us About Native People

http://nativewarriors.net/8-things-the-history-books-dont-tell-us-about-native-people.html

Originally published on Indian Country Today Media Network

Do history books written by white folks tell the truth about Natives in the US? We think not.

Here are just some of the things they fail to mention.

1. Columbus NEVER landed in the Upper 48—Ever

Every year across the country countless elementary school students recite: “In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue,” and many perform a play about him discovering Indians in America.

The thing is, Columbus never landed in what would become the United States. He actually landed in the Caribbean.

2. Basically Everything About Pocahontas

Pocahontas was about 8 years old when John Smith arrived, and was later married to another young Indian warrior. She also had a child that was given away before she was kidnapped by the English and then married to John Rolfe.

Sorry Disney, and many incorrectly written textbooks, Pocahontas never fell in love with John Smith.

According to tribal oral histories as well as The True Story of Pocahontas by members of the Mattaponi Tribe, Pocahontas’ original young Native husband was killed and Pocahontas’ newborn was given to relatives before she was forced into captivity at about 15 or 16 years of age.

3. The First Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was named after an entire tribe’s massacre — not a peaceful meal between pilgrims and Indians.

In 1621, Wampanoag Indians investigated gun and cannon fire at a Pilgrim settlement to see them celebrating a successful harvest. The Indians — all male warriors, were fed as a gesture of peace. The act was not repeated annually.

In 1636, when a murdered man was discovered in a boat in Plymouth, English Major John Mason collected his soldiers and killed and burned down the wigwams of all the neighboring Pequot Indians who were blamed for the murder.

The following day, Plymouth Governor William Bradford applauded the massacre of the 400 Indians, including the women and children. The Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, William Newell, proclaimed: “From that day forth, shall be a day of celebration and thanks giving for subduing the Pequots.”

For the next 100 years, every Thanksgiving Day ordained by a governor was in honor of the bloody victory, thanking God that the battle had been won.

4. What is a Redskin?

“It was only five generations ago that a white man could get money for one of my grandfather’s scalps,” wrote 1491’s comedian Dallas Goldtooth on Facebook. “At this time… it was ‘Redskin’ that was used to describe us.”

In his post, Goldtooth also included a newspaper clipping from after the U.S. Dakota Wars of 1862: “The state reward for dead Indians has been increased to $200 for every red-skin sent to Purgatory.”

5. Lincoln Ordered a Mass Execution

In the fall of 1862, Native tribes in Minnesota waged war on white settlers out of frustration from starvation, mistreatment and harsh conditions.

After soldiers captured over 300 Indians, President Abraham Lincoln approved the largest mass execution in U.S. history on 38 Dakota men.

On the day of their hanging, an estimated 4,000 spectators watched them hung. Their bodies were later taken and used as medical cadavers.

6. Hitler Studied Reservations

There are many accounts of the Nazis and Hitler studying Indian reservations for guidance in planning encampments for the Jewish. Perhaps Lia Mandelbaum says it best in her article found in the Jewish Journal entitled “Hitler’s Inspiration and Guide: The Native American Holocaust.”

From 1863 to 1868, the U.S. military persecuted and imprisoned 9,500 Navajo (the Diné) and 500 Mescalero Apache (the N’de). Living under armed guards, in holes in the ground, with extremely scarce rations, it is no wonder that more than 3,500 Navajo and Mescalero Apache men, women, and children died while in the concentration camp.

During the film I learned about something that shook me to my core that I had not heard before. I learned that the genocidal mentality and actions of the U.S. policy makers would find similar expression years later when the Nazis, under Hitler, studied the plans of Bosque Redondo to design the concentration camps for Jews.

7. There Are 566 Federally Recognized Tribes in the U.S.

When I was a student in high school, I learned that George Washington saw Indians in Virginia and possibly heard once or twice about the Cherokee Trail of Tears.

But in 18 years of public school (and a few of private Catholic School) — not once did I learn about the multitude of tribes, languages or cultures involved in this country.

NOT ONCE.

8. Unwritten History of African Americans and Natives

Dr. Arica L. Coleman is the assistant professor of Black American Studies at the University of Delaware. She is African American and Native American (Rappahannock).

Due to her ancestry, she has done a lot of thinking about the relations and interactions of Blacks, Indians and whites on the East Coast, primarily in Virginia.

According to Coleman, who turned her Ph.D. dissertation into a book titled That the Blood Stay Pure, there was Indian slavery in Virginia.

“The first slaves in the Americas were Native American and this business that the Native Americans died off as a result of disease and war [is inaccurate]—those were not the only reasons for their demise, there was the Indian slave trade, which is something we do not discuss a lot,” she writes.

Coleman also writes about Walter Plecker, a man who once worked as the first registrar of Virginia’s Bureau of Vital Records. A man who literally changed races in Virginia’s birth records. His actions have been coined as “pencil genocide.”

Similarly, William Loren Katz, the author of Black Indians has written how entire cities of blacks and Indians came together as a strong force against European settlers including huge factions of black Seminoles who created nearly impenetrable forces against those soldiers foolish enough to try and break into Florida, and suffered miserable defeats over several years.

Student Suspended for Speaking Native American Language

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/02/07/student-suspended-speaking-native-american-language-96340

Miranda Washinawatok, 12, is a student at Sacred Heart Catholic Academy.

ICTMN Staff

2/7/12

After a 12-year-old Menominee student spoke her Native language during class, she was suspended from playing in that night’s basketball game, and memories of past boarding school atrocities surfaced.

Miranda Washinawatok attends Sacred Heart Catholic Academy in Shawano, Wisconsin. According toNative News Network, the school is more than 60 percent Native American and is about six miles from the Menominee Indian Tribe Reservation.

When Miranda was teaching a classmate to say “posoh” and “ketapanen” on January 19, her teacher scolded her. Native News Network reported her saying “You are not to speak like that! How do I know you’re not saying something bad? How would you like it if I spoke in Polish and you didn’t understand?”

The words Miranda was chastised for translate to “hello” and “I love you” in Menominee.

“Miranda kept saying she was only told by her assistant coach she was being benched because two teachers said she had a bad attitude,” Tanaes Washinawatok, Miranda’s mother, told Native News Network. “I wanted to know what she did to make them say she had a bad attitude.”

There is dispute over who actually did the suspending, but the school has admitted it “failed miserably in its handling of the matter.” Deacon Ray DuBois, the communication director for the Diocese of Green Bay, which operates the school, also told Native News Network that the school does not prohibit the use of any language and that “the number one priority is to help this girl.”

Miranda isn’t a troublemaker. Her mother told Native News that she is mature and respectful. Miranda plays basketball and is the team captain of a volleyball team.

“When it comes to Native language, Miranda should be proud she learned and can speak her Native language,” wrote Levi Rickert in a February 4 post on Native News Network.

Tara McGregor, a commenter at Nativenewsnetwork.com, says “As a teacher you have a responsibility to be culturally aware of your students and encourage diversity. This is a reminder to all of us that this type of oppression still exists. I hope that this example of ignorance is not forgotten, and we continue to move forward while creating a world that fosters children who embrace their heritage.”

Rhonda LeValdo, of the Acoma Pueblo and president of the Native American Journalists Association, wrote a piece forNative Connection stating Indian country's support for Miranda. She says: "All  Americans need to know about the boarding schools. They need to know how the language was beaten out of many of our elders, so much that their children never learned the language for that fear of them being hurt. This all happened in this country and so many deny the abuses, but it happened."

Read more athttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/02/07/student-suspended-speaking-native-american-language-96340