Das STANDING ROCK TEENS CENTER öffnet die Türen – ein Projekt des Lakotas People`s Law Project

Liebe Unterstützer*innen, es freut uns Euch mitteilen zu können, dass eines der Projekte, das wir auch dank Eurer Spenden beim Entstehen haben mitunterstützen können nun Wirklichkeit wird. Ganz so wie der Spruch, der über dem Su Ann Big Crows Boys & Girls Claub in Pine Ridge steht, “take a dream to reallity” ist nun auch in der Standing Rock Reservation ein weiterer Traum wahr geworden, nämlich die Eröffnung des Niyakhe Yuza Teen Centers. Anbei ein Schreiben des LPLP samt Video-Zugang. Unser Verein unterstützte in Vergangenheit auch weitere LPLP-Projekte, z. B. den Rechtsfond für Angeklagte und Inhaftierte der Pipeline-Proteste, Gesundheitsprävention im Kontext von Covid 19, den Aufbau eines Child Protective Services Programmes mit eigener Einrichtung (siehe Text und Video 2). ´Gerade auch letzteres Projekt erscheint uns sehr wichtig, denn bis heute ist die Tradition ungebrochen, Kinder aus indigenen Familien in “weiße” Einrichtungen und Pflegefamilien zu geben. Was in solchen Einrichtungen zu erwarten ist, hat letzte Woche Paris Hilton öffentlich gemacht. Was dies aber seit Generationen gerade für indigene Kinder bedeutet, bleibt immer noch unerwähnt. Damit wir auch in Zukunft solche wichtigen Projekte weiter unterstützen können, sind wir auf eure Unterstützung angewiesen. Ohne weitere Spenden an uns und auch zur Finanzierung unserer Sachausgaben (Internet, Zoom-Gebühren, Druckkosten, Porto, Büromaterial, usw…….) wird dies in Zukunft nicht mehr im bisherigen Maße möglich sein.

Text 1:

Dear Michael,

As I wrote to you earlier this week, the future is looking bright for the youth of Standing Rock Nation. Now, I have more details on the Niyakhe Yuza Teen Center for you. If you’ve been following its progress, you know the teen center has undergone a transformation, and now it’s doors are finally open! Today, it’s hosting an open house, and we’re off to a tremendous start.

Click above to watch: celebrities Lou Diamond Phillips, Piper Perabo, and Taboo joined Chase and Hoksila in calling for support of the Niyakhe Yuza Teen Center!

As a supporter of Niyakhe Yuza, you’re joining a group that now includes entertainers Lou Diamond Phillips, Piper Perabo, and Taboo of the Black Eyed Peas. Please watch this video featuring them, a co-production that we launched on social media on Indigenous Peoples’ Day. 

We’re excited to report the video has already been seen nearly 400,000 times — with retweets from major personalities, including actor Mark Ruffalo and Congress members Ted Lieu and Ayanna Pressley. Your generosity is now bolstered greatly by new supporters within our movement to provide Standing Rock teens with a place to learn, play, and call their own.

As we’ve focused on amplifying this exciting project in the media, Hoksila hasn’t stopped in his outreach efforts at home. He recently met with school administrators in Bear Soldier District, and he made a presentation to the student body last week. The teens are excited to come in and check out all the good stuff in store for them, and we’re grateful your support is making all of this a reality. I can’t thank you enough!

Wopila tanka — my deep gratitude for supporting this wonderful place for our youth.
Chase Iron Eyes
Co-Director and Lead Counsel
The Lakota People’s Law Project

Text 2:

Dear Michael,

Exciting things are happening at Standing Rock Nation. We wrote to you recently about Janet Alkire’s election as the first chairwoman in more than six decades. Now, Janet — an Air Force veteran and a progressive with two stints as executive director of the tribe — will soon be officially certified and sworn in. 

Watch: In our new video, we discuss the challenge of keeping Native kids in Native kinship care — and the importance of overcoming those challenges. 

We intend to offer a helping hand at Standing Rock — or wherever Lakota, Dakota, or Nakota children are threatened by those who violate the Indian Child Welfare Act or denigrate Indigenous identity and kinship systems. Please watch our new video, which addresses why many of our foster kids live away from their homelands in non-Native care. We’d like to help Janet and her administration fix this problem.
 
To accomplish this, we’re willing to leverage our current relationships in DC — including our friendships with U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and NY Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez — to lobby for direct federal funding of foster care and adoption services for Standing Rock. At present, only a handful of tribes throughout the nation receive direct federal funding, an arrangement which can eliminate the waste and abuse that occur when states serve as intermediaries. 
 
Tribes should be in control of their own Child Protective Services programs; they should not report to state Departments of Social Services which often seem to have an assimilationist agenda. The long practice of removal of our children which began with Indian boarding schools has continued, unabated, through abuses of the foster care system. More than a century of genocide is now writ large in all the tragic headlines about mass graves being discovered across North America. 
 
Chairwoman Alkire’s leadership at Standing Rock can make the tribe a model of the change we want to see. We’ll continue to stand with Standing Rock, and we hope you’ll stay with us every step of the way. Your continued friendship and support make a better future for our children a very real possibility.

Wopila tanka — thank you for all your care and support.
Chase Iron Eyes
Co-Director and Lead Counsel
The Lakota People’s Law Project