Students from the Pine Ridge Reservation held a march this week aimed at preserving and protecting animals on the homeland of the Oglala Sioux. Their primary focus was saving dogs from the mass sweeps the tribe has announced…and which have resulted in the deaths of dozens of dogs in the past.
The report of a young Lakota girl’s death last November as the result of a dog attack caused tribal officials to immediately round up and kill any dogs on the Pine Ridge Reservation considered to be “stray”.
Protests by tribal elders over that knee-jerk reaction to the reservation’s long-standing “loose dogs” problem led to a tribal pet registration and tagging program that many saw as a positive alternative to killing animals considered sacred by the Lakota
But 6 months later, the tribe is once again looking at “dog sweeps” as the solution to a problem many feel can only be solved by widespread spaying and neutering as well as animal education for all.
Alice Phelps is the principal at Wounded Knee District School and a board member of the Lakota Animal Care Project. Phelps says a spay/neuter/education program was proposed to the tribe after last year’s tagging process.
“We’re not sure exactly what caused the reasoning to go ahead with the dog sweep…as we thought everything was fine with the proposal,” observes Phelps. “However, we did get word through the attorney general with our tribe that they are going to resort to the dogs roundups...so, you know, our students are very, very concerned.”
In an attempt to voice their objections to the tribe’s plan for rounding up and killing dogs, 30 students marched to the tribal council chambers in Pine Ridge village only to be told the council meeting had been moved across the reservation to the village of Wanblee.
The tribal council had been apprised of the students’ plan to march and present their views while the council was in session.
Alice Phelps says the students did speak to a few council reps who were available at Pine Ridge, but their concerns weren’t place on record.
The Pine Ridge students plan to try speaking to their council representatives again next month, says Phelps, no matter where the council meets.
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