South Dakota in the national spotlight
A collection of media reports that garnered U.S. attention
Huffington Post first publication to objectively report on tribal marijuana operation
After the news spread that a tribe living in Eastern South Dakota is in the midst of growing marijuana to then sell at a resort, the Huffington Post published an article that sheds a new light on what this means at the national level.
“South Dakota Tribe To Open Nation’s First Marijuana Resort” hit the AP wire about three hours ago, and surprised me with a number that says the tribe estimates this new venture to generate more than $2 million a month. For American Indians living in South Dakota, this is an amazing amount of funds. And, something that is much-needed in order to bring stability to its future generations.
Another plus is that the reporter referred to a document set forth by the Justice Department that says federal law, which continues to mandate that marijuana remain illegal, does not apply on tribal lands.
“The legalization of marijuana on the Santee Sioux land came in June, months after the Justice Department outlined a new policy that allows Indian tribes to grow and sell marijuana under the same conditions as some states.”
But that could change, as the article says the next administration can alter the document in 2017.
The article goes on to say that this is something that has not occurred in the U.S.
“A marijuana resort open to the public has never been tried in the U.S. Even in states such as Colorado and Washington, where pot is fully legal, consumption in public places is generally forbidden, although pro-pot activists are seeking to loosen those restrictions. Colorado tolerates a handful of private marijuana clubs.”
The resort will open on January 31, 2015 with a New Year’s Eve Party, according to the article.
For other news regarding South Dakota and its Native population, click here.
South Dakota principal shot, wounded; students safe
HARRISBURG, SD (AP) — The principal of a South Dakota high school was shot and lightly wounded Wednesday in a shooting at the school, but authorities said a suspected shooter was in custody and no students were reported hurt.
Harrisburg High School Principal Kevin Lein suffered a flesh wound in the morning attack, Superintendent James Holbeck told local media outlets.
The suspected shooter is believed to be a student and was in custody, Lincoln County Deputy State’s Attorney Ross Wright said. He said Lein was in stable condition.
District administrative assistant Tracy Heiden said all students were safe, but the school was locked down. Parents were asked to stay away, but a handful of parents had gathered outside one entrance. Access to the school from a main thoroughfare was shut off, with a sheriff’s deputy standing guard nearby with a rifle.
No Strip Searches for Transgendered Student-Athletes in South Dakota
Rep. Roger Hunt (R) told PJ Media that despite what publications like the Huffington Post and the Advocate may have printed, he has no interest in forcing high school athletes to drop their shorts so that school officials can determine whether they are or are not the gender they claim to be.
Nor does he want to ostracize students who are determined to be transgendered. But Hunt wants to make sure there is a process for this and, to be sure above all else, that South Dakotan values are maintained.
Hunt is working on legislation that could be introduced in January 2016 to establish the criteria and process through which the transgendered status of high schools students could be determined.
There were several media reports in late August and early September that claimed Hunt was interested only in the genitalia of transgendered students.
He believes those publications obviously write to their political agendas.
“Of course they do,” Hunt said. “When you start talking about everybody being ‘inspected,’ then you start dealing with concerns of rights of privacy and so on and so forth. But that is not the type of legislation that we are talking about.”
“We are not talking about … everyone on the basketball team has to line up so we can check everybody out,” he added.
A student’s claim of being transgendered does raise a lot of other questions about things like which locker room and/or bathroom they should use, which schools across the nation are dealing with.
Hunt admits that is a problem for many school districts. But it is not something his legislation would cover.
Hunt’s legislation would establish a statewide standard for the criteria of dealing with students who claim their gender is different than what was assigned at birth. It would include an appeals process that would be conducted within local school districts.
Hunt said it should begin with a claim from a high school athlete that he or she is transgendered. If the student’s school system rejects that assertion, based on the criteria set up by his legislation, there would be an appeal process available to the student.
He also said the student should bear the burden of proof to support the claim of being transgendered.
“Most of us (legislators) think this is really about how we determine the accuracy of that evidence and the prerequisites on which that claim are made,” he said.
The legislation is in a summer study group of the South Dakota legislature. Its legislative year begins in January.
The South Dakota High School Activities Association — which governs high school athletics in the state — has been trying to deal with this question because of a legislative backlash to the SDHSAA’s 2014 policy that allowed transgendered students to decide which team — boy’s or girl’s — they would join.
Two other legislative proposals were introduced in the 2015 legislative session to set standards for transgendered athletes.
Father’s apparent murder-suicide of wife, 4 kids leaves South Dakota town on edge
- Read an update from USA today here.
A South Dakota father’s apparent killing of his wife and four children with a shotgun and the discovery of their charred remains has put a rural community on edge.
South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley said authorities believe Scott Westerhuis killed his wife and four children on Thursday, set their house on fire near Platte and then turned the shotgun on himself.
Read up on the latest news from the Argus Leader here or for Associated Press reporting, read the Star Tribune article here.
Ken Lieuwen, a hardware store owner and distant cousin of Westerhuis said the deaths have shaken Platte, a community of around 1,200 residents about 110 miles from Sioux Falls.
“I just feel sorry for the family and friends,” Lieuwen said Tuesday. “There’s anger at Scott, and disbelief that the family is gone.”
“It’s hard enough accepting a fire, let alone that he shot them.” said Lorie Werkmeister, a restaurant owner in Platte.
The bodies of Scott and Nicole Westerhuis and their children Kailey, Jaeci, Connor and Michael were found in the burned ruins of their home. A passer-by reported the blaze early Thursday, but the fire chief said the home was all but destroyed by the time firefighters arrived.
Scott Westerhuis worked as a business manager for an educational cooperative. A state official said Tuesday that the co-op had been informed a day before the fire was reported that the state wouldn’t renew a $4.3 million contract to administer a college readiness program for Native American students, but the co-op superintendent said that wouldn’t have put Westerhuis’ job in jeopardy.
Counselors returned to Platte-Geddes schools on Tuesday to be available to students, and the district highlighted the Westerhuis children’s personalities in a statement.
Kailey, a third-grader, lit up a room with her smile and personality. Jaeci, a fifth-grader, was quieter, active in basketball, volleyball and swim team. Connor, an eighth-grader who played football, basketball and baseball, was polite, considerate and a bit of a prankster. Michael, a sophomore, was an excellent athlete, a talented musician and singer who also was on the quiet side, the district said.
The Westerhuis property sat on a gravel road 3 miles south of Platt. The property included a half-size football field with two goalposts and a two-story metal building that houses an indoor gym and weight room. That building was undamaged by the fire.
The gym was a popular spot for students, Platte-Geddes schools superintendent Joel Bailey said.
“The friends of Michael and Connor would go and play basketball there,” Bailey said. “Various groups were allowed to use it for practices.”
Tami Smit, who works at a coffee shop on Platte’s Main Street, said it was difficult to tell her 10- and 13-year-old daughters about the apparent murder-suicide.
“It’s a whole another set of emotions for the kids to process,” she said. “This is something that all of our kids are going to need help with for who knows how long.”
Scott and Nicole Westerhuis were high school sweethearts, Werkmeister told the Argus Leader. They both worked for Mid-Central Educational Cooperative, a Platte-based education organization that provides speech, language and hearing services to several schools across the area. Scott was a business manager for 15 of 16 years, and Nicole assistant business manager for about eight years.
The state Education Department decided not to renew the $4.3 million contract in the wake of a state audit last year that took issue with Mid-Central’s documenting some expenses. The audit found the company owed $214,000 to the state, which it paid. Tony Venhuizen, chief of staff for Gov. Dennis Daugaard, said preliminary results of this year’s audit showed similar issues.
Mid-Central’s total revenue for the current budget year is $10.5 million.
Mid-Central Superintendent Dan Guericke said he knew of no financial issues facing the couple and Scott Westerhuis’ employment would not have been in jeopardy because of the loss of a state contract.
“It would not have led to him losing his job,” Guericke said.
Scott Swier, an attorney whose firm represents Mid-Central, said he had no reason to believe Scott Westerhuis committed any wrongdoing before the incident last week. The Westerhuises were both still employed by Mid-Central at the time of the fire. He said he couldn’t comment further on personnel issues.
Buffalo Roundup is pure Americana spectacle
‘Oh give me a home where the buffalo roam,’ begins the classic Western song, which in 1947 was adopted as Kansas’ official state song. However, it’s South Dakota — not Dorothy’s home sweet home — that’s making us want to throw on our cowboy hats and giddyup onto the plains this month.
Billed as the largest event of its kind in the United States, the Custer State Park Buffalo Roundup is nothing if not a spectacle. Visitors show up as early as 6:15 a.m. to catch the action, lingering over pancakes and sausages, while wranglers work a free-roaming herd of 1,300 bison into corrals. The main event begins today, and lasts for four days.
Smithsonian.com reports that though the bison themselves can be viewed any season, the chance to see them hurtle en masse across the rolling green prairie only comes around once a year. And these are 2,000-pound beasts with horns — so the more supervision you have while observing them, the better.
Why should you go? Aside from the park’s stunning beauty, and the chance to see real cowboys cracking whips alongside the charging herd — the area holds a special claim on American culture.
The park itself offers plenty more to see than just bison. Pronghorn antelope, mountain goats, bighorn sheep, deer, elk and wild turkeys reside here, too, making this a one-stop Noah’s Ark for wildlife lovers.
Giant pumpkin is stolen from South Dakota yard in what grower calls a ‘brazen’ heist
SPEARFISH, S.D. — Matthew Murraine wants to know who swiped his 100-pound pumpkin.
Murraine has been growing a type of large pumpkin at his home in Spearfish, South Dakota, this summer. Last Friday, someone stole the largest one in a heist Murraine believes was carefully planned.
“They backed right up to the house. That’s pretty brazen,” he said. “They brought a saw. You could see on the stem where they had cut.”
The pumpkin grew as much as 2 inches per day, which Murraine said was fascinating “in a nerdy pumpkin grower kind of way.” It still had a month of growing time left and would have reached about 120 pounds, he estimated.
“It dwarfed my daughter, and she is 3,” he said.
During the growing season, the pumpkin required 20 gallons of water every four days and a gallon of milk each week for calcium. Murraine said the pumpkin was worth about $200, but the value isn’t what he considers most important.
“I want them to felt guilty about taking (it) from kids,” he said.
South Dakota school changes ‘Midget” mascot after objections
McLAUGHLIN, S.D. — A north-central South Dakota school has dropped its Midget mascot and nickname.
The move came after the nonprofit Little People of America organization asked the district to consider the change.
The “Midgets” had been the mascot of McLaughlin School District on the sprawling Standing Rock Indian Reservation that straddles the North Dakota-South Dakota border since 1929, but the board voted to drop it this week.
Little People of America president Gary Arnold reached out to the district asking for the change in exchanges with School Superintendent Scott Lepke who then brought the issue before the board.
The board responded by voting 3–1 this week in a special meeting to drop the nickname, with one board member absent.
Students are in charge of creating a new mascot and nickname by next March, according to school board president Juliana White Bull-Taken Alive.
The school’s basketball coach, Hank Taken Alive, said he’s never liked the nickname and was all in favor of retiring it.
“I’m an alumnus of the school, graduating in 1978, and all of those years I didn’t like it,” said the coach.
More importantly, he said working with young people, the school should set an example by being cognizant of people’s feelings.
“It’s similar to the Fighting Sioux nickname where a group took offense to the name,” the coach said in referring to the University of North Dakota and its struggles with changing its nickname after Native Americans took offense and then the NCCA threatened sanctions if the name wasn’t changed.
The nickname of Dickinson High School located in North Dakota, is also the Midgets.
Arnold was the point man for discussions with the McLaughlin school about the name.
In a letter dated last week, he wrote, “As you recall, during our conversation, we discussed that the word ‘midget’ has a derogatory nature to persons of short-stature and to the 1.9 million people tied to our organization’s network.
“In addition, having a midget represented as a mascot teaches our youth that the use of the word ‘midget’ to describe a person of short stature is acceptable and humorous. We hope that you will hear the voices of Little People of America and of those in your community who want a more appropriate mascot. If you change your mascot, we believe McLaughlin will be nationally applauded for recognizing the rights and responding to the concerns of disabled and marginalized communities.”
He said he understood that changing a mascot is a significant decision that will take time.
In his conversations with Lepke, Arnold said “it was clear that the students and some of the school board have an enthusiastic connection to a ‘midget’ as your mascot. However, during our research with other ‘midget’ mascot schools as well as McLaughlin, it was also clear that many are humored by the mascot, not connected to it. There are also others who simply don’t like the current mascot.”
