Non-South Dakota press exposing red state collapse; earth haters file appeal of Cobell settlement

A series of press stories on how South Dakota has failed its Native population is exposing Republican misdeeds. Madville Times posted a scathing indictment of South Dakota's lawyer/governor and his role in seizing children from their families.

Montana's Youth Homes places Native children with Native foster parents:

We have built diversity in services with wilderness-based therapeutic intervention and learning labs to support education. We have addressed the cultural needs of our Native children and the uniqueness of the varied backgrounds of the many children and families we meet and attempt to help.

Mary Black Bonnet writes about her experience as a Native child in a white home. Here is a performance piece she helped produce:



KW sez:

...90 business prospects were among nearly 600 guests who traveled to Pierre last weekend for the 2011 Governor's Invitational Pheasant Hunt. All together they killed 1,369 pheasants. The heavily Republican guest list included state legislators, local officials, business leaders and former South Dakota governors Frank Farrar, Harvey Wollman, Walter Dale Miller and Mike Rounds. The guest list also included Journal editor Michael LeFort.

RT@ILPCTurtleTalk this from the blog of The Legal Times:

A conservative think tank that advocates for free enterprise and limited government is challenging the $3.4 billion settlement in a Native American class action in Washington, saying the judge in the high-profile case should not have certified a class. The non-profit public interest group Competitive Enterprise Institute, represented by McGuireWoods, submitted a brief supporting opponents of the landmark settlement who are challenging the merits of the deal.“Large settlements—including large class-action settlements—are rarely isolated events; instead they signal to future litigants (or future class-action lawyers) that the rules underlying litigation have changed, and that they should continue to push the boundaries of the legal system.” The suit, filed by the late Elouise Cobell in 1996 in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, demanded an historical accounting of money the government held in trust for thousands of Native Americans.