I love Brookings because it is usually much smarter than this:
A Brookings student was not allowed to wear an eagle feather to honor his Sioux heritage at this weekend’s high school graduation ceremonies [Mark Russo, “Tribal Feather Causes Trouble at Brookings Graduation,” KELO Radio, 2019.05.27].
What?! Brookings School District, if you read Dakota Free Press, you’d know that denying a Native student permission to wear tribal regalia is flat illegal. If you read your own Associated School Boards of South Dakota guidance, you’d know denying that privilege was illegal:
As your district’s 2019 graduation date approaches, ASBSD wants to remind schools that any student choosing to wear an eagle plume or eagle feather during the graduation ceremony must be allowed to do so.
In 2018, the legislature passed House Bill 1252, which prohibits certain government entities from prohibiting any person from wearing traditional tribal regalia or objects of cultural significance at a school honoring or graduation ceremony, and former Gov. Dennis Daugaard signed it into law.
The law specifically defines tribal regalia as an eagle feather or eagle plume and was enacted on July 1, 2018, which makes this year the first year it is active.
“Tribal regalia is clearly defined in statute and schools must comply with it should they have students choose to wear either an eagle feather or eagle plume at the graduation ceremony,” ASBSD Executive Director Wade Pogany said [Associated School Boards of South Dakota, “Tribal Regalia at Graduation Ceremonies,” 2019.04.29].
But my friend Tasiyagnunpa Barondeau says Brookings High School faculty apparently didn’t get that memo and yanked her son’s feather:
My son, Miles Paul Livermont, a descendent of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, was honored by his Cheyenne River Sioux family with an eagle feather and star quilt at a family gathering at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Brookings, SD, a couple hours before Brookings High School commencement ceremony on May 26, 2019.
Just before he processed with his class, school faculty insisted he remove and hand over the eagle feather, or he would not be able to walk into the arena with his classmates.
…Miles, a Regent Scholar and member of the Brookings Forensics team, made his argument to the counselors and administration citing state law. They stated that he had failed to have it approved early enough to be allowed to wear it [Tasiyagnunpa Barondeau, “Brookings School Board Must Apologize for Stripping Tribal Senior of Eagle Feather,” Change.org, 2019.05.28].
Reread the new tribal regalia statute: “The state, any of its political subdivisions, municipalities or subdivisions thereof shall not prohibit any person from wearing traditional tribal regalia or objects of cultural significance at a school honoring or graduation ceremony.” The statute mentions no pre-approval, no deadline, no exceptions or discretion. If a student walks into graduation wearing an eagle feather, school officials “shall not prohibit” that feather-wearing student from walking.
Brookings faculty broke the law. Brookings faculty’s ignorance of this law is inexcusable.
Mr. PP has many comments from yesterday debating this very topic. grudznick says these fatcat administrators in Brookings need to get taken to the woodshed.
Anne Beal had some interesting insight into this confrontation. I’ll bet she has more and hope she shares them here, without any dilution.
If those school officials confiscated the eagle feather they are in illegal possession of rapter feathers without a permit.
Shame on BHS. They totally blew that. Since a crime was committed, what will the response be? An arrest? A fine? I’m assuming it’s a misdemeanor.
Nick, the eagle feather was placed in a safe place, and returned before the event ended.
I am in awe at the brazen display of useless defense of something that doesn’t exist. Under what set of morality can denying a person the “privilege” of displaying an acknowledged cultural icon on his/her graduation cap be conceived as inappropriate for the celebration of a major life event, fercrissakes?
Bob Klein, Yes, but at least 5 non-native people handled the eagle feather in the meantime, and the feather was only returned to my family after my wife and Miles’s father went looking for it. And the so-called “safe place” was on a coat hanger since my step-son pleaded with them to make sure it didn’t touch the ground.
“fercrissakes” indeed!! 😠
Debbo, The response we want is reconciliation, education, and an assurance that no other Native student/family will have to endure at a future BHS graduation what our son and family endured.
Mr. Barondeau, that’s the very least you should receive. The very least.
Civil damages are in order. Never in this young mans life will he be made whole. Never will he have another graduation from high school. Never will the bigots among his class be denied thinking and talking about how, “We got that *#%! Indian in the end. Gave him what all them uppity Indians deserve. Our school stopped him from ruining our graduation with that phony religious stuff.” I’d sue for ten million. The school broke the law with impunity and their insurance company needs to pay damages.
Apparently “Bob Klein” and “Certain Inflatable Recreational Devices” are “both” commenting on this post.
Make that “false impunity”.
Why was this grad not allowed to wear the feather? It’s a horribly poor reflection on how South Dakota treats people and displays complete disrespect for native culture.
The family should sue them …. their civil rights were violated….. the new United States Constitution guarantees freedom to practice religious beliefs
Whoever made the call to take away the feather made a big mistake. Maybe somebody was being a total prick, or maybe it was intentional. I know nothing of it, but it sounds like some folks on here have actual insight. Is there a rule in place at the school that they felt compelled to follow about this or were they just making stuff up? If there is a rule, as Cory says the rule is probably illegal, but it might show the intent of the decision maker. These days people are fired over anything so maybe somebody was following a bad rule to avoid getting canned, even if they didn’t agree with it.
Rachel is quick to condemn the entire state’s population, and porter ascribes nasty opinions to the apparently innocent classmates of this kid. Jeez. No layers in those thought processes.
Rachel, don’t you think that the fact the law was passed allowing honoring native culture is more of a reflection on the state than the action of one or two people who don’t in any way represent the rest of the state? If you pick one random hurtful thing and use it as evidence of a whole population’s behavior, there would be no place on earth for anybody to feel comfortable because hurtful people are present in every walk of life.
Students go to school to learn. Apparently staff doesn’t. This young man had one graduation from High School stoopidly tarnished because some alleged clown did not know the rules. And this wasn’t an isolated incident through the years under right wing crony rule. One might get the idea wingnuts weren’t fond of Native American’s in Northern Mississippi. Despicable.
Ryan minimizes this incident early in his comment by saying a “rule” was broken when in fact a South Dakota Law was broken.
It is unfair that Brookings’s error, rooted I’m willing to posit in ignorance rather than racial hostility, could paint the whole state in a bad light. But that’s just one more reason (beyond basic professionalism and respect for students) that school administrators need to know the law and train staff to make sure they all know the law: screwing up brings bad PR for the whole community.
Bob Klein – Does not matter what they did immediately OR eventually with the Eagle feather – they illegally possessed it – period.
Ryan – Actually – in my experience from living in this state for 40 some years – it is loaded with people who feel the laws do NOT (or should not) apply to them, IF they know what they are. Most do not have a care to know.
Nick Nemec 2019-05-28 at 20:57
If those school officials confiscated the eagle feather they are in illegal possession of rapter feathers without a permit
Yessir, Mr Nemec. We are talking violation of FederaL laws with severe penalties. If memory serves those permits are nearly impossible to obtain, even for Native tribes.
Roger, you misread my comment. I understand that a law was broken. What I asked was whether there is a rule at the school that says something about pre-registering your desired flair. As I also said, if the rule exists, it is probably an illegal rule. However, I asked in my comment that you must have just skimmed, whether a school official was put in a tough spot where the rule in the school is one thing and the law is the another thing. Also, I doubt very much you are personally offended by every law that is broken in this state, so the fact that a law was broken is really not all that meaningful – laws are broken all the time. You probably broke 5 laws today.
Richard, every single city, state, and nation are “loaded” with people who don’t follow laws and don’t care about laws. I didn’t say anything about that. I was specifically challenging Rachel’s ignorant application of racism and hate to all of south dakota based on what cory suggests, and I agree with, is ignorance not hate.
Remember, Ryan, the only reason any school official would have been in a tough spot n this instance is that the school official failed to read, understand, and apply the law and failed to alert the school board that a school rule (if there was one) violated state law and could not be enforced.
Whoa, there cowboy…I don’t think that everyone in South Dakota is racist or treats people horribly. I do think that Native Americans get frequently crapped on. I think there is huge amount of ignorance and intolerance and a basic lack of humanity that percolates in the air here. There are also many wonderful, compassionate and intelligent people who live here. And do you know what? They wouldn’t refer to a cultural item as a “flair”
Roger, after the slaughter of tens or hundreds of thousands of Indian people, the stealing of their land, the deliberate attempts to dismantle their culture, the denigration of their lives and ongoing attempts to further encroach upon their rights, don’t you think you’re over-reacting just a bit to this one particular instance? After all, it’s just one law.
[Sarcasm off, but eye roll is involuntary reflex whenever massive ignorance, minimization or outright racism is displayed.]
🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄
Debbo, you’re right, I always overreact when a young Native American is publicly shamed as Mr. Livermont was. The day I start taking that crap in stride is probably the day I die.
Ryan, I’m sorry that you don’t know the difference between a rule and a law and which one takes precedence.
If you think our underpaid and overworked public school staff is ever going to memorize all the laws that apply to schools and students, your expectations are way too high. Roger, I know the difference, but if a school employee is uncertain of the law but certain about school policy, and he sides with school policy, it’s at least possible he wasn’t acting out of racism or disrespect but out of perceived self-preservation.
Im not at all saying that being upset and wanting behavior changed is overreacting. That makes good sense, I don’t want any person’s religious freedoms abridged. However, I am saying that the immediate presumption of racism rather than ignorance and the generalization of south dakotans as supportive of cultural humiliation are overreacting.
And I stand by the use of flair. Synonyms are common and fun.
I looked for more details and this principal who caused all this certainly comes off like a moron. Sounds like he screwed up several times. I wonder why they wouldn’t even let the young man carry the feather once he begrudgingly agreed to take it off his cap. Seems crazy.
The graduate said this though, which is positive I think:
“He’s not a racist or a bigot. He was just trying to enforce a school policy, and he infringed on state law.”
Cowboy Ryan, again, your glib youth is showing. “being a total prick.” you said. Then doubling down, attacking Rachel you, after watching THE OFFICE, likely infantizing on the chick, you call eagle feathers, regulated by federal law, flair. Reminds me of our idiot chief. Not a good look here, believe me. Are you trying to offend, or just using humor the Lakota are so famous for?
I amuses me watching you walk onto these petards one after another. sorta
idiot in-chief, trump, of course.
ew… tribal regalia is not “flair“
And this is just one of the many reasons why South Dakota is notoriously known as a racist bigoted state.
I probably should notify MPR of South Dakota’s latest bigoted display towards Native Americans. You would think South Dakota would want a better reputation even if it’s just for the sake of tourism. Who wants to visit SD when these things happen. Oh, I know plenty of liberal Minnesotans that would take a stand against such racism.
Leslie, everything you say becomes meaningless when you suggest that I attacked someone because I challenged her comment. Wolf crier.
People like being offended by innocuous things nowadays. If you don’t like the word flair, don’t use it. But word-policing is the act of annoying children. Do your thing, though.
You probably meant office space, no the office, but no I wasn’t referencing anything.
“People like being offended by innocuous things nowadays.”
So says Ryan whenever the topic is white male privilege and make sexual misbehavior m
A swing and a miss.
I’ll finish the comment: …find him playing the knee jerk victim.
Now, ask the other commenters, O Thin-Skinned One, if I missed. 😉😉😉
Deb Geelsdottir writes to Ryan:
You missed as far as I can see, Deb.
Ha. I didn’t even need to ask.
FYI – I’m not offended when you say racist, sexist, or ignorant things debbo. Me correcting you is not a sign of me taking offense to your wrongness, just making sure you know that you are wrong.