The Cheyenne River Sioux people are upset that a 33-year-old tribal member was killed in a drunk tank by tribal police last fall. Now the FBI's involved and the tribe, along with other Oglala Lakota Indians, want answers.

::::::::

Lakota Indians and especially the people of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe (CRST), want some answers and action on the death of a young Cheyenne Indian man who was allegedly maced, handcuffed, and hog-tied. Then he was allegedly beaten to death in a jail cell by tribal law enforcement.

According to a change.org petition: We the United Urban Warrior Society hosted a rally for the family (of Phillip High Bear) on 10/19/2015. Phillip's mother and I were asked to meet with "Larry Lebeau" acting Chief of Police. After hearing that the officers involved were not suspended until after the FBI Investigation bothered me! We ask that these officers be suspended! A.S.A.P.! - We will not settle for anything less. We will rally again if necessary. ~ James Swan, leader of the United Urban Warrior Society

There are varied accounts of police and police administrators of this tribal law-enforcement CRST headquarters being fired after the FBI became involved. Some reports name officers and top brass that have resigned, but conflicting reports leave things up in the air. To say the fallout from Mr. High Bear's death has been nebulous is an understatement. It sounds more like the "he said, she said" talk before and after a Powwow. And it's typical aftereffect of a police cover-up.

Phillip High Bear, of Eagle Butte, S.D., was arrested on Sept. 15, 2015, for being intoxicated and was subsequently thrown into the drunk tank, where inmates sleep on cement floors without mattresses and bedding. According to James Magaska Swan, leader of the United Urban Warrior Society, the FBI is investigating this case and it is in limbo. Swan talked about High Bear's murder with this writer on Monday, Jan. 19, and was distressed and angry that nothing has been done by federal law enforcement concerning Mr. High Bear's death for such a trivial crime as being found inebriated by Tribal Law Enforcement.

It's a repeated story these days. Do people of color like Native Americans, African-Americans, and Hispanics have any rights whatsoever? Especially the young men of these races? There have been so many police-initiated deaths of these young men that a thick Rolodex is now required just to keep the names of these dead victims, most of which, like Mr. High Bear, committed petty criminal offenses and suffered unspeakable horrors before the Angel of Death came to the rescue.

Have these poor kids just become targets for the police to practice killing maneuvers upon? Are they mere practice dummies for the big, bad, brawny cops to enjoy plying sadistic torture?

A little more than a month ago on OpEdNews.com, a story I wrote was headlined on the front page concerning 26-year-old San Francisco resident Mario Woods, who was walking down a sidewalk during the afternoon of Dec. 3, 2015. A baker's dozen of San Francisco police officers opened fire on Woods in a firing-squad execution. Extreme action for a little guy who was only carrying a small knife. In Woods' case, Mace or Tasering wasn't even considered. Jump immediately to the ultimate sanction and fire a cannonade of high-caliber bullets at the poor fellow.

According to Swan and the few media reports that have been published, High Bear's execution was just as grisly, unnecessary and ridiculous as the firing-squad fusillade of lead fired into San Francisco resident Mario Woods. Woods, a young African-American man, seemed rather harmless and probably couldn't hurt a fly. Watch the video and judge for yourself. Wasn't there another way to get that little knife out of his hand?

Meantime, back in South Dakota, according to Swan: "We have reports from other inmates in that cell who were yelling at the cops, 'Leave him alone! Leave him alone!'' - and the police just yelled at them, 'Shut the f*cK up or we'll do the same to you!'"

According to the Sept. 23 online article in Native Sun News: "CRST Lieutenant Chad Olson reports that Phillip was discovered in his jail cell with shallow breathing and was transported to the Indian Health Service hospital in Eagle Butte."

Paula Mae High Bear, mother of Phillip, said she was in Sioux Falls when she received a call from a doctor at I.H.S. that she needed to come and identify her son. Phillip was brought to the hospital unresponsive from the CRST jail and later died, the Native Sun News article reads.

"The doctor tole me when they brought him in he was unresponsive. The doctor said he worked and worked on him but was not able to revive him," Paula Mae High Bear said in the article.

When Paula Mae and other family members went to the funeral home, the funeral director told her to "be prepared when she sees him because he has a lot of bruising," Native Sun News reports. However, CRST Lieutenant Chad Olson reports that Phillip was discovered in his jail cell with shallow breathing and was transported to the Indian Health Service hospital in Eagle Butte.

"He was all beat up," she said tearfully. "They (the CRST police) picked on him all the time. They beat him up twice before. He had long beautiful hair and he said, 'Mom I want to cut my hair so they will stop pulling my hair,'" the article continues.

She said witnesses came forward and have told her that when police officers arrested Phillip he was maced repeatedly and cruelly drug on his stomach. Another witness told her that several people were hollering at police officers to stop.

However, Tribal Police Lt. Olson denies Phillip was beaten by police officers. "That is not true," Olson said. "There is no facts or anything. I know what people are saying and all I can say is, it is not true. It will all come out in the investigation."

Olson said the case is under investigation by both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Indian Affairs Internal Affairs.

Phillip is survived by one son, Phillip High Bear Jr., of Rapid City; and one daughter: Sonique High Bear of Dupree. His father is Timothy High Elk, of Ft. Yates, N.D., and his mother is Paula Mae High Bear. He was laid to rest at the Episcopal Cemetery in LaPlante on Wed. Sept. 23.

I don't buy Lt. Olsen's story one bit. Phillip High Bear was found unresponsive in a drunk tank, was taken to a nearby hospital and he was pronounced dead. Although there are no camera-phone accounts of what took place, High Bear's fellow drunk-tank inmates speak of the unspeakable torture this poor young man faced at the hands of these killer cops. Be quiet, or the same will be done to you, was the threat made, reportedly.

So what's the FBI going to do? The same as it's always done. Nothing. Offer some justification, some rationalization of it all. Cops covering for cops. And how's about the BIA investigators, what will they do? History repeats itself and it's always the same song: That drunken kid was a criminal. He was drunk, right? So he was at fault!

The story never changes and it's a sad one indeed. You can't kill a deer or a wolf out of season in South Dakota, but if you wear a badge and you're a tribal cop, you can kill a young Indian guy 365-1/4 days a year. Just spot him staggering a bit, looking a little lost, and then nab him.

Hey, let's have some fun, guys! Donuts and coffee first, though!

I see a lot of postings on social media sties these days that claim all cops are bad. That the police are public enemy number one. I disagree. In my twenty-plus years of working full-time as a news reporter, I covered police quite a bit. I got to know a lot of police officers and even high-ranking law-enforcement officials. In my estimation, they were fine people and were good men and women. The best, actually. And honestly, I couldn't see any of the police officers I knew back then involved with something as heinous and sinister as the deaths of High Bear, Woods, or a laundry list of other young men, who have been splattered all over the news in the last few years. Yes, some cops remain good friends of mine today.

One of the big problems, I think, is that the thin blue line is pretty thick when it calls for covering for their own; and even a good cop will justify and rationalize, perhaps even make up bold lies, so as to cover for another police officer who is involved with some senseless brutal murder. And until the police mentality changes, until good cops start having a zero tolerance for the acts of killer cops, this sort of thing will continue.

It's senseless, unnecessary and ridiculous. Law enforcement in America looks bad right now and these days are not good days for wearing a badge. I get berated and belittled all the time for writing stories of the police killings -- but what will OEN PUblisher Rob Kall and the editors at OpEdNews.com have to say to me if I write a story justifying these senseless murders? Just because a cop wears a badge, does that make him a suitable judge, jury and executioner for killing some homeless black guy who was hungry and shoplifted a bag of potato chips from a convenience store? Sure, he's got mental problems, so take him to the psych ward and please do not riddle him with lead!

Really, guys, was this really necessary? Dragging poor Phillip High Bear on his stomach, hog-tying him, tasering him, and beating him so badly that he was unresponsive and dying? What are you trying for, a spot on the Count De Sade Police Department in Chicago, Albuquerque or New York City? Is this the way cops jump to bigger departments these days? This stuff has to stop!

Phillip High Bear's mother, Paula Mae High Bear, told Red Power Media that witnesses came forward and have told her that when police officers arrested Phillip he was maced repeatedly and drug on his stomach. Another witness told her that several people were hollering at police officers to stop, according to Red Power Media.

Meantime, people of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, the United Urban Warrior Society, other Lakota tribes, and members of AIM (the American Indian Movement) and Idle No More are as mad as hell about Phillip High Bear's horrific fatality. Very little has been published on this matter. Some short articles in a few publications primarily read by Natives have printed stories about this atrocity. But on Oct. 19, 2015, hundreds gathered outside the Walter Miner jail facility where High Bear met his fate and protested. And Swan promised me that more rallies will be held in the future if the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe tribal leaders and the federal government keep skirting this issue.

U.U.W.S. Leader Swan told this writer in a telephone interview on Jan. 18 that more protests and demonstrations will be held soon. Until there is some accountability involved here in all this killer cop culpability, the heat will continue to be put on Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe leaders. The way the criminal codes have been set up for this tribe, the ultimate decisions concerning this matter lies with tribal leaders. Their say trumps even the state and federal government's rulings. Phillip High Bear's death occurred on Indian land that has a very different type of criminal code than most other tribes, and it's like night and day if non-tribal areas of the United States are considered.

"In the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe's law enforcement constitution, it states that although the FBI is investigating this matter, the final word must come from the tribe," Swan told me.

"Pine Ridge (Reservation) law enforcement, owned by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, is much different than the Cheyenne Sioux Tribe's law enforcement constriction," he said.

Swan, an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, told me a clause in this constitution makes all the difference, and bottom line is that it's on the tribe, and in particular, the tribal chairman, who makes suggestions or mandates on criminal matters of such high significance, as in the case of Phillip High Bear's death.

"It's a tricky thing," Swan said. "Tribal governments are the BIA, and the BIA is part of the federal government. It's confusing, isn't it? All the same, the bottom line is that they're all working for the same tribe. And any tribal government, the BIA, and all, are part of the United States government. People think Indians can do things on their own but the BIA, which our tribes answer to, is part of the U.S. government.

"That's why a lot of traditional natives, like me, would like to get rid of the BIA because it's not part of the tribal government but is part of the federal government," Swan noted.

The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Indian Reservation was created by the federal government in 1889 by dissolving the Great Sioux Reservation following its victory over the Lakota in a series of wars in the 1870s. The reservation covers almost all of Dewey and Zebach counties in in South Dakota. In addition, many small parcels of off-reservation trust land at other areas of the state, including: Stanley, Haakon and Meade counties.

The total land area owned by the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe is 4,266.987 square miles. It is the fourth-largest Indian reservation in land mass in the USA. Its largest incorporated community is North Eagle Butte, while adjacent Eagle Butte is its largest incorporated city. The Land Acts of 1909 and 1910, opened up the Cheyenne River Reservation to non-Native settlement. (See more at Wikipedia).

(Article changed on January 20, 2016 at 17:07)

Authors Bio:

Samuel Vargo worked as a full-time reporter and editor for more than 20 years at a number of daily newspapers and business journals. He was also an adjunct English professor at colleges and universities in Ohio, West Virginia, Mississippi and Florida for about a decade. He holds a B.A. in Political Science and an M.A. in English (both degrees were awarded by Youngstown State University).