BY ROXANNE GOULD AND ROXANNE GOULD
SIOUX CITY, Iowa - "I do not want this community to forget Kimberly, and I do not want it to forget that prejudice exists," Native American activist Ted Means stated.
Means, one of the original organizers of the American Indian Movement (AIM) and vice president of the Oglala Lakota nation, was the opening speaker for the March 1 "Native America - Inequality Before the Law" forum at Morningside College here.
"Sometimes I feel that not a lot has changed," Means said. "Had there been the kind of change necessary, Kimberly Frazier would still be alive today."
Kimberly Ann Frazier, a Santee Dakota Indian woman, was shot and killed by the Sioux City police on March 1 a year ago. Although Frazier had not committed a crime, she was gunned down on the porch of her house. The police were cleared of any wrongdoing by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and the FBI.
The forum was held in memory of Frazier but other cases showing widespread discrimination against Native Americans were discussed. These cases included the murder of Terri McCauley, an 18-year-old Omaha, Nebraska, woman; and Michelle Saul, another Santee woman who was beaten to death by her boyfriend. He dismembered her body and hid it in the woods near Des Moines.
Means shared his own loss with participants. In 1983, his 11-year-old daughter, Kimberly Means, was killed by a drunk driver as she participated in a "Run for freedom." The driver, a non-Indian, was charged only with drunk driving and served 15 days in jail.
A panel including activist Nico Mercier and Robert Baldwin, director of the Triple One Parents Union, also discussed the killing in Omaha of Joseph Knudson, a 15-year-old disabled Indian boy who was chased and gunned down by a store clerk for stealing a six-pack of beer. Knudson had not threatened or assaulted the store clerk. Baldwin explained that when the mayor of Omaha was asked to respond to the killing he stated "the boy shouldn't have been stealing."
Other panelists spoke to the length of jail sentences in the Sioux City case of 17-year-old Carlos Medina who has now been imprisoned for nine months for refusing to testify against his brother. Medina stated that he and his brother were falsely accused of murder when in fact overwhelming evidence points to a non-Indian as the murderer.
Janet Paulsen, a Winnebago woman with three small children was sentenced to 10 years in prison for stealing a $6 item from a Sioux City grocery store. According to panelists, Janet has no prior arrest record.
"There appears to be a different standard of justice for Indian people and this must change," said Frank LaMere activist and director of Nebraska Intertribal Development Corporation. Issues of inequality in city employment and the use of the nickname "Chiefs" by Morningside College athletic teams was also discussed.
The following day a march and memorial of 150 people was held in memory of Kimberly Frazier. Marchers trekked about a mile and a half across the city holding a demonstration in front of the Sioux City police station and returning to the Indian Mission. During the demonstration Indian songs were sung.
As marchers stood in the below zero weather, a passer-by shouted, "Why don't you go home?" Mary-Ann Jamerson, who stood wrapped in her Indian shawl responded, "We are home."
Louisa Frazier, mother of Kimberly, spoke. "Today we remember my daughter but we don't do this just for her, we do this for all our children, so no one else will ever have to know the loss I feel," she said.
The Frazier family is pursuing legal action against the Sioux City authorities and demonstrations will continue to fight for justice in regard to Kimberly's murder. Anyone interested in aiding this effort can make a donation to the Smiling Winds Woman Fund and send it to Kelly Black at 1306 Main Street, Sioux City, IA 51103.