Noble warnings
Sioux Lakota tribesman met with local's at Warsaw's Ethnography Museum
A member of America's forgotten minority flew into Warsaw last week to try to highlight his nation's own solidarity movement in the face of centuries of oppression.
Sioux Lakota tribesman James Robideau met with locals at Warsaw's Ethnography Museum to talk about the historic stereotyping of Native Americans by the United States and also highlight what he termed the political imprisonment of Native American people.
James Robideau or Wichapi Wicasa (Star Man) is from the Spirit Lake Indian reservation in the Dakotas. He arrived in Poland as a guest of Amnesty International (http://www.amnesty.org.pl) and the Polish Movement of American Indians' Friends (PRPI) (http://www.free.polbox.pl/c/cien).
In the United States, Robideau is an activist involved with protecting Native American rights as well as running social projects for (Native American) societies, said Amnesty's Ewa Weber. Robideau runs the Dakota Youth Project to protect young Native Americans from crime and to help them return to traditional ways.
Robideau took part in the uprising against the U.S. federal authorities in the 1973 Wounded Knee conflict as a young man and it landed him in jail. But it was there he met a medicine man who changed his outlook on life.
Robideau started to fight for Native American rights peacefully. He has been a member of the American Indian Movement now for about 25 years.
One of Robideau's struggles is to fight for the release of his cousin, Leonard Peltier, who has been in prison for 26 years for allegedly taking part in the murder of two FBI agents. With no evidence and no firm conviction, Peltier is recognized as a political prisoner by international circles, and has received visits from various foreign dignitaries.
Robideau's trip to Poland is an attempt to make people outside the U.S. aware of the Indians' plight. "I came here to share my knowledge (about my nation) with the Polish people," Robideau said. "I would like to tell you about our relationship with the U.S. government. How the government is treating us and what happened to the Indians."
Making people around the world aware of Native American land issues and their culture is important, Robideau said. "The U.S. government is influencing other governments and the time will come when your right to freedom will be destroyed, the same as ours," he said.
When asked about the relationship between Native Americans and the U.S government, Robideau admitted that in 1978 the U.S. Congress passed a law allowing Native Americans to practice their beliefs. "But it's hard when it comes to practicing them in prison," he said.
Robideau will finish his Polish visit this week. After Warsaw, he planned to visit other cities such as Kalisz, Poznan, the Tri-City area, and Szczecin. As part of his schedule in Warsaw, he visited the Senate and the Helsinki Foundation making new contacts to continue the struggle for Native American rights.
