Why is it that Native Americans struggle to protect their sacred places? Forty years ago the U.S. Congress passed the American Indian Religious Freedom Act so that Native Americans could practice their faith freely and that access to their sacred sites would be protected. This came after a 500-year-long history of conquest and coercive conversion to Christianity had forced Native Americans from their homelands. Today, their religious practice is threatened all over again. In 2017, the Trump administration reduced the Bears Ears National Monument, an area sacred to Native Americans in Utah, by over 1 million acres. Bears Ears Monument is only one example of the conflict over places of religious value. Many other such sacred sites are being viewed as potential areas for development, threatening the free practice of Native American faith. While Congress created the American Indian Religious Freedom Act to provide “access to sacred sites,” it has been open to interpretation. Native Americans still struggle to protect their sacred lands.
On Wednesday, the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office announced that a Native American male, age 56, died after he was booked in the county jail on Tuesday evening. The man’s name hasn’t been released yet, but he was booked into the Pennington County Jail on Tuesday evening at approximately 6:23 p.m. for disorderly conduct. The PCSO said corrections staff found the man dead in his cell around 1:45 a.m. The PCSO said a Wednesday morning autopsy suggests the man died of natural causes, but final results of his death are pending. This isn’t the first death of a Native American person while in custody at the Pennington County Jail. American Indians make up 9 percent of Pennington County’s population, according to census data.
Those are your headlines at this hour. I’m Colette Keith in the KIPI News center.
