April 12, 2013

To interested parties:

This letter is regarding Wounded Knee and Land Owned by Mr. James Czywzysinski.

A lot of people have been asking me about the proposed sale of Wounded Knee and I’ve been too busy

with work and school to post much on Facebook lately but I’ll try to provide some background (at least

what I know about it).

First, I think that it would be kind of crazy to pay $3.9 million dollars for land that has no power, no

water and was appraised by Shannon County at $7,000.00. Anyone who would want to develop it

would then find themselves in a political hotbed over land usage. The new owner would most certainly

face the problem of getting permits through the Oglala Sioux Tribe to develop the land further.

The tribe does not have the kind of money Mr. Czywczynski is asking for and it is especially insulting

given that this was Treaty land to begin with – which means like the Black Hills Land Claim, there are

outstanding issues with the Federal government that will probably require another Supreme Court

decision.

The land that Mr. Czywczynski is planning on auctioning he has claimed is part of the National Historic

Site. This is misleading. The National Park Service says Mr. Czywczynski’s 40 acre plot is considered

“non-contributing” land which means it isn’t part of the landmark. There has been some question as to

whether or not his land is actually part of the killing fields and it is possible as people scattered in

different directions but close inspection of the historic maps alongside the maps and surveys done by

the Park service indicate that Chief Spotted Elk’s camp was at the base of the hill and not across the

highway.

It is my understanding that the 7th Calvary tents were where the round building belonging to Gary

Roland is now. Which brings me to another issue. I do not agree with Gary Roland having a building

there. Myself and other descendants (Roland is not a descendant) feel a museum has no business

anywhere within site of the mass grave. We especially do not like to see his relatives approaching

people at the mass grave who are trying to pay their respects nor do we like him asking for any kind of

money anywhere near this sacred site.

Gary Rowland put that building up (which should be condemned, by the way) despite opposition and he

earns income from having it there. Whether it is Gary or anyone else, we feel it is better to have a

specific place where people can go to sell their beadwork and other art – somewhere away from view of

the cemetery. We also feel it is important to have a proper memorial established… one that contains

the names of all of the people who were killed in the massacre and one which states Chief “Big Foot’s”

correct name, which is Spotted Elk (Unpan Gleska). Mario Gonzalez, Marie Not help Him and several

others attempted to do this a number of years ago but they were met with opposition from Leonard

Little Finger, Francis He Crow and Alice New Holy who are all relatives. Leonard and Francis falsely

claimed to be the direct lineal descendants of Chief Big Foot and although at one time they were able to

obtain the Administrator to the “Big Foot” estate, a recent tribal court removed Leonard Little Finger

from the estate because he failed to produce the list of descendants in his role as administrator. This

was especially important since there were disputes between myself and other descendants as to the

legitimacy of their claims. They claimed a direct paternal line and in fact this was impossible. Little

Finger also destroyed Chief Spotted Elk’s lock of hair, burning it after Jasper Spotted Elk agreed to DNA

testing. He did this against the tribal court Judge Sidney Witt’s express order to hang onto it until he

produced sufficient documentation (and not a book written by a white man). He was subsequently held

in contempt of court.

As for the land Mr. C has and how it was obtained:

Clive Gildersleeve was at Pine Ridge for many years and he was well received because it was thought he

was helping the Lakota people at first. About four years after he arrived he received a land patent from

the Federal government (despite this being Treaty Land). Records show President Roosevelt granted the

land to him in 1934.

The land allotments were made after the Dawes Act and were guaranteed to Lakota families. Around

1930 (before Roosevelt granted the land to the Gildersleeves) Clive Gildersleeve and his father

established The Wounded Knee trading Post and Museum which contained a collection of Lakota

artifacts. Those artifacts were destroyed by the American Indian Movement in 1973 during the Siege at

Wounded Knee, along with the building when it was burned to the ground. From what I understand

now these were contemporary artifacts unlike the belongings taken from the bodies of our ancestors

which ended up in the museum in Barre Massachusetts.

Clive’s wife was Chippewa (and it is my understanding that she may have been related to the Bellecourt

brothers from Minnesota but that would need to be confirmed by them). Most people around the area

accepted the Gildersleeves who had been in the Pine Ridge area for a few generations until they sold the

land to Jim and Jan Czywczyinski in 1968. There is some question as to whether or not Czywczynski was

related to the Gildersleeves by marriage but it isn’t confirmed.

When this happened – apparently a Corporation was set up by the Gildersleeves and Czywczynski and so

they were co-owners in the museum. It seemed obvious they were attempting to capitalize on the

historical massacre. This is when the Native people across the United States stepped up in opposition to

the Gildersleeves because they felt it represented the worst kind of exploitation.

According to Mario Gonzales, the Gildersleeves and their partners were ambitious to begin what they

called “American’s first privately owned national park” and the Lakota people and many other native

Americans were opposed to this marketing of their sad history. AIM exploited this opposition in the

seventies.

After AIM burned and trashed the property, Czywczynski was asked by a group (Rev Wesley Hunter,

exec director of SD Association of Christian Churshces) to make an estimate of the damages. Previously

he gave the estimate at $50,000.00 to newspapers. When Rev. Hunter approached him, he estimated

the damage at $1,025,000.00 When asked how much it would take to buy the corporation outright,

Czywczynski said he would sell for $2,500,000.00 with 30 percent down and guaranteed payment or

cash.

Of course Lakota people considered this price, like many are today, a perfect example of the outright

greed of the white people on their lands. They mistrusted Mr. Czywczynski the business man who

owned a motel across from the Reptile Gardens on Mt Rushmore Road in Rapid City, South Dakota. He

now owns a lucrative ATM machine business in Rapid City. He claimed recently that he needed to sell

the land (on the heels of the land purchase in the Black Hills for the Lakota people which was in the

news because several million dollars were raised through donations for this purchase through the

efforts of Chase Iron Eyes and Sara Jumping Eagle among others. Immediately after the Black Hills

purchase Mr. Czywczynski began posting on their Facebook pages trying to get people to purchase his

land which he claimed was more important to Native Americans across the country. Unfortunately at

the same time he made disrespectful comments to Chase Iron Eyes, who said he wasn’t certain he was

prepared to get involved.

There are several newspaper articles from March of 1972 which detail the problems between Mr.

Czywczynski and people claiming to be the American Indian Movement at the time. It started as a result

of Mr. C allegedly choking a 14 year old Indian boy who entered the store. Mr. C claims to have led the

boy out of the store by the arm when he refused to leave.

Anyway, it helps to know a bit of the history. The Gildersleeve/Czywczynski Corporation still holds the

land made available by the federal government. It is another case of dispossession and the aftermath of

a corrupt legal history.

In the 1930s period just before the passage of the Indian reorganization Act (1934) and the setting up of

the IRA tribal government as they are known today was an era of extraordinary exploitation and

degradation of Lakota sovereignty.

This period of exploitation began during the allotment period, starting just prior to statehood in the

northern plains, by ushering in a post-treaty era of land theft which allowed Whites to invade the

reserved homelands many thought were protected by treaty. Much cheap Indian land was newly

accessible, in much the same way “homestead lands” were made available years before by President

Lincoln. The Dawes Act provided for land allotments for each Indian family with the “surplus” land to

be sold off to homesteaders. White ownership of the lands around Pine Ridge and the massacre site

had always been an irritation to the Oglalas and an insult to Oglala sovereignty for generations.

The gildersleeve and Czywczyinski families have lived in Reston, Virgina, Rushville, Nebraska and in Hill

City, just outside of Rapid city since the Wounded Knee events in 1973. In Rapid City they have been

thought of as victims of the “militant” Indians of the era. They have been quoted in interviews as

blaming “educated, outside Indians” for the plight of the locals, yet actually AIM’s role in the event did

serve to clarify the exploitative deeds of whites like traders and corporate organizers in and around Pine

Ridge, which had gone unchecked for many decades. You can find a lot more information about this in

Rolland Dewings book “Wounded Knee: the Meaning and Significance of the Second Incident”

It is my hope and I am working with several people to attempt to get a proper memorial established at

Wounded Knee which is part of the reason I haven’t been posting much lately.. as I’ve been busy

speaking with descendants and people interested in doing the same.

We feel it is of great importance to have a memorial with all of the names of the people, as well as a

place nearby but out of sight of the cemetery where local people can earn some income without the

grave or the killing fields seeming to be exploited.

We have documentation of the descendants and are working with as many as we can contact to see

what they’d like to see happen with regard to Wounded Knee. The land goes up for auction on May 1

2013 and President Brewer has said he feels it should be left up to the descendants.

It is my understanding also that the tribe hasn’t got the funds for such a purchase. Yes, it is wrong that

we should have to buy back our land guaranteed to us by treaty and then allotted to us. There are a lot

of things wrong with this but we want to move on and we want the true history to be told. We are

working on this and with your help we intend to get the word out because Wounded Knee is like a

wound that keeps reopening. We’re tired of the exploitation. Mr. Czy.. probably feels he is due his

losses and we accept that because he rightfully purchased the land even though it was wrong for the

government to sell it in the first place but what we don’t accept is that the value of the land is far below

what Mr. Czy is asking. And we don’t accept responsibility for the damage to those buildings that Lakota

people did not participate in …

We will let you know as things go forward what is planned but for now we are very busy. Any

descendants of survivors are encouraged to contact us right away because May 1 is just around the

corner. We want to all be on the same page.

Thanks very much

Calvin Spotted Elk

Descendant and Great Great Grandson of Chief Spotted Elk (aka Chief Big Foot)

Kevin@oglala.org

40 acres of land Gildersleeves – Czywzyn

They put the building in there any way. Where they were camped.

Tribal permission there might have been Anita Clifford – tribe owns – Kathy church bought it.