Article: 1101 of sgi.talk.ratical From: (dave "who can do? ratmandu!" ratcliffe) Subject: Kevin Costner in, "Who Would Do Such a Thing?" to his Lakota "friends" Summary: Costner bros' into building massive resort-casino in sacred Black Hills Keywords: Deadwood/Black Hills, S.D., Dunbar resort, 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty Date: 26 Jun 1995 22:25:56 GMT Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc. Lines: 333 May 2001 - See Also: "The Costner Brothers and the Black Hills", http://users.skynet.be/kola/costner.htm published by KOLA (the Lakota word for friend), a grassroots human rights organization founded in September 1987 near Red Scaffold, on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation, South Dakota. Real-life stories like "The Costner Brothers Take Over Deadwood" eclipse silly old dream-town box-office smashes any ole' day!--or DO they?? Kevin Costner: big name, big films like Dances With Wolves and JFK -- but apparently, just 'cuz one acts like a hero, fighting the good fight in dream-town celluloid technicolor dramas, doesn't mean one lives that way in one's own life. The two articles below -- from The Circle, News from a Native American perspective... and the London Independent -- tellingly indicate where such "real life" stories like the Costner brothers perpetuation of the White Man's trashing of the Lakota's sacred Black Hills fit in to the hi-rollin' media cavalcade of "news" and "all things considered" important to the landed aristocracy. Truly ironical that, along with the subsidies given them by the state -- "... To help the Costner brothers build their resort the state of South Dakota voted to raise the betting limit at Deadwood casinos from $5 to $100, and has given them $14 million to develop their Dunbar Resort plan." -- the very people who helped Kevin get rich by playing the "red parts" in "Dances With Wolves" are now the ones hypocritically disrespected and ignored out of his yen to make more green on their sacred lands with the erection of "The Dunbar." How can white people so consistently live out in their own lives the repeated betrayal and disrespect of the peoples of Turtle Island who knew this place as home LONG before europeans ever arrived? Where is any understanding of The Family Of Man in this broken-record story? -- ratitor Let's begin with some excerpts... The dispute over the Black Hills land sought by the Costners dates to the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868. Under that agreement, the United States recognized the Great Sioux Nation as a sovereign and separate entity. Under the terms of the treaty, the Great Sioux Nation consists of land west from the Missouri River in South Dakota to the Bighorn Mountain in Wyoming. In exchange for the undisturbed use of this territory the Lakota agreed to vacate vast sections of the Great Plains. In 1864, after an illegal army expedition led by George Armstrong Custer found gold in the Black Hills, settlers from the east began to swarm into Deadwood's mineral-rich gulch, as well as other areas of the sacred land. In 1877, Congress passed a law which annexed the Great Sioux Reservation and Black Hills, dividing the land into several small reservations. Many Lakota people feel this was done in reprisal for the defeat of Custer's Seventh Cavalry in the Battle of Little Big Horn a year earlier. In 1980 the Supreme Court ordered the federal government to compensate the Lakota for the land. But the tribes have refused to accept the money, a sum that now stands at $380 million, insisting instead, on the return of the Black Hills. To help the Costner brothers build their resort the state of South Dakota voted to raise the betting limit at Deadwood casinos from $5 to $100, and has given them $14 million to develop their Dunbar Resort plan. . . . And how did [Costner] repay the Indians whose culture, language and history he had employed so freely? Did he build a hospital on one of South Dakota's four reservations? Did he set up a college trust fund to educate underprivileged Indian kids? Did he buy a piece of the Black Hills and give it back to the Sioux, so that they could perform their religious ceremonies there? Well, no actually. Despite the unthinkable wealth generated by "Dances", and the fact that South Dakota's Indians are, according to the latest US government census, the poorest people in the entire United States, nobody can recall Costner donating so much as a dollar to an Indian cause. Perhaps he thinks they should be grateful that he is investing $100m in the Dunbar resort (where they can apply for minimum- wage jobs, washing dishes and the like). But nobody really knows what he thinks, because Costner refuses to discuss the matter. Of course, Kevin Costner can produce deeds of ownership for the land. But so can the Sioux, whose papers date from 1851, when the first Fort Laramie Treaty was signed with the US government, acknowledging the Indians' ownership of 60 million acres of the Great Plains, including the 7.3 million acres of the Black Hills. In 1868, a second treaty was drawn up, reducing the Indian land to 26 million acres, but still including the area now being developed by Costner. There is also the small matter of a 1980's US Supreme Court ruling, which declared the Lakota Sioux the rightful owners of the Black Hills, and denounced the government's appropriation as a "rank case of dishonourable dealings ... unparalleled in American jurisprudence." (The Sioux, however, rejected the Court's award of $105m as "insulting." You can see their point: the hills have yielded over $250bn of gold alone in the last 100 years.) the following story appeared on page 15 of the April, 1995 edition of "The Circle, News from a Native American perspective...", a monthly newspaper published by the Minneapolis American Indian Center, 1530 East Franklin Ave, Minneaoplis, MN, 55404, 612/879-1700, and is reproduced here with permission of the editor. ______________________________________________________________________________ "Who Would Do Such a Thing?" Kevin Costner Plans Resort Complex in the Black Hills by Jon Lurie Who would do such a thing?...this was proof enough that it was a people without value and without soul, and with no regard for Sioux rights" As Lieutenant John Dunbar in the film "Dances with Wolves," Kevin Costner spoke these words in scorn of the invading white man's disregard for Indian land, its people, its living things, and its history. Through John Dunbar, Costner appeared on screen to be a friend to the Lakota; he carried a sacred pipe, married into the tribe, and fought American soldiers. Today, as Kevin Costner (along with his brother and business partner, Dan Costner) prepares to desecrate the Northern Black Hills with a massive resort-casino, many Lakota people are asking, "Who would do such a thing?" The Costners want to use 600 acres of Black Hills National Forest land on the outskirts of Deadwood for an 18-hole golf course. The proposed $100 million Dunbar resort, to open in 1997, would include a 350-room lodge and an outdoor amphitheater to be built on private land. A vintage railway running the 42 miles from Rapid City to the resort would also be constructed to bring gamblers in from the nearest major airport. Costner was adopted by members of the Sicangu Lakota Nation in a public Hunka (making of a relative) ceremony, as part of the festivities surrounding the Washington DC premiere of "Dances with Wolves." After receiving his eagle feather and Indian name, Costner said to the large crowd, "This is an honor I do not take lightly...Now, when I fly over the middle of the country I will never again be able to look down without knowing there are people in those empty places...when I was a boy playing Cowboys and Indians I always wanted to be the Indians." But a Cowboy, says Lakota elder Sydney Keith, is what Costner continues to be. In an interview with the "London Times," Keith said he was disappointed with Kevin Costner's actions since making "Dances with Wolves." "He used Indians to make a film," Keith said. "He made himself famous and rich. He didn't try to help the people. He is greedy. Then he is trying to build a resort that would desecrate the land more...We don't want him to build that resort." "After the movie I thought he was pretty cool," says Joe Pullian, a 26-year-old Lakota artist who lives on the Pine Ridge Reservation. "But now it seems like he's just another white guy coming here to take what he can get." The dispute over the Black Hills land sought by the Costners dates to the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868. Under that agreement, the United States recognized the Great Sioux Nation as a sovereign and separate entity. Under the terms of the treaty, the Great Sioux Nation consists of land west from the Missouri River in South Dakota to the Bighorn Mountain in Wyoming. In exchange for the undisturbed use of this territory the Lakota agreed to vacate vast sections of the Great Plains. In 1864, after an illegal army expedition led by George Armstrong Custer found gold in the Black Hills, settlers from the east began to swarm into Deadwood's mineral-rich gulch, as well as other areas of the sacred land. In 1877, Congress passed a law which annexed the Great Sioux Reservation and Black Hills, dividing the land into several small reservations. Many Lakota people feel this was done in reprisal for the defeat of Custer's Seventh Cavalry in the Battle of Little Big Horn a year earlier. In 1980 the Supreme Court ordered the federal government to compensate the Lakota for the land. But the tribes have refused to accept the money, a sum that now stands at $380 million, insisting instead, on the return of the Black Hills. To help the Costner brothers build their resort the state of South Dakota voted to raise the betting limit at Deadwood casinos from $5 to $100, and has given them $14 million to develop their Dunbar Resort plan. In addition to these incentives, South Dakota is attractive to business because it has no income tax, no personal property tax, and no personal income tax. (This has led major US corporations, such as Citibank, which transferred its Visa and Mastercard center from New York, to move to the state, creating over 2000 jobs). American Indians, 7 percent of the state's population, have not benefited from the latest surge in South Dakota's economy. Unemployment in the state has been as low as 3 or 4 percent in recent times, while unemployment on reservations, such as Rosebud and Pine Ridge (the poorest place in the nation) has remained at a constant 80%. When the tribes wanted gambling, the state of South Dakota fought them every step of the way," says Tim Wapato, executive director of the National Indian Gaming Association in Washington. "Along come the Costners, who don't even need the money, and they get subsidies. It seems racist to me." In 1987, after a fire destroyed half of main street, gambling was introduced into Deadwood as a last chance to save the historic town. The casinos opened two years later and the city was quickly restored. Today, a permanent population in Deadwood of 1800 residents hosts over a million visitors annually. Total wagers, in what has become the Las Vegas of the Black Hills, measure over $500 million per year and are increasing. As the money increases, so do the area's social problems. Crime has risen 60% compared to Deadwood's pre-gambling days. Pollution, noise, and overpopulation also plague the once sleepy village. Dan Costner says he and his brother got involved in Deadwood after they developed a fondness for the state and its beauty while filming "Dances with Wolves" in the area. They already own the Midnight Star Casino at the center of the mainstreet strip. "Branson [Missouri] has 11,000 hotel rooms," Costner said. We've got 400. You don't have to be a genius" to see the need. "To get where we want to be we need an additional 2000 rooms here." Dan Costner says there needs to be more in Deadwood for people to do. "Kids get bored. There's not enough in town for the rest of the family--there's not enough for the adults, if all they can do is come in and game." Oglala Sioux Tribe Executive Committee Member Phillip Underbaggage says he feels betrayed by Kevin Costner. "I felt like he was a friend who understood our plight. I thought he understood what we're up against as Indian people. I'd have to be foolish to try and put a casino on top of a church. To us the Black Hills are sacred. They are a church to us. It is my opinion that, when you look at the treaties, we still have all rights to the Black Hills. Even the US government has admitted that the Black Hills were taken from us through fraud and deceit. A majority of the people say they can keep the money, just give us the Black Hills back," Underbaggage says. The Costners have hired Barbara Bush's former press secretary, Anna Perez, to front the Dunbar's media operations. When asked how Kevin Costner justifies adding to the destruction of the Black Hills after being adopted into a Lakota family, Perez hesitates. "I think," she says, "what he would say is that the Dunbar project is good for everyone, including the Native American community." "...this was proof enough that it was a people without value and without soul, and with no regard for Sioux rights." ________________________________________________________________________ Newsgroups: soc.culture.native,alt.native From: SUSAN ODONNELL Subject: Protest against K. Costner's development plans Date: Mon, 22 May 1995 08:24:55 GMT "A five-star hotel and casino. Well thanks, Kevin" by Alix Sharkey "The Independent" (London), Saturday, 20 May 1995 Today, a "spiritual gathering" takes place on a tract of land in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, will converge on the site where film star Kevin Costner and his brother Dan are building a 320-room luxury hotel-casino complex. Most of the protesters will be Lakota Sioux Indians, who claim that Costner is building on land that belongs to them. Standing at the centre of a six-state area once known to white settlers as "Indian country," the Black Hills, or Paha Sapa, are sacred to the Sioux. These were their burial grounds and holy lands, where they came on "vision quests," and held their annual Sundance rituals. Only 150 years ago they lived a semi-nomadic existence, here on the Great Plains. But once settlers discovered gold in the hills, the US government systematically persecuted the Indians to the edge of extinction, herded them on to reservations that were little more than concentration camps, and did its best to annihilate their language and culture. The Black Hills were sold off to property developers, gold and mineral mining companies, and timber firms. Anything left over was declared National Forest land, and the Indians were denied access for religious ceremonies. Now, Kevin Costner is hoping to attract thousands of European and Japanese tourists with a five-star monument to kitsch called The Dunbar. The long-suffering Sioux regard this as the last straw, and plan to occupy the land today in order to make a peaceful protest. The bitter irony here, of course, is that Costner built his Hollywood career on the back of Sioux culture. In his 1990 film "Dances with Wolves", Costner portrayed Lt. John Dunbar, an 1860s cavalryman who becomes enchanted with the Lakota way of live and "goes native." "Dances with Wolves" made more than $500m worldwide, and Costner, as director, producer and star, took about 10 percent of that sum. And how did he repay the Indians whose culture, language and history he had employed so freely? Did he build a hospital on one of South Dakota's four reservations? Did he set up a college trust fund to educate underprivileged Indian kids? Did he buy a piece of the Black Hills and give it back to the Sioux, so that they could perform their religious ceremonies there? Well, no actually. Despite the unthinkable wealth generated by "Dances", and the fact that South Dakota's Indians are, according to the latest US government census, the poorest people in the entire United States, nobody can recall Costner donating so much as a dollar to an Indian cause. Perhaps he thinks they should be grateful that he is investing $100m in the Dunbar resort (where they can apply for minimum- wage jobs, washing dishes and the like). But nobody really knows what he thinks, because Costner refuses to discuss the matter. Of course, Kevin Costner can produce deeds of ownership for the land. But so can the Sioux, whose papers date from 1851, when the first Fort Laramie Treaty was signed with the US government, acknowledging the Indians' ownership of 60 million acres of the Great Plains, including the 7.3 million acres of the Black Hills. In 1868, a second treaty was drawn up, reducing the Indian land to 26 million acres, but still including the area now being developed by Costner. There is also the small matter of a 1980's US Supreme Court ruling, which declared the Lakota Sioux the rightful owners of the Black Hills, and denounced the government's appropriation as a "rank case of dishonourable dealings ... unparalleled in American jurisprudence." (The Sioux, however, rejected the Court's award of $105m as "insulting." You can see their point: the hills have yielded over $250bn of gold alone in the last 100 years.) "I believe the Dunbar resort is not only illegal, because the Black Hills issue remains unresolved," says Mitchell Zephier, a Lakota Sioux jeweler, "but it comes down to whether or not we hold the earth to be sacred. And the earth *is* sacred, you know, it's a gift to all of us. It's not about material gain. It's about sustaining life, and life itself is sacred." Costner's PR people say he "wants to leave a legacy" in the Black Hills. But what kind? He can bequeath yet another symbol of avarice and deceit, a luxury palace for the privileged classes. Or he could still rebuild bridges with the Lakota (who even now are unwilling to condemn him) and put something back into the land from which he has already taken so much. Just a fraction of his casino budget could establish sustainable subsistence farming on the reservations, for example. Maybe Kevin Costner sill realizes that this debate goes much deeper than the argument about his casino. It extends beyond the Black Hills, and has significance for all of us, touching on the very nature of our relationship with the earth. It begs the question of whether we are prepared to recognize and maintain the sacred nature of the land, or if indeed we agree that everything has its price, and anything can be bought and sold. _______________________________________________________ -- True, the white man brought great change. But the varied fruits of his civilization, though highly colored and inviting, are sickening and deadening. And if it be the part of civilization to maim, rob, and thwart, then what is progress? I am going to venture that the man who sat on the ground in his tipi meditating on life and its meaning, accepting the kinship of all creatures, and acknowledging unity with the universe of things, was infusing into his being the true essence of civilization.... -- Chief Luther Standing Bear, 1933, "From the Land of the Spotted Eagle," p.515