'A long ways to go' in South Dakota race relations
Written by Steve Young
Oct. 07	argusleader.com	

 Signing the proclamation for the Year of Reconciliation in 1990 are Paul Iron Cloud (front left), Charles Murphy and South Dakota Gov. George Mickelson. 

Among the echoes of George Mickelson’s voice that resonate yet today, long after his death 20 years ago in an Iowa plane crash, is a call the former governor once made for racial reconciliation in his beloved South Dakota.
Mickelson’s gubernatorial answer to the ugly history of the Wounded Knee massacre a century earlier was to push legislators to change Columbus Day to Native American Day beginning in 1990.

And they did. His remedy for the adversarial relationship of state and tribal governments, and for the border town bigotries and racial stereotypes he knew divided South Dakota, was to call for first a Year of Reconciliation, and then a century, again starting in 1990.

Many South Dakotans embraced the idea, too. But now it’s almost a quarter-century later, and in many ways the passion of Mickelson’s vision died with him in that plane crash. Would he be happy with the progress that has been made since then? The answer is not so black and white, those who advocated for racial reconciliation with him say.

“I think parts of where South Dakota has come, he would be pleased with,” said Frank Brost, who was Mickelson’s chief of staff. “I don’t think he would be pleased with where we are compared to where we hoped we would be.”

Acknowledging state's tribal story

At South Dakota State University, English professor Chuck Woodard has staged an annual gathering called “Consider the Century” for 25 years now, inviting tribal people in to reflect about their culture’s past and future. It bothered him in 1989 that the state’s centennial mantra was to “Celebrate the Century” when virtually nowhere in those celebrations was there an acknowledgement of the tribal story and history in South Dakota.

“Calling it a celebration was simply, in my opinion and those of a lot of others, a whitewashing of history that was continuing,” Woodard said. “I wasn’t expecting a gnashing of teeth. But inclusive programming that was more forthcoming about the last 100 years, and the challenges and consequences of what happened to and was done to tribal people, seemed to me to be very appropriate.”

If the state wasn’t going to acknowledge that history, Woodard said, he would. Among the speakers at the first year of his conference was tribal newspaper publisher Tim Giago, who had pushed Mickelson to create the Year of Reconciliation. There was so much opportunity in those early days to forge improved race relations, Giago recalled.

“The governor and I had sat down and outlined what we were going to do,” he said. “What I thought would have been very important to the state was going to communities that border the reservations. ... McIntosh, McLaughlin, Winner, Sisseton, places like that ... and bring Native Americans and the citizens of those communities together to talk about the things we could accomplish as friends.”

But it never happened. Giago went off on a Nieman fellowship at Harvard University in 1990. Mickelson got busy with governing and, of course, was gone within a few short years. Years later, Giago and others went to Gov. Mike Rounds, asking him to rekindle Mickelson’s dream by creating a Year of Unity in the state. Rounds obliged them, designating 2010 as that year, and a number of community events commemorated the designation.

“Rounds and I spoke at the Wagner community school,” Giago said. “We had the gymnasium packed to the rafters, and it was a tremendous thing. People came together and listened to us talk about unity. Of course, that kind of thing didn’t last nearly long enough.”

Certainly when it comes to race relations, there has been progress. Giago sees it out in Rapid City, in banks and stores and fast-food restaurants where there are many more tribal people working these days than there were in 1990. Woodard sees it at places such as SDSU and the University of South Dakota, where there are tribal student centers now, American Indian Studies programs and more events embracing cultural diversity.

State legislation in 2007 created the Indian Education Act, which mandated the development of curriculum and coursework in South Dakota Indian history and culture. Within that work has been the development of the Oceti Sakowin Essential Understandings, which address the achievement gap of Native American students by embracing their identity and promoting cultural understanding among non-native students and teachers.

South Dakota’s tribal colleges are entering agreements with technical schools and universities on topics from developing health care workers to engaging in research.

“I was just at Crazy Horse,” the governor’s son, Sioux Falls Rep. Mark Mickelson, said recently. “They’re running a Native American university there with the help and support of the University of South Dakota. That’s a good thing.”

'Still a lot of opposition' in S.D.

For all of those accomplishments, Woodard said, “there is still a lot of opposition in this state, things that continue to be taboo subjects. There’s still quite a bit of polarization in South Dakota, so there is more work to be done.”

Gov. Mickelson would not be happy with the progress made between state and tribal governments, Brost said. The trust he tried to promote among those bodies has not prevailed over the adversarial nature of tribal-state relations, especially on issues of jurisdiction and taxation, Brost said.

“George was frustrated many times,” Brost said. “The tribes wanted to go back and talk about the treaties and history, and he was more focused on what we can do to go forward and make people’s lives better and to bring economic opportunity to Indian people.

“He wanted to change things, and I do know there have been agreements here on revenue-type things. But I just feel that we still don’t have a feeling of trust between the tribes and state like probably North Dakota does with its tribes. North Dakota works very much better with its native governments. They are much more integrated. I think George would be disappointed that that’s not the case here.”

South Dakota is through only a quarter of the century of reconciliation, noted Mark Mickelson. In a nation that has elected a black president since his father’s death, hope persists for better race relations in this state, too, he said, even with more work to do. Giago said the state should use Native American Day as a focal point for future reconciliation efforts.

“As the only state out of 50 that has Native American Day as a holiday, that date should be utilized,” he said. “We need to start using that day to change attitudes and change lives in this state. We need to go into schools, including Native American schools on the reservation, and talk about why this day is important.”

The impetus for that needs to start at the top level of state government, Giago said, and in the smallest classrooms of white and tribal South Dakota. And it needs to continue at conferences such as “Consider the Century” at SDSU, Woodard said.

“We’re making progress,” he said. “But to see to it that everybody is fully educated and aware of the really good possibilities for a future that involves all people in the state being interdependent and mutually supportive. ... in that area, 25 years later, we’re still separate. We still have a long ways to go.”