RAPID CITY, S.D. – Cecilia Fire Thunder, the first woman president of the
Oglala Sioux Tribe, side steps her historic achievement to challenge people
to perform more effectively, ethically and in some cases differently. At
the same time she has issued a specific challenge to the news media to help
put forward a more positive image of her nation.

“I want the media to commit to tell good stories so the non-Indians will
understand and know more about us. There are many negative stories against
us,” she said. “We want to close that gap.”

A positive image will have an impact on the future generations and she said
the Oglala Nation wants to reach out and bring others into the circle.

Fire Thunder has also challenged the Oglala people, the tribal council and
program directors.

“We have to heal. We can bring back the Oglala Sioux Tribe. We must promote
education for youth and educate with the right materials, protect the earth
and promote healing for the people.”

Fire Thunder said she met many smart people on her travels across the
reservation, “Now we have to capture that for our future. The challenges
are great.”

She said people have to make a commitment to change every day of their
lives to make a better world for everyone. Her administration will be under
a tight watch, she admits. There were some traditional men on the
reservation who said they couldn’t support a woman as head of the Oglala
Nation. One man said he could support her for vice president, but not the
top spot.

“As the first woman I will be under scrutiny, some people are waiting for
me to fail.”

The Pine Ridge Reservation is riddled with problems, and the people, she
asserts, gave her and the new council a mandate to provide accountability.
She has laid down the gauntlet for the council and herself to stop
micro-managing programs and to pay more attention to the people and the
districts. There are nine districts on Pine Ridge. She said it was not the
council’s job to watch over every program or its director, but to govern
the tribe.

Also it will be her expectation, that all leaders of the tribe will be drug
and alcohol free. She also listed that as a mandate from the people. “The
people expect you to be ethical.”

Many problems, social and political, on Pine Ridge stem from the fact that
economic development has never taken hold and jobs are scarce. Fire Thunder
said she has no new plans for economic development, just a pile of research
that has been gathered over the years.

“I have read some of those plans and they are doable. We will review and
take a good look at them.

“We have the ability. It’s not the government’s job to create jobs, we must
help with the resources to help the communities create business.”

If Fire Thunder has a mantra it would be that the people of Pine Ridge are
smart and have skills that will be nurtured and fit into the economy and
social aspects of the reservation. Her plan, she said, is to meet with the
Oglala Lakota College administration to discover what training is needed
and make plans to offer that training. She said as the head of the
government she can find resources to help implement those plans.

“We need counselors and need people for spiritual needs, there is a need
for hearing and speech people, lawyers; we need a whole gambit of people.”

In order to promote business and economic development on the reservation
the court system has to be autonomous, she said. Her challenge to the
council was to not interfere with the court. “The courts need to be
strengthened, fixed and streamlined. The council must stay out of the
court’s business. It must be strong enough to hold people accountable for
crimes. It’s not broken, it just needs to be fine tuned.

“We will ask the court to come and help us,” she said.

“We need to trust the people who are running the programs; they know what
they are doing. Our job is to find resources to help the community. The
district governments need to be strengthened so they can do a better job.”

Fire Thunder is not a person that is easily intimidated by problems, issues
or other leaders whether state or federal. In the past two years a more
open South Dakota governor and legislature offered tribal leaders an
opportunity to have input into state affairs that have potential
opportunities for the tribes in the state. Fire Thunder said she plans to
be very involved with state affairs.

“The state has a strong presence on the reservations and we can strengthen
our relationship.”

She also plans meetings with the governor of Nebraska. The Pine Ridge
Reservation is on the border of the two states, and just across the border
from Pine Ridge Village is the town of White Clay. The tiny village sells
at least 4 million bottles of beer a year to mostly tribal members. Pine
Ridge prohibits alcohol within its boundaries.

Fire Thunder said she would work to close down White Clay, something many
reservation residents have asked the state of Nebraska to do.

And while Fire Thunder is in the process of challenging people, she issued
one to Sen. Elect John Thune to: “Call me. We will have an agenda and will
make sure he has it.

“Come to the reservation and earn the respect that Daschle had,” she said.

The new Oglala president plans to work with national organizations like the
National Council of American Indians. She also mentioned possible Supreme
Court appointments. The high court has not been favorable to American
Indian tribes in recent years, and she made special mention of the fact
that Sen. Elect Thune wants to make it easier, by his presence in the
senate, to appoint new justices.

“It could dismantle a lot of hard work.”

She said it will be a day-to-day job by the judiciary committee of the
council to keep up with developments on a national and state level.

Federal and state law enforcement authorities did not escape Fire Thunder’s
radar screen. There could be new appointments to the U.S. Attorney’s office
and some state attorneys.

“We have many unresolved homicides on this reservation. Some families are
waiting for closure. I hold the FBI accountable. There are rapes on this
reservation and they haven’t done a good job. I hold them accountable.”

Fire Thunder told the voters of Pine Ridge that her office would be open
only on Mondays and Fridays, not a wide-open door policy her opponent,
Russell Means, advocated. She said, “You need to let us do our work.

“I am asking the council to go to the districts and listen. I will be
coming to the districts; sometimes people just want to be heard.

“I’m going to work harder than I have in my whole life,” Fire Thunder said.