Native American activists accusing the state of South Dakota of email censorship aren't telling the whole story.
The so-called "attempt to silence" some 275 email petitioners opposing a plan by the governor to limit Native Americans' access to sacred sites in the Black Hills amounted to the state rejecting the emails, because there never was such a proposal.
"They are putting out false information - there was no proposal," said Jim Soyer, spokesman for Governor William Janklow. "We asked them through email to call us about this, but they just kept emailing."
The American Indian Movement (AIM) reported the proposal on its Web site and email lists. Email petitions were routed through Michigan resident Ish Gooda - aka Linda J. LeMonde - who declined to comment.
"There is no censorship in this, it's just spamming of false information," said David Melmar, national reporter for the Native American publication, Indian Country Today, who also received some 250 petitions from protesters. "I thought, what the hell is this? This governor may not be the most friendly towards Indians, but he would never touch Indian spirituality."
The governor's webmaster asked the server from which the emails originated, TDI in Monroe, Michigan, to stop the flood of messages, but TDI said it would not. The governor's office then put up a firewall to stop the emails. TDI users were still unable to access the South Dakota state Web site as of Thursday afternoon because of the firewall, said Tim Gossaux, TDI's Internet service manager, who added, "It's the first time I've seen anything like this."
Meanwhile leaders of the seven tribes in South Dakota are in the dark as to any plans to restrict access to their sites of worship.
"I'm in close contact with the other tribes, and if there was a proposal, I would know about it," said Scott Jones, cultural and public relations director for the Lower Brule Sioux tribe, which owns 1,080 acres on lower Bear Butte.
On Tuesday, Janklow announced that the state would form committees of native peoples to address welfare reform and the preservation of sacred sites.
But petitioners argue that the state may still limit access to the Black Hills, and noted that the legacy of limiting native people's access to public lands goes back more than 100 years. Steve McCullough, who was working on the email petition campaign with LeMonde from his home in Indiana, maintains that "everything that was put on the Net was true."
Phillip Underbaggage, director of cultural affairs for the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, who also had not heard about the brouhaha happening in his back yard, called AIM a "radical group," and said, "People put crazy things in email."
