Pressing the attack on Bill Napoli and the Sacred Choices Women's Health Clinic

I had the above cartoon sent to me today (Click to enlarge) as an item that had been going around nationally about the misinterpretation about Bill Napoli's explanation between consensual statutory rape and rape being committed as an act of violence that had gotten badly mangled and earned him the ire of pro-choice forces.

It's one of those things that there is no easy way to even attempt to try to draw a difference between, so it's best left alone.

Anyway, the cartoon above apparently has gone through some of the blogosphere and the original is for sale on ebay. With over 6 days left, it's up to $280. The seller "S*McMillan" is selling it with the proceeds to go towards planned parenthood and a womens health clinic that might be established as part of the OST. As the eBay seller writes:

As reported on Indianz.com, the president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, Cecilia Fire Thunder, responded to news of the South Dakota abortion ban by declaring, "To me, it is now a question of sovereignty. I will personally establish a Planned Parenthood clinic on my own land which is within the boundaries of the Pine Ridge Reservation where the State of South Dakota has absolutely no jurisdiction."

Planned Parenthood later stated that though they appreciated Ms. Fire Thuder’s statement, they had no plans to close their Sioux Falls clinic and didn’t have plans to open a second clinic in South Dakota.

However, I really admire her spirit and in case she can build a women’s reproductive health care clinic, whether or not it’s a Planned Parenthood one, I want to support her. She’s apparently done a lot of good for the tribe, which suffers from extreme unemployment, a crushing level of poverty and low life expectancy, after having had their land stolen and traditional way of life all but destroyed by the United States.

Here’s a description of her from Indian Country Today:

“Fire Thunder has dedicated much of her adult life to the defense of the Indian family and the struggle against abuse of Indian women and children. She is an advocate of the rescue and use of the Lakota language by the younger generation. …A practical nurse, Fire Thunder established an organization, Sacred Circle, to address domestic violence. Her career stands as testimony of the effort to help rebuild the self-esteem of women in her community and nationally.”

So while I would be honored to support any efforts of hers to build a clinic, I think it would also be good to contribute to any of the many ways she’s assisting people at Pine Ridge, and I‘m not going to try to direct how my contribution should be best used -- I’ll simply write the check to the Oglala Sioux Tribe.

Okay, she's certainly welcome to her opinion. But as I look at the eBay listing, there are permission slips from Planned Parenthood and another organization I've never heard of Cangleska, Inc. They are giving permission to market the proceeds as going to them and "the Sacred Choices Womens Clinic."

According to a release issued by Senator Tim Johnson in conjunction with a grant, it's noted that

Cangleska, Inc. is a national resource center to tribes across America. They write training manuals, develop materials that other reservations may use in order to provide the same type of assistance on their respective lands, provide technical training to tribes and tribal organizations who deal with domestic violence against Native women, and also write tribal domestic violence laws along with probation laws.

And I'd agree that absolutely, these are certainly noble deeds. But as I read the note (Click to enlarge)

I find myself wondering what was going on here, as clearly they're naming the Sacred Choices Women's Clinic as the beneficiary under the authorization of Cangleska.

In going back to the orignal website of the cartoon, the artist Stephanie McMillan provides a little explanation:

Sacred Choices, the women’s reproductive health clinic planned by Oglala Sioux Tribe President Cecilia Fire Thunder, to be built on sovereign tribal land at Pine Ridge, South Dakota, and which would not be subject to US law.

I'd really appreciate it if people could help to spread the word! It would be pretty cool to be able to make a significant contribution!

(Aside from the fact it IS subject to US law as in federal, but not SD law) Is it just me, or do things seem a little farther down the line than it being a whim? Maybe things can happen quicker than I think they would, but I'm somewhat doubtful that Cecelia could just pop in one day and say she wants to open a clinic and ask Cangleska to back it

Here we have an organization, Cangleska which just a couple of years back got over a million dollars from the federal government for domestic violence assistance, and many other private and government grants - and they're apparently behind the effort.

This seems odd to me and worth the blogpost, because all of this just came out in the paper on the middle of last week. And two days later they've got the full backing of a local organization and a name for the place? It seems like there are a lot of missing pieces to this puzzle.

I'll just leave it at that, and let the readers write their own endings.