And here Cecelia goes again...
The Oglala Sioux Tribe suspended president Cecelia Fire Thunder. Again. And impeachment proceedings are being started. Again.
From the Sioux Falls Argus Leader:
From the Sioux Falls Argus Leader:
The Oglala Sioux tribal council banned all abortions on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and suspended President Cecelia Fire Thunder on Tuesday, charging that she solicited donations on behalf of the tribe for a proposed abortion clinic without the council's approval.Read it all here. From the article, it sounds like the whole thing got public opinion pretty frenzied. Again from the article:
"It was unauthorized political activity," said Will Peters, a tribal council representative from the Pine Ridge district. "It's just a matter of failing to communicate not only with the governing body but with the people that she was elected to serve."
Peters made a motion to suspend Fire Thunder indefinitely, and when that failed, voted to suspend her for 20 days until an impeachment hearing could take place. That motion passed.
"This whole thing was an ambush," Fire Thunder said, adding that she never solicited donations and never was asked whether she had actually accepted any money.
"It got crazy," Fire Thunder said. "On Friday they were passing around a flyer that said 'Wilma Mankiller - Cecelia Babykiller.' "Yow. And you think this issue is tough at the statewide level.
Mankiller was the first female principal chief of the Cherokee Nation; Fire Thunder is the first female president of the Oglala Sioux.
Comments
It is obvious that the elders don't like having a reformer President who has threatened to expose their unforgivable mismanagement of the tribe for the past several decades.
They'll use anything they can to stop her. This really isn't about abortion, this is about stopping someone who might actually do some good on the res.
I'm a little disappointed that you have bought into this myth that Cecelia brings these things on herself. I know you care about the abortion issue, but as a political observer, you should know this is much deeper than the issue. Abortion in this case is just window dressing.