AMERIND-US-SE-L Archives

From:
Subject: Forgivness ceremony
Date: Wed, 2 May 2001 19:41:52 EDT

Subj: Teshunka Wetko name use forgiveness ceremony
Date: 5/1/01 7:37:22 AM Pacific Daylight Time
From: <A HREF="mailto:Aimfl">Aimfl</A>
To: <A HREF="mailto:SGMAIMFL">SGMAIMFL</A>
BCC: <A HREF="mailto:REDSKI9136">REDSKI9136</A>



Minneapolis Star-Tribune
Doug Grow: Healing prevails at forgiveness ceremony with Stroh, Indians

Doug Grow / Star TribuneSometimes there are reminders that right is
might.Last week in Mission, S.D., for example, John Stroh III delivered 32
blankets, 32 braids of sweet grass, 32 twists of tobacco, seven thoroughbred
racehorses and an apology to Seth Big Crow, administrator of the estate of
Crazy Horse. The gifts and apology were Stroh's settlement of a federal
lawsuit Big Crow is pursuing to stop Hornell Brewing of New York from using
the Crazy Horse name on a cheap malt liquor it distributes.Crazy Horse was
the mighty Oglala warrior who defeated George Custer at the Battle of Little
Big Horn and who also pleaded with his people not to use alcohol.Big Crow,
63, is a poor man who has been trying to stop Hornell from profiting from the
Crazy Horse name since 1992."I have never gotten tired or discouraged," Big
Crow said in a telephone interview. "I still am eager to see what is around
the corner."Last week's triumph was mostly about symbolism. Stroh's always
was a secondary player in the distribution of the offensive product. Stroh's
became SBC Holdings, which in 1996 acquired the G. Heileman Brewing Co. At
one time, Heileman produced Crazy Horse Malt Liquor for Hornell. And though
SBC no longer bottles the product, Hornell still does, and it shows no
interest in settling a federal lawsuit filed in Sioux Falls, S.D. Hornell
executives keep saying the product, aimed at poor drunks, "honors" Crazy
Horse's memory.But symbolism can be powerful. The ceremony in Mission,
located on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in southwestern South Dakota, was
unlike anything people there had ever seen.Stroh, chairman of SBC Holdings,
delivered the letter of apology himself."I imagine he was a little leery
walking into Sioux country," Big Crow said.Stroh spoke eloquently to about
300 people."We understand your deep and sincere feeling that the marketing of
the malt liquor beverage disparaged the spirit and caused you and his other
descendants emotional distress," Stroh said. "Our respective family values
are not that different. My parents raised me to be kind and stand up for what
I believe in."The gifts were presented.They "represent things important to
life in the Indian world," Big Crow said. "You give those things that are
important to someone you have harmed as a way to retain harmony."Big Crow
responded to Stroh's gifts with symbols of forgiveness. Stroh was given a
hand-stitched quilt and a traditional song was sung in his honor."He was
visibly moved," said Big Crow. "He said he'd never seen anything like
this."There was no money involved in this part of the settlement, which
defies Hornell's contention that Big Crow simply has been seeking to enrich
himself.A San Francisco firm is representing -- at no charge -- the Crazy
Horse estate now that the issue has moved into the federal courts, after
years of debate over whether tribal courts could sit in judgment of this
case. (A federal court ruled that tribal courts do not have
jurisdiction.)Apology always has been at the core of this dispute, according
to attorney Greg Dresser. He said this is an intellectual property-rights
case; the question is: Who has control over a name, ancestors or a brewing
company?"It's about what's right," Dresser said. "If they [Hornell
executives] came to me and said, 'We'll stop marketing the product, we'll
destroy all the bottles and labels, we'll apologize,' I'd say we'd have a lot
to sit down and talk about."Big Crow, who claims to be a distant blood
descendant of Crazy Horse, doesn't expect the remainder of the fight to be
easy. But he believes momentum -- and perhaps even the spirits of his
ancestors -- are with him.He said a strange thing happened at the ceremony.
There are buffalo near the center where the ceremony was held. Usually they
are out of sight, grazing in ravines. But during the ceremony, the entire
herd was along the fence, near the center."The people were astonished to see
them," Big Crow said. "They said, 'They're never there.' I said, 'Maybe
somebody drove them.' And they said, 'We didn't see anybody out there driving
them.' I said, 'You don't understand what I'm saying.'"

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