permission of the secretary of the interior and the
governor of their state. The National Indian Gam-
ing Association comes out against the bill, stating
that few Indian groups seek to build off-reserva-
tion gaming establishments. However, some Indian
tribes, especially those with casinos that might have
to compete with off-reservation gaming operations,
support the bill.
April 20
Remains of ancient Pueblo Indians are
reburied at Mesa Verde.
After 13 years of negotiation, 24 Indian groups are
permitted to rebury 1,560 sets of human remains
within Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado. The
remains include 455 near-complete skeletons. Be-
tween 700 and 1,500 years old, most of bones were
dug up in the years from 1880 to 1960. Buried with
the remains are approximately 5,000 sacred funerary
objects, including pottery, jewelry, tools, beads, and
blankets made from turkey feathers. The reburial is
one of the largest since the passage of the Native
American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
(see entry for NOVEMBER 16, 1990). Explaining
that the reburial is “long overdue,” Leigh Kuwan-
wisiwma, director of the Hopi cultural preservation
office, states, “The disturbance of burial grounds is
a violation of spiritual law. This particular reburial
did ease our minds that the final journey would fi-
nally go toward closure.”
May 23
Native protesters temporarily remove road
blockade in Caledonia, Ontario.
Holding out a lilac branch to their non-Indian op-
position, Mohawk protesters end their blockade of
Highway 6 in Ontario, Canada. Since February 28,
Mohawk from the Six Nations Reserve have been
occupying a construction site in the town of Cale-
donia. The occupiers are protesting the building of
a housing development on land they believe was
stolen from their tribe 200 years earlier. The pro-
testors make their peace offering after a breakout
of violence the day before. Native protestors and
non-Native demonstrators began fighting one an-
other after the Natives blocked the highway using
an electrical transmission tower taken from the
construction site. Native protestors reinstate the
roadblock after non-Native protestors create a par-
allel roadblock.June 29Pine Ridge reservation president is
impeached.
Cecelia Fire Thunder, the first female president of
South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, is
impeached by the Oglala Sioux Tribal Council by a
vote of 9 to 5. The council objects to Fire Thunder’s
pledge to establish a Planned Parenthood clinic on
the reservation, in response to South Dakota’s ban
on all abortions in the state. Since reservations are
not subject to state law, Fire Thunder planned to
provide South Dakota women with legal abortions
at Pine Ridge. The tribal council responded on May
31 by issuing a ban on all abortions on tribal land
and by suspending Fire Thunder. A month later,
during the impeachment hearings, it charges Fire
Thunder with overstepping her authority by solicit-
ing donations for the clinic without the council’s
permission. Fire Thunder vows to challenge the im-
peachment decision.July 4Indian activists gather at Bear Butte to
protest biker rally.
At the base of Bear Butte, a mountain in South
Dakota, Indian activists stage a ceremony mark-
ing the beginning of a summer-long encampment.
The activists are protesting the annual Sturgis mo-
torcycle rally, scheduled to take place the second
week in August. The protesters object to the noise
and drinking associated with the rally, which dis-
turbs Indian pilgrims who come to Bear Butte to
pray and perform vision quest ceremonies. The
site, also known as Mata Paha, is considered sacred
by several Indian groups, including the Lakota,