A DIRTY LITTLE SECRET
IN DIRTY LITTLE RIVER?
Little River Kansas has a dirty little secret. Or so they would hope. However, it's not little anymore, or secret. It's just dirty.
Little River's dirty little secret was published in Southern Poverty Law Center's publication on racial hate crimes committed in the US during the first quarter 1999. Now the world knows. When ever researchers dig out the the statistics of racial hatred in this country and put a place name on it, there it sits with all the rest of the other racial hate pits in the country... Little River, Kansas.
Little River High School Redskins. Now the racial hate name, redskin, has two more hate crimes behind it.
When a Deerfield Massachusetts high school dropped its redskin identity early in 2000 they used the hate crimes committed at Little River High School as an example. "Your information made a big difference in the outlook of our task force. They felt they did not want our school to be the the kind of place that Little River Kansas schools are." wrote a Deerfield parent to American Comments Web Magazine editors. "We felt it was better to change."
Not one, but two racial hate threats made against a Native American activist. What's a Native American activist? Mostly just a guy like anybody else. In this case Matthew Richter he is a daddy, a husband, a business man and a tax payer living right there in the midst of Ground Zero Indian Hate.
Little River mayor Danny Stephanson, immediately added to the threats coming from the High School with his personal statement of racial hatred to Hutchinson Human Relations Commissioner and former Little River resident, Melda Lunstrom, about Richter. "We don't have a race problem, somebody needs to do something about that guy from McPherson."
Let me put that sequence of statements in perspective for you readers who don't quite get it.
February 9th- Threat 1: "Do you have any animals. Don't be surprised if they aren't there if you wake up this next morning. We are planning on being there this Friday night. We will show up around 1:00am."
February 17th, Threat 2: "Have a paper bag ready to put over your wife's head when I fuck the shit out of her."
February 28th, Mayor Danny Stephanson: "We don't have a race problem, somebody needs to do something about that guy from McPherson."
After the mayor's comment a law enforcement officer greeted a half dozen unhappy Native Americans and their supporters when they showed up at the next city council meeting with two reporters to ask the mayor if he would tell Mr. Richter the same thing to his face? Mayor Stephanson had nothing to say.
The entire city council also sat in silence for forty minutes in the tiny council room despite multiple opportunities to speak up. They had nothing to say, after all they are redskins. One scowling, silent council man sat through the entire session with his T-shirt on wrong side out to hide what was scrawled on the front. So much for standing up and showing your redskin bigotry in public when there are reporters around. It's one thing to teach captive children in public school to be bigots but it takes something more than the Little River City Council has going for it to explain it to reporters.
Then law enforcement got involved. The McPherson County Sheriff, The Rice County Sheriff and both county attorneys. The Kansas Bureau of Investigation, Kansas Attorney General, the district Department of Justice, Wichita offices and the federal offices in Washington. Congressman Jerry Moran called the High School environment at Little River "inexcusable" and asked for the FBI to investigate.
They are.
But will they file criminal charges is the question? Like the school district, it is more likely they will wait for a rape or the body of a child before they will act.
The agencies named are just a sample of who got near enough to draw a paycheck from investigating these hate crimes, while never quite doing anything about them. A total of 32 different local, state and federal agencies got paid to look into this matter and it's far from over yet. Everyone of them got paid by you, the taxpayer.
HOW DID THESE RACE HATE CRIMES HAPPEN?
Making racial slurs and entertaining each other at the expense of Native Americans is a local tradition. The following pictures of blackface entertainers are from the McPherson County/Little River area. The children in redface are typical examples of everyday classroom experiences in this district.
How did these crimes get committed? Because Little River High School district #444 trains children to be redskin indians. They set up the racially hostile environment at their schools. Now, 19 months later, what has changed the engine of hatred called the Little River schools? What has been done to prevent any more victims or threats against the Native American community? What has been done to remove a permanent racial issue that guarantees racial conflict at the school and in the communities that surround it? Nothing. Why would they? Each of these publicly funded agencies got paid and know that you, taxpayer, will pay them again to do it all over again. Kansas Attorney General Carla Stoval wrote to the family threatened by rape and attack, "There is no reason to think law enforcement will not do anything when it happens again." When it happens again? The pledge these government agencies have made to you is that they will wait for another victim, even if it is a child.
We do not want any child to be victimized by racial conflict, not ours and not yours. Stop this racial conflict by ending the racial game of playing redskin indians in school. Little River will continue to scapegoat its students and the community it draws tax funding from while using them to justify training children to play redskin indians.
Weren't there arrests and what happened to the suspects?
Jason Cannon, a Little River student, admitted to making one threat and was charged with disorderly conduct. He was "tried" in Teen Court in nearby Great Bend, Kansas. He did some community service in the white community somewhere (not the Native American community) and went home. His teen court-ordered apology was two sentences "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it". That was the translation for the Little River regional dialect which actually comes out on paper reading, " I think you have cow dung for brains. I just found out where you lived Sunday, February 14. I get my messenger boys and my chief to come and shoot arrows at your house...have you ever had your ass kicked nigger?"(see threat)
But what of the second racial hate threat?
"we saw your home page on the internet today it really sucked dick, indian dick that is. i hope you die you liberal cult bastard. we sure do hate indians i wonder if you have any injun blood in you. we are going to scalp your ugly dog. i hope he wants a haircut. by the way we are going to rape your wife, but that shouldn't bother you since you're an indian and you guys do that sort of thing all the time."
The threats put forward were dismissed by the Rice County Attorney, Matt Treaster, because the suspect's lawyer said he didn't do it. Treaster use a lie detector test conducted by agents of the Attorney General Carla Stewart.
Carla Stewart did not make recommendations to the FBI to prosecute this hate crime, she helped dismiss the case. Why? It is not generally known that Ms. Stewart is a graduate of Marion High School, Marion Kansas. She is a "Marion High Warrior. She was trained, as a young person, to treat Native Americans as mascots.DESTRUCTION OF EVIDENCE BY SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS
Teaster admitted to American Comments someone at Little River High School destroyed logs of the day the threats were made. This made the exact location of the terminal where the message could have been sent difficult to pinpoint and therefor everyone who was at it during the day difficult to identify. McPherson County investigators determined anyone using the same modem, could have sent the message. There is a crime here in the destruction of evidence by school authorities. No arrests of school officials has been made for destroying evidence or obstruction of justice.
This is a blatant cover up of a hate crime by Little River High School authorities and by local law enforcement agencies. There is destruction of evidence. What the simple truth of this case reveals, is that the responsibility for the crime now falls on the shoulders of the school administrators. That is exactly where it belongs. It is the adults who built the environment of racial hate language. It is the so called educators who are using racial supremacist methodology and placing its destructive power into the minds of children. This is done at the expense of Native American families. In this environment of hatred, someone, as law enforcement revealed, it may not necessarily be students, committed a racial hate crime and a large group of people at multiple levels are working to sweep it under the rug.
Little River school district #444 has been unable to scapegoat any single child for this racial hatred because the fault does not fall upon children. The responsibility for this hate crime and the environment of hate it springs from lies with the Little River School District and the school environment where adults teach children to play redskin indians.
background information:
Little River Students Arrested
further information:
Neighboring City Council speaks out against Little River
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CITY OF HUTCHINSON KANSAS CONDEMNS INDIAN MASCOT- BANISHED FROM PUBLIC ACCOMMODATIONS |
REDSKIN: A 500 YEAR HATE CRIME
Historical quotes prove the meaning
VIDEO: REDSKIN A 500 YEAR HATE CRIME
copyright
by AMERICAN COMMENTS WEB MAGAZINE, 2000
