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Troubled Racial Past of South Dakota



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Troubled Racial Past of South Dakota

Fifty-two years ago, the State’s Attorney for Clay County, South Dakota cross-examined Gerald Vizenor, an enrolled member of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe (White Earth Band of Ojibwe). Vizenor is today, and internationally known author of more than 30 books.

Then Clay County State’s Attorney Charles Wolsky asked Vizenor a question and Vizenor’s answer surprised him.

Gerald Vizenor was then a 34-year-old freelance journalist.

The occasion for the State’s Attorney’s cross examination of Vizenor was a commutation hearing for Thomas White Hawk. White Hawk had murdered a Vermillion, South Dakota jeweler in his home in 1967.

White Hawk was a premed student at the University of South Dakota. Police captured him inside the home. The victim’s wife had been raped repeatedly. After White Hawk pled guilty, the judge sentenced him to death.

White Hawk’s case had not attracted much attention. After the death sentence was handed down, it attracted national attention.

The troubled racial past of South Dakota could hardly be ignored. Some individuals, if they were in their late 80’s or older then, could personally recall the Wounded Knee Massacre.

Most non-Natives assumed that Wounded Knee was in the past and that opportunities for all races had been equalized. Non-Indians were unable to comprehend the assertion that their state was racist.

On January 16, 1969, the South Dakota Parole Board held a commutation hearing. White Hawk’s attorney called several witnesses, one of whom was Vizenor, who had spent a great deal of time with White Hawk while writing about his case.

Vizenor did not minimize White Hawk’s crime. Nor did he claim that White Hawk should be treated more leniently because he was Native.

Here is part of Vizenor’s testimony: “Thomas White Hawk wanted to be a doctor, wanted to have a dream to be like Ben Reifel and Oscar Howe and Ramon Roubideaux.” He continued, “But, not all Indians can make it, and when they don’t … no effort is made to understand all these failures.”

Next, the State’s Attorney took up Vizenor’s cross examination. He challenged Vizenor’s opinion that racist attitudes in South Dakota were commonplace, Vizenor began listing example after example.

“I’m asking you to give me names,” the attorney insisted. And so Vizenor recited names and still more examples.

Frustrated, the State’s Attorney continued this line of attack and demanded to hear other instances of racial animus. So Vizenor listed yet another: “Indians have difficult time finding housing in the City of Pierre.”

“Who told you that?” the State’s Attorney retorted.

Vizenor replied: “Ramon Roubideaux and Oscar Howe.” Vizenor went on to describe the housing discrimination that the eight-term State’s Attorney for Stanley County and the 1960 Artist Laureate of the State of South Dakota had confronted in Pierre.

The State’s Attorney’s frustration is palpable in the text of the transcript. A few pages later, the parole board scolds him and observes that he’s simply arguing with the witness. (And the witness was winning.)

So Vizenor was allowed to step down as a witness.

The next day, White Hawk himself testified. He came across as shy and soft spoken. At the conclusion of his testimony, the parole board commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment. Technically, it was only a recommendation. But Governor Frank Farrar promptly followed their recommendation.

White Hawk eventually completed his life sentence, dying in the penitentiary in 1997.

It’s difficult to know what made the difference to the three-member parole board. Perhaps it was Clay County State’s Attorney Wolsky being bested by Gerald Vizenor. Perhaps not. But in either case, Vizenor’s testimony was as authentic as it was moving.

Thomas E. Simmons is a professor at the University of South Dakota Knudson School of Law. His views are his own and not those of the University of South Dakota, nor the Board of Regents.

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