The Week

Government of the birds, by the birds, and for the birds: The city commission of Birmingham, Michigan has voted unanimously to direct the city administration to draw up an ordinance requiring all the cats in town to wear a little bell that will warn the birds they are coming. We have long been in favor of an ordinance that would require all politicians to wear a bell that will warn taxpayers they are coming.

The occupation of Wounded Knee by Indian militants may have pleased the National Council of Churches, Marlon Brando, and CBS cameramen, but with the actual residents of the Pine Ridge Reservation, the Oglala Sioux, it went over like a lead balloon. The April 13 issue of the Harvard Law Record contains an interview with David C. Harrison, an Indian and a first-year student in Harvard Law School, who provided legal advice to the Oglala Tribe. According to Harrison, the occupation caused “tremendous disruption” on the reservation, evicted 65 families for almost four months, cost the tribe a quarter of a million dollars, and undermined tribal sovereignty. The militants, he said “have precious little support in the Indian community. Most of their support has come from outside the reservation, from such white liberal groups as the National Council of Churches. . . . No one wanted the renegades shot, but they were disturbed that the government has turned its back on the problems that the takeover has caused the reservation.” Though the government offered food to the militants, it “made no similar offer to the 65 families who had been evicted. They had to depend on the Red Cross.” Clear message to Indians from the Nixon Administration: It pays to be militant.

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Government of the birds, by the birds, and for the birds: The city commission of Birmingham, Michigan has voted unanimously to direct the city administration to draw up an ordinance requiring all the cats in town to wear a little bell that will warn the birds they are coming. We have long been in favor of an ordinance that would require all politicians to wear a bell that will warn taxpayers they are coming.

The occupation of Wounded Knee by Indian militants may have pleased the National Council of Churches, Marlon Brando, and CBS cameramen, but with the actual residents of the Pine Ridge Reservation, the Oglala Sioux, it went over like a lead balloon. The April 13 issue of the Harvard Law Record contains an interview with David C. Harrison, an Indian and a first-year student in Harvard Law School, who provided legal advice to the Oglala Tribe. According to Harrison, the occupation caused “tremendous disruption” on the reservation, evicted 65 families for almost four months, cost the tribe a quarter of a million dollars, and undermined tribal sovereignty. The militants, he said “have precious little support in the Indian community. Most of their support has come from outside the reservation, from such white liberal groups as the National Council of Churches. . . . No one wanted the renegades shot, but they were disturbed that the government has turned its back on the problems that the takeover has caused the reservation.” Though the government offered food to the militants, it “made no similar offer to the 65 families who had been evicted. They had to depend on the Red Cross.” Clear message to Indians from the Nixon Administration: It pays to be militant.