Lawsuit filed in Pine Ridge murders

| Thursday, July 10, 2003

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OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska officials had little to say Wednesday about a federal lawsuit filed by a man demanding the state create a task force to investigate the 1999 deaths of his brother and cousin near Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

In the lawsuit filed Monday at U.S. District Court in Omaha, Thomas R. Poor Bear also asks the state to investigate about 50 other unsolved homicides at the reservation.

"Certainly, I have a great deal of sympathy for the families of people who have been murdered," Attorney General Jon Bruning said. "I think a lawsuit is an extremely unique way to precipitate change in this case."

The state had not been served with the lawsuit as of Wednesday morning, so Bruning said he had no comment on the merits of the case.

Nebraska Gov. Mike Johanns' spokesman Chris Peterson also had no comment on the lawsuit. Peterson said that if anyone had any new information about the deaths, they should contact police or the FBI.

According to the lawsuit, the bodies of Poor Bear's brother, Wilson Black Elk Jr., and his cousin, Ronald Hard Heart, were found in a roadside ditch between Whiteclay, Neb., and Pine Ridge on June 8, 1999. The men had been beaten and mutilated. The crime remains unsolved.

About three weeks later, the American Indian Movement organized a march and prayer ceremony in memory of the murdered men.

According to the lawsuit, the march was disrupted by vandalism and arson when local and state law enforcement officials failed to protect the marchers from people who had been drinking around Whiteclay.

According to the lawsuit, nine people, including Poor Bear, were arrested on trespassing and other charges when marchers tried to hold another service a week later.

The lawsuit accuses the state of violating Poor Bear's First Amendment right to free speech and assembly in its handling of both marches.

Poor Bear also wants the state to better regulate liquor sales at the nearby village of Whiteclay, where four stores sell about 11,000 cans of beer daily.