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Bill Clinton returns to Pine Ridge
Former president left his mark with funds to build new boys and girls club.
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FarkFormer President Bill Clinton will return to familiar terrain today when he makes a campaign visit for his wife on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
Bill Clinton is scheduled to speak at 2:45 p.m. at Pine Ridge High School, the scene of his presidential visit on July 7, 1999. Many members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe who greeted Clinton nine years ago will be in the crowd today.
They will include Leatrice “Chick” Big Crow, the director of a boys and girls club dedicated to the memory of her daughter, SuAnne, a star athlete and honor student who died in an automobile accident in 1992.
The new SuAnne Big Crow Boys and Girls Club at Pine Ridge was built because of Clinton’s 1999 visit and the subsequent federal grants that he directed to the project. The center opened in June of 2001.
“It’s because of him. It was a presidential initiative,” Leatrice “Chick” Big Crow said Wednesday morning. “The club is doing really great things for the kids. A lot of times something gets built for the kids and it turns into an adult place. But we’ve made sure that doesn’t happen.”
Big Crow traveled to Rapid City last Saturday to hear the former president speak at Stevens High School. She also shook his hand and delivered a card signed by kids at the boys and girls club.
“He said he remembered the club,” Big Crow said.
She has no doubt that people in Pine Ridge and across the sprawling reservation also remember the former president and his previous visit to an area that is often overlooked by national leaders.
“It was a historic moment,” Big Crow said. “It was also hot. I remember sitting in the sun, getting burned. The people I know remember his visit. They remember that he took time to come to Pine Ridge.”
Big Crow said she expects a good turnout for Bill Clinton today. And she is excited that the Democratic presidential race includes two “historic candidates” in Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Big Crow said both candidates will find support on the reservation, although she has made a personal primary choice that she knows Bill Clinton would appreciate.
“I’m a Hillary supporter,” Big Crow said.
Contact Kevin Woster at 394-8413 or kevin.woster@rapidcityjournal.com
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