Possible serial killer held in custody in White Clay, NE for the execution style slayings of two Oglala Lakota men from the Pine Ridge Reservation.  These two deaths were the latest in a string of homicides in the area.  The FBI is investigating seven prior homicides in relation to these.
A rally and march has been called by AIM in support of justice for these men whose bodies were found just south of the Pine Ridge Reservation just over the Nebraska state line.
Background, rally information contact numbers in SD  below.

BACKGROUND:

             American Indian activists Russell Means, Dennis Banks and Clyde Bellecourt plan to attend a rally Saturday at Pine Ridge, S.D., to protest the deaths of two Lakota men, according to the rally organizer.

The bodies of Wilson Black Elk Jr., 40, and Ronald Hard Heart, 39, were found June 8 in a culvert about 1 1/2 miles south of Pine Ridge near the Nebraska border. They were reportedly last seen June 6.

Autopsies were performed last week in Rapid City, S.D., FBI Supervisory Special Agent Mark Vukelich told the Scottsbluff Star-Herald this week.

"This is being treated as a homicide," he said, declining to release details. "We're in major-league investigation mode on this. Our concern is, as we interview people, we're not getting fed back information people got from other sources or from the press.

"We're looking at all the possibilities and covering leads as they come up. We're trying to keep an open mind to all possibilities." Vukelich said all eight agents in the Rapid City office are working on the investigation.

Despite that, Tom Poor Bear, Black Elk's older half-brother and Hard Heart's cousin, is organizing a rally Saturday to call attention to numerous unsolved deaths on the reservation.

Poor Bear, 43, said Tuesday in a telephone interview that he has spoken with Means, Banks and Bellecourt, and all three plan take part. The activists were not immediately available to confirm their plans.

The rally is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. Saturday near the Pine Ridge post office, Poor Bear said. Rally participants will march south, stopping for prayers where the bodies were discovered, then continuing into Whiteclay, Neb.

"I need to find justice for the murders of these two Lakota men. It is a rally for justice. Me personally, I don't want it to be stuck in the back of a file cabinet with "case closed' on it," said Poor Bear, sergeant of arms for the Oglala Lakota Tribal Council.

"I was in Wounded Knee with Banks and Means. After we found out my brother and cousin were brutally murdered, I had no alternative but to call on the American Indian Movement." For years, Indian deaths along the Nebraska border have gone unsolved, he said. Poor Bear helped identify Black Elk's body, which he said appeared to have been severely beaten.

"I could go on about the people that were murdered around Sheridan County (in Nebraska) and nobody has been arrested. I think we need to start finding justice for our Indian people," Poor Bear said.

Because alcohol is not sold on the Pine Ridge Reservation, people usually go across the border to nearby Whiteclay, he said.

The problem lies there, Poor Bear said.

"Our money made them rich, but yet we are treated with a lot of prejudice. They respect our money, but they don't respect our Lakota," he said.

Sheridan County Sheriff Terry Robbins said his department has had no reported cases of Indians being mistreated by store owners, Sheridan County residents or even law enforcement agents.

"They're rumors, as far as I'm concerned," Robbins said Tuesday.

He also denies Poor Bear's suggestion that Indians are killed in Nebraska and their bodies taken back to the reservation in South Dakota, which is under federal jurisdiction.

"I don't know how many unsolved murders they have on the reservation," Robbins said. "We don't have any in Sheridan County, unsolved deaths, you might say."
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UPDATE:
The deputy sheriff has been arrested in the execution style slaying of both of these men.  He is possibly responsible for the unsolved murder of seven others.  We demand that justice be done and that these deaths not go unpunished...

To support the rally in a demand for justice by internet for those unable to attend this march, letters may be sent via e-mail to:

Governor Johanns
 web mail
Lt. Governor :
Attorney General's office email

LOCAL MEDIA CONTACTS:
News  Publisher   Steve   Hungerford  hungerford@wespub.com
Editor  Steve Miller smiller@wespub.com
Day Time News       sshnews@wespub.com
Night News   sshcopydesk@wespub.com
Star-Herald   starherald@wespub.com
Alliance Times herald   mailto:editor@alliancetimes.com

Grand Island Daily Independent
News Department
mailto:ayoub@theindependent.com   George Ayoub
mailto:bstinson@theindependent.com  Barrett Stinson
mailto:toverstr@theindependent.com Tracy Overstreet
mailto:mbrandert@theindependent.com
mailto:sgrell@theindependent.com Sara Grell
mailto:apoindexter@theindependent.com Amy Pointdexter

 
Your participation is most urgently requested..
Ish

AIM CALL TO JUSTICE:
Original message posted to FN list by Red Dawn:
Rally for Justice   Saturday June 26, 1999  10:00 a.m.  Billy Mills Hall
in Pine Ridge on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, SD

Support the struggle.  The Indian Wars are not over.  The American Indian Movement, Denver is calling for all warriors and supporters for
Ron Hard Heart and Wally Black Elk  of the Oglala Lakota Nation.
Both men were murdered execution style by a Nebraska Sheriff in White
Clay, NB.  A town whose sole purpose is to destroy the Oglala People
through alcohol.  A peace march from Billy Mills Hall in Pine Ridge to
White Clay, NB will take place on June 26, 1999 at 10:00 a.m.  Scheduled speakers include:  Clyde Bellecourt, Dennis Banks, Russell Means and the families of the victims.

A caravan will depart from the Texaco gas station at Colfax and Mariposa
at 7:30 p.m. on Friday June, 25 1999.

For more information concerning this event please contact:  John Old Horse enrolled Oglala Lakota Nation member #U-37439 Interim Director AIM-Denver.
303-825-3305.

Don't allow the deaths of our people to continue.  We need your support.

CONTACT INFORMATION:
In SD, contact:  Tom Poor Bear 605-867-5821: Dave Clifford 605-867-5428 or
KILI radio 605-867-5002.
The deputy sherriff was questioned...not arrested. Some early reports also stated he had turned himself in..