Action.

Ah, the wonder of the internet, or at least of the internet-usin' progressive population: sit tight for 24 hours and some kind soul with more time than you and a functioning PC will find the info you need. Forthwith, if you want to support President Fire Thunder's proposed Planned Parenthood clinic on the Pine Ridge Reservation, send a check to:

Oglala Sioux Tribe
ATTN: President Fire Thunder, P. O. Box 2070
Pine Ridge, SD 57770

OR (and this may be preferred, due to mail volume):

Oglala Sioux Tribe
ATTN: PRESIDENT FIRE THUNDER , PO BOX 990
Martin, SD 57751

Make checks out to OST Planned Parenthood Cecelia Fire Thunder.

And at this point I'll continue the willy-nilly linking. More information about Fire Thunder is available via this excellent diary on dKos.

I am stoked about this. Seeing a woman stand up in the midst of the hopelessness that has been the legacy of US Indian policies, hopelessness compounded by the machinations of the state legislature in Pierre, is beyond inspiring. Ian Frazier's excellent On The Rez, which details the recent history and social climate of Pine Ridge, devotes a considerable amount of space to SuAnne Big Crow, a Pine Ridge girl who was a remarkable human being. Star athlete, good student, concerned with spreading peace and hope among the kids who saw none. She died in a car wreck at a young age; some commented that she was the spirit of White Buffalo Calf Woman returned to give hope to her people. Maybe Cecilia Fire Thunder is picking up that mantle now. Even if the legal details won't allow a rez PP clinic to offer services to non-Lakota, what a wonderful bit of defiance, of grabbing back a bit of the power and self-determination the state legislature has tried to rip away.

Yup, there are plenty of causes out there, plenty of opportunities to do the right thing. God knows there are wrongs needing righted in my own back yard. I do what I can there, in the yard, but this one feels worth venturing farther afield for. Uh, I've sent care packages to the troops too, so I'm not totally parochial in my search for needy causes.

And no, I'm not hoping to do a pony trek through the Black Hills someday on a vision quest in order to be adopted by a Lakota band, got no desire to dangle by the danglies in the sun dance. This simply kicked open the file folder in my brain where I keep everything I've read about the tribe and their uphill slog against history. I don't know much about persecution personally, but my Irish genes have enough of a memory for me to gleefully shout Up the Lakota, and Up Fire Thunder.