Dec 31, 2013 - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Idle No More New Year’s Eve Round Dance at Mall of America
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 12.31.13
Contacts:
Reyna Crow 218.269.2661
Sarah LittleRedfeather Kalmanson 414.514.2449
Minnesota area Idle No More organizers to discuss Mall of America’s refusal to cooperate with Round Dance on New Year’s Eve
Who: Patricia Shepard, Idle No More- Minnesota and Reyna Crow, Idle No More Duluth.
What: News conference and Round Dance
When: Tuesday Dec 31, 2013 News conference 3:00 PM, round dance 4:00 PM
Where: The Mall of America’s `free speech zone’: Sidewalk adjacent to 24th Ave at Lindau Lane
Why: To discuss the MOA’s inflammatory mischaracterization of a friendship dance intended to bring a diverse community closer together as a `protest’ and to invite the Mall management to join in a dance of healing and reconciliation.
Duluth, MN
. Two Minnesota Idle No More organizers threatened with arrest by the Mall of America, joined by their legal counsel Jordan Kushner, will share the Mall’s response to a letter urging the Mall to work with the women to create a welcoming climate for the round dance, a dance of renewed relationships, deeply connected to Mother Earth, Medicine Waters and in the spirit of all people of all walks of life joining in ONE circle of friendship and peace, and certainly not a protest.
The Idle No More New Years Eve Round Dance is in honor of healing and renewal of relationship be-tween our Communities and in honor of the Dakota 38, Wounded Knee, Chief Theresa Spence, and the four founding women of Idle No More: Nina Waste, Sylvia McAdam, Sheelah Mclean, and Jessica Gordon.
The women reached out to Mall management again Monday, but were refused a meeting with Mall officials, one of whom wrote in response to a local attorney assisting the women that a round dance held last year at the MOA was a “… demonstration [that] caused significant disruption to our customers, tenants, and employees” and implied the Mall was not “… inhospitable to genuine Native American cultural events…”.
Shepard is undeterred, “The global disconnection and historical pain within our communities and Mother Earth has called for healing, and renewal for the coming New Year, 2014”, she says adding with respect to Mall management, “We will be offering these gifts of tobacco, sage, cedar, sage and water to the MOA management team and invite them to join with us in our dance for healing and reconciliation.”
The round dance is planned for 4:00 pm. Legal observers from the National Lawyers Guild will also be present.
Idle No More Round Dance 2014 is co-sponsored by: Idle No More- Minnesota, Idle No More Wisconsin, Idle No More Duluth, Idle No More Official (discussion group), Idle No More Facebook page, http://www.idlenomore.ca/ and https://www.facebook.com/IdleNoMoreCommunity?fref=ts (discussion for everyone to participate in).
