Lakota Perspectives, Shut Down of Cultural Site

WHY I AM WRITING
By
Janis Schmidt

On 4-14-04, my web site, http://www.lakotaperspectives.com was removed from the internet, for several reasons that I know of. One intention was malicious, intending to harm me, and to prevent me from writing any further about Arlo Looking Cloud. Another action was based on ego problems and misinformation. And there are probably more reasons that I don’t know about.

What did I have on my web site? On the home page, I had a dedication to my son Damon, a statement that the site was “devoted to the Oglala Lakota living on the Pine Ridge Reservation, a mission statement which a lot of people have found powerful and moving, and an index. I had a gallery of my paintings, two of which I had prints made, and was offering these for sale. I also had the Story of Sitting Bull, essays and articles, works and essays by Lakotas.

At or around about Christmas time, Lucy Bull Bear asked me if I could write something about Arlo Looking Cloud, her blood cousin. She said he was in jail in Rapid City, charged with killing AIM activist, Anna Mae Pictou Agwash. She told me his side of the story, and asked if I could put something up on my web site. I told her I would do it. The more I looked into it, the more I felt Arlo was not guilty. I wrote about an article a week. Mathaba, my web master, would post the stories on his huge news network and said that he would post the stories on Lakota Perspectives later.

As the trial got underway, Didier DuPont seemed to take over Arlo in some mysterious way. He told relatives that the court appointed attorney, Tim Rensch, was doing a good job, that he was confident that Arlo would be found not guilty. It seems that Didier was the only one Rensch would talk to. He wouldn’t talk to anyone else, not even Arlo. Arlo never liked him

Arlo is getting a lot of press. Everyone and his dog is writing about Arlo. Including me. Then Didier sent me registered letter threatening me that if I did not stop writing about Arlo, he would shut down my web site.

Although Didier appointed himself to be Arlo’s representitive, and had Arlo sign a letter, Didier never shared any information with the real family. Everyone asked me for information because I had a computer and courld find out, questions like, did Arlo fire Rensch? Who will represent Arlo? Arlo had more than one offer of attorneys, including Barry Bachrach, lawyer for Leonard Peltier, and Terry Gilbert, who was Didier's choice of attorney for Arlo. Didier discredited Barry Bachrach to the family by claiming that Barry had been insulting to Bernice and therefore was too irrational to represent Arlo. All of this was a lie. I had strongly favored Bachrach to be Arlo's attorney because as Leonard Peltier's lawyer, he already had a lot of information concerning the murder of Anna Mae. By the time we had discovered what Didier had done, he already had Arlo sign a paper stating he wanted to have Terry Gilbert represent him.

As a result of my writing, I had attracted a law student by the name of Paul Wolf, who was very interested in Arlo’s case. We began e-mailing back and forth. Paul was a very good source of information. Pretty soon, I included Mathaba, my web master, in the e-mails. Mathaba is located in France, and has a big internet news service. He has been very good to me, often giving me helpful advice.

I had sent some mail to Arlo which contained some downloads from Paul. The mail is returned to me from the jail, obviously opened. All of a sudden, Didier is e-mailing Paul. He says, “Paul, Arlo tells me you are good at investigating prosecution witnesses. I can probably have you working with Terry Gilbert.” Paul jumps at the opportunity. I ask Paul where and how Didier got his e-mail address. How did Didier know the content of the mail to Arlo, if Arlo never received the mail? Paul ignors my concerns. I told Paul he should stay out of it, at which point Mathaba jumped in to defend Paul, for some unknown reason. Paul stops sending me e-mails. Later he attempts to discredit Barry Bachrach.

In the meantime, Mathaba has posted the Arlo stories to my web site in a manner inconsistent with the rest of my web site. He put the stories up as coming from Mathaba.net.news, and at the end of the article, he asked for a donation. I felt he should use his own web site to ask for donations, because of Didier threats to me. I do not want to leave myself open to further attack. Mathaba hurls insults back and forth to me, sending these e-mails to other people instead of addressing my concerns about the way he is posting the Arlo stories. He tells me that he has a big important web site which many people visit, whereas my site is totally insignificant. I explain that my site is about preserving the Lakota history and culture, an artists site, that Arlo is a Lakota from the Pine Ridge Reservation, that I am a writer, and do not want stories to appear as just news stories. He finally removes the Arlo stories (my stories that I wrote) from my site, posts a very damaging story on my home page, and tells me not to contact him for 8 weeks!! At the same time, Paul suddenly stops e-mailing me. Then Mathaba removes my web site from the internet. And blocks my e-mails from reaching him, stating that he wants to make a clean break from me. I am hurt and mystified by this behavior. I can only strongly suspect that Paul and Mathaba are working with or being used by Didier for some unknown reason.

In the meantime, the real blood relatives of Arlo living on the Pine Ridge Reservation are told nothing concerning Arlo's fate, neither from Didier or Gilbert. I don't know what is going on, but I suspect that all this is adding up to no good.

I am told that closing a web site is illegal. The question is, who is responsible? And what should I do? If you can help out in some way, please contact me at jlschmidt [at] gwtc.net