The South Dakota Railroad (and we ain't talkin' trains!)
By Christine Rose

I spent Wednesday, July 10, 2002 in a courtroom in Winner, South Dakota following the proceedings against Phillip Dog Soldier. The prosecutor played an endless tape made over three days of interrogation while Phillip was either drunk or medicated for pain while hospitalized for burns. The charges were that Phillip burned down a house while drunk, as the children slept upstairs and the parents were asleep downstairs. Oddly, the only voice that could be heard from the tape was that of the interrogating police officer as he repeatedly put forth the scenario that Phillip was in the kitchen, perhaps preparing something to eat, turned on the stove, burned his arm, and then passed out drunk on either the floor, in the kitchen, or the living room.

It was impossible to hear Phillip defend himself, or answer the police officers questions. I moved closer to the jury, right next to the bailiff and struggled to hear Phillip's replies on the tape but it was impossibly inaudible. I was glad to see that at least the jury had transcripts and could follow the tape better than I could, though I later found out that there were complete gaps in the transcripts when the defendant was unable to be heard on the tapes. After almost an hour of listening to the same story repeated by the police officer, I finally left the room. Outside and down the hall, a lone man sat at a table looking hard at his hands clasped on top of the table. I asked him what his connection to the case was and as soon as he looked at me I knew he was the father of the children lost in the fire. I asked him what he thought of the proceedings, if he had watched any of it, heard the tapes, and what did he think? He told me that the man in that courtroom was innocent, that Phillip had been held for 7 months in jail for fear he would run to the rez, although others involved in the fire had been released and were able to return to the rez, and have since been picked up on the rez by the police to return for the trial. He told me that in the middle of that fire, he had to wake Phillip up in his bed to leave the house. No, it was the man who had come into his room and yelled FIRE!! who was guilty, but so far it seemed as if the police were completely uninterested in the truth of the situation. It seemed their sole intent was getting Dog Soldier in prison. I asked him to tell me the whole story and he did.

It was Labor Day and several friends had joined up for a couple of beers before returning home with the kids. The parents, Arnold and Sue, their two relatives Jeffrey and Phillip, and another man not well known to the family, Four Horns, returned back to Arnold and Sue's house. As the evening wore on, Sue took the kids upstairs to put them to bed and returned downstairs shortly after. She and Arnold then turned in for the night themselves. The other three men, Jeffrey, Phillip, and Four Horns continued to drink and party into the night. Arnold had to come out of his room at one point because Jeffrey was threatening Phillip, something that wasn't new. Phillip is much smaller in both height and weight and is of very humble demeanor. Later on, Four Horns started banging on the table and Arnold had to come out and tell him to quiet down or get out. (Phillip, who is Sue's uncle has lived with them for a year and has never been a problem, but much more often a victim of harassment.) That was around 2 a.m. and the last Arnold or Sue heard of the partying.

At around 6:30 or so, Jeffrey burst into their downstairs bedroom and said Get Out!! There's a fire in the kitchen! Sue and Arnold jumped out of bed and Arnold ran upstairs to get the kids. He yelled to get both kids up, which woke up Dog Soldier, and they all ran downstairs. The stairway wall was on fire and perhaps Phillip burned his arm on the way down. By the time everybody came down, the door to escape was blocked and Arnold kicked out a window, but the children were frightened and ran back upstairs. By the time the fire department arrived, they were unable to get to the kids. They perished in the fire.

The police were called, there was an investigation, the fire was ruled an accidental grease fire and the case appeared to be closed.

Shortly thereafter, Arnold and Sue found out that Phillip had been arrested. They had not been contacted about his arrest, were not informed and to top it all off, when they told the police that they knew Phillip wasn't guilty because he was asleep at the time the fire started, that Arnold had seen him in bed, the police replied, "You must have tunnel vision or something, because thats not what you saw."

I asked a few questions that came to mind from watching too many law shows on tv. Had Phillip had any previous problems with the police? Oh, yeah, the police chief was always looking to Phillip when something went wrong. Phillip had been involved in a break in when he was younger, but now whenever there was a break-in, the police gave Phillip a hard time. In fact, the police chief has often given Phillip a hard time for no reason. As Arnold said, "The police chief had it in for him."

I then asked if Jeffrey had ever been in trouble and the answer was yes, in fact, he had a court case pending. Was he offered a opportunity to get his charges dropped for turning Phillip in? We wonder.

Since he turned Phillip in, Jeffrey doesn't come around anymore. He doesn't make eye contact with Arnold and Sue, and has said to people that those children who died won't let him sleep. If he wasn't guilty, why would those children be bothering him so much?

But the big question is why were the police so determined to obviously frame Phillip? Why wouldn't they let the truth be heard? Why were Arnold and Sue prevented from telling their side of the story to the jury until there was outside pressure? As the protestors led by Alfred Bone Shirt announced through the bull horn that racism in South Dakota must end, teenagers drove up and said the Ku Klux Klan were on their way. Firemen hurled racial epithets. Car loads of white folks drove by waving American Flags as if their claims to Americana also gave them free rein to their racism.

One of the most oft heard complaints about the protestors was the fact that they flew the American Flag upside down, thinking perhaps that it was a sign of disrespect. On the contrary, it is a sign that our country is in distress. And for many Americans, this country is in distress. When a man can not get a decent trial because of the color of his skin, when public servants yell obscenities based on a people's race then I would have to say Yes, sirree-bob! This country is very much in distress. And I for one am not proud of this and will not stand quietly by and allow this in my country. Because it cannot be the land of the free for only some of the people. There must be liberty and justice for ALL!