From a fellow Riggs H.S. grad, an open letter to state Rep. Mortenson: Look at how your party treats brown people
Dear state Rep. Mortenson,
I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting you but hope I do in the future as I’m deeply impressed by your background and achievements … and we do have a connection.
I graduated from the same high school as you did, and some of your family members were fellow Riggs High classmates. I haven’t seen them in decades, but I knew them to be solid, fundamentally decent people, and I remember them fondly.
I’ve been following your career for the past year or so and am intrigued. You are clearly a gifted politician and an inspiring trailblazer as the first Native American to be GOP majority leader in the South Dakota Legislature.
But there is a specific reason you are on my mind today.
Given the killing of Renee Good and the illegal detention at the Little Earth housing complex of Native Americans at the hands of masked, heavily armed ICE personnel in Minneapolis — where I lived for more than 20 years — I assume you might be concerned on a couple of levels.
You graduated from the prestigious University of Virginia Law School in Charlottesville in 2016, so I imagine you weren’t on campus in August 2017 during the Unite the Right rally. That was when neo-Nazi right-wing white supremacist MAGA men carrying tiki torches marched through Charlottesville chanting “Jews will not replace us,” creating havoc and terror. I live three hours from Charlottesville and remember the horrors of that day very well.
That was when President Donald Trump proclaimed “there were very fine people on both sides.”
Perhaps you remember that a right-wing extremist actually did weaponize his car and plow into peaceful protesters in Charlottesville. He killed a woman, who like Renee Good was in her 30s, and injured 40 others, many of whom continue to suffer from their injuries.
I’m sure you know that then-Attorney General Bill Barr approved a reduction of the federal charges against the white perpetrator so as to take the death penalty off the table. Question: Had the domestic terrorist been Native American, would that have happened? Perhaps you could ask your fellow members of the Federalist Society for their opinions.
I searched the Web for a comment from you about that incident at your alma mater but found nothing. I also found no comment from you about UVA President Jim Ryan, who became president shortly after you graduated, and who was forced out of office last year by the Trump administration because of his commitment to diversity.
I am a firm proponent of DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion). As a woman who has lived through decades of sexism and misogyny, I understand that DEI policies and attitudes level the playing field for women and people of color. It’s a policy to correct the errors of the past.
You started at UVA in 2013. An article about your law school class in a UVA publication states: “It was more difficult to gain admission to the Law School’s incoming class this year than ever before, and the class of 2013 is the most diverse on record … About 29 percent of the Class of 2013 self-identified as ethnic minorities.” (I added the bold-face.)
I don’t know if you included your tribal affiliation on that application or on the one that allowed you to study economics at Georgetown University in D.C. in 2009.
This is not a criticism. Unlike many Republicans, I don’t assume that considering gender or ethnic background in admissions means that those admitted are somehow less qualified. Gender and racial diversity on campuses and in workplaces represent and enrich all Americans.
But your views on and experience with DEI is a longer conversation for another time.
For now, I have a challenge for you. Please drive alone to Minneapolis with a tribal insignia on your car and go to the Little Earth community. If you’re brave enough, wear your tribal regalia as so many Native American protesters are doing. With 3,000 ICE personnel on the streets it shouldn’t take long for you to attract their attention.
Whatever you do, carry your passport, birth certificate, driver’s license, and tribal I.D. It might surprise some ICE personnel to learn that Native Americans received American citizenship more than 100 years ago.
And when you’re dragged from your car, thrown to the icy pavement, stomped on and denied all due process, think about the party to which you have pledged your allegiance.
Because to this president, this Homeland Security secretary and too many members of the Republican Party, no matter how impressive you are, you are still just another brown body.
Next time you’re out here, let’s meet. Despite my being a liberal and you a “common-sense conservative,” we actually have a lot in common.
Misti Snow, a Pierre native and 1971 graduate of Riggs High School, is a retired author, editor, and teacher. She wrote for the Minneapolis Star Tribune for 20 years and then taught writing to international students, refugees, and immigrants in Virginia, where she lives. Her newspaper work was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, and she’s a former Bush Leadership Fellow. Her family's roots date back to 1868 in the Dakota Territory. The original homestead is still owned and farmed by her Snow cousins in Gayville.
Photo: Homeland Security agent during an operation in Texas, public domain, wikimedia commons
The South Dakota Standard is offered freely and is supported by our readers. We have no political or commercial sponsorship. If you'd like to help us continue our mission to advance independent political and social commentary, you can do so by clicking on the "Donate" button that's on the sidebar to your right.
