RAPID CITY, S.D. –– No wannabe position this. It’s street-level reality. And it’s coming to a neighborhood near you.

Working in conjunction with Rapid City’s law enforcement officers – police officers and sheriff’s deputies – and the city’s American Indian residents, a Cheyenne River Sioux tribal member is developing his long-held vision of street patrol squads.

The patrol squads are designed to de-escalate police-Indian conflicts -- emotional, verbal and physical violence, including public and private domestic violence, in Rapid City.

James Swan, a man who sees the Black Hills as his home, has plans to field patrol squads – three to five-member teams – by autumn, if not sooner.

“This is not about me. This is about my people,” Swan told Native Sun News last week. “I envision five-member groups that are able to walk through neighborhoods, such as Memorial Park, to help mediate conflicts between the Indian community and police.”

The patrol, now being created under the umbrellas organization – United Urban Warrior Society/American Indian Movement of the Black Hills, will involve “fully vetted” squads of American Indian volunteers who will function as “first responders” to conflicts between non-Indian law enforcement personnel and residents of the Rapid City Indian community – both downtown and residential incidents, according to Swan.

The chapter itself is designed to assist American Indians with racial discrimination and injustice issues in South Dakota.

Swan, who graduated from an all-Indian high school in Rapid City before joining the U.S. Navy in 1979, is the 49-year-old son of Dorothy Steward, an enrolled member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation, and Orlando Swan, an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, Cheyenne River Indian Reservation. He is a mechanical engineer with Montana Dakota Utilities.

“They have similar programs in other cities,” said Swan, who has just returned from Minneapolis where he gained information on creating the urban patrols – patrols with members who are “clean and sober” and meet strict requirements that soon will be posted on the United Urban Warrior Society’s website – a website that’s under construction.

Created using “Guardian Angels” as a guideline, the UUWS patrols will open membership to Native American men and women who are 18 years of age or older, drug and alcohol free and have no criminal record, according to Swan.

Swan, who lived in Rapid City through the sixth grade, spent 20 early years of his young life in Seattle and returned to the Black Hills in 1992, also is seeking patrol candidates of “good character,” something that means friendly, sociable and cuss-word free when it comes to mediating what often become emotionally tense police-Indian conflicts.

And, Swan said, that he also is seeking patrol candidates who are “culturally sensitive” in a sometimes emotionally and/or racially charged Indian and non-Indian urban environment.

“We won’t be sending guys out alone,” said Swan, who spent 30 years as a powwow competition fancy dancer and, at one time, exhibition danced for the North American Dance Theatre at the 1990 Goodwill Games in Seattle. “But they should have transportation and a cell phone. That would be helpful.”

A self-described activist, Swan most recently helped organize a peaceful march and open forum for Indian community residents protesting the May 2 shooting death – by Pennington County Sheriff’s Department deputy Dave Olson – of Christopher J. Capps, a 22-year-old, college-bound Oglala Lakota man in an open field off Sturgis Road near Black Hawk.

“I’m recruiting for both warrior society chapter members and patrol squad members right now,” said Swan, who said he is “prepared today to put a patrol on the street” in an emergency situation. He said his goal is to have an emergency patrol at the ready, while carefully organizing and structuring the personnel for a next-summer deployment – something that involves training in such things as emergency response, CPR, first aid and other rescue techniques.

One of the requirements of patrol volunteers, according to Swan, is membership in the warrior society chapter that he’s been developing over several months.

“We will not have legal authority,” said Swan. “We will have civil authority to make citizen arrests, for instance. But we want Indians to see us as someone on their side. Non-Indians don’t think like we do. We want Indians involved in conflict to see us as their friend.”

Swan, president of the warrior society, said he’s developing a uniform for the patrol squad members. At this point, he said, it will involve red berets, a cloth patrol badge, black pants and black footwear and a warrior society shirt. The uniform also may end up including an identifiable vest, he said.

“We need to turn it (the conflicts) away from an us-against-them attitude,” said Swan, who already is working with law enforcement at the information level.

As Swan builds the warrior society chapter in Rapid City, he’s also recruiting for leaders to form chapters on South Dakota’s nine Indian reservations.

“Rapid City will serve as a hub for the nine,” said Swan, indicating that those reservation warrior society officers would report to him and his staff.

President Swan’s Rapid City warrior society staff includes Larry Hand Boy, Oglala Lakota, sergeant at arms, and DeAnna Swan, Crow Creek Dakota, administrative assistant.

For more information, contact Swan at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call (605) 791-0746.



Contact Randall Howell:

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.



www.nsweekly.com