There's absolutely nothing these settlers could do to stop the cultural revival that's happening among Native peoples all over in this country." Bear-Schneider said a second report was filed Saturday morning at the Detroit Police Department's 6th Precinct.Ĭosme reaffirmed the group's paperwork is up to snuff and it will continue with the Sugerbush Project as planned. Instead, the night ended with upset attendees filing a police report with the officer in charge, Cosme said. Just as he received the go-ahead from the officer in charge to continue the ceremony, Cosme noticed attendees filing from the woods carrying tables and chairs.īack in the clearing, Bear-Schneider said the six officers watched the attendees pack up, threatening arrest if they didn't comply, until the situation was defused by the officer in charge.īear-Schneider said it was clear this was "a major miscommunication between all of these departments" that should not have happened. to 6:00 a.m., unless posted signs designate a different period of closure." shall be closed to the public from 10:00 p.m. However, Bear-Schneider insists they were allowed to stay in the park until 10 p.m., even without the MOU and city permit.ĭetroit Code of Ordinances chapter 33 states: "All City parks and public places. One officer can be heard in the video saying, "The sovereign stuff is not valid," insisting that attendees were in violation of city ordinances for entering the park after dark. They didn't want to hear anything of it." "We tried to tell them about our sovereignty. "We tried to talk them about the Religious Freedom Act," Bear-Schneider said. He said he showed the permits and MOU to the officer in charge.Īs Cosme and the officer in charge spoke at the edge of the woods, six officers in tactical gear appeared in the clearing and informed attendees they had two minutes to put out the fire and leave.Ī video of this interaction posted to Instagram shows officers standing side-by-side along the edge of the clearing as smoke from the recently extinguished fire billowed between them and the attendees. We were doing nothing wrong," Bear-Schneider said.Ĭosme said he went to investigate and discovered that seven police cars and over 12 officers had arrived. "We thought maybe somebody else might be getting pulled over. Then, Rosebud Bear-Schneider, a ceremony organizer, said they saw police cars and lights through the trees. It was about 8 p.m., after the prayers and before dinner, when the roughly 20 attendees noticed a helicopter overhead. The city of Detroit issued the project a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to do as much, according to the project website and ceremony organizers.Īntonio Cosme, Detroit Sugarbush Project organizer, said he also received a burn permit for Friday's bonfire from the fire department. For three years, participants have learned from the Anishinaanabe and Potawatomi people from the Midwest about sugerbush ceremonies, tapped maple trees in River Rouge Park and boiled sap over a fire.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |