User:AsterPhillips/sandbox

The trial of impeachment for Cecilia started on June 29th, 2006 .There was documentation titled “Documents to support complaint calling for the impeachment of OST (Oglala Sioux Tribe) President, Cecelia Fire Thunder" about Cecilia presented by 2 pine Ridge District councilmen. During the trial she was told that she had six charges against her, but the councilmen only voted on one charge and that was what they all talked about during the trial; “[She] invited federal and state law onto our sovereign reservation by challenging the new state abortion law, to begin her own abortion clinic, under the auspices of the Oglala Sioux Tribe.” The letter of suspension that was written educated her about how she could not "... she would not conduct any business in the name of the OST, was banned from discussing her case with media (on or off the reservation), that no further contributions would be accepted, that any monies received for the clinic would be returned, and that she could not travel on behalf of the tribe". This then lead to the the OST Tribal Council to create an ordinance.

The ordinance included:

"ORDINANCE OF THE OGLALA SIOUX TRIBAL COUNCIL PROHIBITING ANY HEALTH

CARE FACILITY LOCATED WITHIN THE EXTERNAL BOUNDARIES OF THE PINE

RIDGE INDIAN RESERVATION AS DEFINED UNDER ARTICLE I OF THE OGLALA

SIOUX TRIBE CONSTITUTION FROM PERFORMING AN ABORTION IRRESPECTIVE

OF WHETHER THE HEALTH OF THE PREGNANT MOTHER IS AT RISK OR WHETHER

THE UNBORN CHILD IS CONCEIVED OF [sic] THROUGH RAPE OR INCEST."

After the ordinance was created, there was a lot of controversy about Fire Thunder and the media had mixed thoughts on her. Some were saying that she was an "evildoer" or a "darling". She was mostly portrayed in the media in a more negative light than a positive one. There was an instance where her name was made fun of by CNN's Glenn Beck. He made fun of her name and most other natives names and also said some awful things about their sovereignty. He was just blatantly rude to the whole tribe. Cecilia was not able to respond to any of this because she was denied her rights to freedom of speech by the OST council.

After the incident with the magazines, the trial began and things got heated fast. Cecilia thought that she had not been given enough time to respond the allegations and believed she had not committed any malfeasance. During the trial, she was reading from the passage Spirituality is our Culture and Walking with the Teachings of the White Buffalo Calf Woman . She read a specific part that said '"restoring value to life = responsibility = accountability = ownership'". When Fire Thunder read this, two of the council men got up and left the room with their backs turned. The conclusion of the trial resulted with her being impeached and not letting her stay the last 5 months in office when she wanted to.