There could be more bad news lurking on the horizon for our Indian religion. We, in the iron houses, have made a lot of advances in practicing our religion due to the legislation signed into law by President Clinton in September of '93. The law is called the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) and it is because of this legislation that Oklahoma prisons backed off their so-called "grooming Code" that had them beating up Indian prisoners who refused to cut their hair on religious grounds. The guards would knock us down, chain us up, and shave our heads. But the RFRA caused them to cancel their grooming code altogether, and now the sacred Pipe comes in the prison, and things are much better for the brothers in McAlester Prison. This is just one example of the help the bill brought inside these spiritual waste baskets called prisons.

The law does much more than protecting prisoners' religious rights. It protects religious sites, and gives our religion the same rights as the religions of the dominant culture. Indians from all over the country worked hard to get this law passed, and it was a great victory when the bill was passed. I remember how the reactionaries in Congress tried hard to keep Indian prisoners from being covered by the RFRA, but the People lobbied even harder and overrode the reaction. But now it looks like our success might be wiped out as has happened to us so often throughout our history.

On October 15, the United States Supreme Court agreed to hear the case, City of Bourne v. Flores & US to determine whether Congress exceeded its authority when it created the RFRA.

Bourne is a little town in Texas about 80 miles southwest of Austin. The case arose because the St. Peter Catholic Church asked the city for a permit to increase its size. The city refused to grant a permit citing its historic land mark preservation ordinance. The church then claimed the ordinance violated the RFRA. The city said the RFRA is unconstitutional, a U.S. District Judge agreed with the city, but the federal appeals court sided with the church and upheld the law. Then the city appealed to the Supreme Court for a writ of certiori, and the high court agreed to hear the case.

Immediately sixteen states filed "Friends of the Court" briefs claiming the RFRA gave prisoners religious rights that jeopardize their security. They said the RFRA has disrupted prison life by allowing gangs and like-minded groups to shroud illicit activity under the cover of religious belief. The states who have filed amicus briefs complaining about the RFRA as applied to Indian religions in prisons are: Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, and Vermont. Our prayers are needed lest we lose the most important statutory defense for religious liberty of this century.

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• Writings by Ronald Del Raine, Prison Activist
• Writings by Bonnie Kerness of the American Friends Service Committee (Prison Watch)
• Preface to Bobby Garcia's Poetry
• The Purple Prose and Poetry Pages by Anna Standing Deer
• Expressions of Sundiata Acoli, BLA Political Prisoner and Activist
• The Prisoners Defense Committee (San Antonio, Texas), John V. Martinez, Director
• Issues Surrounding Mumia Abu-Jamal, Voice of the Voiceless
• Friends of Move Updates
• Writings by and about Standing Deer, Native American Political Prisoner and Spiritual Activist
  1. Welcome to the Standing Deer Pages
  2. STANDING DEER--WHO Is THIS Man? written by Anna Standing Deer, May 2001
  3. Standing Deer and his "Fall" Partners
  4. On Being in the Marion Control Unit
  5. A MESSAGE FROM THE HOLE TO THE PEOPLE From Standing Deer, Nov 24, 1979
  6. FAST FOR SURVIVAL
  7. Standing Deer's Statement for benefit March 24,1985 at Da Walt Studios
  8. PRISON, POVERTY AND POWER,1985
  9. Photo of Standing Deer during his Texas Extradition Case coupled with Writing: Rehabilitation Marion Style
  10. Pictorial History
  11. Photograph of Standing Deer at Lompoc
  12. Poetry by Anna Standing Deer written during the Huntsville, Texas Crisis, 1998
  13. A MESSAGE TO THE PEOPLE FROM STANDING DEER RE: Leonard Peltier and Anna Standing Deer, Nov 10,1994
  14. Step Into the Nightmare
  15. Jericho '98: Anna Standing Deer Speaks of Standing Deer as a Political Prisoner, March 10, 1998 (Photo of Standing Deer and Leonard at Marion)
  16. Religious Freedom Restoration Act Under Attack
  17. What is in Your Heart They Cannot Take (March '98)
  18. If They Were Going To Kill My Brother
  19. Leonard Peltier
  20. Mumia Abu-Jamal
  21. Native American Religious Rights
  22. Standing Deer's Book: "Coming Home"
  23. The Ironic
  24. The Death Penalty
  25. The Texas Prison Reports
  26. Related Subjects
  27. Drums of Thunder: May You Return!