{"id":8924,"date":"2015-10-31T09:42:07","date_gmt":"2015-10-31T15:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=8924"},"modified":"2015-10-31T12:10:48","modified_gmt":"2015-10-31T18:10:48","slug":"israeli-flag-in-crow-tribes-veterans-park-stirs-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2015\/10\/israeli-flag-in-crow-tribes-veterans-park-stirs-controversy\/","title":{"rendered":"Israeli flag in Crow Tribe’s veterans park stirs contention"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Flag\"<\/a>

The Crow tribal government raised an Israeli flag in Apsaalooke Veterans Park last week, visible in the back row, second from left.<\/p><\/div>\n

When Crow elected officials raised a new flag at the Apsaalooke Veterans Park last week, it immediately raised eyebrows\u2014and the ire\u2014of some tribal members. Flying alongside flags representing the state of Montana, the Crow Nation, the United States and the U.S. military was the Israeli \u201cStar of David\u201d flag.<\/p>\n

Like the tribally sponsored \u201cJesus Christ Is Lord On the Crow Indian Reservation\u201d <\/a>billboard erected late last year,\u00a0the Israeli flag was the physical manifestation of a bill (JAR-No. 13-05) to \u201cEstablish Crow\u00a0Tribal policy officially supporting the State of Israel on a nation-to-nation basis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the resolution declared that support for Israel was partly to commend that nation for supporting the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007,\u00a0religious references abound in the legal wording.<\/p>\n

It states, \u201cWhereas, according to the King James Version of the Holy Bible, Book of Genesis Chapter 12,Verses 2 and 3, the words of the Creator (‘Akbaatatdia’) to the nation of Israel provide that: I will make of\u00a0thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee, and in thee shall all families of\u00a0the Earth be blessed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Crow tribal government claimed historical similarities between the countries as well, saying\u00a0they both\u00a0managed to survive while being surrounded by enemy tribes who wanted to see them\u00a0eradicated.<\/p>\n

As a \u201cMonument to Policy,\u201d the tribal executive branch explicitly included in the bill the words: \u201c\u2026shall take\u00a0care to ensure that an official flag of the State of Israel is flown at the Veterans Park in Crow Agency as\u00a0a monument to the official policy of the Crow Tribe.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a March 2014 gathering\u00a0organized by then-U.S. Rep. \u00a0Steve Daines, R-Mont.\u2014now a U.S. senator\u2014 Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer told Crow tribal members<\/a>: “I know that a people\u00a0connected to their land for millennia can appreciate the nearly 4,000-year-old unbreakable bond\u00a0between the Jewish people and their land. Thank you for your strong support of the state of Israel and\u00a0your good wishes to the people of Israel. On behalf of the people of Israel I wish you and your nation\u00a0health and prosperity.”<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>Daines said, “I applaud the Crow Tribe for proactively affirming Israel’s right to exist and was honored to\u00a0bring together representatives of the tribe and Israel’s ambassador to the United States to\u00a0commemorate this act of friendship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite JAR 13-05 being signed into law back in 2013,\u00a0it came as a surprise to many and it raised the ire\u00a0of many tribal members\u00a0when the foreign\u00a0flag was finally raised on the prominent reservation park (President Barack Obama had campaigned at\u00a0that spot in 2008 where he was adopted by the tribe).<\/p>\n

Veteran Taylor Real Bird immediately started a petition against it. Real Bird, however, is\u00a0careful to say that the purpose of his petition wasn\u2019t anti-Israeli or against the flag or even the Judeo-Christian ties to it, but to protest its location on grounds used to honor tribal veterans.<\/p>\n

Julia Kelly, a retired command sergeant major and Iraqi combat veteran who served for 28 years in the Army, said \u201cI\u00a0disagree with another nation\u2019s flag being flown in the Apsaalooke Veterans Memorial Park.\u00a0This disagreement is not political or religious. This is about flag etiquette of another nation\u2019s flag. The\u00a0research should be done and follow international flag etiquette.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other tribal members, including Brian Vallie, directly addressed what they said were\u00a0personal religious beliefs by those supporting the flag-raising.<\/p>\n

“Every response from the people who erected the (‘Jesus Christ Is\u00a0Lord’) sign have made it clear that the flag\u2019s purpose is deeply motivated\u00a0by religion and politics, neither of which should be allowed anywhere on a park honoring our brave\u00a0veterans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Luella Brien noted that as was the case with the “Jesus” resolution, there wasn\u2019t any public input on the matter as\u00a0legislators rushed it through without regard to public opinion.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid you guys know that this was such a divisive issue? Did anybody know that?\u201d Brien asked tribal\u00a0representatives at an emergency forum held to hear complaints about the policy.<\/p>\n

The Crow tribal government plans to convene a closed-door meeting to further discuss the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou didn\u2019t reach out to the community that you represent,\u201d Brien\u00a0said. \u201cIf you were being true\u00a0representatives you guys would be collaborating, forward thinking\u2014proactive. You wouldn\u2019t wait until\u00a0two years later to hang a flag and say, \u2018Oh, we better hold a forum!\u2019 You would\u2019ve gone out into the\u00a0community and said, \u2018Should we even do this? If we do to this, how is it going to work?\u2019 That\u2019s\u00a0collaboration.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Crow elected officials raised a new flag at the Apsaalooke Veterans Park last week, it immediately raised eyebrows\u2014and the ire\u2014of some tribal members. Flying alongside flags representing the state of Montana, the Crow Nation, the United States and the U.S. military was the Israeli \u201cStar of David\u201d flag.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":8925,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,14],"tags":[80,3308,3311,139,3309,528,3310,1417],"class_list":["post-8924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-montana","category-news","tag-crow-tribe","tag-israel","tag-julia-kelly","tag-luella-brien","tag-ron-dermer","tag-steve-daines","tag-taylor-real-bird","tag-united-nations","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}