[R-G] FWD from Chris: Gordon Kahl, the Posse, and North Dakota

[Hunter Gray]

Note by Hunterbear:

Chris is a still very young Native lawyer in the North Dakota setting -- and
one of my latter day students at the University of North Dakota who took
about every UND course I offered [including, of course, my very regularly
taught Federal Indian Law.]  Beginning with the February, '83 gunfight
tragedy at Medina, N.D. itself -- which was, of course, a signal tragedy for
the entire region -- every class that I taught in subsequent years found us
spending some time on it.  This included Indians and non-Indians -- since
the sanguinary event was extraordinarily traumatic. In addition, there were
always Anglo kids in my classes who had direct knowledge of friends and
relatives -- and sometimes their very own family -- who had lost their land
to the Eastern and West Coast banks and other monied interests.  Native
students have always been sympathetic in these situations.  No students I
encountered had any sympathy for the Posse Comitatus -- obviously the Native
[and Chicano and Black and Jewish] students certainly wouldn't -- but no
Anglos did either.

But none of us could ever [or can ever] escape the awareness of enormous
economic inequity, massive land theft, and Federal sins of omission and
commission -- all of which are continuing in the Great Plains ["Buffalo
Barrens"] right to this very moment.

In any case, Chris, a student who came along much later in time, has studied
the whole Kahl situation extensively --its backdrop, and its implications
and ramifications .  I pass along his  thoughtful  comments -- and his
suggestion that the book, "It's All About Power" by Graff and Schnabel, is
well worth reading.  I value Chris' suggestions and it's a book I will
read -- along with that by Osha Gray Davidson, Broken Heartland: The Rise of
America's Rural Ghetto.  -- Hunterbear

>From Chris:

I've read "It's All About Power," by Darrell Graff and Steve Schnabel, as
well as a lot of other stuff involved with the Kahl shooting and I think the
Schnabel/Graff book was probably one of the most fair in regard to the whole
incident, which was surprising because they were the police chief of Medina
and a Deputy at the time...Schanbel was wounded in the encounter.  They
do a good job of not only the whole shootout itself, but chronicling later
events down in Arkansas and Kahl's death down there...  It was an
interesting book on the whole matter.  No book really goes into the roots,
economically, of that sort of movement very deeply, at least not the ones
I've read...  Another weird thing about that is how the trial of the
shooters who were captured was held even while Gordon Kahl was on the
loose...strange...like they were having his trial without him.  Still,
unfortunately for the Kahls, the version where they say the Marshals
ambushed them doesn't hold up when you just consider who is dead and who
isn't...ambushes kill their targets typically is my opinion...and also its
easy to tell from the evidence that Kahl killed at least one Deputy Marshal
at close range in a double-tap fashion when the marshal was wounded...
Anyway, I think it's interesting that [Deputy] Kapp would be the source
they [Minneapolis Star-Tribune] would
speak to regarding the whole incident, especially because Graff and Schnabel
portray his actions as being idiotic and cowboy-like concerning the whole
affair...  He was treated more favorably by the FBI and press because he was
one of the law enforcement officers that returned fire and was wounded...
Graff and Schnabel discuss his actions like they viewed him as a guy that
just wanted to see some action and who was dangerous in that regard and they
saw his actions as precipitating much of what happened that day too...  His
comments really seem to back that up...  The others involved have had
post-traumatic stress type symptoms since the event, but apparently not
him...  Anyway, I just thought I'd recommend that book "It's All About
Power," if you hadn't read it already. Its a fast read and has a lot of good
info that wasn't in the other books I read about the Kahl-Marshals
shootout...

As always,
Chris