Charles Chipps and Child Sexual Abuse

[ska]

A man of healing, a saga of suffering: Allegations of child sex abuse are complicated by a legal maze in Indian country

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2014/12/28/a-man-of-healing-a-saga-of-suffering/

He was a world-famous medicine man, a traditional healer and spiritual leader. Followers would travel long distances to this tiny hamlet on the Great Plains to be in his presence and pray in the darkness with him in a sacred sweat lodge.

But Charles Chipps Sr., a medicine man on the Pine Ridge Indian reservation, had a dark secret, federal prosecutors say.

For years, they allege, Chipps sexually abused and raped girls, including some of his own daughters and granddaughters; many of the alleged victims were younger than 12 and several were as young as 5. A girl from Colorado whose aunt brought her to meet Chipps for spiritual guidance committed suicide after revealing the abuse she allegedly suffered . . .

(I posted this here because, for some reason, I cannot seem to post in the "frauds" category, or any other category for that matter).

ska

[earthw7]

Charles Chipp as sexual predator does not follow in the category for people who pay to pray-the fraud section
but this is a good section 

[Cetan]

Charles Chipps name has come up often in other threads, he has been one of those who travels around and does ceremonies and had many non NDNs dancing at his Sundance for the right donation including Mary Thunder Grimes' group for many years.

[debbieredbear]

And this is why one shouldn't follow anyone blindly.    Poor children.

[Defend the Sacred]

Yes, he and Godfrey sold ceremony to white people in Florida, New England, and who knows where else. Some very troubled people went to their events, and were invited to come to Pine Ridge in the summer to do more pay to pray.  This is not the first time abuse allegations have surfaced about Charles and Godfrey. I know women who have spoken out about them.

[Smart Mule]

They actually used to come to a farm in the town that I currently live in.  There were a lot of allegations when they used to come here but the police never did anything.  I clearly remember one mentally ill young woman that was taken advantage of.  The abuse she suffered that was labelled as 'healing' pushed her over the edge and to the best of my knowledge, 15 +/- years later she's homeless, prostituting herself in the PNW and is estranged from her family.

[Defend the Sacred]

I clearly remember one mentally ill young woman that was taken advantage of.  The abuse she suffered that was labelled as 'healing' pushed her over the edge and to the best of my knowledge, 15 +/- years later she's homeless, prostituting herself in the PNW and is estranged from her family.

We're not even sure she's still alive. Periodically we try to find out what's happened to some of these people whose money the Chipps took... The news, if we can find any, is never good. Many chaotic people had their lives become even more chaotic. I think the people who sing their praises are, aside from being appropriators, relatively stable people with only first world problems; white people who feel really speshul now 'cause they got to go to the fraud sun dance. Of course they defend these men. Because if they admit what they really are, they won't get to feel so speshul anymore. The people who really needed help who went to them seem to have wound up far worse off spiritually - and those are just the ones who weren't raped and battered.

There are also many, many, fake, white, plastic "lodges," and even fake yuwipi ceremonies, now being run by the white people who paid to pray with the Chipps.  It's so bad that there are plastic lodges and other incomplete, bad ceremonies run by fakes who never even met the Chipps;  they've learned the wrong way from fakes, who learned from fakes, who learned from.... on and on through successive frauds right back to the Chipps.

Additionally... by demanding money from people for ceremony, by demanding to be put up in hotels instead of staying in relatives' homes (*bitter laughter* - what relatives?) and continuing to do all this after so many people knew they were abusers (Godfrey did time for sexual assault, then went right back to selling ceremony), both Charles and Godfrey contributed to a climate where tolerating abuse was seen as the price to pay for access to ceremony and healing. Seriously. There are others who were raped and battered by other exploiters, and the people around them took it as normal because their only past experience with NDNs was with the Chipps and those like them. The Chipps provided inspiration to other abusers.

These men contributed to the racist stereotypes about Natives - as "savage" and violent men, who "just can't help it" "because of their culture." The non-natives have held them up as cultural ambassadors, and look how they represented. And then when the truth surfaced about them and others like them, the appropriators and pretendians who defended these abusers tried to say it was racism that made their victims speak out. Even though only a small minority of the victims were white. The overwhelming majority of the victims in these cases have been NDN women and NDN children. Some of these men wound up preying on white people only after becoming unwanted in their communities.  It's no one's fault but their own that these abusers chose to turn themselves into a racist stereotype.

[earthw7]

i heard of two people from Hawaii who gave Chipps 1000 each to attend a sun dance in Pine Ridge and when they
got there, two white women got in to a fight in the lodge over who was going to pour water because both were sleeping
with chipps, so he belongs in the fraud sections, its a shame for our people but bad men are bad men no matter the races

[WINative]

Godfrey Chipps passed away this year. Here's his obituary.




Godfrey Benjamin Chips, Sr., age 59, passed away on July 6, 2014 at Wanblee, SD.
Born August 3, 1954.
Survivors include Spouse: Beverly Chips of Wanblee, SD. Sons: Opijata Chips, Clayton Red Elk, Benjamin Chips III, and Benjamin Chips IV all of Wanblee, SD and Benjamin Chips, Jr. of Herlong, CA. Daughters: Hope (Brent) LaMont, Latisha (Tanya) Chips both of Rapid City, SD, Julie (Stacy) Chips, Dorothy (Waylon) Chips, Tanya (Merle) Chips, Nicole Chips, Kansas Chips, Candace Chips, Tatewin Chips, and Sundance Chips all of Wanblee, SD; Courtney (Eric) Chips of White River, SD, and Justice (Nash) Lukovic of Milwaukee, WI. Brothers: Duane Standing Bear of Eagle Butte, SD and Charles Chips and Robert Seid both of Rapid City, SD.
Sister: Gertie Yankton of Wanblee, SD. He had twenty four grandchildren and six greatgrandchildren.
Godfrey was preceded in death by his parents, Ellis Martin Chips and Jesse Victoria Lodge- Skin-Chips; Brothers, Phillip Chips and Vincent Chips; daughter, Margaret Chips; and grandchildren, Alicia Gencarelle, Ashton Doyle, and Johanna Waters.
Three night wake service started Friday, July 11, 2014 at the Chips Residence in Wanblee, SD; the second and third night wake were held at Kennedy Hall in Wanblee, SD. Funeral Service was held on Monday, July 14, 2014 at Kennedy Hall in Wanblee, SD . Burial Service was at the Chips Family Cemetery, Wanblee, SD. Officiating was Fr. Rick Abert, S.J. Traditional Lakota Services by Mr. Richard Moves Camp. Drum Group was Eagle Nest Singers.
Arrangements were entrusted with Sioux Funeral Home of Pine Ridge, SD

[Cetan]

Charles Chipps passed away yesterday
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/medicine-man-charles-chipps-sr-dies-in-prison-before-trial-on-rape-charges/2015/01/21/4a573616-a18f-11e4-b146-577832eafcb4_story.html

[Defend the Sacred]

Because he and his brother Godfrey spawned so many frauds, I think even with his death this thread needs to stay in frauds.

And for the person in the article linked above to say, "nothing was proven," in the face of all that testimony, just shows how many people will mouth platitudes about life givers and the future, and then treat real women and children like garbage. Their hatred of women and children makes anything they say about spirituality worthless.

Peace and healing to all of his many victims. It would have been nice to get convictions before he died, but at least now you're spared the stress of a trial. I believe you. Many, many people out here believe you and are praying for you. <3

[nibi]

Totally agree with you. As a medicine keeper once told me "Many are chosen but few are taken". I think the abuse of the lodge began in the sixties with sex and drugs brought in. Then morphed into abuse by certain lodge keepers. Well as the saying goes" what goes around comes around". What kills me is that for all the "teachings" guys like this received they "chose" to make decisions like abusing children. Very pathetic and sad for everyone involved.