Jul 10, 2006 - 02:09:42 CDT
GORDON, Neb. (AP) - The tall Oglala Lakota with the gray braid asks if the man in the black yarmulke is a rabbi."I thought all of them were rabbis," says Walt Big Crow, a member of the Oglala Tribal Council.
Then Big Crow smiles at his assumption. "Like we all live in tipis."
For almost a year, Oglala from South Dakota's Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and an ultra-orthodox Jewish family from New York City have partnered to start a kosher meatpacking plant in Gordon. Recently, they showed their progress to the community and, in the process, maybe got to know each other a little better.
Local Pride hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony in its parking lot that featured a free lunch of grilled kosher hamburgers and hotdogs. Several hundred people, including plant workers, community officials, politicians and business leaders, ate under temporary awnings as Sholom Rubashkin, one of the plant's owners, mused about his family's latest business venture.
"Why did we come to Gordon, Nebraska?" he asked. "I don't know. Believe me, I don't know."
As the crowd's laughter died down, he amended his answer:
"Good cattle, good water, good people."
It's not the first small-town packing plant Rubashkin, his father and brother have opened. In 1989, they started a kosher plant called Agriprocessors in Postville, Iowa.
The Nebraska plant is unique in its partnership with the Oglala Lakota Nation, which is just north of Gordon in South Dakota. Oglala leaders declared the plant and 300 surrounding acres of Gordon part of its economic empowerment zone.
For every person living within the zone it employs - Indian or otherwise - the company qualifies for a $3,000 federal tax credit.
The company gets labor and tax breaks. But what does the tribe get?
"The goal of the empowerment zone designation is to reduce dependency," said David "Tally" Plume, executive director of the Oglala Oyate Woitancan Empowerment Zone.
Plant manager Gary Ruse said about 65 of the nearly 100 plant employees are Indian.
Two highly trained rabbis perform the ritual kosher slaughter of each animal. One of the rabbis inspects the organs and lungs of the animal to determine if it qualifies as kosher.
The plant slaughters about 110 cattle per week, Ruse said. Until recently, all carcasses were quickly trucked to the Iowa plant for further processing, but the Gordon plant has just started to do some boning.
By soon adding two additional rabbis, the company hopes to double its daily slaughter.
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