Exclusive Truthout Interview: Sioux Spiritual Leader Speaks Out on Land Sale at Sacred Site

[Fire Walk With Me]

"Let us put our minds together and see what life we can make for our children." Chief Sitting Bull, 1877

The sacred lands of the Lakota are up for sale - again. A grassroots effort led by the Oceti Sakowin, or Great Sioux Nation, is underway to get them back.

On August 25 at 10 AM, nearly 2,000 acres of land, known as Pe' Sla to the Lakota people and situated in the Black Hills of South Dakota, will be put up for public auction and sold to the highest bidder. The state of South Dakota has expressed interest in using eminent domain to pave one of the roads that runs through it. The land is currently known as the Reynolds Prairie Ranches. Other than the potential road-paving project, it is unclear for what type of development the land would be most sought after, although the manager of one local business expressed his hope that all five tracts up for sale would go to a rancher.

The land has been in the Reynolds family since 1876, the year of Custer's Last Stand at the Battle of Little Big Horn. During this time, the Lakota have been able to access their sites. The whole of the Black Hills fall within the Fort Laramie Treaty lands of 1851 and 1868, which are guaranteed under the US Constitution to belong to the Lakota. The Fort Laramie Treaty ended the Powder River War of 1866-1867, led by Chief Red Cloud protecting earlier treaty lands against illegal white occupation. (The defeated 7th Calvary was commanded by a Col. Joseph J. Reynolds who some believe may have been the original owner of the homesteaded Reynolds land). The Treaty assured the Black Hills to be part of the Great Sioux Reservation spanning several states, where the Sioux Nation, which is made up of the Lakota, Nakota and Dakota people, were to have "the absolute and undisturbed use and occupation" of the land.

http://truth-out.org/news/item/11035-exclusive-truthout-interview-sioux-spiritual-leader-speaks-out-on-land-sale-at-sacred-site

[tama]

1. Hmm

A billion in treasury... why not swap the legal right to that dirty money to getting the Hills back to Nation? Auction bid that would be hard to surpasse...

(Or would US go broke if it had to pay that billion? )

[mmonk]

2. Thanks. I put a link on my Facebook page

for donations to help them purchase their own land.

[BrendaBrick]

4. Update: Auction Cancelled for SD Land Considered Sacred

Auction cancelled for SD land considered sacred
By KRISTI EATON
Associated Press / August 23, 2012

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — The planned auction of nearly 2,000 acres of land in South Dakota’s picturesque Black Hills that is considered sacred by American Indian tribes has been cancelled, though it wasn’t immediately clear why.

Brock Auction Company planned to auction five tracts of land owned by local residents Leonard and Margaret Reynolds on Saturday. But a message on the auction house’s website Thursday said it has been cancelled at the land owners’ direction.

The auction house and Margaret Reynolds declined comment, and tribal officials were left wondering what had happened.

‘‘There are a lot of things we don’t know at this point,’’ Rosebud Sioux Tribe spokesman Alfred Walking Bull said. ‘‘If there was a change of heart, we’re definitely thankful for that. We’re hoping for the best. We can take a breath right now.’’

Tribes of the Great Sioux Nation consider the site key to their creation story and are trying to purchase the land, which they call Pe’ Sla, because they fear new owners would develop it. The property, which spans about 1,942 acres of pristine prairie grass, is the only sacred site on private land currently outside Sioux control.

Rest: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/2012/08/23/auction-cancelled-for-land-considered-sacred/uIs81qqvzhvJqD7LxyeAeN/story.html

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Another link from Native News Network which goes into greater detail: http://www.nativenewsnetwork.com/pe-sla-auction-is-cancelled-sioux-tribes-still-resolution.html

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Additionally, there is a petition going around from thepetitionsite.com entitled: "Give The Black Hills Back to the Lakota" I would provide a link, but it has my personal info. There have been about 1,000 signatures in the past 10 minutes of so.