Home Meetings Meetings July 7, 2003

July 7, 2003

July 7, 2003

 
Defenders of the Black Hills,  PO Box 2003, Rapid City, SD 57709
 
Special Meeting Notes - 7-12-03    Environmental Conference Planning
Committee
1-5:00 p.m., St. Isaac Jogues Church Coffee Room, Rapid City, SD
Submitted by Charmaine White Face, Coordinator
 
Opening Prayer:  Freemont Fallis
 
Charmaine handed out a Work Sheet on Problems-Solutions in the 1861 Treaty  Area. (Attached)  [Note: 3 additional items to be added:  Jasper Fire Area,  Angostura Dam and other dams in the Black Hills, Powder River Basin.]  She explained that the difference between the environmentalist perspective and the Indigenous perspective on the environment is that Native people also have the added dimension of ?sacred places- burial places - cultural sites.?   It is this additional dimension that was not addressed in Daschle?s rider in opening up the last part of the Black Hills to logging. For years, this was also what was discussed with the Mitigation Act and the Missouri River.  Much discussion about all of the topics: the environmental and cultural destruction.
 
Defenders will seek advice, offered by Colorado law students, on what legal channels may be followed on Daschle?s Riders on the Black Hills and the Missouri River, or the defederalization of treaty land.
 
Discussion of the Work Sheet and the desperate need for more involvement by Tribal governments and members to become active in Solutions, the need to be proactive rather than reactive. Winona LaDuke might be able to attend in Mid-August. Because of the number of problems and the need to adequately discuss and strategize on all of these, two large gatherings were planned.
 
The first meeting, an Emergency Strategy Meeting on the Defederalization of  Treaty Land, will be held July 25-26, 2003, at the Rushmore Plaza Holiday Inn, in Rapid City. The main topics will be the Missouri River and the Black Hills. A Prayer Gathering is planned for July 27 at one of the sacred sites destroyed by a logging road in Beaver Park in the Black Hills.  (Posters/flyers will be available by ASAP)The second larger meeting, tentative title Desecration in the Black Hills, is planned for Aug. 15 - 16 with a direct action, if still necessary,  planned for the Norbeck Wilderness Area.
 
(Defenders:  Next Saturday, July 19, Bear Butte Planning Committee Meeting, 1-5, will also discuss more details for these two large gatherings.)
 
July 25-26 Agenda will include the following topics: (Solutions developed following each topic)
 
Day 1 - Missouri River
1.  Missouri River Master Manual; 2. Burial Sites/Sacred Places;  3. Wakpa Sica Reconciliation Place;  4.  Rahall Oversight Hearing;  5. Dorgan Bill.
 
Day 2 - Black Hills
1.  Norbeck Wilderness Area;  2. Cave Hills;  3. Burial/Sacred Sites;  4. Treaties;
5. Tribal Co-Management;  6. Brainerd Indian School
 
Discussion followed about the details. All publicity, invitations, speakers, etc. will be sent out by Tuesday, July 15,  due to the Emergency situation.
Assignments were given.
Closing Prayer:  Fremont Fallis
---------------------------------
 
Worksheet:  Problems-Solutions in the 1868 Treaty Area
 
PROBLEMS
 
Pollution-Desecration               Sacred-Burial-Archeological              
Effects on Relatives
                                                                             
                                 (living environment)
 
1.   DM&E Railroad
 
2.   Missouri River
 
    (1)   Army Corps Of  Engineers Master Manual  (ACOE)
    (2)   Mitigation Act  (also called Title VI)
    (3)   Burial/Sacred Sites:  Mad Bear Camp,  North Point,
    (4)   Water Claim
 
3.   Grasslands
 
4.   Cave Hills/Slim Buttes   - Others
 
5.   Badlands - Stronghold
 
6.   Coal Bed Methane Wells
 
7.   Bear Butte
 
8.   Black Hills
 
    (1)   Norbeck - Beaver Park - Sand Creek
    (2)   Logging
    (3)   Tourist Caves - Removal of Remains
    (4)   Wind Cave
    (5)   Homestake
    (6)   Mines
        Feldspar      Ex:  Velvet Mine
        Limestone    Ex:  Cement Plant
                Coal (WY)
    (7)   Housing Development
    (8)   Water Rights
        also Hot Springs and others
    (9)   Others:
        Proposed Hell Canyon Bridge
        Crazy Horse Mountain
    (10)  Angostura Dam, other Dams
 
9.  Powder River Basin
 
SOLUTIONS
 
1.   Treaty Land
 
2.  Federal Laws
 
    NEPA - National Environmental Policy Act
    NAGPRA - Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
    NHPA - National Historic Preservation Act
    AARPA -
    AIRFA - American Indian Religious Freedom Act
    RFRA - Religious Freedom Restoration Act
 
    Others:
 
3.  Future Federal Laws
 
    New AIRFA
    Sacred Places
    Grasslands
 
4.  State laws (?)
 
5.  Legal Help
    Tribal Attorneys
    Pro Bono Attorneys
           Impact Fund
    Others?
 
6.  Public Support
    (1)  Educate to the Issues
        Media
        Speakers
        Direct Action
        Other:
 
7.  What else?
 
 
WHO  CAN/WILL  DO  WHAT?

Mission Statement

"Defenders of the Black Hills is a group of volunteers without racial or tribal boundaries whose mission is to preserve, protect, and restore the environment of the 1851 and 1868 Treaty Territories, Treaties made between the United States and the Great Sioux Nation."

Speaking about radioactive fallout, the late President John F. Kennedy said,

"Even then, the number of children and grandchildren with cancer in their bones, with leukemia in their blood, or with poison in their lungs might seem statistically small to some, in comparison with natural health hazards. But this is not a natural health hazard and it is not a statistical issue. The loss of even one human life, or the malformation of even one baby who may be born long after we are gone, should be of concern to us all. Our children and grandchildren are not merely statistics toward which we can be indifferent."

July 26, 1963 upon signing the ban on above ground nuclear tests