Lakota tribes, grassroots organizers unite against ‘modern gold rush’ in Black Hills

 

Part one of a four part series.

RAPID CITY – When federal agencies responded positively in 2023 to citizen pleas to prevent a “modern gold rush” in the fabled Black Hills, it was a milestone for a decades-long grassroots movement defending the region’s habitat from looming mega-mining. Tribal and nonprofit organizations celebrated with a December appreciation dinner after mounting a successful public pressure campaign to protect water. 

 The USDA Forest Service in March proposed a halt to mining claims and exploration on more than 20,500 acres under public jurisdiction. It was a response to a barrage of comments on gold prospecting applications. The tract is about 10% of the Rapid Creek drainage upstream from South Dakota’s second-largest urban area, Rapid City. If the BLM agrees, this important water source will be off-limits to new mining development for at least 20 years.

“Getting to the Forest Service’s proposal took five or six years of hard, focused work involving a broad alliance,” Black Hills Clean Water Alliance Executive Director Lilias Jarding told Buffalo’s Fire. “Longer than that, if you consider that the alliance had been under construction since the 1970s,” she said. 

The Forest Service proposal was a departure from the government’s standard operating procedure of granting permits for any mineral exploitation using the premise of the 1872 General Mining Act.

Land managers from both federal agencies held a 90-day comment period and an April 26 hearing in Rapid City on the proposal they call a mineral claims withdrawal. The resounding turnout demonstrated public awareness was at a crest in the wake of a campaign to fend off the “modern gold rush.” 

Vox populi, the people’s voice, was on parade. In the town of about 76,000 people, only two Rapid City hearing participants spoke up to promote mineral interests. The rest of the hundreds who testified were part of the estimated 85% of 11,000 commenters in favor of withdrawing access to mining. Among those in the majority was the region’s largest employer, Ellsworth Air Force Base, which derives its drinking water supply from Rapid Creek.

“It took everyone to get to this point — the tribal governments, citizen activist groups, large and small — local residents, visitors, federal employees, and city government,” Jarding said.

“Our hope is just to push the idea that all of the Black Hills is sacred land and important to our people. It all needs to be protected,” Stephen Barrett, Oglala, the alliance’s Indigenous Community Organizer told Buffalo’s Fire. 

“For us as Lakota people, we call the Black Hills The Heart of Everything That Is. This is where our origin story is, in Wind Cave. Many of our important ceremonies happen here in the Black Hills,” Barrett said. “Black Elk’s Peak, Pe’ Sla, Bear Butte – there are all these different places – that are just so important for us here. Our whole society revolves around the Black Hills. It’s more than just a plot of land to us. It’s a relative itself. It’s alive. It’s our family.”

Hearing Opens Pandora’s Box

Ever since the gold rush of the late 19th century, mining has played a historic role in the Black Hills. Praising the Land of Gold and Glory has come to be a part of the tourist industry, the top economic activity. So, shifting public opinion has been a challenge for those who seek to maintain the integrity of this unique natural landscape.

Native rights advocates are working to rein in the industry’s environmental destruction by requesting a return of the land stolen in violation of the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty. Water protectors are trying to harness the impending mining boom through reform of the 1872 General Mining Act. But their efforts are slow-moving.

Meanwhile, organizers alerted constituents about comment periods and local hearings. The tactic increased pressure on regulators who face mounting applications for permits to prospect on public lands. “We have to continuously monitor all these different agencies,” Cheyenne River Sioux tribal citizen Carla Rae Marshall said at the December appreciation dinner. A board member of the Black Hills Clean Water Alliance, Marshall said it was the first step in the organization’s call to action for submitting comments to the Forest Service.

Twenty-three tribal governments of the Great Plains Tribal Chairmen’s Association, Great Plains Tribal Water Alliance and more than two dozen other non-profit organizations united on the mining permit withdrawals. 

Their work has become an example for other people facing mega-mining proposals. “We deal with a lot of broader alliances on a national level. We’re asked to give reports, seminars, webinars and all those kinds of things on a regular basis,” Jarding said.

The Forest Service hearing on the Rapid Creek watershed mineral claims ban revealed the efficacy of the multifaceted approach. Even before listening to the input, Deputy Regional Forester Jacque Buchanan said public pressure prompted the agency’s reaction. “It really happened when we were hearing from folks the concerns around cultural resources, natural resources … and that being a water source for Rapid City,” she said at the April hearing.

The Forest Service will return a final proposal for further comments in early 2024, Buchanan said. In response, the Black Hills Clean Water Alliance announced on its website: “Be Prepared to Write Comments on This Proposal.” 

Local organizers attracted the attention of the national non-profit American Rivers in 2020 when it designated Rapid Creek one of America’s Most Endangered Rivers, “Mining could devastate Rapid Creek’s clean water, fish and wildlife, and sacred cultural sites,” Chris Williams, senior vice president for conservation at American Rivers, said at the time. 

However, Rapid Creek is not the only threatened Black Hills drainage. Many local waterways are impaired by mercury and selenium. Four toxic Superfund sites are the result of water pollution from mining over the past 70 years. The quest for gold has been leaving its mark for more than twice that long.

(Contact Talli Nauman at buffalogal10@gmail.com)

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