Roundtable discusses critical mining threats to the Black Hills and water

RAPID CITY – With the rush to mine more gold and uranium from the Paha Sapa, the Lakota name for the Black Hills, as well as lithium and other minerals, Indigenous leaders, environmental advocates and recreationists gathered at the Rapid City Public Library on Tuesday to discuss the critical threats facing the Black Hills and highlight the ongoing challenges of mining and resource extraction in the region. The roundtable brought together experts from Earthjustice, Black Hills Clean Water Alliance, Black Hills Fly Fishers, NDN Collective and the Lakot People’s Law Project who emphasized the sacred nature of the land and the urgent need to protect its water resources as the Trump administration has been gutting rules under a new permissive structure. They also spoke about the necessity of coming together to stop multi-nation mining companies from exploiting the lands, waters, and people of the Back Hills.

One project alone, the Dewey-Burdock uranium project in Fall River and Custer Counties, has requested to use nine thousand gallons of water per minute for 15 to 20 years. According to the Federal Register, that is more groundwater than the amount used by the entirety of Rapid City. The Black Hills are characterized by low precipitation and dry conditions, and the area relies on groundwater. The project would draw water from three of the four major drinking water aquifers in the Black Hills. Aquifers hold and allow the movement of groundwater which is then retrieved by humans through wells.

The Black Hills region encompasses significant landmarks of American history and culture, such as Mount Rushmore, the Crazy Horse Memorial, Wind Cave National Park, Bear Butte State Park, Black Elk Peak and Wilderness Area, Deadwood, and the Black Hills National Forest.

While the Lakota have the most prominent connection to the Black Hills, nearly two dozen other tribes also claim the Black Hills as ancestral and sacred land. But the natural splendor attracts a healthy tourist population looking to enjoy the world-class hunting, fishing, and mountain biking.

Dr. Lilias Jarding from the Black Hills Clean Water Alliance (BHCWA) said there are many threats across the Black Hills posed by mining, as well as challenges and opportunities. “Some of the things that are threatened include water for all Black Hills residents now and in the future – humans, plants and animals, and the water, for its own sake. Also threatened are environmental health and environmental justice.”

Jarding, holding up a map from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) showing the current mining claims, explained, “The darker spaces on the map are all active mining claims as of the end of January and we’re getting updated as we speak. There are 271-thousand acres of active mining claims in the Black Hills, or twenty percent of the entire Black Hills is under active mining claims.

The various projects are expansive, extending from the Bear Lodge Mountains to Devil’s Tower to the Northern Black Hills in Wyoming to Spearfish Canyon in South Dakota, through the heart of the Black Hills known as Pe Sla and down into the Southern Hills of South Dakota and Wyoming. “The northern area is mostly gold activity. There’s also some lithium activity right over the Wyoming border.” Jarding said there has been some finding of rare earth within the gold. “The project in the Bear Lodge portion of the Black Hills is a rare earth project. It started and then stopped in 2015 and now we have on the ground information that it is restarting again.” There is already active drilling for gold to the west side of Spearfish Canyon and south of Spearfish. There is a proposed gold project near Rochford. “I just spoke with the Forest Service who said that the project has been bought out by a new company, and we don’t know what that will mean. There are also lithium claims around Mount Rushmore and around Keystone and Hills City as well as to the south of Custer all the way down to south of Pringle.”

Pete Lien and Sons propose to mine graphite within the boundary of Pe Sla. Attorney Chase Iron Eyes (Oglala) from the Lakota People’s Law Project said that the Black Hills hold deep cultural significance for the Sioux or Oceti Sakowin, representing their creation stories and ancestral connections. The Oceti Sakowin, who have stewarded the land for thousands of years regard every pebble of the Black Hills as sacred ceremonial grounds.

Pe Sla, also known as Baldy, lies at the center of the Black Hills, a large clearing surrounded by forest, and is one of the numerous sites at risk. “It’s connected to our cultural mythology and our knowledge systems,” explained Iron Eyes as he shared the story of Pe Sla. “This big raptor was killing the people. Then this meteorite fell and killed this giant raptor that’s giving us problems. But then it clears the whole area. That’s why no trees grow there. It’s just grass.” This area is so significant, a coalition of tribes and the general public fundraised in order to purchase the land and to protect the area from mining, but it isn’t enough.

One of the many challenges are deeply entrenched mining stereotypes. “In the modern Black Hills people have an image of what mining is. You see it in the prospectors magazine, and the mascot at the School of Mines – of a miner and a mining project. He’s a guy with a beard, a hat, a burrow, and a pickaxe.” Individual prospectors using simple tools caused limited harm. But Jarding said that mining today is far removed from individual prospector days. The cumulative impact of thousands of miners and the swift evolution to industrial-scale methods has been devastating. “Now we’re dealing with industrial operations, heavy equipment, acidic treatments – things like that.”

Jarding said there have been positive mining impacts and it has had its long-lasting problems. Homestake Mine, where miners dug eight-thousand feet deep into the mountains, was at one time the second-most productive gold mining area in the United States. But Homestake also discharged about 270 thousand tons of arsenic into Whitewood Creek which contaminated 18 miles of Whitewood Creek and traveled 178 miles downstream and into the Cheyenne River. The Creek was nicknamed “Cyanide Creek” and the discharges of cyanide and heavy metals killed aquatic life in the Creek. Then a cyanide spill in 1998 killed fish and set back the cleanup efforts by years, according to the USGS.

Homestake is just one mine among many others that have left a legacy of pollution. At least two of the more than thirteen-hundred old, abandoned, and unreclaimed mines have released so much contamination into their surrounding environment that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) designated the areas as Superfund sites.

Jarding said that previous mining activities, including gold and uranium extraction, have already contaminated water sources, particularly the Cheyenne and Missouri Rivers. The problems include contamination from the gold industry which began in 1876 starting in the north and then flowing into the Cheyenne. As did the uranium mining contamination in the 1950’s. The Cheyenne River flows into the Missouri River. “So now we have measurements in Missouri River water that show contamination by uranium which is above the EPA’s maximum contaminant level.”

The contamination affects local water reservoirs and the river itself. Communities on and near the Pine Ridge Reservation rely on this water source for drinking and other needs. Legacy contamination sites like these won’t be cleaned for many generations

Jarding spoke about the need to build further on the coalition that has been developed over several decades by an earlier version of BHCWA, other water protectors and concerned citizens. As enCore Energy proposes to build a massive uranium mine in the southern Black Hills in Fall River and Custer counties, there has been no uranium mining since at least the 1970’s. Jarding credits the early efforts to prevent further mining in the Black Hills. “So, I bring with me the experience that shows people can beat these mining projects in the Black Hills. It has been done before and it’s partly by things like this, where people with a wide variety of ideas and interests come together around the common need to protect the water.”

Jarding said the 1872 Mining Law continues to provide minimal environmental protections, allowing mining companies to claim land for minimal fees with little regulatory oversight. Recent executive orders promoting new policies have further weakened environmental protections, prioritizing mining interests over ecological and cultural preservation.

Dov Korff-Korn the legal director for the Lakota People’s Law Project said these orders are disastrous but are part of a strategy to ignite a rush. “This impacts pretty much every federal agency that deals with land and natural resource decisions.” He spoke about how the Trump administration rushed a massive mine project through in Nevada. A process that should have taken three to five years took three to five months. “The other side of that is that the federal government has cut funding to the Historic Preservation Officer programs.”

The participants stressed the importance of public engagement, emphasizing that collective action and awareness can create meaningful change in protecting the Black Hills’ natural environment.

Growing unity between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities in opposing destructive mining practices.

The roundtable concluded with a powerful message of hope: when Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples unite, they have the power to challenge and ultimately stop environmentally destructive practices.

(Contact Marnie Cook at cookm8715@gmail.com)

The post Roundtable discusses critical mining threats to the Black Hills and water first appeared on Native Sun News Today.

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