Gold mining at Jenny Gulch concerns tribes

PACTOLA—Gold mining interest in the Black Hills did not end with the 2002 closing of the Homestake Mine. A private Minneapolis gold prospecting and exploration company, F3 Gold LLC, is set to core drill up to 42 exploratory sites near the Jenny Gulch area of Pactola Lake in the Black Hills. F3 GOLD LLC is not looking to mine at this time, but to use exploratory drilling to locate gold.

Meetings were held at various locations to include public comment, and these meetings ended on February 5. At that point, Barr Engineering, also out of Minneapolis, drew up an Environmental Assessment (EA). The draft found that a more detailed Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), which would consider tribal interests, particularly the environmental and cultural impact, was not necessary. Tribes balked at that determination, and with three days remaining until the deadline finalizing the EA, the task fell to Standing Rock’s Tim Mentz to burn the midnight oil to get an objection letter to Jim Gubbels, of the Black Hills National Forest (BHNF), Mystic Ranger District.

For over thirty years, Mentz has been at the forefront of tribal cultural preservation. He was instrumental in the creation of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers (THPOs) and was the nation’s first THPO for his Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. He is one of the leading experts on sacred sites and is a member of the Standing Rock Elders Preservation Council (SREPC).

Mentz outlined for Gubbels the purpose of the SREPC: “Our main responsibility among other duties is to preserve and protect the Federal and Tribal process of identification, evaluation, and nomination of historic properties of religious and cultural significance”

The danger for tribes when any EA is drawn up is that a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) will be railroaded through, without the legally obligated input from, and consultation with, impacted tribes  The chief protection a tribe has from this outcome is a detailed EIS, as Mentz articulates in his letter: “…after review we recommend that the EA process cannot reach a determination of a ‘Finding of No Significant Impact’ (FONSI) because this project has the potential to produce adverse impacts that are beyond the scope of an Environmental Assessment for this project and this area; and, this project has the potential to be a ‘highly controversial’ undertaking and must move to a required Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).”

Mentz continued: “Only by making this administrative decision to proceed to an EIS can the tribes of Oceti Sakowin have their issues addressed in the analysis section that would include Nation-to-Nation consultation which is lacking in the EA.”

Mentz contends that the Barr Engineering EA “failed to identify the environmental effects on the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and Oceti Sakowin tribes, their cultural, religious, historical-prehistoric resources, burials, water, environment, and sacred sites. These resources are not only Federal Trust Assets-trust resources they are protected by the Fort Laramie Treaties of 1851 and 1868, Federal law, and Executive Orders.”

A deeper concern for Mentz is that those that drew up the EA either intentionally neglected or fundamentally misunderstand the tribal interest in this gold exploration project: “Tribal consultation concerns could have been placed into the NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) record for the EA analysis; which included fulfilling trust responsibility of the Black Hills National Forest (BHNF) to trust resources; and addressing treaty rights of Oceti Sakowin tribes.”

Mentz attempted to make clear that the “concerns related to these trust resources are beyond the scope of the EA which would require the BHNF to conduct an Environmental Impact Statement.”

Years ago, Mentz pushed for the creation of THPOs because he found sacred sites white archeologists had walked right over and did not recognize as being a sacred site. His reasoning was agencies like the Bureau of Land Management can hardly protect sacred tribal sites when their contracted white archeologists lack the knowledge to readily identify them.

Tribes have long suspected, and accused, government agencies of deliberately ignoring or marginalizing tribal impact on agency determinations. In this specific case, Mentz wrote: “The SREPC and the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in their review of the draft EA failed to see any indication that cultural resources or ‘historic properties of religious and cultural significance’ have been identified by a certified Indian Cultural Resource Management firm (CRM). The 1992 amendments to the NHPA allows the tribes to identify properties that are important to us, regardless of location, when any Federal undertaking is initiated.”

Mentz then identifies a specific action in the Jenny Gulch Project which highlights this problem: “The Level 1 Cultural Resource Report dated May 27, 2021, makes a ‘determination of effects’ which is unusual. The research report is just that which only provides data on what surveys has been done in the ‘area of potential effects’ (APE) identified for the project. Later in the Level I Records Search the document turns into a ‘determination of effects’ letter, highly unusual to turn a Level I records research report into a Level III Archaeological Survey Report. By doing this BHNF sidesteps their government-to-government consultation with Indian tribes. This action warrants an explanation by BHNF.”

Mentz characterizes the report section on cultural impact as “unclear and borderline deceiving.” He points out that “the Level 1 Cultural Resource report makes a recommendation ‘no adverse effect to historic properties’ which is not warranted, only a Class III Archaeological survey would decide like that.”

Mentz alleges the BHNF failed to follow National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) protocol for identifying threatened sites nor did they honor the Section 106 consultation process. Mentz: “BNHF cannot produce any field notes on any site visits of any tribal review, those consultation processes which should have made the NEPA record but are non-existent. This eliminates the voice of SREPC and other tribes and diminishes the ‘reasonable and good faith effort.’”

Mentz concludes his letter with: “The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe requires compliance to these sections in the regulations and the NEPA process as presented which are not visible within the EA as presented…the EA cannot proceed to a ‘Finding of No Significant Impact.’ We again state we require a full Environmental Impact Statement.”

In Table 2-1 of the EA draft, on impact minimization measures, no mention is made of any tribe or site or cultural impact.

Wade Ellet hosts a website called the Intrepid Daily which does a fine job of detailing the concerns about exploratory drilling near Jenny Gulch. But even an environmentally conscious website like Ellet’s fails to mention any threat to sacred or cultural sites. It even fails to mention that the Oceti Sakowin exist, or they have a fundamental interest in any gold mining operations in the Black Hills.

When it comes to preserving what every tribe holds dear and sacred, it may be the only ally the tribe has had is itself. As of this writing, the BHNF has not responded to any tribal concerns about a deficient EA that leaves out tribal input and consultation.

(Contact James Giago Davies at skindiesel@msn.com)

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