Mniluzanhan Water Walk led by Native groups

Tribal representatives and community members observed polluted water during state-guided tour of Gilt Edge Gold Mine Superfund site in the northern Black Hills. (Photo by Talli Nauman)

RAPID CITY – The Red Ribbon Skirt Society and NDN Collective are hosting a Mniluzanhan Water Walk here on March 22 to celebrate World Water Day with blessings and prayers for murdered and missing indigenous women and other relatives.
Supporting the outdoor event are the Black Hills Clean Water Alliance and Black Hills Chapter of Dakota Rural Action, which sponsor activities every year on this date designated as an international occasion by the United Nations.
The local 2020 observance is set to begin at 1 p.m. at the Racing Magpie Art Gallery and proceed to Rapid Creek, then culminate with a wopila (thanksgiving) reception at the gallery, which is located in the former Aby’s Feed and Seed grain elevator at 406 Fifth St.
Organizers, who this year include adherents of Protect Pactola and the Bird Cage Book Store, are committed to defending the cultural and natural heritage of the unceded 1868 Ft. Laramie Treaty territory in the Black Hills and surrounding area against the threats to water and community posed by foreign oil pipeline construction, uranium mining, gold prospecting and other megaprojects. Some examples they cite:
Canada’s TC Energy Corp., proponent of the Keystone XL Pipeline, seeks permits to build construction man-camps and hazardous liquid conduits across Missouri River watersheds and the shallow Ogallala Aquifer in treaty lands guaranteed to the Oceti Sakowin in Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska.
Azarga Uranium Corp., headquartered in Canada, seeks permits for mining uranium in the underground water table of the southern Black Hills counties of Custer and Hot Springs, which are connected to surface flows in the Cheyenne River watershed upstream from several Sioux reservations.
Mineral Mountain Resources Ltd., also headquartered in Canada, seeks water permits for deep drilling to determine gold mining feasibility in the Rochford and Pe’ Sla tribal trust vicinity of Pennington County.
Minneapolis-based F3 Gold LLC has 2,485 active mining claims in the Black Hills counties of Lawrence, Custer, and Pennington. It seeks exploration permits in the Rapid Creek (Mniluzahan Wakpa) watershed, which forms Pactola Lake, the source of drinking water for Rapid City, Box Elder and Ellsworth Air Force Base.
Valentine Mining Co. (VMC LLC) seeks a state determination on whether proposed gold mine operations near Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway may proceed or would be curtailed due to eligibility for “inclusion on the preliminary list of special, exceptional, critical, or unique lands.”
The public has until March 29 to submit comments to the South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources on the determination, which would either allow or preclude a 1.8-mile haul-road upgrade and ore conveyor system to serve VMC’s 400-acre Deadwood Standard Mine, located six miles west of Lead near the old mining camp of Savoy in Lawrence County.
The operator garnered a Large Scale Mine Permit from previous holder Bald Mountain Mining, then paid an $11,000 fine to the state in 2019 for exceeding drilling depths by 700 feet on its December 2012 exploration permit.
The Lawrence County Commission voted in Aug. 2012 to delay a decision on granting the company a conditional use permit for the large-scale mine, after hearing testimony that the project fails to address Native American sacred site protection.
Some of the project personnel have roots in and around the Cheyenne River Sioux Indian Reservation.
Construction, exploration and mining require public water use and discharge of effluents exposed to radioactive and toxic heavy metals.
This has resulted in pollution levels in violation of health and environmental standards at four improperly abandoned Lakota Territory mining locations, which had to be classified as EPA Superfund sites in order to channel taxpayers’ money into their cleanup.
The locations include the current Superfund sites at the Gilt Edge Mine in the northern Black Hills and at 12 large uranium mines around Riley Pass in Harding County.
Former Superfund sites no longer in reclamation are a uranium processing plant in Edgemont and the waterway of Whitewood Creek, contaminated by Homestake Gold Mine.
World Water Day promoters recently convinced the Rapid City Common Council to pass a resolution stating:
“…due to the potential risk to the Rapid Creek watershed, the city’s water supply, and the local economy, the city expresses the opposition to gold exploration and potential gold mining in the Rapid Creek watershed.”
In 2013 the council passed a resolution in response to constituent initiatives, stating that “…due to the potential risks to the Madison aquifer, the city expresses grave concern about the proposed in-situ mining of uranium in the Black Hills.”
In-situ refers to dissolving the radioactive mineral in the water table and pumping it to the surface, where it is concentrated into yellow cake for trucking to refining facilities that make it into fuel for nuclear power plants and atomic weapons.
Rapid City Council President Laura Armstrong was scheduled to speak at this year’s World Water Day event, as well as former Mayor Don Barnett, State Sen. Red Dawn Foster, and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Chair Harold Frazier.
However, the speakers, originally confirmed for a March 21 date at the Journey Museum, were cancelled due to national recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control to limit large venue events in the interest of reducing impacts of a viral pandemic declared by the U.N. World Health Organization.
Comments on the Deadwood Standard determination or petitions for a nomination to preclude operation of the route upgrade can be mailed to the Minerals and Mining Program, 523 East Capitol Avenue, Pierre, South Dakota 57501-3182. Persons desiring further information may call Eric Holm, Minerals and Mining Program, at (605) 773-4201.