{"id":37799,"date":"2024-08-29T23:43:56","date_gmt":"2024-08-30T04:43:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/sioux-nation-u-s-forest-service-forge-joint-stewardship-framework-for-black-hills\/"},"modified":"2024-08-29T23:44:04","modified_gmt":"2024-08-30T04:44:04","slug":"sioux-nation-u-s-forest-service-forge-joint-stewardship-framework-for-black-hills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/sioux-nation-u-s-forest-service-forge-joint-stewardship-framework-for-black-hills\/","title":{"rendered":"Sioux Nation, U.S. Forest Service forge joint stewardship framework for Black Hills"},"content":{"rendered":"
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On Thursday August 22, 2024 the signing of an MOU for co-stewardship of the Black Hills National Forest between the Great Sioux Nation Tribes and the U.S. Forest Service took place at the Mystic Ranger Station on 8221 Mt. Rushmore Rd. in Rapid City. Left to right: Crow Creek Sioux Tribal Chairman Peter Lengkeek, Rosebud Sioux Tribal Chairman Willie Kendle, Keeper of the Sacred Pipe Arvol Looking Horse, Oglala Sioux Tribal President Frank Star Comes Out, Treaty Council Phil Two Eagle, Black Hills National Forest Supervisor Shawn Cochran, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Chairman Ryman LeBeau, Spirit Lake Tribal Chairwoman Leona Jackson Street, Sisseton Wahpeton Chairman J. Garrett Renville, Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chairwoman Janet Alkire, Lower Brule Sioux Tribal Chairman Clyde Estes. Seated in front: USDA Undersecretary Homer Wilkes and Forest Chief Randy Moore. (Photo by Ernestine Anunkasan Hopa) <\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

RAPID CITY \u2013 Great Sioux Nation and Biden Administration representatives opened a path to joint stewardship of the Black Hills National Forest on Aug. 22. The leaders of their respective nations signed a memorandum engaging federal land managers with tribal experts in consultation, planning, and employment on sacred ground.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Forest Service, under the Department of Agriculture, supervises 1.2 million acres of the Black Hills, located in South Dakota and Wyoming. The 75-by-120-mile swath of idyllic habitat amidst pine-clad mountains, rivers and streams is a centuries-old sanctuary for many tribes. The Oceti Sakowin, or Seven Council Fires of the Great Sioux Nation, reserved the area as \u201cThe Heart of All That Is\u201d with the making of the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty.<\/p>\n

Gold discovery led the United States to break the treaty, violating the U.S. Constitution. Then, in 1980, the Supreme Court ruled that the Lakota-Nakota-Dakota Oyate, or nation, should receive monetary damages for the theft. But the tribes refused, insisting on the return of the land. The recent Memorandum of Understanding acknowledges the Sioux Nation\u2019s claim: \u201cThe Black Hills are not for sale.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Chairman Ryman LeBeau told Buffalo\u2019s Fire he signed the MOU for his elected government \u201cbecause this land here, this is ours.\u201d His tribal council joins Oceti Sakowin Sioux Nation leaders, elders and spiritual guides in the memorandum over Lakota territory. Time has come \u201cto reclaim our sacred nation,\u201d he said, \u201cto manage, preserve, protect and plant the seeds for the coming generations to reconnect with He Sapa, Black Hills.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The document is based on a federal template for MOUs. The directive\u2019s title defines the intent: \u201cCollaboration with the Great Sioux Nation Tribes in Relation to Forestry Planning, Healthy Forest, Workforce Development and Stewardship in the Black Hills National Forest.\u201d In it, the tribes stipulated that their cooperation waives no treaty rights.<\/p>\n

Eight Sioux tribal governments signed on, which put the process in place for the next five years: Cheyenne River, Crow Creek, Lower Brule, Oglala, Spirit Lake, Sisseton-Wahpeton, and Standing Rock. After an amendment and discussion with elders at the signing ceremony in Rapid City, S.D., Arvol Looking Horse blessed the paperwork with a Lakota ceremonial smudge of smoke. The document remains open for other Sioux Nation signatories including the Yankton, Santee and Flandreau tribes.<\/p>\n

Faith Spotted Eagle, a citizen of the Yankton Sioux Tribe, attended the ceremony on behalf of her traditional Braveheart Society. She said her tribe\u2019s General Council must approve the memorandum before signing.<\/p>\n

She and Looking Horse obtained an amendment to the MOU to assert \u201cour teachings are based on natural law,\u201d she told Buffalo\u2019s Fire. \u201cThe white people call (the Black Hills) a cultural landscape. We need to have the feds recognize that as a sacred site,\u201d she said. Looking Horse, a Mniconjou Lakota, is the 19th-generation Sioux Nation\u2019s Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe Bundle keeper.<\/p>\n

Across the country, the Forest Service has entered into 180 similar stewardship accords with tribes. The non-binding \u201chandshake\u201d agreements establish frameworks for agency cooperation with the ancestral land heirs.<\/p>\n

In Rapid City, tribal government signatories determined they would choose a new top-level position: the Great Sioux Nation Black Hills National Forest Stewardship Director. According to the memo, the administrator will \u201cact on their behalf to promote the effective implementation\u201d of the memo and its pursuant action.<\/p>\n

They will use Public Law 93-638, the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, which established tribes\u2019 authority to contract with the federal government and agencies such as the Forest Service to operate programs and services.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe MOU opens the doors for future \u2018638\u2019 contracts like tribes already have with federal agencies like BIA and IHS,\u201d LeBeau said. It \u201calso helps secure funding to put tribal members, youth and adults, to work doing the co-stewardship of the Forest Service.\u201d The memorandum fosters \u201ccreating new projects that the tribes want to build and manage,\u201d LeBeau said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That includes tribal youth culture camps, similar to the Forest Service\u2019s existing\u00a0Boxelder Job Corps\u00a0<\/a>training. It \u201cprovides the tribes a unique opportunity in decisions that affect the health of the forest,\u201d LeBeau said. \u201cWe can implement traditional Lakota ecological practices.\u201d<\/p>\n

The MOU is the result of myriad sustained efforts over many years. LeBeau has urged the Sioux Nation tribes to redouble efforts to secure greater Forest Service cooperation. His predecessor, former Cheyenne River Chairman Harold Frazier, also backed the project. Oglala Sioux President Frank Star Comes Out, Rosebud Sioux President Scott Herman, and others also promoted increased collaboration to protect the Black Hills for the youth today and \u201cfor the next seven generations and beyond,\u201d as stated in the document.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was on the Treaty Council 25 years ago, we asked the Forest Service to do these things, but they did nothing,\u201d said Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Council Representative Jeff Cadotte. \u201cNow that the Forest Service is ready, it\u2019s time for us to move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like other decision makers in Indian Country, they took to heart U.S. President Joe Biden\u2019s policies for strengthening Native nation-to-nation relations and treaty rights. His formal\u00a0executive decrees to boost tribal sovereignty<\/a>\u00a0were among the factors in achieving the MOU status needed for federal fiscal 2025 consideration this October.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Reed Robinson, USDA Forest Service director of Tribal Relations, was unavailable for comment. \u201cTwo years ago, we met with USDA Under Secretary Homer Wilkes and Chief Forester Randy Moore at Rapid City. We stressed the importance of developing an MOU to co-steward the Black Hills,\u201d LeBeau said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were very open and understanding our desire to get tribes reconnected and access to the Black Hills. We thank them and the Black Hills Forest Supervisor and staff for honoring this commitment.\u201d\u00a0 In Lakota, he added, many thanks to all:\u00a0Wopila ichchiyapelo.Oglala Sioux Tribal President Frank Star Comes Out obtained an Executive Committee resolution backing the memorandum.<\/a>\u00a0Tribal lawyer Mario Gonzalez, a citizen of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, called the signing ceremony \u201cimportant.\u201d Gonzalez filed the injunction that stopped the payment of the 1980 Black Hills award, initially to his tribe and ultimately to all the rest, securing their enduring claim to the land.<\/p>\n

(Contact Talli Nauman<\/a> at \u00a0buffalo.gal10@gmail.com<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The post Sioux Nation, U.S. Forest Service forge joint stewardship framework for Black Hills<\/a> first appeared on Native Sun News Today<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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On Thursday August 22, 2024 the signing of an MOU for co-stewardship of the Black Hills National Forest between the Great Sioux Nation Tribes and the U.S. Forest Service took place at the Mystic Ranger Station on 8221 Mt. Rushmore Rd. in Rapid City. Left to right: Crow Creek Sioux <\/p>\n

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Shared by Native Sun News Today<\/a> August 29, 2024<\/p>\n

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