Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Sioux scramble to buy sacred land
The Black Hills, the rolling range of mountains that rise out of the badlands of western South Dakota, are considered sacred to the Sioux, who for 150 years have fought on battlefields and in courtrooms for the return of the land.
So the Great Sioux Nation exulted this summer when a long-sought parcel in the mountains called Pe' Sla by the Lakota was put up for sale and a Sioux bid was accepted by the family that had controlled the land since 1876.
But now, anxiety has replaced optimism as more than a half-dozen Sioux tribes, which include some of the nation's poorest people, race to come up with the $9 million purchase price before the deadline next month.
Not only poverty stands in the way, but also the charged history: Many Sioux ask why they should have to pay for land that belongs to them, given numerous treaties broken by the United States and a landmark federal court decision in 1979 that called the government's seizure of the Black Hills one of the most dishonorable acts in American history.
http://www.omaha.com/article/20121006/NEWS/710059937/1707
So the Great Sioux Nation exulted this summer when a long-sought parcel in the mountains called Pe' Sla by the Lakota was put up for sale and a Sioux bid was accepted by the family that had controlled the land since 1876.
But now, anxiety has replaced optimism as more than a half-dozen Sioux tribes, which include some of the nation's poorest people, race to come up with the $9 million purchase price before the deadline next month.
Not only poverty stands in the way, but also the charged history: Many Sioux ask why they should have to pay for land that belongs to them, given numerous treaties broken by the United States and a landmark federal court decision in 1979 that called the government's seizure of the Black Hills one of the most dishonorable acts in American history.
http://www.omaha.com/article/20121006/NEWS/710059937/1707
The money for this land ought to be coughed up by The Bureau of Indian Affairs, or whatever the Agency is calling itself lately.
10 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
