Pine Ridge farmer struggles to grow hemp

WTH? 85% unemployment *and* it's on a Native rez. Maybe I'm an idiot, but I don't understand exactly why the DEA is spending time, money and resources going after a farmer that isn't doing anything illegal and might provide some jobs and hope to an area sorely in need of both.
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original-indiancountrytoday

Pine Ridge farmer struggles to grow hemp
Posted: July 06, 2007
By Chet Brokaw -- Associated Press

MANDERSON, S.D. (AP) - Alex White Plume hoped his extended family could make a good living growing hemp when he first planted seeds on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in southwest South Dakota, but years of fighting with federal drug officials have left him in financial trouble.

The White Plume family planted hemp for three years from 2000 through 2002, but they never harvested a crop. Federal agents conducted raids and cut down the plants each year because U.S. law considers hemp, a cousin of marijuana, to be a drug even though it contains only a trace of the drug in marijuana.

''We had all these plans of grandeur and independence, to lead the way with industrial hemp,'' White Plume said. ''None of it worked out.''

White Plume plans to sell much of his ranching operation this fall. He said he probably can keep his house and at least some of his buffalo that graze among the pine-dotted ridges that give the reservation its name. His horses, a truck with license plates reading ''HEMP'' and other equipment likely will be sold to pay off some of his debts.

But even though White Plume, a former Oglala Sioux Tribe vice president, lost a court case last year, he is ready to resume the cultivation of hemp if the federal government ever allows it. The plant could help boost the economy of the OST's poverty-stricken reservation, where unemployment is estimated to be as high as 85 percent, he said.
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including petroleum. We can't have that now can we?

:shrug:

Does he get to not do things that other people have to do?

Other tribes operate casinos on their land-- why can't this one grow an industrial fiber crop?

on the OST reservation, which is supposed to be a sovereign governmental entity. The OST ruled it was legal for him to grow hemp, a low cost, low maintenance, high return on investment cash crop unlike the other enterprises you mentioned.Since he had the legal right to proceed he invested his savings and went ahead w/ his plan. Then, once again, true to form, the US government fucked over the idigenous population of the North American continent. I don't know why you seem to get such sastisfaction from that?

Sort of like those casinos, and fireworks.

:shrug:

Alex White Plume is a lot calmer than I would have been. I hope the DEA smartens up and he gets the ok to grow hemp. Meanwhile, we keep importing it from Canada...we can import it but we can't grow it! Go figure!

There are plenty of other crops he could grow to make money. He knows it and so does the government.

He could just as easily grow wheat, barley, corn, sugar, you know, things people need to eat?

Raise cattle, build houses, sell the land to a company that will open offices or a plant, there are a million other things he could do with that land. It's not like he's got only one option.

The government has every right to enforce standing rules and regulations. Who says he's not doing something illegal? Who says what he's doing is good? If creating jobs is the sacred cause before which all other concerns must be obliterated, why doesn't he just do something illegal? Because nothing's worth going that far, that's why. It's why we have rules to begin with.

His land is more suited to the production of hemp than almost any other crop. It's a dry climate with a short growing season-- sucks for everything but hemp.

"Who says he's not doing something illegal?"

What do you mean? Illegal to the federal gov., or illegal to the indian tribe? You know we promised them sovereignty on that land, don't you?

You remind me of the little kid who always ran and tattled on the other kids.

Sell the land to a company that will open offices or a plant....right buddy. On the Reservation? Have you ever been up there? These people are the poorest in the land, living in extreme proverty and there's no way the governement is going to help them in any way. They couldn't kill off the Native Americans so now they make their lives miserable so the young commit sucicide and everyone else drinks themselves to deaths becasue they have NO hope. Jobs...what a laugh...they'd like jobs but there aren't any and no coporation has any intentions of building anything unless they can dig up any minerals that might be there.

Furthermore, he can't easily grow these crops. Wheat takes plenty of water while hemp is more like a weed and doesn't need as much water. And yes, because he's an Indian he does deserve more. Guess you never read American History. You're probably like the governor of Calyfornia who thinks "The indians are ripping us off."

Raise cattle, build houses, sell the land to a company that will open offices or a plant, there are a million other things he could do with that land. It's not like he's got only one option.

I'm guessing, based on that passage, that you've never been to the Pine Ridge reservation. Would that be accurate? As with most reservations, this one was chosen because the land is barely arable, there are few if any natural resources, and the gov't couldn't give it away to anyone else. Consequently, its two hundred miles from the middle of nowhere, and has absolutely no industrial or economic base to speak of.

Nobody, but *nobody*, had gotten fucked over like this group of people, and if they can make a couple of bucks raising harmless crops on their own sovereign territory, I wish them the very best of luck.

And I wasn't drinking milk!

No, there are not other crops. You have no idea about the environment of the Pine Ridge reservation, do you? Obviously not, given that you're advocating he grow water-intensive crops such as wheat, barley, and corn. Given the deflated prices on these products from industrial growing in more fertile areas, he would lose money from the cost of water and fertilizer. And did you seriously just suggest he grow sugar? In South Dakota? Not only are you unaware of the conditions of the reservation in question, but you really shouldn't be speaking about agriculture, if you're thinking sugar cane, or even sugar beets, can grow here.

There is, after all, a great reason why the Dakotas and Montana are used as grazing land rather than farmland - the intensive methods needed for for-profit farming of food crops fail. Utterly. There's not enough water, too much wind, and the soil is too poor for cereal crops. Most of the nutrients in the system are held in the sod, rather than the soil, and the sod has to be stripped in order to farm.

He's growing hemp. Not cannabis, hemp. It's a plant that's used for cordage, primarily. It can grow anywhere almost, and has a short, fast growing season. It's not worth much, but the ease of growing the stuff would ensure a profit is turned. His other options are to sell sod (which would be rapidly depleted) or raise livestock - and I believe there are some tight controls on that on the federal side of things.

No, he cannot as easily grow food crops due to the lack of water. Same with raising cattle, though he does have a herd of buffalo. Where would he build houses and for whom? I do not think that he can sell his land outside the tribe, though I am sure there are people who would just looovvve to buy up all the Indian land.

As far as legality, they are a Sovereign Nation and yes, they can make rules and do things that we not on Indian Land cannot do.

I think you need to do more research before spouting these opinions, or even after spouting them as they are based on assumptions that have no bearing on reality.

Here are some links to start you out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_Ridge_Indian_Reservation
Life in the Pine Ridge Reservation is very poor, probably easily comparable to the least developed countries of the Third World. Unemployment on the Reservation hovers around 85% and 97% live below the Federal poverty level. Average annual family income is $3,800 as of 1999.<1> Adolescent suicide is four times the national average. Many of the families have no electricity, telephone, running water, or sewer. Many families use wood stoves to heat their homes. The population on Pine Ridge has among the shortest life expectancies of any group in the Western Hemisphere: approximately 47 years for males and in the low 50s for females. The infant mortality rate is five times the United States national average.

http://www.lakotamall.com/oglalasiouxtribe/
http://www.friendsofpineridgereservation.org/
http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=9504
"Shannon County is one of the poorest counties in the country with an unemployment rate at 70 percent and an average annual family income of $3,800."

Reservation land is Federal Territory. The Natives don't even own it. They can't sell it. They can't even get a loan to build a house (banks won't loan money to build a house on Federal land).

Next time you come up here for a vacation, take a detour to the Pine Ridge Reservation. We gave them some really great land to live on. :sarcasm:

It really is like he's only got that one option.

The Rez is pocked with badlands (including part of Badlands National Park) and some sandhills on the southern fringe, and receives roughly 16 inches of rain per year on average, with frequent droughts of long duration. It's bordered on the north and west by National Grasslands created because homesteading and the subsequent growing of such crops as wheat, barley, and corn was not sustainable. Even ranching here isn't truly sustainable unless the landowner has a huge land base, which the vast majority do not. There is no way for farmers and ranchers in this part of the state to compete with farmers and ranchers elsewhere in the country, despite heavy subsidies.

Building houses there is not a moneymaker by any stretch of the imagination. While there is need for housing, with unemployment as high as it is on the Reservation, few if any could afford homes to replace the dilapidated trailers that dot the landscape. If they could pay for houses, they'd have built them on their own land. Related to that is a lack of skilled workers...find a company that will move somewhere where it will not be able to staff an office or factory, and suggest that they move to Pine Ridge. The next sound you hear will be raucous laughter. Even if there were no shortage of skilled workers, the corruption within the Tribal Council is such that no company would consider the Rez a viable option.

The Federal government broke the treaty guaranteeing the Black Hills to the northern plains tribes, herded people onto sub-marginal farmland such as that on Pine Ridge in particular, gave them sovereignty rights, trampled those rights for a further 120 or so years (remembering, among other things, that Wounded Knee is on Pine Ridge, and check out Cobell vs. Kempthorne for something more recent), and now are hassling this guy who if I'm not mistaken is on tribal trust land. Looking the other way in this particular case would be a nice gesture from the Federal government that it's willing to begin even considering moving in the right direction. Failing that, they could leave enforcement to the Tribe.

how far IS it to Wall? :rofl:

Pick a distance you measure in time, figure out how long it takes to become painful, double it, and add a migraine. Congratulations, you are now in Wall, SD.

"that's it?!?!?"

to tell your boss "Okay," when he suggested that he could keep you on the payroll if you'd move to Wall. I've never been to prison, but I imagine it would feel a lot like this place.

my condolences.

Welcome to DU, malakai2!:hi:

It appears you know as much about farming as you do about Christianity.

paper and plastic in the future hopefully. The reasons it is outlawed are political. One of the things chemical companies don't like is how resistant it naturally so their products aren't needed. It is clean and easily grown, and I have read it also REMOVES toxins from the soil. It can be used for food, fuel, clothing, paper. Henry Ford even made a car out of it. There are videos showing him hitting the car with a sledgehammer and it doesn't even dent it. We need hemp legalized to save this earth, and end starvation in 3rd world countries. I hope you learn about hemp and get on the bandwagon for its use! http://www.hempcar.org/hempfacts.shtml

Words escape me.

check out this link:

http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2007/standing/for.html

This is actually a study guide for students 7-12 grade. They have to watch the video, and take notes as well as research done on the internet.
Perhaps this will be a step in the right direction. These children ARE the future and if they see this as a bogus argument on the part of the DEA, then perhaps they can help change it.

The link below is the study guide: Lesson Plan: Debate U.S. Government Policy on Hemp

http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2007/standing/pdf/pov_standing_lp.pdf

I certainly hope so. It sure would be interesting to see the results.

Oh...wait a sec...

law prohibits leasing of any reservation land to an outside corporation. So the residents can't sell the land to outsiders and can't even lease it to anybody who's willing to provide jobs.

That country is so dry, so dry......

Rep. Ron Paul has recently introduced H.R. 1009:

This bill would “amend the Controlled Substances Act to exclude industrial hemp from the definition of marihuana.” If signed into law, this bill would permit the production of industrial hemp (no THC — what’s the problem?) in the US for the first time since the passage of the Controlled Substances Act in 1970.

How can industrial hemp help stop global climate change? (From www.hempmuseum.org )

” 1. Hemp is biomass champion, breathing in more carbon dioxide (the most abundant greenhouse gas) than any other plant. Hemp scrubs the air of excess CO2 gas - a contributing factor in global warming - as it grows. Growing massive amounts of hemp - like what was done in the World War II HEMP FOR VICTORY program - can radically reduce the amount of CO2 gas in the atmosphere.

This carbon dioxide is turned into wood and fiber by photosynthesis. Hemp wood takes the pressure off our forests, a great source of oxygen, by making paper and building materials like pressboard from hemp rather than wood.

2. When used as bio fuel, hemp replaces toxic with clean energy. Whatever toxic energy can do, hemp can do better. Hemp does not pollute while it’s powering everything that uses electrical current, including the power plant that produces electricity.

Hemp bio fuel can be processed to run any engine, heat or cool any building, run any factory, and eliminate the pollution that comes from modern energy sources. Remove the cause, pollution, and the effect, global warming can at least be reduced, if not healed. Hemp is also a champion at scrubbing the air as it grows of excess CO2 gas as it grows.”

At any rate I appreciate him for this one. This bill is so important I wish more people would care.

The sails of trading ships, the covers of the Conestoga wagons, and even the original Levi-Strauss blue jeans were made of hemp. Hemp fabric is far more durable than cotton or linen, and hemp is dirt-cheap to grow. Farmers were encouraged to grow it during World War II to keep the troops in canvas.

This really is an amazing plant! It's been demonized for far too long.

our candidates stand on allowing hemp so we can start saving our environment?

Hemp used to be a major profitable crop in the US and elsewhere.

It is NOT marijuana, as distant from marijuana as garden poppies are from heroin.

And now that they're discovering (or rather, RE-discovering) all the wonderful properties of hemp - food, biofuel, fabrics and agriculture (weed control), why is this crop being demonized?

It boggles the mind.

the petroleum industry, for one. The other? You can't tell the difference between industrial hemp and cannabis from the air, or even close up unless you really know what you're looking at. So the drug warriors are afraid people will hide one within the other. There are downsides to this, of course, but it COULD work if they were smart about it.