4/22/15

Tribes want Pe 'Sla exempt from county control


Tribal signatories to the purchase of Pe 'Sla want to be sure Pennington County has no authority to tax or regulate activities at the sacred site. Changing the land as a taxable property to a nontaxed trust property could take a number of years.
Lisa Colombe says, "It's more to ensure that the tribal members and community members that wish to take part in ceremonies, which could just be on your own, going up on the hill and praying on your own, for your own needs or your own family, but that basically we are never denied access, you know, and also there were some other interested parties that looked into purchasing the same area and do some commercialization of the area." A consultant for the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community says that if the land is accepted in "in trust" status then it is Indian land and will be under Indian jurisdiction, not county jurisdiction. [KEVN teevee]
Another earth hater wants to mine the Black Hills not far from Pe 'Sla on Forest Service ground:
[South Dakota] Department of Environment and Natural Resources engineer Eric Holm said this week that Dakota Resource submitted applications for permits for its project from the state in early August and that the applications were reviewed, site-inspected and approved, and only await deposit of a $20,000 reclamation bond before taking effect. [Tom Griffith, Hunting for the second Homestake]
The GOP-owned SDDENR is a rubber stamp for earth scorching.

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