BLM ends official comment on Mato Paha impact statement

Spurred by a nationwide initiative to protect sage grouse habitat and the first revision of the US Bureau of Land Management Resource Management Plan in 27 years, tribes are taking part in a review of public properties and mineral rights in South Dakota.

However, it has come to address concerns about protecting water from uranium mining, gas and oil development, and sacred sites, especially Bear Butte. The revised planning document addresses a total 247,000 acres of public land and 1.7 million acres of federal minerals in 37 counties. The majority of the land and claims are in Western South Dakota in the counties of Harding, Butte, Lawrence, Pennington, Custer, Fall River, Meade, Perkins and Stanley. Other interests taking part in the process for the management plan are: Barrick Gold of North Amer. Inc. ; Petro-Hunt ; Western Land Services ; American Colloid ; West River Eagle; Howes Grazing Association ; Moreau Grazing Association ; Powertech Uranium Corp. GCC Dacotah Cement; Wharf Resources and Wind Quarry LLC. [Talli Nauman, Native Sun News, posted at Indianz]

Human history in North America is sacred to those who were here first but to those who have arrived in the last century or two not so much.

Graves are often uncovered or disturbed by Borg-like construction operations frantically creating the conditions for sprawl.

Meade County in South Dakota is facing charges of desecrating burial sites when excavators besmirched sacred lands adjacent to Mato Paha (Bear Butte) for another road through Indian Country.

All the Tribal Historic Preservation Offices associated with the Bear Butte sacred protected area in Meade County have been notified about a study revealing the possibility of burial sites on the proposed route of a controversial bypass road near the peak, a spokesperson for Meade County Taxpayers for Responsible Government (MCTRG) said May 18. During a May 14 Meade County Commission meeting, Highway Superintendent Ken McGirr responded to questions from Chair Alan Aker, referring to the possibility of several ceremonial grave sites found during an archeological study of the proposed Sturgis bypass route just a few miles from Bear Butte, Ft. Meade and the historic Custer Trail. By raising the issue at the commission meeting, Aker indicated an interest in pursuing the route despite citizen opposition, according to Prairie Hills Audubon Society Chapter President Nancy Hilding. [Talli Nauman, Native Sun News]

Aker is a GOP former legislator and white supremacist with a history of hatred for the Earth.

Imagine these projects going through cemeteries where people of European descent are buried.

South Dakota must remand governance of Bear Butte State Park to the tribes so they can remove the colonialist stink from the name of the mountain.