Native grasses being restored in Indian Country

One native grass, Panicum virgatum, or switchgrass, is being considered by the Sicangu Oyate Lakota as an economic development opportunity. Tapping the Rosebud Economic Development Company (REDCO) would provide about $50,000 for a full-blown study and take about 90 days to complete. Read more at Indian Country Today.

The Oyate will receive title to 200 acres of Iowa farm ground after 88-year-old Ella Jean Ray passed away this winter.

Larry Stumme was Ray’s attorney. He had known her for 30 years. “She wanted to give back,” Stumme said. “She said ‘We took it from them.’" With Cherokee in her bloodline, Ray had an enduring interest in Native Americans and was deeply troubled by the way the U.S. government treated them throughout history, Stumme said. Under tribal law, the Tribal Land Enterprise cannot sell any land it obtains. [Native American tribe given ownership of farm in Waverly]

The US Forest Service has just completed two successful prescribed fires on the Fort Pierre National Grassland in efforts to control species introduced during European settlement.

Students from Sinte Gleska Tribal College on the Rosebud Reservation visited Black Hills State University recently for a week-long biotechnology boot camp as part of a NASA EPSCoR grant. [BHSU Communications]

While on maneuver in the Black Hills, Army National Guard and Reserve members are hauling salvage timber to the Cheyenne River and Crow Creek Sioux Reservations for use in construction and for fuel. Personnel from the Canadian military are embedded in the scrum this year's Golden Coyote exercises.