Sioux tribes in North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Nebraska are holding meetings to discuss a potential settlement to the status of the Black Hills.

Treaties recognized the Sioux Nation's ownership of the Black Hills. But the Indian Claims Commission said the tribes lost the land to non-Indians and awarded them $106 million in 1980.

The trust fund has since grown to nearly $900 million. The tribes refuse to accept the money although some individual members want to take it.

“The consensus is that they will never take the money,” Gay Kingman, the executive director of the Great Plains Tribal Chairman’s Association, told The Rapid City Journal.“It’s the land that matters.”

On the campaign trail, President Barack Obama promised to resolve the issue. Tribal and spiritual leaders have already met twice and will meet again next month to discuss potential solutions.

“It’s the age-old issue of consensus,” Lower Brule Sioux Tribe Chairman Michael Jandreau told the Journal. “What do the tribes want? How do they want this handled? The tribes have to come up with some consensus on this. The onus is really on them.”

Get the Story:
Sioux leaders work on Black Hills lands proposal for Obama (The Rapid City Journal 9/25)

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