I am told that 40 percent of my community smokes the herb. The fact is we’re spending millions of dollars a year importing marijuana from, largely unsavory characters onto the reservation, creating a great loss to our tribal economy. This is undeniable in every reservation. I haven't done complete studies, but in order to buy marijuana from dealers elsewhere, conservative estimates indicate $60,000 a week is draining from the my own reservation, White Earth. With a little math, it looks like around $3 million annually is drained from the reservation for purchases.

That is coming out of tribal pockets; pockets in some of the poorest counties in the state. That is part of our challenge. Could tribes stop that economic drain with a local marijuana economy? There are some larger economic benefits, for both hemp or marijuana, as well as risks.

Over 30 nations grow industrial hemp today, including Canada, France, England, Russia, China, Germany and Australia. China is the largest producer of industrial hemp. On the other side, the U.S.is the largest consumer of hemp products, with total annual retail sales in 2013 of $580 million. Between 60 and 90 percent of the raw hemp materials imported into the U.S. come from Canada, which legalized hemp production in 1998.

This is some old stuff. The Declaration of Independence was drafted on hemp paper. I don’t know if our treaties were written on hemp paper, but it's possible. Both the Navajo Nation and the Oglala Sioux Council passed ordinances and resolutions on hemp. But at that time, the Drug Enforcement Agency came down with a heavy hand – particularly on the White Plume Tiospaye in Pine Ridge – which grew 0 percent THC hemp, from 2000 to 2002, on their family allotments.

That crop had been legalized by the Oglala Sioux Tribe, however, in all three years, the crops were raided by DEA SWAT teams destroying thousands of dollars worth of seed. Federal prosecutions were extensive, but the family escaped imprisonment, but was barred from any more hemp farming. Ironically, the raids had dispersed seed throughout their land and the crops remain today, although the family is barred from harvest. That was then, it’s not clear what that means in light of the change in Justice Department policy.