Original boundaries of the Rapid City Indian School.
Was taking of Rapid City Indian School lands legal?
By Karin Eagle
Native Sun News Staff Writer Part I | Part II RAPID CITY — How the land that was once Indian land where the Rapid City Indian School was located and now is home to the current Sioux San Hospital fell into the hands of Rapid City, the State of South Dakota, and various church organizations is questionable. The land acquired for the establishment of the Rapid City Indian School was accomplished by the passage of the Appropriation Act of June 21, 1906. Money was appropriated for the purpose of paying the current and contingent expenses of the Indian department for the fulfillment of Treaty stipulations with various tribes. The Rapid City Indian School was granted $57,000 for the support and education of 250 Indian students. The Act also included funds to purchase one thousand acres of land and springs for a permanent water supply for the school. The tribes involved in “benefiting” from these stipulations under the 1868 Treaty were the Oglala, Rosebud, Standing Rock, Cheyenne River, Lower Brule, Crow Creek, Santee, and Flandreau Santee Sioux tribes. In the Act of June 6, 1932, Congress authorized the Secretary of Interior to exchange an irregular tract of Rapid City Indian School land that contained 84.4 acres, more or less. In February of 1948, a draft of a proposed bill, which if enacted would authorize the Secretary of Interior to convey any lands contained in the Sioux San Farm, formerly the RC Indian School, for municipal, religions and educational purposes. It would also grant discretionary power to the Secretary to utilize any of the land for the “rehabilitation of needy Indians.” On May 20, 1948, Congress enacted a law which authorized the SOI to convey lands in SD for municipal or public purposes. Land formerly belonging to the RC Indian School, now Sioux San, was conveyed to Rapid City for educational purposes. The same Act granted 673 acres of land to the SD National Guard. Within this law was included a reversion to the Department of Interior if and when the land conveyed was no longer used for the purposes for which it was conveyed. The law also authorized the Secretary, at his discretion, to convey to any church organization upon the receipt of the reasonable value of such lands, any lands surplus to the needs of Rapid City. Concerning the SD National Guard’s 673 acres; the Guard subsequently conveyed 90 acres to the Rapid City School District. The title of the original grant was subject to the mentioned reversion clause to the United States, when the lands were not longer used for the National Guard. The legality of the conveyance of those 90 acres to the school district is questionable and as yet unanswered. None of the land conveyed to churches and religious organizations are subjected to the reversion provisions. In fact the constitutionality of the Act of March 20, 1948 surrounds the 182.96 held in trust for the tribes which were conveyed to various religious organizations. In the 1948 Act the Secretary was authorized to convey land to the City of Rapid City for municipal purposes. These lands now make up what is currently called “Sioux Park.” In 1951 the first request for a tribal home site on federal lands was submitted to the Area Director. His response was that he was not authorized to grant such a request. Yet, in November of 1951, a petition of protest was submitted to the City concerning the “Indian Camp” in Rapid City. This petition brought up many controversial complaints and comments which were printed in the Rapid City Daily Journal. Native Sun News is currently seeking access to a copy of this petition. The Indian protests continued leading Senator Francis Case to visit various “Indian camps” around town in April 1953. His report was that the conditions were unacceptable as far as sanitation and law enforcement was concerned. This visit and determination leads to one of the biggest questions to arise from all of these land conveyances concerning four parcels of land formerly belonging to the Indian School. 152 acres that had been conveyed to the school district specifically. The question surrounds the sale of 27.27 acres of land by the City for the sum of $15,000, in light of the reverter clause provided in the Act of May 20, 1948. Following the Senators visit, the small loan fund set up by the Mayor’s Committee on Human Relations was created. The issue of answering the call for the establishment of a permanent home site for Indians moving into the Rapid City was answered by the Senator asking if the Sioux San lands could be exchanged. The Secretary stated that the Indians could not acquire title to said land and that an exchange of lands would not be providing the necessary solution to the problems facing both the Indians and the City. The issue was not addressed through public documents acquired by Native Sun News until October 1961. A letter was transmitted to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs giving the facts surrounding that $15 thousand dollars paid by the City of Rapid City for the 27.27 acres of land. These acres are currently the site of the West Middle School which is directly west of the Sioux San Hospital. This letter written and transmitted by the Area Director contains the following statements: “We have been informally advised that the Mayor’s Committee paid a consideration of $2,000 for the tract, that amount being derived from the fund of $15,000. The purpose of the acquisition was to provide for Indian families moving into Rapid City.” It further states, “We understand the Mayor’s Committee leases the majority of the lots which it still owns to Indian for residential purposes. The Sioux Addition is located outside of the City of Rapid City.” The current Sioux Addition Civic Association maintains that the land their community occupies, just north of the Lakota Homes community, is trust land. Native Sun News is committed to following up on their claims, in an effort to complete this highly controversial turn of events surrounding the land conveyances which parceled out the original RC Indian Schools and the Sioux San Farm. So many questions surrounding the management of the lands that were established for the “rehabilitation of the needy Indians” by the U.S. Government, and the recent influx of documents that contain the answers to these important questions to the Native Sun News offices promises to bring a much needed spotlight on what could possibly lead to a very controversial conclusion. Whether those lands were taken illegally has always plagued the Indian community of Rapid City. (Read part 3 in this series for documented public information that answers the question of the legality of some of the land conveyances in West Rapid City) (Contact Karin Eagle at staffwriter@nsweekly.com)
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