A view of the Badlands National Park in South Dakota. Photo from National Park Service
Council buckles under pressure
National park headed for referendum
By Brandon Ecoffey
Native Sun News Managing Editor PINE RIDGE –– The Oglala Sioux Tribal council has now reversed itself and has voted to send a decision to build a first of its kind Tribal National park to a referendum vote. The proposed park would have provided approximately 200 jobs for tribal members once completed and would have had federal funds to supplement certain parts of the project that was originally intended to capitalize on the reservation’s only functioning industry: tourism. However, a series of news articles that erroneously insinuated that the tribe intended to evoke its right of eminent domain on privately held lands stopped development of the project dead in its tracks. Last year, park planners estimated that the several million dollars that would be generated by the park would boost the local economy. “The amount of money that was recommended that would go in to the park initially was $21.5 million a year and that will grow. Then the Lakota language heritage center will be constructed after that and that will eventually employee between 72-80 people,” said Kills Straight. “Of course this is all in the planning stage but eventually this will be a major employer of tribal members and that is one of the major reasons this project was created,” said Birgil Kills Straight to Native Sun News. Kills Straight also said that the park would have helped stem the high rates of theft of both fossilized samples and cultural artifacts that are located in the area where the proposed park was to be located. Informational meetings held in communities across the reservation became heated however as misinformation spread regarding the project and those fearing the loss of their privately owned lands showed up at the meeting to defend their property. Yet, not a single letter to land owners informing them that the tribe would be seizing privately held lands was ever produced by local or national news outlets. The park was set to be located in the South unit of Badlands National Park and is completely within the boundaries of the Oglala Lakota Nation but is currently managed by the National Park Service. In what would have been a historic agreement the National Parks Service had intended to enter in to with the tribe to co-manage the park however that seems to be influx as both the parks service and tribal members await the results of the referendum that must take place within 90 days. Part of the controversy surrounding the park had to do with ordinance 13-21 that included language highlighting the tribe’s sovereign right to use eminent domain. Longtime leasers and ranchers (who were currently occupying land in the south unit where the park was to be built) met the proposal with disdain and protests despite a warning being sent out to lease holders five years in advance that their lease would be terminated. Oglala Sioux Tribal President, Bryan Brewer, who had been an ardent supporter of the project, told Native Sun News that this was a decision that “would go to the people to decide.” (Contact Brandon Ecoffey at staffwriter2@nsweekly.com) Copyright permission Native Sun News
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