The Black Hills in South Dakota were stolen from the Sioux (NOTE: Subscribers can still listen to this interview) in 1877 by the US government. Now, the tribe wants to get their sacred sites back, and (thanks to their casinos), they just may have the money to buy back the land.
In the August 16th edition of the Guardian, Dana Lone Hill writes: "Even to this day, you can ask any member of the Oceti Sakowin, or Sioux Nation, how their hearts feel when in the Black Hills: there, they find a mood of melancholy and an inner peace that some people seek all their lives. (And they may have a secret–they may find MORE than peace there–NOTE: Subscribers can still listen to this interview too).
"And then, we would go home to the reservation. What some people on the reservations refer to as modern-day prison camps that were given to us after the United States whittled Indian land down to only nine reservations from the whole western half of South Dakota and parts of Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana, and North Dakota, which was the territory originally negotiated in the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868.
"But we are tired of waiting for the government to come through, realize they are in the wrong and restore our land rights. We are tired of the promises.
"One of the most sacred areas of the Black Hills, Pe’ Sla, is under threat of turning into a saltwater taffy stand, or condos, or a golf course, or some other tourist trap–like the hundreds already spread through our sacred Black Hills. The state of South Dakota even has plans to put a road through the middle of this, one of our most sacred areas.
"For this reason, (several Sioux tribes) have combined in an attempt to buy back Pe’ Sla land (which is) due to be auctioned off for development."
Whitley Strieber’s new ebook Orenda is about an ancient and magical tribe living on lands the Indians are trying to get back. To learn more, go to Orendabook.com.
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