Black Hills rushmore

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Despite community outcry to stop the project, the Black Hills National Forest just issued a permit to drill for graphite at Pe’sla -- a Lakota sacred place within the Ȟe Sápa, known in English as the Black Hills, and a place of ceremony and prayer for thousands of years.

This violates the treaty rights and religious freedom of the Oceti Shakowin, the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota peoples.

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South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, who was among the Republican stars at the 2021 Conservative Political Action Conference in February, has been going out of her way to show her devotion to former President Donald Trump — from promoting his false and debunked election fraud claims to resisting pandemic restrictions in her state. Now, Noem is trying to show how MAGA she is by supporting lawsuits against President Joe Biden's administration.

Noem, according to the Associated Press, has filed a lawsuit against Biden's administration for blocking an Independence Day celebration at Mount Rushmore. And Noem has joined a multi-state lawsuit against Biden's climate change policies.

In South Dakota, Native Americans have applauded Biden for opposing a July 4 fireworks celebration at Mount Rushmore. Biden agrees with Native American activists that fireworks pose a fire danger in South Dakota's Black Hills.

Oglala Sioux Tribe President Kevin Killer, in an official statement on May 3, said, "The Black Hills are sacred to surrounding tribes, and we applaud the Biden administration's decision to support the denial of the fireworks permit. This decision will keep citizens and visitors safe during this critical time during the pandemic, at the same time allowing our tribal citizens to observe their right to worship during a time of renewal."

Killer also praised Deb Haaland, secretary of the Department of Interior under Biden, for "considering input from local tribal nations and their desire to protect the Black Hills from contamination and the possibility of forest fires."

But the 49-year-old Noem doesn't see it that way at all, and AP reporter Stephen Groves notes how aggressively the Republican governor has been promoting her involvement in legal action against Biden's administration.

"Noem says she's simply acting in the state's interests, but the tactic has given her a chance to cast herself as one of Biden's most prominent foes," Groves reports. "She went on Fox News to announce the lawsuit over Mount Rushmore fireworks, and later joined star host Sean Hannity for a podcast titled 'Noem vs. Biden.' Noem told Hannity the only way 'to get fairness on this issue' was to sue the Biden administration."

According to Groves, "Launching lawsuits from the governor's office is a new strategy for Noem — and one that has drawn criticism from some other South Dakota Republicans." South Dakota State Rep. Steve Haugaard, for example, is a GOP conservative who considers the Mount Rushmore lawsuit a waste of taxpayers' money." And Groves notes that there has also been a rift between Noem and South Dakota's Republican attorney general, Jason Ravnsborg.

Haugaard told AP, "When the outcome is a foregone conclusion, then there is a better use for those funds…. Resources shouldn't be used for personal attention."

FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES

Crook County, Wyoming

Published:

November 8, 2014

The area that is now Crook County, Wyo. was once covered by a prehistoric ocean, as demonstrated by sea-plant imprints and shellfish and shark fossils found in the area. These fossils date back 110 million years to the Cretaceous Period. The water receded millions of years later, however, and just 13,000 years ago or so, people arrived—ancestors of today’s American Indians.

Petroglyphs dated from around 1,000 to 500 years ago show the presence of aboriginal people well before Europeans began settling in the area. Plains Indian tribes followed bison through the land and were largely unbothered by white settlers until 1811, when theWilson Price Hunt Expedition passed through on a fur-trading venture bound for Oregon.

:{:{}:

pix George A. Custer (left center in light clothing) and his military expedition to the Black Hills, 1874. William H. Illingworth, National Archives.}:Long-simmering tensions between Indian tribes and white people erupted into war in the:{ mid-1860s, when the U.S. Army built a string of forts to protect emigrants on the [Bozeman Trail, bound from the Oregon Trail toward gold fields of Montana. This route came north through what soon became Wyoming Territory, east of where Crook County is now.}:

Cheyenne and Lakota Sioux warriors drove the Army away and burned the forts in what became known as Red Cloud’s War. The Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1868 set aside the area east of Dakota Territory and south of Montana—parts of the Black Hills and the Powder River Basin—as hunting grounds for the tribes.

The treaty prohibited white settlers from passing through the area without explicit permission from the tribes. In the 1870s, rumors of gold in the Black Hills began to spread. The government originally ordered the U.S. Army to keep prospectors out, but many slipped through. Those who were not caught and killed by Indians brought back stories, largely exaggerated, of huge gold deposits.

In 1874, the government sent a large military expedition under

Government officials met with Lakota Sioux chiefs in May and June 1875 to attempt to purchase the Black Hills, but the Indians balked. The land was holy ground for them, and they refused to part with it.

On Dec. 8, 1875, Wyoming’s territorial legislature created Pease (later Johnson) and Crook counties out of the northeast fourth of the territory. It was still Indian land, however. Just four days earlier, the Legislature showed its true intent in a memorial—that is, a message—to the U.S. Congress. The memorial referred to the Lakota Sioux as “the blood-seeking brave … and his filthy squaw,” and urged Congress to open the land “to settlement and improvement” so that Wyoming could “become what her natural resources entitle her to be … a great and prosperous state …”

The act only created the county on paper, however; it would be nearly 10 years before a county government was organized.

In early 1876, meanwhile, the government ordered the tribes out of the Powder River Basin and the Black Hills and onto reservations in Dakota Territory and Nebraska. The tribes, however, refused to go without a fight, and this led to the 1876 and 1877 campaign against the Sioux, including the fights on the Rosebud on June 17, 1876, Custer’s defeat on the Little Bighorn on June 25, 1876, and the attack on Dull Knife’s village of Cheyenne on the Red Fork of Powder River on Nov. 24, 1876. The war concluded with Indian surrender in 1877 and relocation to reservations. Brig. Gen. George Crook, the county’s namesake, directed these campaigns.

As early as late 1876, some brave settlers entered Crook County and began staking mining claims and launching small ranches. Cattle driven north from Texas began entering the area, and with them came more ranchers.

Beulah, now on Interstate 90 two miles east of the Wyoming-South Dakota line, is considered the first settlement in Crook County. First known as Sand Creek, the area drew gold prospectors in the late 1870s. The 1876 rush that began in Lead and Deadwood, Dakota Territory, extended west toSand Creek, and while discoveries of the precious metal dwindled, the lush grass and plentiful water were enough to attract cattlemen to replace the gold-seekers who left.

Sundance, Wyo., was named after the adjacent Sundance Mountain, which was named in turn for the ritual ceremonies the Sioux performed on that sacred site. The town, founded in 1879, became the county seat when the county government was organized a few years later. A stage line connecting Spearfish, Dakota Territory and Sundanceestablished a relay station at Beulah, and Beulah flourished, with a hotel, saloons and a dance hall.