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Over the years
these venues have crept closer and closer until one even has its
filthy toilets on the slope of the Sacred Mountain itself! Each year
thousands of motorcycles roar around and upon Bear Butte as America
displays it's version of "Sodom and Gomorah" within yards
of the spot from which Chief Crazy Horse spoke when he told us never
to sell the land.
Also over the
years many Indian people and tribes have attempted to defend the
sacred mountain. In the mid 1800's a war party rode out from the area
to fight a wagon train crossing the sacred lands.
To this day the
pioneers have a historical plaque beside their Highway 34
commemorating their dead ancestors but not hearing nor heeding why we
tried to drive them away. Two years ago we beat back an attempt by
some developers, aided by Bill Janklow, to build a shooting range
close by the sacred mountain.
Recently the
trigger to our ongoing and present struggle is the proposal by a
developer to turn his 600 acres on the north side of Bear Butte into
a gigantic biker bar and concert venue! To make it worse he proposed
to erect a giant Indian statue facing Bear Butte and to call the
whole place, get this, "Sacred Grounds"!
With one proposal
the developer named Ray Allen, aroused the alarm and anger of every
Indian person who holds the mountain sacred. The Oglala Sioux Tribe,
the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, and the Cheyenne Nation of Montana each
immediately responded by passing resolutions condemning all further
development and expressing the will of their Nations that Bear Butte
be protected by a buffer zone of at least five miles and that all
further development be halted until suitable protections can be
emplaced. Soon many more traditional Indian Nations, our Societies
and organizations, will be making their opposition known and we will
work in unity to keep the Mountain sacred.
As soon as the
"Sacred Grounds" announcement was made various groups of
Indian activists began to work to stop the development. Foremost
among them has been the "Defenders of the Black Hills" and
the "International Alliance to Protect Bear Butte" and this
website will carry their announcements and support their work.
"Owe Aku" a grassroots traditionalist group from Pine Ridge
immediately began to alert their people to the danger and to
successfully lobby the Oglala Tribal Council for the opposing
resolution. In the meantime many individual Indian people began to
attend meetings and to voice their disapproval of the development and
to seek a way to voice their opinions. |
